Palladium has announced a 'variant edition' promotion for its Rifts Ultimate Edition (see 'Rifts Ultimate Is Hardcover'), due out for release in August. Retailers that purchase six copies of the $33.95 regular hardcover edition will receive as one of those copies a Rifts Ultimate Gold limited edition at no additional cost beyond the cost of the regular edition. Palladium is expecting to receive its shipments of the anxiously awaited new edition of its flagship game on Friday, August 12th or Monday, August 15th. Distributors will be shipped as soon as it arrives, and Palladium will also have copies at Gencon.
The Rifts Ultimate Gold edition will be limited to 1500 copies, and will feature a leatherette cover with two-color foil stamping. Each copy will be autographed by six to ten of the creators of the book, with the majority signed by seven to nine. All of them will be signed by game creator Kevin Siembieda and the Palladium editors. The first 400 copies will include signatures by artists Scott Johnson and John Zeleznik; others will include Mike Dubisch, Freddie Williams, Apolo Okamura, and other artists. MSRP on the limited edition is $70; market price may be higher. So retailers that buy in sixes to get the Gold edition will have the opportunity to substantially enhance their margins on the title, or to use the Gold editions for promotions to build sales.
According to Palladium, this promotion was suggested by Gilbert Milner at Blackhawk Hobby Distributors, and strongly supported by other distributors.
