Ordering directly from stardock is unfortunately way too expensive given:
1) I want a real manual, not a .pdf so digital alone is no good, not to mention paying $5 more for a download than getting the box makes no sense
2) 39.95 in the store vs. $49.95 U.S. plus $20 shipping is ridiculous...a surcharge of $30 on a $40 game is simply not reasonable. The collectors extras are nice and all but I can live without a mysterious soundtrack which I am sure isn't worth $30.
Like I've said before too, all things being equal I would much rather pay ironclad/stardock directly instead of paying a retailer. Not at that expense though.
1- I used to buy my games with a box, but with This game and the Galactic Civilization 2 expension, I went download only. You say it's 5$ more than retail? Have you factored in Taxes? it comes down to the same EXACT price with taxes and if you download from Stardock, you get the Collector Edition included (as download). Myself, I just printed the manual at work and that should be good enough for me. I pile my boxes anyway so, I save threes while I'm at it.
2- That's the other reason I went for the download only. The shipping cost were just too high. With the Canadian money being almost on par with the US dollar. Also, what I did, was actually purchase TGN Tokens, I think it was 10 tokens for 69$ and I bought SINS for 5 tokens (roughly 35$). So for 35$ (5$ cheaper than store, 10$cheaper than download, no taxes) I got the Collector's edition in download.
Then I used some tokens to get the GalCiv2 Expension but you could save some tokens for other games or probable future Sins Expension (which seems likely).