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Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User




I just compared prices from wayland games in the UK to the Aus store for GW.

An entire battle force consisting of:

Reclusiam command
Termi Libby

Termies
Sterngaurd
Dreadnaught

2x Tactical + Rhinos

1x Vangaurd
1x Stormtalon

1xCenturion
1xLAnd Raider
1x Storm Raven
1x Predator

Aus price = $1156

UK price = $700.50 ( +$50 for shipping) = $750.50

Making the uk price 35% less expensive with a saving of $405.50

My point is... what methods are there to purchase models overseas? anyone know of proxy addresses in the UK??

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mechanicus

Warhammer 40K Bitz and Kits 
   
Made in gb
Ruthless Interrogator





The hills above Belfast

I know tax is high in Australia but come on guys you have one of the highest rates of pay on the planet, half the uk professionals are crawling over to you guys to get big fat pay cheques. The heavy tax is there because you can afford it.

EAT - SLEEP - FARM - REPEAT  
   
Made in nz
Heroic Senior Officer




New Zealand

The place I buy them from (NZ has the worst pricing) was wargames discount USA. Sometimes I almost got half price. Sometimes I get it for 30% less etc.

Or mighty ape does a discount (only in NZ and AUS) and also does overnight delivery. My favourite local online store for hobby related goods.
   
Made in gb
Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God






Inside your mind, corrupting the pathways

I am pretty sure that it is easier for Australians to get their GW stuff from the USA than the UK. And with a similar level of discount.

   
Made in au
Screaming Shining Spear





Western Australia

Knockagh wrote:
I know tax is high in Australia but come on guys you have one of the highest rates of pay on the planet, half the uk professionals are crawling over to you guys to get big fat pay cheques. The heavy tax is there because you can afford it.


Tax is high - my tax rate is approximately 44% from memory.

We do have some of the highest wage rates in the world but our cost of living is also considerably higher - I pay between $1.50 and $1.80 per litre for petrol!

Combined with the very high cost of doing business in OZ with a bricks and mortar store and you need higher prices to be sustainable.

Don't get me wrong - I don't like paying what we do to get it locally but it's far more complex than simply - we earn more so the price is higher

For gaming, hobby and events in Perth, Western Australia - https://objectivesecured.com.au 
   
Made in gb
Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God






Inside your mind, corrupting the pathways

 Massaen wrote:
I pay between $1.50 and $1.80 per litre for petrol!


Just a tip, never use petrol prices when comparing anything against the UK - even with a drop in price compared to what it was a few months ago we are paying well over $2AUD/L

However, our basic rate of tax is 20%, with the first £10K tax free.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 10:16:07


   
Made in gb
Drakhun





 SilverMK2 wrote:
 Massaen wrote:
I pay between $1.50 and $1.80 per litre for petrol!


Just a tip, never use petrol prices when comparing anything against the UK - even with a drop in price compared to what it was a few months ago we are paying well over $2AUD/L

However, our basic rate of tax is 20%, with the first £10 tax free.



When I last filled my tank up it was £1.14, or $2.21AUD per litre. It's damn expensive here.

DS:90-S+G+++M++B-IPw40k03+D+A++/fWD-R++T(T)DM+
Warmachine MKIII record 39W/0D/6L
 
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica

 welshhoppo wrote:
 SilverMK2 wrote:
 Massaen wrote:
I pay between $1.50 and $1.80 per litre for petrol!


Just a tip, never use petrol prices when comparing anything against the UK - even with a drop in price compared to what it was a few months ago we are paying well over $2AUD/L

However, our basic rate of tax is 20%, with the first £10 tax free.



When I last filled my tank up it was £1.14, or $2.21AUD per litre. It's damn expensive here.


Hehe, it's funny that he even used an exclamation mark. Sweden is about the same as the UK. Well, it was, but now our money has become worth peanuts and the petrol prices haven't quite risen enough to match it, so ironically, petrol is slightly cheaper... well, for other people. For us, it obviously got more expensive. It's not like wages have risen to reflect out inflation.

And yes, of course living costs more where the pay is markedly higher. That's how it works. But it still means you get great deals when you buy things from abroad.

Let's say I make 1000AUD and I pay 50% of that towards food and housing, then I have 500AUD to spend.
You make 1500AUD and since it's more expensive where you live, you also pay 50% of that towards food and housing. You have 750AUD to spend.

When we both order something online for 100AUD, you're still getting a better deal than I am on the whole.

 
   
Made in au
Infiltrating Broodlord





Man only $500 for food in rent in Aus... I wish D=
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

 Purifier wrote:

Let's say I make 1000AUD and I pay 50% of that towards food and housing, then I have 500AUD to spend.
You make 1500AUD and since it's more expensive where you live, you also pay 50% of that towards food and housing. You have 750AUD to spend.

That's true so long as the living costs are actually proportional like that.

I pay considerably more than 50% of my salary towards food and housing. Just the rent alone is 50% of my pay. And I'm not in a particularly expensive area.



It's beside the point, though. GW's prices in Oz aren't higher because we're all swimming in money. They're higher because the exchange rate that GW uses was set in the 90s when the Oz Dollar was worth sweet bugger-all, and when the value of the dollar increased they left their conversion rate the same to boost margins.

It's only in the last year or two that they've started actually catching up with this decade on miniatures prices, at least for new releases. The books are still ridiculously over-priced, but there are other factors involved there.

 
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica

GodDamUser wrote:
Man only $500 for food in rent in Aus... I wish D=

Actually, the Aus number was 750, and it was a number pulled from my arse. It's not like I can manage a month on 500aus here, and we've hit a very rough patch in our economy. It was just a round number.
 insaniak wrote:

I pay considerably more than 50% of my salary towards food and housing. Just the rent alone is 50% of my pay. And I'm not in a particularly expensive area.

They were round numbers to make examples!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 11:13:48


 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

 Purifier wrote:
They were round numbers to make examples!

Yes, but they were round numbers that don't actually mean anything. Which makes the examples a little pointless.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 11:15:20


 
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica

 insaniak wrote:
 Purifier wrote:
They were round numbers to make examples!

Yes, but they were round numbers that don't actually mean anything. Which makes the examples a little pointless.

No, they were round numbers that meant something.

 
   
Made in au
Screaming Shining Spear





Western Australia

Plus - petrol here is significantly more than in the U.S. - which I found out last year on a trip. I have no frame of reference for the EU.

As for your example of 1000AU...

I actually get paid about $550 of that after tax just for starters... Then I have to pay cost of living - where rent on a house here in my neck of the woods is easily $400 a week and I have seen it more than double that for a little 3 bedroom house.

It is al relative and I agree we get it ok when shopping online but it's hardly roses. My car I paid $70k for here can be bought new in the UK for about 27k pounds.

Australia regularly pays an australia tax simply because. Most of our retail shopping is more expensive then just about anywhere else due to the costs here which come about at least in part because of the perceived high earnings

For gaming, hobby and events in Perth, Western Australia - https://objectivesecured.com.au 
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica

 Massaen wrote:
I actually get paid about $550 of that after tax just for starters...

I was actually thinking net...

I also pay 39% taxes. It's not like I'm rolling in the dough of those 6% units better than you.

My monthly wages (and I make more than the teachers and nurses around here at least) leaves me with about 2200AUS net.
I pay 1050AUS of that towards a two room apartment, 65 square meters.
I'm not gonna get a HOUSE at my paygrade.

So yes, my examples do matter, when talking to the person I was replying to at the start. Because living rates rise at an almost constant with payrates.

 
   
Made in au
Liche Priest Hierophant







Knockagh wrote:
I know tax is high in Australia but come on guys you have one of the highest rates of pay on the planet, half the uk professionals are crawling over to you guys to get big fat pay cheques. The heavy tax is there because you can afford it.


It's still ridiculously costed. I mean look at the Assassins boxed game. $210 AUD. You kidding me?

The sad thing is, those in NZ have a lower minimum wage than us and yet it cost more! ($248 NZD or something like that).

Rates of pay, taxes and cost of living are not the entire reason we pay so much. Sure, that does play in to it in part, as does shipping and currency worth (or whatever the proper term is), but corporate greed also plays a good part in the price...
   
Made in au
Infiltrating Broodlord





Basically there is a phenomenon called Aus Tax... recently the Government got involved with some of the biggest culprits.. for example it was cheaper to fly to the USA buy a copy of Adobe Photoshop and fly back.. then to buy a full digital copy in Australia
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica

 Matt.Kingsley wrote:
but corporate greed also plays a good part in the price...

Of course it does, and GW is known to squeeze every drop of blood they can. They didn't regulate the AUS prizes for all of the years like Insomniac said, but they were quick as hell to start raising the Swedish ones when our money plunged.

 
   
Made in no
Stealthy Grot Snipa





The taxes and cost of living argument is complete BS.

GW products are cheaper in Norway than in the UK (by RRP, at current currency levels; e.g., the new Assassins game is £72 in Norway vs. £75 in the UK) despite a 25% VAT and a cost of living that is higher than in Australia.

"The Emporer is a rouge trader."
- Charlie Chaplain. 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

 Purifier wrote:
Because living rates rise at an almost constant with payrates.

This is not actually true.

Living costs in Oz have sky-rocketed in the last decade, vastly outstripping rises in payrates.

And even before that really started along up, for years we've had a steady stream of professionals moving overseas because there are better employment options in the US or Europe. Hell, some of our universities even advertise the fact that you'll have a better chance of getting overseas employment as one of their advantages.

Our minimum wage is higher than most.. But the wages of the sorts of people who actually have spare money to spend on toys? Not so much.

 
   
Made in au
Hissing Hybrid Metamorph





'Straya... Mate.

GDubs gives us higher prices for the exact reason that we will pay them I guess. Only thing I can think of.

 
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica

 insaniak wrote:
 Purifier wrote:
Because living rates rise at an almost constant with payrates.

This is not actually true.

Living costs in Oz have sky-rocketed in the last decade, vastly outstripping rises in payrates.

And even before that really started along up, for years we've had a steady stream of professionals moving overseas because there are better employment options in the US or Europe. Hell, some of our universities even advertise the fact that you'll have a better chance of getting overseas employment as one of their advantages.

Our minimum wage is higher than most.. But the wages of the sorts of people who actually have spare money to spend on toys? Not so much.


Highly anecdotal.
And your universities are clearly lying to you. Aus unemployment rates are at 6.4%, while the EU as a whole is at 9.7%. Unless you're specifically going to Germany, because those guys are doing great at 4.7%. And to be anecdotal: I live in one of the most culture diverse cities in Sweden, with students and workers from around the world. I'm sure there are some australians here, but I know, or know of, exactly 0. I do however know two guys that moved to Australia to work.

 
   
Made in au
Thinking of Joining a Davinite Loge






Actually, advertising international opportunities is a big thing among our Universities. Something about limited and specific jobs among higher level education graduates.

Yes, we have a high minimum wage. We also have high living costs, 'Australia Tax', and high tax brackets. Plus the whole fluctuating exchange rate, no fluctuating price.

My $0.02, which since 1992 has rounded to nothing. Take with salt.
Elysian Drop Troops, Dark Angels, 30K
Mercenaries, Retribution
Ten Thunders, Neverborn
 
   
Made in ca
Regular Dakkanaut




.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 15:50:25


 
   
Made in gb
Ruthless Interrogator





The hills above Belfast

 Farseer Anath'lan wrote:
Actually, advertising international opportunities is a big thing among our Universities. Something about limited and specific jobs among higher level education graduates.

Yes, we have a high minimum wage. We also have high living costs, 'Australia Tax', and high tax brackets. Plus the whole fluctuating exchange rate, no fluctuating price.


Well there must be a conspiracy devised by British airways to fill the planes in both directions with all the advertising over here.

I have a few friends working in the mines in Australia and they tell me the whole thing breaks about even. They are storing up their money as they have nothing to spend it on in the wilderness.

The whole moaning culture on GW prices from Australians has become rather tiresome. GW is a ripoff no matter what country.

EAT - SLEEP - FARM - REPEAT  
   
Made in se
Servoarm Flailing Magos






Metalica


We have our own currency symbols, chief.

€ and £

edit: and he edits it out to a dot just before I can quote it!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 15:52:43


 
   
Made in ca
Elite Tyranid Warrior





Australia has the highest wages as well, but they also have a high tax rate. No matter how you toss the coin GW is a ripoff so I guess it all evens out

3500 Imperium army

1250 Nidzilla

1000 Chaos army

1000 Drukhari Raiding Force  
   
Made in ca
Sneaky Kommando





What seems more likely? That GW and basically everyone else rips off Australians because they are greedy and can get away with it, or that various economic and political forces conspire to make consumer prices higher in Australia than elsewhere?

It is obviously the latter. Prices don't fluctuate with currency markets because costs are in local currency. You still have to pay your local staff the same in AUD whether the British pound goes up or down. You still pay taxes and import dues in the local currency, the same amount regardless of what the currency does on the international markets.

After all, in the last two years, the Australian dollar has lost about 30% of its value against the British pound (from a high of 69p to a low of 51p), but prices for models didn't go up by 30%.

I've been paying the Canada tax on stuff that's half the price in the US long enough - only here you can just hop the border to shop in the US so there's actually a bit of competition. (We actually have one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world for this very reason). But the bottom line is, if you don't like prices in Australia, talk to your member of parliament rather than complaining about the companies that are severely constrained by local laws, taxes, tariffs, and sheer physical distance.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 18:12:59


Blood rains down from an angry sky, my WAAAGH! rages on, my WAAAGH! rages on! 
   
Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

 office_waaagh wrote:
What seems more likely? That GW and basically everyone else rips off Australians because they are greedy and can get away with it, or that various economic and political forces conspire to make consumer prices higher in Australia than elsewhere? .

A little from column A, and a little from column B, basically.

Retail in Australia is still wrapping its collective head around the internet. In a pre-internet-shopping age, prices here could be set wherever, because nobody knew any better. Now that people suddenly have all of these cheaper international options, the retail industry is finally starting to realise that they have to set slightly more realistic prices.


Most Australians don't expect total parity with overseas. We fully understand that there are different factors affecting the price. But when people can buy a product and have it shipped from the other side of the world (or in the Adobe example mentioned earlier, fly to the other side of the world and collect it themselves) for less than it would cost them to walk into a store just down the road, something is awry. (And let's not even get into the fact that a certain UK-based company charges me twice as much to download a digital product from a UK-based webstore just because of where I live... which has nothing whatsoever to do with the cost of doing business in Australia)

Ultimately, the fact that stores here have higher overheads than stores overseas is not the customer's concern. Stores in one suburb of my city have higher overheads than stores in other suburbs as well. Making their business profitable and competitive despite that disparity is their issue, not mine.

 
   
Made in ca
Sneaky Kommando





 insaniak wrote:
Most Australians don't expect total parity with overseas. We fully understand that there are different factors affecting the price. But when people can buy a product and have it shipped from the other side of the world (or in the Adobe example mentioned earlier, fly to the other side of the world and collect it themselves) for less than it would cost them to walk into a store just down the road, something is awry. (And let's not even get into the fact that a certain UK-based company charges me twice as much to download a digital product from a UK-based webstore just because of where I live... which has nothing whatsoever to do with the cost of doing business in Australia)
If GW has to pay higher wages, higher property tax, higher transportation costs, higher utilities prices, and more tax on their profits in Australia, then their choice is either sell at a higher price locally or ship from overseas. If they want to have a local presence, ie have stores in Australia, they have to price their product to the local market. They have to charge a higher price for everything, including overseas shipping and digital downloads, otherwise they'd be undercutting themselves. I agree man, it's no fun, it's the same here though admittedly to a lesser extent. It's just the reality of doing business in different international markets - currency conversion rates don't reflect the actual price of stuff locally.

Ultimately, the fact that stores here have higher overheads than stores overseas is not the customer's concern. Stores in one suburb of my city have higher overheads than stores in other suburbs as well. Making their business profitable and competitive despite that disparity is their issue, not mine.
That's a perfectly reasonable perspective for a consumer to have. I don't share it, personally, because I don't want other countries to be able to set my country's social policies. I would worry that having to compete with cheap foreign (ie Amercan, with much lower minimum wages) labour would depress the local economy and cause the government to lower wages to try to create jobs, creating an underclass of "working welfare" like the US has. In some ways Canada gets around this by lowering the corporate tax rate to compensate for the higher labour costs, but overall I willingly pay Canadian prices just because I know what the real cost of cheaper US goods is, and I'm not willing to pay it even if it means saving money. We have the US to compete with though, so in some ways government has to keep an eye on things to make sure that the price disparity isn't so high that consumer spending gets driven away. Australia doesn't have a cheaper neighbour, so the issue is much smaller and the government can afford to let prices stay high without causing economic chaos. That may change in this new age of internet shopping, but it will change slowly.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/04/26 23:37:07


Blood rains down from an angry sky, my WAAAGH! rages on, my WAAAGH! rages on! 
   
 
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