Honestly I think it has something to do with this:

From my Miniwargaming newsletter:

"Is Games Workshop discontinuing metals?

Ever since Games Workshop stopped selling their metal miniatures to retailers, there have been a lot of rumours as to whether they were getting rid of metals altogether.

The last time I spoke with my trade representative (who apparently is the last to know of any changes) he said that all he was told was that all the metal miniatures were being "repackaged."

Whether that means giving them better blisters (let's face it, the current blister packaging sucks), or whether they are switching from metals to something else (perhaps resin), he has no idea.

Having said that, we have placed all of the GW metals in clearance in anticipation of these changes, so you get to save because of it (whatever "it" is)."

They could just want to slim down on stock going out to get ready for a new packing push. From a retail standpoint it makes sense to limit old stock to special order.

JMMelo wrote:
That is pretty much as close to saying "It's true" as they can go without confirming it...

You might be right. I'm not saying you're wrong.

However, I also heard that there was supposed to be an announcement on Monday concerning the plastic/metal issue and what they're going to do with the recently "Pulled from FLGS availability" miniatures and their availability to everyone.

Revarien wrote:Honestly I think it has something to do with this:

From my Miniwargaming newsletter:

"Is Games Workshop discontinuing metals?

Ever since Games Workshop stopped selling their metal miniatures to retailers, there have been a lot of rumours as to whether they were getting rid of metals altogether.

The last time I spoke with my trade representative (who apparently is the last to know of any changes) he said that all he was told was that all the metal miniatures were being "repackaged."

Whether that means giving them better blisters (let's face it, the current blister packaging sucks), or whether they are switching from metals to something else (perhaps resin), he has no idea.

Having said that, we have placed all of the GW metals in clearance in anticipation of these changes, so you get to save because of it (whatever "it" is)."

They could just want to slim down on stock going out to get ready for a new packing push. From a retail standpoint it makes sense to limit old stock to special order.

I hadn't even considered that possibility. That is an interesting coincidence that both announcements are being made on Monday.

And today is Friday the 13th!!!!!111111pi

DOOOOOOOOM!

I was about to say something like "It doesn't make sense, by what logic would GW think this is a good idea?" .. then I remembered it was GW, and logic doesn't apply.

First... I don't believe this.

Second... I keep seeing about how doing this will hurt GW's bottom line, but does anyone truly know what kind of profits they make from southern hemisphere countries? While I'm as ignorant to that answer as the rest. I'm inclined to believe that the profits are slim to none. Not to be a dick, but when was the last time anyone passed a GW or LGS while traveling through Cambodia or Nigeria?

(edit) I'm excluding Australia and New Zaeland.

Okay so essentially some 3rd party in the UK now has to take over the shipping to down under? So the market will be forced to create a second layer of handling to increase the cost slightly to the consumer at no additional benefit to GW?

Wtf is wrong with with the people at GW?

oni wrote:First... I don't believe this.

Second... I keep seeing about how doing this will hurt GW's bottom line, but does anyone truly know what kind of profits they make from southern hemisphere countries? While I'm as ignorant to that answer as the rest. I'm inclined to believe that the profits are slim to none. Not to be a dick, but when was the last time anyone passed a GW or LGS while traveling through Cambodia or Nigeria?

(edit) I'm excluding Australia and New Zaeland.

Well, they're going to lose the profits from every person in the Southern Hemisphere who doesn't buy from GW. They'll inevitably re coop some of this from people sticking with the hobby, but a lot of people will just stop buying any Warhammer at all and go for the cheaper, available hobbies. It will harm GW.

Just Dave wrote:Maelstrom also stated how their hands are tied and they can't say anything; this would surely work both ways.

I don't see why: if there was nothing to this rumour, this means it has nothing to do with GW's actual plans, which means GW has no reason or justification for stopping Maelstrom from debunking it.

iproxtaco wrote:If say Terminators are £27.70 in the UK, what would the prices be if we had the same kind of prices that Australia has?

They'd be about 48.4 pounds.

AlexHolker wrote:

Just Dave wrote:Maelstrom also stated how their hands are tied and they can't say anything; this would surely work both ways.

I don't see why: if there was nothing to this rumour, this means it has nothing to do with GW's actual plans, which means GW has no reason or justification for stopping Maelstrom from debunking it.

iproxtaco wrote:If say Terminators are £27.70 in the UK, what would the prices be if we had the same kind of prices that Australia has?

They'd be about 48.4 pounds.

£48!? If this becomes a reality, if it's possible people can buy through me because £48 is plain robbery.

Well, music industry and movie industry get away with regional marketing so there is no reason why GW shouldn't get away with it...

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:

Darkness wrote:If this is the case, I'm willing to bet that that it is only a matter of time before we lose all online stores.

This is my greatest fear, I've not mentioned it, but it has crossed my mind on more than one occasion.

I believe this is enough money to be made that it would go underground, with GW forced to chase countless Ebay style sellers (which would cost a lot more money).

Also, making it more difficult for your customer's to buy your product is not a recipe for success. Such restrictions will only result in an erosion of indie support for GW, thus further restricting distribution and thus further eroding sales.

Never mind the affect such a move would have on customer good will.

Finally, there are the possible legal hurdles such a policy would face.

By the way, something similar exists in the Beauty Products industry. It's called diversion. From what I understand, for every unauthorized seller that is forced to close or stop selling product, 3 more pop up, even with the much larger resources those manufactures can and do bring to bear.

Here in Brazil this came as a double whammy. First we heard that GW has started talks with a local retailer known for bad deals, rarely delivering orders and serially running away with the money while dropping sob stories about taxes and border controls.

Then we learned of GW's upcoming colonialist gambit. People are already dismayed and frustrated. Seems Warmachine is about to gain hundreds of new hobbyists in Brazil alone. I started Warhammer 40k a year ago, and have a CSM army and a starting Dark Eldar list. Guess it's not going to happen anymore.

Dracos wrote:Okay so essentially some 3rd party in the UK now has to take over the shipping to down under? So the market will be forced to create a second layer of handling to increase the cost slightly to the consumer at no additional benefit to GW?

Wtf is wrong with with the people at GW?

Yep, you'll get a couple of companys that buy stuff from the net then ship it on to Aus.

Like your own personal shopper...

I'm willing to buy a packaging reformat, if that turns out to be what's going on. The blisters could be vastly improved.

If I were an Australian gaming group----I would consider opening a 'gaming franchise' and buying wholesale from a distributor (Unless they are blocking distribution points too).

Duncan_Idaho wrote:Well, music industry and movie industry get away with regional marketing so there is no reason why GW shouldn't get away with it...

That's based on copyright. Resale of physical products is a different area of law.

Set(Flag.Farfetched = True)

GW switches over to resin from metal models. Resin melts/deforms at relatively low temperatures compared to their current plastics and metals. Shipping from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere may involve small, thermally-vulnerable shipments spending a fair amount of time in the tropics. This would increase the number of problem resin models in the hands of these customers, decreasing customer satisfaction, reducing acceptance of a new product, and increasing costs of shipping replacement product.

Again, really far--fetched, but it's what went through my head.

H.B.M.C. wrote:The way I'm reading it means that stores like Wayland and Maelstrom would be forbidden from filling orders made out by people in places such as Australia.

and I'm wondering - HOW exactly? Sales info is a pretty confidential stuff - how on earth would GW check where a retailer sends stuff?

I would think its more geared towards South America. Many of those countries are notorious for lost mail/packages. Tracking within those countries is non existant, so if a package goes missing, it stay missing. Ive even heard tell that some of the more corrupt/socialist countries actually open any foreign packages coming in looking for anything they might want. If the post people find something they like, your package disappears.

Lorek wrote:Set(Flag.Farfetched = True)

GW switches over to resin from metal models. Resin melts/deforms at relatively low temperatures compared to their current plastics and metals. Shipping from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere may involve small, thermally-vulnerable shipments spending a fair amount of time in the tropics. This would increase the number of problem resin models in the hands of these customers, decreasing customer satisfaction, reducing acceptance of a new product, and increasing costs of shipping replacement product.

Again, really far--fetched, but it's what went through my head.

That's a long, long shot. As a rule, at least here in Brazil, packages arrive broken due to handling far more often than warped or molten.. It's a tropical country but most places have less than extreme climate.

Odds are they just prefer to centralize the small foreign markets through their own website, since they're not willing to adapt their business model enough to allow true representation in those locations. Makes for a less diverse and smaller hobby, but one whose cash line more directly head back to GW.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mad4Minis wrote:I would think its more geared towards South America. Many of those countries are notorious for lost mail/packages. Tracking within those countries is non existant, so if a package goes missing, it stay missing. Ive even heard tell that some of the more corrupt/socialist countries actually open any foreign packages coming in looking for anything they might want. If the post people find something they like, your package disappears.

Not to disturb your comfortable world of wonder and hearsay, but among my gaming club Maelstrom has a sterling record. Packages can take a long time, but they always arrive; the only major hitch we had was during the big volcano-sprinkling-plane-killing-ash episode, and that was not cause by our Stalinist overlords.

And even if it was, wouldn't that be something to be dealt with by the stores themselves (with a simple 'We do not ship to Brazil on account that you guys suck') rather than a top-down imposition by Games Workshop?

if this is true it wouldnt suprise me but it is pretty disgusting.

It's an attempt to force gamers in places like Auz to pay the full price down under instead of buying it cheaper from abroad. In the hopes of boosting sales from GW direct there.

I suspect theres been whinges about it for ages from the middle management types in the area.

The reality is it will probably remove even more buyers from their playerbase :(

but then it is just a rumour so it may not happen.

One would like to think that if this came about, sales in Oz would drop, however they are likely to expand since some players will buy locally if cut off from international supplies.

There may be an overall drop in global demand and loss of profit because of some antipodean players just not buying any GW stuff, however that will be difficult for GW to connect to the change of policy.

Any long term loss of recruitment thanks to veterans turning away from the HHHobby will take several years to have an effect.

In short, while the idea may be stupid and counterproductive, GW will see it as a success in the short and medium term.

Przemas wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:The way I'm reading it means that stores like Wayland and Maelstrom would be forbidden from filling orders made out by people in places such as Australia.

and I'm wondering - HOW exactly? Sales info is a pretty confidential stuff - how on earth would GW check where a retailer sends stuff?

Quite easily. Secret shopper.

Yes, I hadn't thought of that.

Lord of Deeds wrote:

Przemas wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:The way I'm reading it means that stores like Wayland and Maelstrom would be forbidden from filling orders made out by people in places such as Australia.

and I'm wondering - HOW exactly? Sales info is a pretty confidential stuff - how on earth would GW check where a retailer sends stuff?

Quite easily. Secret shopper.

Or even just by still having the country in question on the dropdown where you put mailing addresses in.

Ouze wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

kronk wrote:Man. I would say BS to this rumor, but since they won't allow on-line retailers to use a shopping cart for their stuff....

I hope this isn't true for my buddies down under.

That's a US only policy, which was a misguided attempt to curtail online discounters here in the US.

It did a decent job of cleaning out the discounters that never filled orders though.

(emphasis mine)

I gotta say, man. Just when I think I've seen Games Workshop do something that even Kanluwen couldn't apologize for.... you go shine through. Truly I have underestimated you.

Yeah, he won a reprieve from me calling him a GW fanboy about two months back when he was consistently pissed with GW's decisions... and ironically HBMC was towing the party NDA line and not leaking rumors. It really was bizarro world here on dakka for a while minus the angular faces.

In all seriousness, this does suck for my former brothers from down under (used to live there). GW prices in the US can be eyepopping at times (although not out of line anymore with the rest of the industry like in years past) so paying almost double that for no good reason sucks. The added cost of braving the barren wastelands of the outback and having the delivery men killed by rabid kangaroos or drop bears shouldn't add that much to the final price. :(

Howard A Treesong wrote:I'm still not clear on why Australian prices are so high. Maelstom can buy stuff from GW wholesale (which is a hefty amount I gather) and post individual items to Australia, and offer a discount AND still make money. But apparently GW can't bulk ship their *own* product to their own stores without making the RRP twice what the rest of the world pays. Surely the fact that they are sending their own product (so no huge overhead from buying it from a wholesaler like an independent retailer) and sending in bulk, means they are more cost efficient. What about economy of scale?

It's never been about what GW can afford to charge so much as what the Australian market is willing to bear. Supposedly, Oz punters have more disposable income than most of the rest of the world, and we've largely gotten used to paying more for our hobbies than everyone else does. At least until relatively recently, as more and more people are discovering (much more slowly than say the US or Europe, due to the slower take up of accessible internet over here) the joys of online international shopping.

If this is true, I think there are two potential ways of looking at it. The seemingly obvious one is that enough people have taken to buying from the US or the UK to start impacting on GW Australasia's bottom line. They've always been pretty profitable, so that would be a Bad Thing. So it's pretty easy to conclude that the same business geniuses that cane up with the no internet carts in the US idea would think that restricting sales to within the stores' own countries would be a good way to combat that, rather than going with the (to us) more obvious option of equalising prices worldwide so people wouldn't have any reason to shop outside their own region.

The other possibility is that this isn't a malicious dig at those of us (ie: people who don't run Games Workshop) who have realised that this newfangled interwebs isn't just a fad that will fade away if they ignore it for long enough) shopping internationally specifically... but is simply supposed to make it easier for GW to track sales by region. If enough people are ordering internationally, it throws GW's sales figures all out of whack. It makes it impossible for them to see where everything is actually selling, which makes sales reporting a lot harder.

Whichever option it is, though, it doesn't seem on the surface to be the brightest way of going about it. They wouldn't be the first company to limit sales to within set regions... It's pretty common practice, particularly for companies who set up exclusive import deals with particular businesses in different countries. But the fact that they aren't the first to try it means that it shouldn't be too hard for them to look around and see just how much ill will it generates when those exclusive deals result in higher prices in different regions and people have no easy recourse to buy at more equitable prices.

If it's true. While it's certainly the sort of decision that it's depressingly easy to see coming from GW, I'm willing to hold off on sharpening the pitchfork unil it's actually confirmed.


And for what it's worth, I had actually already decided to try to start supporting local outlets again... at least on smaller purchases where the conversion and price difference really just balances out with the extra time you spend waiting on shipping. I'm sure there are plenty of other gamers out there like me, who would jump at the chance of returning all of their purchasing to local businesses if our prices were just a little closer to everyone else's. They don't have to be equal worldwide... I realise there are factors that impact on that. But not being quite so ridiculously out of step with everyone else except Canada would be a good start.

So my advice to GW, (you know, to the GW board members who are undoubtedly reading this and prepared to accept business advice from some guy on some forum somewhere) would be: By all means, limit sales by region if it works for the business... But for Bob's sake throw us a bone by reviewing and where possible making some attempt at standardising prices.

If they are asking everyone to keep quiet until Monday then it might be more significant, otherwise I would have expected companies to have a last minute order frenzy for the Southern Hemisphere. Especially if a change of terms date was set. I'm wondering if with all the talk of loosing metal figures, that the whole planet will have to order those models direct from GW UK so that they can control the stock levels better. This might have a knock on effect on pricing for other countries (could even be positive).

I'm still saying that even IF GW would try to pull this, they'd get kicked in the balls by...I don't know, Directorate-General for Competition? Don't know on which table this would land exactly, but some agency would have to say something about this, no doubt.

Sorry, but M&I industry does it mainly because the have granted territorial licences to distributors. copyright has not much to do with it. Also this way they can reap a greater profit as long as there is no internet shopping.

Duncan_Idaho wrote:Sorry, but M&I industry does it mainly because the have granted territorial licences to distributors. copyright has not much to do with it. Also this way they can reap a greater profit as long as there is no internet shopping.

Territorial licences for music (films, and software) are based on copyright.

Instead of buying a physical product, the customer is buying the right to reproduce the copyrighted work under certain conditions, one of which is that he cannot sell it outside his assigned area.

Not to go OT, but the other significance of May 16 is they are probably announcing the annual price increases.

My little birdy tells me thats it going to be a 2 part announcement.

First will be that they are restricting as per the OP thread
Second will be that they are reviewing pricing annually and adjusting based on currency fluctuations. So that everyone should be paying approx the same per item regardless where ever they are in the world.

Even if the second is untrue (oops edited). There are plenty of freight forwarders who have american/uk addresses and then will forward the order to you for a very reasonable cost

If the second is true, there would be no need for freight forwarders. If Oz prices were in-line with the rest of the world, there would be no reason to buy from overseas.

This one is pretty straightforward to me... restricting the independents from shipping is fine, so long as they address the local pricing issue. If they don't, then it is a disgusting move and horrible for everyone involved, even GW themselves... Just IMO.

rattman wrote:My little birdy tells me thats it going to be a 2 part announcement.

First will be that they are restricting as per the OP thread
Second will be that they are reviewing pricing annually and adjusting based on currency fluctuations. So that everyone should be paying approx the same per item regardless where ever they are in the world.

Even if the second is true. There are plenty of freight forwarders who have american/uk addresses and then will forward the order to you for a very reasonable cost

So we can anticipate OZ seeing a modest price reduction, the UK a modest increase, the Euro a modest reduction and the US a huge increase.

Im from Brazil, and if this comes true, i quit warhammer. There is a lot of other companies wanting my money, who actually do things do get it it... Infinity have great models, mantic have a great price and better rules, and there are others.

Here a link to the blog of a friend:
http://paintingfrog.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/games-workshops-embargo-or-how-i-came-to-feel-back-in-colonial-times/

Take a look, and understand why we are so scaryed over here...

insaniak wrote:If the second is true, there would be no need for freight forwarders. If Oz prices were in-line with the rest of the world, there would be no reason to buy from overseas.

OOPS meant untrue, I edited the post

So we can anticipate OZ seeing a modest price reduction, the UK a modest increase, the Euro a modest reduction and the US a huge increase.

He didn't mention anything like tat detail, considering we pay 40% more reletive to the pound a decrease would be in the cards if the second part is true.

Hell would freeze over before we saw a 40% decrease, though. At absolute best, I could see a slight (say 10%) decrease, with prices frozen for a couple of periods to allow the rest of the world to catch up.

Insaniak - EU law allows copyright holders, which GW certainly are, to restrict the physical slae of goods within and without the EU - the whole grey import / export issue.

If they tell the retailers not to export goods from the EU, as copyright holders that is their right. Levi were the first, but they were mainly concerned with goods coming IN, i.e. cheaper than normal prices.

Soooo.....if they say they'll stop selling to chaps who sell to people in Australia,w hat's to stop me negotiating a 30% off GW good discount with say, Maelstrom, and putting my goods up on Ebay at 20% off with a cheap shipping option to Australia?

Maelstrom isn't selling to Australia and breaking the terms of their arrangement, and I have no direct link to GW for them to wield that control over me.

I suppose they could try and trace the goods back to maelstrom, and threaten to stop supplying maelstrom unless maelstrom stops supplying me, but as soon as they stop dealing with me, my brother will conveniently open an Ebay store. And so on ad infinitum. There's no credible way of countering this I don't think.

It may be possible for a third party retailer to purchase stock from an on-line retailer like Maelstrom. Then sell onto the Australian market, below the Australian dollar price and still make a profit.

Ketara wrote:Soooo.....if they say they'll stop selling to chaps who sell to people in Australia,w hat's to stop me negotiating a 30% off GW good discount with say, Maelstrom, and putting my goods up on Ebay at 20% off with a cheap shipping option to Australia?

Maelstrom isn't selling to Australia and breaking the terms of their arrangement, and I have no direct link to GW for them to wield that control over me.

I suppose they could try and trace the goods back to maelstrom, and threaten to stop supplying maelstrom unless maelstrom stops supplying me, but as soon as they stop dealing with me, my brother will conveniently open an Ebay store. And so on ad infinitum. There's no credible way of countering this I don't think.

Except.....you'd never bother. The numbers you're quoting say nothing really about how much you would make on this "venture" and therefore whether it would even be worth-while.

A much better suggestion, would be for Australians to set up buying partners on websites like this, who are willing to purchase the goods and ship to Oz......sure it won't help everyone, but it will help a lot of people, and engender a great community spirit.

insaniak wrote:If the second is true, there would be no need for freight forwarders. If Oz prices were in-line with the rest of the world, there would be no reason to buy from overseas.

Precisely.

If Oz prices matched the rest of the world, this would not be an issue, and as much as I like supporting Maelstrom, I'd no longer need to wait two weeks for something to arrive because I could go to the GW that is less than 800 metres from my house and buy stuff there for the same price.


Of course, knowing GW, there is every possibility that they'll jack up UK/US prices to match Australia's...

George Spiggott wrote:It may be possible for a third party retailer to purchase stock from an on-line retailer like Maelstrom. Then sell onto the Australian market, below the Australian dollar price and still make a profit.

Some young turk who definitely isn't part of maelstrom( ) can buy the stock from Maelstrom and forward it to Australia whilst adding a few pennies to it. It is then 3rd person sale and 4th person recipient in Oz.

nosferatu1001 wrote:Insaniak - EU law allows copyright holders, which GW certainly are, to restrict the physical slae of goods within and without the EU - the whole grey import / export issue.

Er... ok? I have no idea why that comment was aimed at me...

Besides which, I didn't think the UK was a part of the EU?

Ketara wrote:Soooo.....if they say they'll stop selling to chaps who sell to people in Australia,w hat's to stop me negotiating a 30% off GW good discount with say, Maelstrom, and putting my goods up on Ebay at 20% off with a cheap shipping option to Australia?

There's nothing stopping you. This sort of policy isn't put in place (at least not by anyone who's actually in touch with reality) with any real expectation of stopping up unwanted sales channels completely, just to make it harder, which stamps out most of it.

George Spiggott wrote:It may be possible for a third party retailer to purchase stock from an on-line retailer like Maelstrom. Then sell onto the Australian market, below the Australian dollar price and still make a profit.

You could do it, but you yould would make no money off it.

Basically the maelstrom discount price is the same price you buy it off GW trade in AUS for, so for individuals it great for traders, its rubbish.

Damn. My wife and me only got into 40k in January and had planned to slowly build up our army over this year (a little under half way there). We are both Uni students so we are not exactly swimming in disposable income. We have built most of our armies from online retailers because prices in NZ literally double that you would fine on wayland or maelstrom. That said we still support our locals buy buying all out paints, glues and gaming aids from them. We even buy some model (about 1/3 our armies are locally bought). This feel like a real kick in the teeth. (if true)

I don't quite understand what their reasoning would be. It is not like we are suddenly going to double our monthly gaming budget; we are just going to end up buying half as much.

Eh. I have friends in the Uk. If this dose turn out to be true I at least have a fall back plan.

oni wrote:First... I don't believe this.

Second... I keep seeing about how doing this will hurt GW's bottom line, but does anyone truly know what kind of profits they make from southern hemisphere countries? While I'm as ignorant to that answer as the rest. I'm inclined to believe that the profits are slim to none. Not to be a dick, but when was the last time anyone passed a GW or LGS while traveling through Cambodia or Nigeria?

(edit) I'm excluding Australia and New Zaeland.

Actually, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and a couple other in Latin America have rather good gaming communities. South Africa has a pretty good player base too... I believe that you are underestimating GW´s worldwide appeal, despite the high costs overseas.

Also, what flag is that?

Mad4Minis wrote:I would think its more geared towards South America. Many of those countries are notorious for lost mail/packages. Tracking within those countries is non existant, so if a package goes missing, it stay missing. Ive even heard tell that some of the more corrupt/socialist countries actually open any foreign packages coming in looking for anything they might want. If the post people find something they like, your package disappears.

Ok... I shouldnt even respond to that... you should know that ITALY, for one, has a much worse mail service than most countries in Latin America, and that many online retaliers dont ship there. Hong Kong is another problem country, as far as I hear. I had packages lost between Poland and Portugal (to save you a search, they are both within Europe) more often than between Brazil, Argentina and the UK (1 package lost, from Maelstrom, 4 months ago, in 15 years in the hobby, FYI)

BTW, try to track a regular package between Europe and the US or Canada, just regular mail, no tracking purchased... That should be fun to watch...

Second, the whole opening packages deal can happen ANYWHERE in the world... It is called ADUANA, or CUSTOMS and I once had to pay taxes AND had a box opened while living in the US too. Otherwise, I could just send you a kilo of cocaine by mail and there would be no need to traffic it, would there? I am South American, so I must have a kilo of dope just laying around and we could give it a try, right?

Third, if you read a bit (or just f...ink google it, for Christ´s sake!), you will find that there is ONE socialist regime in Latin America, and that´s Cuba. You can argue Venezuela´s case, but that is more a populist (google that too) regime with dictatorial undertones... Change the channel from Fox News before you decide you too live in a Socialist Regime...

Look, I lived in the US, I have great American friends, and some of the brightest people I know are from there... but sometimes you guys seem to enjoy embarassing yourselves...

About the possibility of a worldwide GW price adjustment... I think it is unlikely... the prices are affected by shipping and local taxes too... it´s not just up to GW...

This policy sounds like it was created to justify some GW suit keeping their job. "Bob! Think of some way to increase sales, or you're fired!" Bob works furiously to come up with a plan, the effectiveness of which cannot really be quantified, but that "sounds good".

This won't be a problem at all. There's this thing called e-bay. Retailers could just sell incognito on e-bay under another profile. This policy would be so ludicrously easy to get around that it would be foolish to waste time implementing it. If it is true, GW might as well fire the person who came up with the idea, as it is not enforceable and so would be a colossal waste of time and effort, and would only serve to do exactly what mere rumors of it are doing- creating more negative sentiment towards GW.

shabbadoo wrote: Retailers could just sell incognito on e-bay under another profile. .

Except they wouldn't, as they would still have to trade under their business name (in which case GW would potentially find out about it through the same 'secret shopper' scenario suggested earlier for catching out stores) or trade under a different name (in which case they have to try to explain that little eccentricity to their tax office, and potentially also to whichever government authority in their country overseas business trading regulations).

Please forgive me if I'm wrong insaniak, but you almost sound 'ok' with this (potential) change to GW policy?

Lord, no, I think it's an absolutely ridiculous over-reaction to something that I just can't see being a particularly serious problem.

I'm just not particularly surprised by it. I'm also possibly not as cut up about it as some, since price isn't a large factor in my purchasing decisions now that I'm not trying to make a living from it. I'm not going to stop buying just because I have to pay Oz prices, although these days unless I'm after something specific in a hurry I buy most stuff second hand. And I suspect that this won't actually affect as large a chunk of the Oz GW audience as online discussions would lead people to believe... there' still an awful lot of Australians who either don't use the internet or even if they do, don't shop online.

But I do think (if it's true) that it's a silly idea, that regardless of what the law may say about it it's borderline dodgy at best, and that if their aim is to just get everyone buying from the appropriate region then they would be far better served by just standardising their pricing.

No if mealstrom won't ship to me because of gw, then i'll drop in to the warehouse in Australia and get a five finger discount myself!

If this is true, this is one of the most ridiculous moves I have ever seen.

Sadly, it has the ring of truth to it...because it's a half-a**ed attempt to fix a problem that GW OZ prices have caused!

Personal example...

GW OZ prices alienated me from buying any GW products here years ago.

I've gone to Vallejo paint (better quality and cheaper - bought from Maelstrom), I use eBay for my minis (metal, resin or plastic - doesn't matter, strip them and repaint), I get my brushes, scenery, and any other hobby products from Maelstrom or my FLGS...and not a single thing is from the GW brand! BECAUSE OF THE OZ PRICES!!!

Now, they're going to try and shut down Maelstrom shipping GW stuff here?

Sorry, GW, but I think you did the damage years ago!!!



Padre^.

Hmmm...ship it to mates in the UK then ship it over here?

If GW does go ahead with this, I will highly likely just stop buying their products, as will many.

I live in Japan and after seeing what they charge for product, I never set foot in a Japanese GW again (maybe more expensive than Australia?). I order from Maelstrom exclusively. If this rumor is true, I will have my brother at Oxford buy (from Maelstrom) and ship product to me. All GW will gain is my increased contempt for their business practices.

I have often wondered if something like this would happen.

AesSedai wrote: All GW will gain is my increased contempt for their business practices.

I couldn't say it any better in a million years.

Sigged.

Padre.

Isn't it fun to watch GW feth themselves over? They really are their own worst enemy.

Noisy_Marine wrote:Isn't it fun to watch GW feth themselves over?

Normally yes, but when they're fething us over at the same time it's hard to take any enjoyment from it.


Assuming this is all true.

Why would they do that!? I mean at first I thought it wasn't really popular in other *coughs non enlighsh speaking cough* countries. That is until one day at work a Mexican worker saw my Dark Eldar codex, and got excited that they were released. He played Dark Eldar, in Mexico..six years ago. I promptly ran into him at my FLGS next week.

if this is carried out i would give it one month -1/4 a year. when they get their quarterly income report they would see they shot themselves in the foot (no wait chest or head) and continue as it is now. that is if retailers would still want to buy off them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And anyway what do they have against the southern hemisphere.

We have nicer beaches?

If this is true then it effectively ends 40k/WHFB for me. I quit a few years ago due to the price and the only thing that brought me back was seeing the online stores.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Noisy_Marine wrote:Isn't it fun to watch GW feth themselves over?

Normally yes, but when they're fething us over at the same time it's hard to take any enjoyment from it.


Assuming this is all true.

Which is a pretty big assumption.

I'm, personally, thinking it will be something done temporarily in regards to the supposed metal->resin crossover.

Please leave your apologist stance out of this thread 'til Monday Kan. Can ya do that for us, please?

GW Oz probably has to break even to justify its existence. This probably explains why the prices are so high.

I reckon they blamed their poor performance on grey imports and got head office to put a stop to it.

They will probably recover a little but ultimately GW will probably lose customers and have to continue bailing them out.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Please leave your apologist stance out of this thread 'til Monday Kan. Can ya do that for us, please?

What apologist stance? You need to stop yelling zebra when you hear hoofbeats, HB.

If they carry through with this: it's going to get a lot of backlash. It's going to be another ridiculous move done on their part in an attempt to curtail something that is an issue only because it's been allowed to become one.

But hey. Don't let me get in the way of yet another "FETH GW!" thread for something that hasn't even actually been announced.

pete wrote:GW Oz probably has to break even to justify its existence. This probably explains why the prices are so high.

Quite the opposite, actually. Even with however many players it actually is buying from overseas rather than locally, going by their financial reports Australia brings to GW PLC the equivalent of about a third of the revenue of GW US... with a tenth of the population.

That's why our prices are higher. We spend more on our hobbies.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kanluwen wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Please leave your apologist stance out of this thread 'til Monday Kan. Can ya do that for us, please?

What apologist stance? You need to stop yelling zebra when you hear hoofbeats, HB.

How about both of you knock it off and stick to the topic.

I hope that, if this come true, some bitz stores on ebay, who sell some GW NIB products, keep their work.

Their prices are usually not so good as those of Maelstrom or Wayland, but at least, are better than the ones from GW direct.

This decision from GW is irrational, and autodestructive.

AesSedai wrote:I live in Japan and after seeing what they charge for product, I never set foot in a Japanese GW again (maybe more expensive than Australia?). I order from Maelstrom exclusively. If this rumor is true, I will have my brother at Oxford buy (from Maelstrom) and ship product to me. All GW will gain is my increased contempt for their business practices.

I have often wondered if something like this would happen.

Japan isn't in the southern hemisphere.

Despite what everyone says I don't think this will hurt GW too much. Australians will still buy there stuff. Either in stores, LGS's, overseas friends or through the new ebay route, which will appear the day this news is confirmed.

Who'll stop?

Maybe in Latin America, but I don't know anything about them.

Maybe HBMC, but what is a Chaplin without something to hate?


Its a poor decision sure. And it may not happen. But like I said I don't think it will matter to GW.

daedalus wrote:
Or even just by still having the country in question on the dropdown where you put mailing addresses in.

That wouldn't work for webstores who sell goods other than GW as well

Lord of Deeds wrote:
Quite easily. Secret shopper.

Yup, I know.
But getting around such agreement/trade terms IMO seems to be pretty easy (as some already suggested). It's equally easy to get around them without getting into trouble with law - and that's what I wanted to say .
That's also a reason it's hard for me to believe in such thing basing on the data we've received. Maybe there's more to it, but at the moment it simply sounds like a rather strange/silly idea.
I understand issues with different prices in different countries (and it's not even GW fault - taxes differ, you need to add customs, transport etc), but that does not sound like a solution that will work.

I'm disinclined to believe this just because it seems even stupider then GWS could do. Right?


crickets...

The speculation seems to be making people upset, I'm no GW fanboi, in fact, if this move does happen it means more of you Ozzies playing Infinity

I say wait until Monday and see what comes out in the wash.....in the meantime, go place a BIG order at Maelstrom!

Kilkrazy wrote:

AesSedai wrote:I live in Japan and after seeing what they charge for product, I never set foot in a Japanese GW again (maybe more expensive than Australia?). I order from Maelstrom exclusively. If this rumor is true, I will have my brother at Oxford buy (from Maelstrom) and ship product to me. All GW will gain is my increased contempt for their business practices.

I have often wondered if something like this would happen.

Japan isn't in the southern hemisphere.

That was my first thought, but I'd actually be surprised if Japan were excluded from any such policy. We are in exactly the same boat as far as being reliant on the likes of Maelstrom for sane prices.

Thanks, KK. I read the OP and noted that he said:

That would cover South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

As I'm Canadian, I assume any place that doesn't have a 7 month winter is in the Southern hemisphere.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, should this change come to pass, I doubt something as arbitrary as hemispheres will be the operative factor. What happens to Australia will happen to Japan as well, IMO. Regional markets makes a hell of a lot more sense than hemispheres.

Like Antarctica?

Sorry, sorry!

Yes, you are right about splitting things on hemispheres is completely arbitrary compared to real geography.

Padre wrote:
If this is true, this is one of the most ridiculous moves I have ever seen.

Noisy_Marine wrote:Isn't it fun to watch GW feth themselves over? They really are their own worst enemy.

Ouze wrote:I'm disinclined to believe this just because it seems even stupider then GWS could do. Right?

How about this: GW Germany just decided that independent retailers are only allowed to order once per week from GW!
If you sell too many GW products, you are naughty, deserve a punishment and need to be stopped immediately!
Need I say that we have a new GW sales manager in Germany for a few weeks with this one of his early decisions?

Kilkrazy wrote:Like Antarctica?
Sorry, sorry!
Yes, you are right about splitting things on hemispheres is completely arbitrary compared to real geography.

Don't argue about geography with people who call the rest of Europe "the continent"!
Maybe the original wording for southern hemisphere was "former colonies" or worse!

Off topic...



Last time I checked Japan was still part of Asia so "technically" AesSedai is correct. But then too Kilkrazy you are correct as Japan isn't in the Southern Hemisphere.....but really

Insaniak - it was the conversation about geographic restrictions. And UK is most definitely part of the EU - its why we can booze cruise to the continent, no duty between EU countries

We're just not part of Schengen (no need for passports when you travel between certain EU countries) or the Euro.

Gw, as copyright and trademark holders, can control the export and import out of the EU of their products for anything other than *personal* use. While you certainly could try the "its not me, honest" method of setting up multiple traders, given GW can sue each individual (not jsut a "stop it", but actual monetary costs) company doing so it would get very expensive. It would not be worth the hassle.

Kroothawk wrote:How about this: GW Germany just decided that independent retailers are only allowed to order once per week from GW!
If you sell too many GW products, you are naughty, deserve a punishment and need to be stopped immediately!

That's one way to look at it.

It's not actually at all uncommon for wholesalers to have a set order day on a weekly basis. It's nothing to do with 'punishing' retailers for selling their product... it's just a way of trimming down transport costs and managing warehouse labour.

All it means is that retailers need to be a little more savvy about thier ordering.

There are plenty of things that GW do that are worthy of scorn, but this really isn't one of them.

I thought weekly ordering was standard, my old shop only got a delivery once a week. His complaint was that it's wasn't consistent.

Lord of Deeds wrote:

rattman wrote:My little birdy tells me thats it going to be a 2 part announcement.

First will be that they are restricting as per the OP thread
Second will be that they are reviewing pricing annually and adjusting based on currency fluctuations. So that everyone should be paying approx the same per item regardless where ever they are in the world.

Even if the second is true. There are plenty of freight forwarders who have american/uk addresses and then will forward the order to you for a very reasonable cost

So we can anticipate OZ seeing a modest price reduction, the UK a modest increase, the Euro a modest reduction and the US a huge increase.

If OZ had a 40% price drop to match the UK prices I would not need to order from the UK & it would have to drop by only 33% to match US prices

OZ Terminator squad
cost AU 74.00
US Dollars 78.25 US GW 50.00
Pounds 48.31 UK GW 27.70

If the UK or the US had to pay OZ prices there would be nerd blood on the streets.

Sephyr wrote:

[

Mad4Minis wrote:I would think its more geared towards South America. Many of those countries are notorious for lost mail/packages. Tracking within those countries is non existant, so if a package goes missing, it stay missing. Ive even heard tell that some of the more corrupt/socialist countries actually open any foreign packages coming in looking for anything they might want. If the post people find something they like, your package disappears.

Not to disturb your comfortable world of wonder and hearsay, but among my gaming club Maelstrom has a sterling record. Packages can take a long time, but they always arrive; the only major hitch we had was during the big volcano-sprinkling-plane-killing-ash episode, and that was not cause by our Stalinist overlords.

And even if it was, wouldn't that be something to be dealt with by the stores themselves (with a simple 'We do not ship to Brazil on account that you guys suck') rather than a top-down imposition by Games Workshop?

Ah, my mistake, I wasnt aware Brazil was the end-all be-all of South America. Next time I want to know how things work in say, Columbia, Ill reference Brazil and should be all set.

Kroothawk wrote:How about this: GW Germany just decided that independent retailers are only allowed to order once per week from GW!
If you sell too many GW products, you are naughty, deserve a punishment and need to be stopped immediately!
Need I say that we have a new GW sales manager in Germany for a few weeks with this one of his early decisions?

Bah! That's nothing new. Maelstrom have been suffering under such an order for a very long time.

On the bright side guys if this happens you'll be able to buy yourselves a nice new car instead of GW models

Hmmm...have been thinking about picking up a Dreadknight for my fledgling GK army....

At current conversion rate...

Maelstrom = AU $45.50 (free postage.)

GW Oz = AU $90.00 (not including postage if I get it from mail order.)

IF announcement on Monday is as suspected... NET RESULT FOR GW = 1 DREADKNIGHT NOT SOLD...

Wouldn't you think that any sale is better than none at all?



Padre^.

Void_walker wrote:Off topic...

What is this? Geography according to Risk?

Not long now till we find out
I honestly think if they do reprice, it will be so UK and US prices matches Aussie prices.
I mean can any of you honestly see them dropping Aussie prices to match them to the far cheaper prices in other countries?

Honestly this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place,if they had properly priced aussie products. Instead we get a hamfisted attempt to fix a problem that they themselves created!

Kanluwen wrote:

It did a decent job of cleaning out the discounters that never filled orders though.

No it didnt. Nor was the policy set in place for that reason. Thats sheer BS.

Actually if I remember right they did do that, then never updated it, assumed all currencies are absolutely static and gave everyone a global price increase until it became as accurate as if they just put on a blindfold and threw some darts at a chart on the wall.

Still it will be interesting to see what they decide to do. I doubt they'll be as stupid as some seem to think. If they adjust the price it means I'll probably end up buying more as I can't get any SoB from Maelstrom and buying them directly from here is about $3-4 more expensive than buying a Baneblade from Maelstrom...

Asuron wrote:Not long now till we find out
I honestly think if they do reprice, it will be so UK and US prices matches Aussie prices.

The price increase would be colossal, it isn't a few pounds on a box it's 30-40%. It would shake even their most loyal customers and startle parents who buy stuff for their kids, which is where a fair bit of money comes from. If they did do this people would simply give up the hobby, price increases are usually incremental to get customers to adjust, you don't make huge increases. Remember the fuss when the realm of battle board shot up in price? Imagine that... for everything. I can't believe they would do a price increase of this magnitude, hell maybe they would but it would be suicidal IMO.

If we're guessing as to what might be going on, I assume they are not going to announce that GW has been sold off or something so that the company will change hands? That's about the wildest guess I can make.

I think it's time to have a Sidney Warhammer Party... Throw dem crates overboard!

Naw but srsly... ebay? I imagine sellers may start trying to make some money by selling on discount stuff from the North on to you Aussies?

Henners91 wrote:I think it's time to have a Sidney Warhammer Party... Throw dem crates into SilverMK2's house!

Fixed that for you

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Asuron wrote:Not long now till we find out
I honestly think if they do reprice, it will be so UK and US prices matches Aussie prices.

The price increase would be colossal, it isn't a few pounds on a box it's 30-40%. It would shake even their most loyal customers and startle parents who buy stuff for their kids, which is where a fair bit of money comes from. If they did do this people would simply give up the hobby, price increases are usually incremental to get customers to adjust, you don't make huge increases. Remember the fuss when the realm of battle board shot up in price? Imagine that... for everything. I can't believe they would do a price increase of this magnitude, hell maybe they would but it would be suicidal IMO.

If we're guessing as to what might be going on, I assume they are not going to announce that GW has been sold off or something so that the company will change hands? That's about the wildest guess I can make.

Oh I know it would be colossal, but given that for every release they've done they've ramped up the prices significantly with the noticeable except of Dark Eldar whose prices aren't quite as ridiculous, I honestly think UK and US Prices will take a collossal move forwards and perhaps Aussie prices go back a bit. Just fits with the way I think they operate, based of course purely on my own opinion

Who knows it might not be as bad as we think

AgeOfEgos wrote:Upon hearing the news, Privateer Press staff clinked champagne glasses and moved to Australia.

SilverMK2 wrote:

Void_walker wrote:Off topic...

What is this? Geography according to Risk?

Ah, Risk! My favorite game, although I haven't played it in years. And Australia was always "The Alamo" so to speak- only one way in and one way out...

£30 Tactical Squad box? £50 Land Raider? Character models at £12 each?

That would be a serious challenge to the price inelasticity of GW products, in the middle of a recession.

I once managed to have my GW default set to Australia when browsing the site. I saw the $103.00 price tag on the Land Raider, and $63.00 (WTF is it with 3 dollars?) for a Tactical Squad and wondered when they announced a 100% price hike. I was not at all surprised at the prices, I was surprised I hadn't seen a post about it here.

Personally, it's often cheaper for me to shop at Wayland or Maelstrom, even though I am located in the US, by virtue of the UK price being less on some things than the US price after taking conversion into account. Before it's mentioned, I drive an hour to shop at the FLGS near where I used to live once a month, and do the same at the more local store where I run the 40k league. With larger purchases I just prefer to get the biggest discount as opposed to a single box, or some paint.

If this rumor is true, it actually may discourage me from buying GW as well... I've gotten everything I need for my army, and the question was whether to save up / begin another. Come Monday, that answer may be laid out for me as a "yes" or "no"... because I don't know if I can take this kind of restriction, even if it doesn't affect US prices.

We'll see Monday...

the monday thing isnt this though is it?

I assumed this was just another iron in GW's DO WHAT WE SAY fire.

I thought monday was likely to be regarding resin etc.

Also what time is this "announcement" being made on monday?
anyone have any ideas?

On a bright note... a poster from Australia on Warseer (Eldargal, seems to be a girl, even if I don't believe those exist online) says "A friend of mine in Australia contacted Wayland about his order, said they seemed to be quite scornful of the idea and asked for his source (this thrad via me) so they could correct misinformation or something. "

A proper statement by Wayland would be awesome, but this is the best news about this matter so far! But up to now, no sign of Wayland on the Warseer thread.

I posted this on Warseer
Just to clarify, we have not been informed of any changes.

When we have them on Monday we will analyse them and if there are any significant changes will ensure that we communicate that 14 days is insufficient notice of major changes to established trading terms, which is an area of contract and not competition law we have advice on. And if any of the changes are we feel unreasonable will pass that feedback to GW.

At the moment my guys have been asked not to take part in speculation and wait until we cascade to them after the weekend.

One additional point I will make publicly is despite ourselves and Maelstrom working incredibly hard in selling GW products globally and having them not once offering any praise to us. Nor visiting us except to "police" their terms. We would be disturbed to discover if this was an action targeted at UK internet stores.

I notice a lot of Aussies stating they would leave the hobby if the rumour works out to be true....

Why not simply start another game?

This is what happens when you put all your eggs into one basket guys!

GW views it like this.....the internet complainers are only a small fraction of their audience.

Most GW fans are so fanatical about their products, they will continue to buy, no matter what the price or the hassle.

So for every person on the net who says enough, there are 9 other people who will buy less.

Instead of one item a month, they go to one item every 2 months. That 1 item a month might be say, 25 dollars from an online store. The item now bought every other month is now 60 dollars because of the markups. GW wins.

The only way GW will ever learn is if there were an actual competitor to their business. Privateer Press and Battlefront don't count.

Someone should find me a venture capitalist to start up a gaming company.

rich1231 wrote:I posted this on Warseer
Just to clarify, we have not been informed of any changes.

When we have them on Monday we will analyse them and if there are any significant changes will ensure that we communicate that 14 days is insufficient notice of major changes to established trading terms, which is an area of contract and not competition law we have advice on. And if any of the changes are we feel unreasonable will pass that feedback to GW.

At the moment my guys have been asked not to take part in speculation and wait until we cascade to them after the weekend.

One additional point I will make publicly is despite ourselves and Maelstrom working incredibly hard in selling GW products globally and having them not once offering any praise to us. Nor visiting us except to "police" their terms. We would be disturbed to discover if this was an action targeted at UK internet stores.

Thanks for this post, and I'm looking forward to what you can say more specifically next week.

Delephont wrote:I notice a lot of Aussies stating they would leave the hobby if the rumour works out to be true....

Why not simply start another game?

This is what happens when you put all your eggs into one basket guys!

No, this is what happens when the alternatives are inadequate. And don't say Infinity, not until they start charging less than two pounds a model.

AlexHolker wrote:

Delephont wrote:I notice a lot of Aussies stating they would leave the hobby if the rumour works out to be true....

Why not simply start another game?

This is what happens when you put all your eggs into one basket guys!

No, this is what happens when the alternatives are inadequate. And don't say Infinity, not until they start charging less than two pounds a model.

Sorry? So the only way you'll leave the suckling teet of GW is if the "alternative" is operating under a 1980's cost structure? For a start, Infinity only makes metal miniatures, and you tell me when last you could buy a metal GW miniature for less than two pounds a go? In fact, you tell me when last you could buy a plastic GW mini for less than two pounds.

If you insist on putting these unrealistic requirements on your hobby decisions, then sorry, you deserve everythig thats coming to you.

Hopefully others will see the wood for the trees, and realise there are alternatives to GW out there. Once they start getting the support they need, it won't be long before they rival the size and scope of GW.

Asuron wrote:Oh I know it would be colossal, but given that for every release they've done they've ramped up the prices significantly with the noticeable except of Dark Eldar whose prices aren't quite as ridiculous, I honestly think UK and US Prices will take a collossal move forwards and perhaps Aussie prices go back a bit. Just fits with the way I think they operate, based of course purely on my own opinion

Who knows it might not be as bad as we think

I don't think this speculation is particular good for GW, yet they've stoked it by announcing some announcement in the distant future and then misleading or refusing to tell people what the hell is going on, preferring instead to allow a lot of frantic and worried speculation to take over, among customers and retailers.

All this talk of switching over to resin and colossal price increases and preventing retailers sending stuff to certain parts of the world adds up to a lot of uncertainty. GW probably could have handled it better because I can't believe all these rumours are true but any of them could be hugely unpopular and damaging if they don't work out for the company.

Delephont wrote:
Hopefully others will see the wood for the trees, and realise there are alternatives to GW out there. Once they start getting the support they need, it won't be long before they rival the size and scope of GW.

Quite doubtful on that one. Most gamers are very aware of other games, but they may not appeal to them, and aren't going to get supported just for the reason they aren't GW. An alternative game isn't going to get the support unless they have sculpting, rules, and background that appeal to people leaving GW. There have always been other games, and cheaper model lines. If they were better games, they'd have done better.

Warmachine is growing strongly, with good rules, fluff, and sculpting. The game is gaining support because it appeals to more and more players.

Infinity is hit or miss in most areas. I had no demand for it in my shop, despite supporting the whole line. It eventually all got shipped back and no ones missed it.

This is sad, if it turns out to be accurate then in my part of the world (tasmania) there is no GW store and we can only buy from independant stockists and I know for a fact that with the current price increases thus far for Australia if we then add on extra shipping to our state then 90% of the gamers I know would have no choice but to stop playing as it would effectively price us out of the hobby, not that we're all poor or jobless, far from it, but if it becomes something you need to ask yourself, car registration or a Tac squad? then i'll have to stop.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Asuron wrote:Oh I know it would be colossal, but given that for every release they've done they've ramped up the prices significantly with the noticeable except of Dark Eldar whose prices aren't quite as ridiculous, I honestly think UK and US Prices will take a collossal move forwards and perhaps Aussie prices go back a bit. Just fits with the way I think they operate, based of course purely on my own opinion

Who knows it might not be as bad as we think

I don't think this speculation is particular good for GW, yet they've stoked it by announcing some announcement in the distant future and then misleading or refusing to tell people what the hell is going on, preferring instead to allow a lot of frantic and worried speculation to take over, among customers and retailers.

All this talk of switching over to resin and colossal price increases and preventing retailers sending stuff to certain parts of the world adds up to a lot of uncertainty. GW probably could have handled it better because I can't believe all these rumours are true but any of them could be hugely unpopular and damaging if they don't work out for the company.

GW didn't announce anything to the public. An independent retailer made a post that something "big" was going to be announced and hinted towards a metal to resin switchover, and Mikhaila's confirmed that there will be an announcement and there's a selldown going on.

Delephont wrote:In fact, you tell me when last you could buy a plastic GW mini for less than two pounds.

Five seconds ago.

This may be related to something ghost21 mentioned on warseer about how GW will be doing 'something' soon about the huge price discrepencies in certain markets such as Australia

1.) I am curious to see what legislation permits GW from barring other companies to selling GW product as they see fit. No where on the box have I noted (then again, i haven't really looked) that it says that the contents are not intended for individual resale. My LGS does it, and the set of 4 plastics is more expensive than buying the 12 together boxed.

I did the maths so I know its ridiculous: USD-CAD 36, CAD 44 and AUS-CAD 64. I still fail to see the $8 disparity between CAD and USD prices. Never mind the ridiculous $28 difference from USD to CAD.

2.) For what its worth I offer my services as "agent" to buy discount here and ship south, when and if this does happen...

poda_t wrote:1.) I am curious to see what legislation permits GW from barring other companies to selling GW product as they see fit. No where on the box have I noted (then again, i haven't really looked) that it says that the contents are not intended for individual resale. My LGS does it, and the set of 4 plastics is more expensive than buying the 12 together boxed.

Most legislation is not going to be found on the side of the box.) I know that most game manufacturers stipulate where their distributors can sell to. US distributors mostly can't sell outside of the US. Some are given permisssion to sell to canada or other companies. A lot of the agreements between manufacturers and stores, or distributors and stores, stipulate that product is sold to stores with the intention that they sell to end users and not distribute to other stores. Stores can have restrictions on where they sell product.

This isn't anything really new. Laws are going to vary from country to country. I have no idea on what UK law allows, or disallows, a manufacturer from doing.

all very well, but how can GW monitor all the retailers, and just how will they prove that a retailer has been selling out of their jurisdiction? Take them to court? and then they have to prove that money was lost.... of course, then they fail to take into account that some people just plain wouldnt be buying if it wasnt for those discount retailers.

mikhaila wrote: ...... If they were better games, they'd have done better.

I think you're right, but I disagree with this statement. Being a better or worse game has little to do with how popular it will be....you only need to sample the noise on here regarding the WH40K rules to see that fact. I think the reason why many games don't get the attention they deserve is more due to limited advertising, and peoples general apathy towards trying something new.

poda_t wrote:all very well, but how can GW monitor all the retailers, and just how will they prove that a retailer has been selling out of their jurisdiction? Take them to court? and then they have to prove that money was lost.... of course, then they fail to take into account that some people just plain wouldnt be buying if it wasnt for those discount retailers.

In the EU a trademark or copyright holder can control the export and import of goods from / to the EU, if they wish to

Tried and tested case law, I'm afraid. They dont have to prove any monetary loss. None at all.

Normally its to prevent imports to the EU from cheaper markets. See levi jeans and Tescos.

AlexHolker wrote:

Delephont wrote:In fact, you tell me when last you could buy a plastic GW mini for less than two pounds.

Five seconds ago.

Damn, I knew I went too far with the plastic

This doesn't affect me very much, as I have given up buying GW stuff pretty much completely some time ago. But it does affect my friends, who like their GW product.

Glad to see I made the right decision and purchased Vampire Count miniature substitutes from Mantic and Gamezone recently, rather than buy Tomb Kings which was my original idea.

GW's pricing here in Australia drove me out of the market quite some time ago. Maelstrom helped when I did need some, and now that avenue's gone, I won't be buying from them again.

They'll need to learn a hard lesson from this, and if they choose not to heed it, their loss. I have wanted to check out Infinity for some time, and my group already plays Malifaux, and Warmachine.

The Australian dollar is stronger than it has been for longer than I can remember, and still we pay over 40% more? Forget that. Unless GW brings their Australian pricing back to sensible levels, they won't see another dollar for me.

As it is, Mantic make fantastic miniatures, and at half the cost for a very good VC army. Gamezone fills in the other unit gaps and Avatar's of War gave me my General. Why do I need GW again?

Delephont wrote:

mikhaila wrote: ...... If they were better games, they'd have done better.

I think you're right, but I disagree with this statement. Being a better or worse game has little to do with how popular it will be....you only need to sample the noise on here regarding the WH40K rules to see that fact. I think the reason why many games don't get the attention they deserve is more due to limited advertising, and peoples general apathy towards trying something new.

Quality of the game is always a factor, although it might not be the only factor. Quality may be measured differently by different people. Price, quality of miniatures, style of sculpting. scale, availability of product, availability of players, fluff and stories, and style of game, etc. All of this matters, and matters in different ways to different people.
In the end, people will buy and play what they like. There's some irony in saying that more people like the worse game. The fact that they like it better may make it the better game, at least by their standards.

GW raising prices or making it unavailable except through certain channels may make it a worse game for some people.
or
GW converting to high quality resin models and ramping up the speed of production on new models may make them a better game.

And those are only two of the possible things we may or may not learn on Monday. We really know nothing, it's all rumors at this moment.

AlexHolker wrote:

Delephont wrote:In fact, you tell me when last you could buy a plastic GW mini for less than two pounds.

Five seconds ago.

It's true there are still some box sets like Kroot which are only £20 for 16 models, but you can't make an army out of them. Once you add the rest of the stuff it becomes expensive compared with many games.

There are lots of alternatives. For the price of a Tyranid Monstrous Creature you can buy an entire 15mm army for De Bellis Antiquitatis.

We got a reply from Wayland Games which shows that if this new policy does turn out to be true it would be blatantly illegal:

[url]
http://paintingfrog.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/games-workshops-embargo-part-2/[/url]

Guess we can always hope it's only a rumour. At least till monday!

Delephont wrote:I notice a lot of Aussies stating they would leave the hobby if the rumour works out to be true....

Why not simply start another game?

For most, it would be because other games just don't have the following. We're a big country with a very spread out and fairly small population. Finding other people who play 40K and WHFB is fairly easy. But unless you happen to stumble on one of the few pockets of Warmachine or FoW players (assuming you're actually interested in either of those games), or are just playing at home with a couple of mates and can convince them to start whatever it is you're looking at as an alternative, you're pretty much out of luck down here so far as other games are concerned.

And, of course, if you're playing 40K for the one thing that it does that the other games don't (namely, it's a sci fi game that allows for large army battles) there is no other game to start instead.

40K is large skirmishes, really. If you want big battle SF you have to play Epic or one of the other 6mm or 15mm systems.

Hi,

Any orders this month will not be effected by the affair,
And its all European stockists not just us,
Sadly I cannot comment on the situation until GW announce it publicly, Which should be Monday,
Sorry,
Many thanks,

----------------------------------------------------------------
On 14 May 2011 17:03,
Subject: sales
Telephone:
Query: There have been rumors going around that you will not be able to sell GW products to my country Argentina any more.

As a long time customer i think i have the right to know if my next purchase planed for the 20th of May, will be possible or if i need to take my business some where else.

Please do not answer a run around i will take that as a confirmation of the rumors.

MAELSTROM GAMES

This is a quote from an email i sent maelstrom this afternoon inquiring about this. As you can see from the Bolded segment, Jamie pretty much confirms the rumor.

As the fellow Brazilian player mentioned already, Official local retailers are plain terrible, and that is why they barely exist any more. The Argentine counterpart to this was (may be still is) called Warzone. Besides the fact that they are well known for delayed delivery, not delivering and not giving reimbursements when they dont deliver (at all) these are a few simple price comparisons:

Tactical Squad: GW=23 WARZONE=31.60
Terminator squad: GW=27.7 Warzone=36.87
Land rider: GW=38.5 Warzone=52.67

We have seen this happen before, what ends up happening is, Clones completely destroy the original product market, people use alternative models (which for fantasy at this point in time is basically 70%+ of the range) or drop the hobby all together.

Oh and for the final kick to the teeth, this prices are for stores ONLY, not public, whom can spect an additional charge of course.

Kilkrazy wrote:40K is large skirmishes, really. If you want big battle SF you have to play Epic or one of the other 6mm or 15mm systems.

Well, yeah, you're not reaching army scale unless you're playing Apocalypse... but it's a bigger scale game than any of the other 28-ishmm games out there. I've never been particularly interested in 6mm or 15mm due to the miniatures just not being as pretty. Even aside from quality, there's just something more engaging about the larger minis.

As a way to preemptively boycott this measure, can people that know of shipping websites that allow you to redirect your packages world wide start listing them?.

S I'll still be able to order direct from GWUK and enjoy 40% savings over buying at my local GWOZ store?

GW games are really struggling here ATM.

A heap of long time players switched to warmachine last year.
Many more are bulking out armies with the unbelievably cheap mantic.

GWOZ needs to reallign prices with a drop of 40% so their stores will sell product.


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Also FWIW I'm a doctor, my wife a nurse, we have a toddler and baby and a small mortgage, and I would struggle to pay GWOZ prices (I've ordered almost everything from US or UK for the last 3 years).

Why we have to get punished for the stupidity of others is beyond me.

I get that from the Labor party and the Greens already...

insaniak wrote:

Delephont wrote:I notice a lot of Aussies stating they would leave the hobby if the rumour works out to be true....

Why not simply start another game?

For most, it would be because other games just don't have the following. We're a big country with a very spread out and fairly small population. Finding other people who play 40K and WHFB is fairly easy. But unless you happen to stumble on one of the few pockets of Warmachine or FoW players (assuming you're actually interested in either of those games), or are just playing at home with a couple of mates and can convince them to start whatever it is you're looking at as an alternative, you're pretty much out of luck down here so far as other games are concerned.

And, of course, if you're playing 40K for the one thing that it does that the other games don't (namely, it's a sci fi game that allows for large army battles) there is no other game to start instead.

Well, lets look at this another way then....you enjoy playing WH40K, which, in the face of things, is a set of rules.....nothing more. If you can drag yourself away, you can pretty much proxy every miniature required for each army....whats the harm, as long as you don't play in a GW store, you're good to go. A previous poster already said he's proxied his entire WHFB army....so whats the difference?

Hell, there's even no reason to bother buying the 6th edition rule set, if you like 5th edition, just keep playing that.

I really feel for you guys, and I know it wouldn't be easy to turn your back on something you have enjoyed for so long, but (assuming the rumours are true) thats what companies like GW, they grab you by the balls and tug till they drop off. At the end of the day, it's your hobby, and you have to find a way to take it back under your control.

insaniak wrote:

shabbadoo wrote: Retailers could just sell incognito on e-bay under another profile. .

Except they wouldn't, as they would still have to trade under their business name (in which case GW would potentially find out about it through the same 'secret shopper' scenario suggested earlier for catching out stores) or trade under a different name (in which case they have to try to explain that little eccentricity to their tax office, and potentially also to whichever government authority in their country overseas business trading regulations).

Well, that's when a friend sets up his own company, and buys from you as a distributor. The distributor sends nothing to the Southern Hemisphere, so GW gets to suck it. Only costs a little bit of time/effort/money to set that up, and GW then has no recourse. Any store that already orders from a secondary distributor could do this.

Delephont wrote:Well, lets look at this another way then....you enjoy playing WH40K, which, in the face of things, is a set of rules.....nothing more. If you can drag yourself away, you can pretty much proxy every miniature required for each army....whats the harm, as long as you don't play in a GW store, you're good to go. A previous poster already said he's proxied his entire WHFB army....so whats the difference?

For me personally, not a lot. Not buying GW miniatures wouldn't necessarily mean not playing 40K.

For a lot of gamers, though, there's a mental hangup about using the 'right' miniatures, or the perception that in order for the game to be playable, it has to be constantly receiving new material. That's a large part of the reason that games like Necromunda have fallen by the wayside... People who bought gangs ten years ago can play the game just as easily now as they did then... but it's a 'dead' game, so nobody plays it.

So if you stop buying stuff from GW, you're left with what is effectively a 'dead' game, unless you're willing to add in your own updates... which most players )from my experience) aren't.

Hell, there's even no reason to bother buying the 6th edition rule set, if you like 5th edition, just keep playing that.

That's certainly an option. And I know there are people out there playing every edition of 40K back to Rogue Trader. But not that many of them. And not being very many of them returns you to exactly the same problem as starting a new game: Finding other players.



All of which is still putting the cart before the horse, though, since we still don't have confirmation that this is even happening. And, frankly, I suspect that a lot of those who claim they would quit if this comes into effect actually wouldn't. We hear the same thing every time GW raises their prices, and have done for 20 years now.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

shabbadoo wrote:Well, that's when a friend sets up his own company, and buys from you as a distributor. The distributor sends nothing to the Southern Hemisphere, so GW gets to suck it. Only costs a little bit of time/effort/money to set that up, and GW then has no recourse. Any store that already orders from a secondary distributor could do this.

I think said friend in that case would want to do some serious market research first, before going to the trouble of setting up a business solely to cater to international trade. I would be dubious as to whether it would actually result in enough trade to be viable, to be honest.

Kilkrazy wrote:40K is large skirmishes, really. If you want big battle SF you have to play Epic or one of the other 6mm or 15mm systems.

Shockforce/Warengine can play a 28mm battle around 2x the size of a typical 40k game in the same or less time. It gives up a bit of detail to do it, but the creation rules allow you to make the army you want...which more than makes up for it IMO.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

KarlPedder wrote:This may be related to something ghost21 mentioned on warseer about how GW will be doing 'something' soon about the huge price discrepencies in certain markets such as Australia

Raising prices for the rest of the world to make things "even"? Really, would it surprise anyone?

I still hold out hope that this is going to be a whole lot of nothing, or, better yet, a price rationalisation for Aussie prices to bring them in line with the rest of the world. If they did that they'd solve the problem without screwing everyone over.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I still hold out hope that this is going to be a whole lot of nothing, or, better yet, a price rationalisation for Aussie prices to bring them in line with the rest of the world. If they did that they'd solve the problem without screwing everyone over.

Agreed.

shabbadoo wrote:

insaniak wrote:

shabbadoo wrote: Retailers could just sell incognito on e-bay under another profile. .

Except they wouldn't, as they would still have to trade under their business name (in which case GW would potentially find out about it through the same 'secret shopper' scenario suggested earlier for catching out stores) or trade under a different name (in which case they have to try to explain that little eccentricity to their tax office, and potentially also to whichever government authority in their country overseas business trading regulations).

Well, that's when a friend sets up his own company, and buys from you as a distributor. The distributor sends nothing to the Southern Hemisphere, so GW gets to suck it. Only costs a little bit of time/effort/money to set that up, and GW then has no recourse. Any store that already orders from a secondary distributor could do this.

Just not that easy to do. Firstly, there are ways to track and see where product goes to. Secondly, you can't just decide to be a distributor and magically not be accountable for moving product around. Soon as GW figures out who's shiftying product that's going where they don't want, they cut off the source. Saying 'I didn't sell it overseas, my buddy down the street did' doesn't help you a hell of a lot when they cancel your account.

Selling ingocnito on Ebay takes more than just a fake name. It also means shifting product to another geographic location and ship it from there, to hide who bought it originally. People have done it, but they eventually get caught, and shut down. Building up a business based on selling GW, which can get shut down at any moment, isn't a good business practice.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I still hold out hope that this is going to be a whole lot of nothing, or, better yet, a price rationalisation for Aussie prices to bring them in line with the rest of the world. If they did that they'd solve the problem without screwing everyone over.

I hope you're right, H, I really do, but, this is GW we're talking here...

Padre^.

Seems like there is profit to be had in shipping to australia as an unaffiliated middle man!

I would dare to assume this is both a price-rationalisation and the announcement of a partial move to resin-hybrid.

Afterall, we had another thread discussing the price of metal. However, I do not believe the entire range of metals would benefit or be able to be produced without modification of the moulds for the resin-hybrid production yet.

This would leave GW to either produce the remainder of their metals On-Demand through Direct - using the remainder of their metal stocks - and clearing the shelves for the new resin-hybrid products.

Alternatively, they could sell off the metal they have been sitting on and sell it at a profit (as they no doubt bought it cheaper) while they clear their old metals out of the warehouse.

Just my $0.02

H.B.M.C. wrote:I still hold out hope that this is going to be a whole lot of nothing, or, better yet, a price rationalisation for Aussie prices to bring them in line with the rest of the world. If they did that they'd solve the problem without screwing everyone over.

If only... .I recently took a look at the Warzone web site, and they still have the 50%+ prices against the ones published on GW sites and only for shops not particulars.

Hopefully, this is a trial balloon GW is floating to make people fret over subject A and then come out and just blindside us with a price increase, making half the world feel "relieved" that they can get the models still.

The fact that we're trying to see that as a -good- alternative shows how crappy the situation is.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I still hold out hope that this is going to be a whole lot of nothing, or, better yet, a price rationalisation for Aussie prices to bring them in line with the rest of the world. If they did that they'd solve the problem without screwing everyone over.

I hope this is the case, I'd like to support my local GW more
But after reading what Blongbling wrote in that thread on warseer, about the type of management he used to have to deal with( essentially they are ostriches burying thier heads in the sand) I don't know if they even understand the consequences that would arise from this.

I really don't want this to happen...

If true, I will likely quit the hobby.

Warboss Gutrip wrote:I really don't want this to happen...

If true, I will likely quit the hobby.

Don't quit "the" hobby, just quit the GW-branded variant. Contrary to what GW wants you to think, there was/is/will be scifi and fantasy wargaming regardless of what happens with their own lines.

Maybe there will be a price rationalisation... MAYBE GW will bring the rest of the world into line with crazy/zany GWOZ/GWNZ price structure.

If everyone was a ripped off as us, there would be noone in the southern hemisphere buying from the US/UK...

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Maybe there will be a price rationalisation... MAYBE GW will bring the rest of the world into line with crazy/zany GWOZ/GWNZ price structure.

If everyone was a ripped off as us, there would be noone in the southern hemisphere buying from the US/UK...

If that were true, I think there would be very few people, if at all, buying from GW full stop...

Anyone in the US feel like opening their wallet for the new 3 sepulctural stalker box set (WHFB tomb kings) for $96.15US instead of the current $54.50US that you guys are currently paying?

Kilkrazy wrote:40K is large skirmishes, really. If you want big battle SF you have to play Epic or one of the other 6mm or 15mm systems.

By coincidence this weekend I was searching into scifi wargammes with cool minis at 15mm... I never really was a big fan of this scale, but the convenience of the price and the quality of some manufacturers surprised me a lot.
So far my search took me to Ground zero games, critical mass games, gruntz, Khurasan models... lots of interesting things there and I was wondering if with a little bit of patience the 40k fans could not create some armies in 15mm.
Also since I dont know much about 15mm settings/games / manufacturers what minis and games do you advice? ( I know is a bit offtopic but we have to wait until tomorrow for some clarifications, so a alternative scale of scifigamming could be a lateral chat )

As for rumours, well something is planned at GW, lets hope its for the commodity of their fan base.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Maybe there will be a price rationalisation... MAYBE GW will bring the rest of the world into line with crazy/zany GWOZ/GWNZ price structure.

Please don't jinx the GW announcement! They might find your suggestion reasonable

Kilkrazy wrote:40K is large skirmishes, really. If you want big battle SF you have to play Epic or one of the other 6mm or 15mm systems.

I'd play epic if I could bloody get minis for it.

Even if it happens, it shouldn't change much. Surely someone could buy minis from a stockist then sell them in countries in the southern hemisphere. GW can't stop the individual as they have no agreement with them.

Several companies make 6mm SF models.

There are plenty of old epic models kicking about on ebay too...

Seems too much like shooting yourself in the foot. Even GW isn't that stupid. Are they?

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Anyone in the US feel like opening their wallet for the new 3 sepulctural stalker box set (WHFB tomb kings) for $96.15US instead of the current $54.50US that you guys are currently paying?

At an over 75% price increase, that would end my purchases of GW product... I have a Hordes force and a good group who play it to turn to instead.

I'd still enjoy using my current GW army, but there would be no further purchases from me except in dire circumstances, and then probably second-hand.

And I spend a lot on GW... but obviously that kind of jump is an easy excuse for many customers to stop being customers.

yes, yes they are that stupid.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Anyone in the US feel like opening their wallet for the new 3 sepulctural stalker box set (WHFB tomb kings) for $96.15US instead of the current $54.50US that you guys are currently paying?

Sure, as long as we get your minimum wage as well, which is double ours in the US and it would probably balance out.

Yeah that particular argument doesn't fly. GWOZ prices were not set based on wages, they were set based on exchange rates, and then never updated.

Try again.

It's Monday morning for me. The moment of truth approaches.

NELS1031 wrote:

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Anyone in the US feel like opening their wallet for the new 3 sepulctural stalker box set (WHFB tomb kings) for $96.15US instead of the current $54.50US that you guys are currently paying?

Sure, as long as we get your minimum wage as well, which is double ours in the US and it would probably balance out.

We will give you our minimum wage, if you give us your petrol / food / rent / electronics prices / etc. / etc.

I'm sure inflation in NZ/OZ has made up for the minimum wage difference. I know for a fact from chatting to my mate in AZ that we pay on average twice the price for electronics across the board. We have done a bunch of comparisions and it really appears inflation has caused our minimum wage to be as high as it is. Any less than what is currently and you honestly will be struggling to get by, GW models would be a dream item that you couldn't justify even ordering from over seas.

AesSedai wrote:It's Monday morning for me. The moment of truth approaches.

Im guessing the official anouncement will be made some time during UKs morning, if you guys happen to get news, please feel free to post them.

I am rather interested in what the future of my hobby will be.

I haven't seen this rumour mentioned over on Warseer. Which raises some questions in itself.

I'm still not sure what to think of it. I just want to know wtf is going on... I can't stand to read any more speculation. All it manages to do is irritate, anger and frustrate me. :(

Sectiplave wrote:

NELS1031 wrote:

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Anyone in the US feel like opening their wallet for the new 3 sepulctural stalker box set (WHFB tomb kings) for $96.15US instead of the current $54.50US that you guys are currently paying?

Sure, as long as we get your minimum wage as well, which is double ours in the US and it would probably balance out.

We will give you our minimum wage, if you give us your petrol / food / rent / electronics prices / etc. / etc.

I'm sure inflation in NZ/OZ has made up for the minimum wage difference. I know for a fact from chatting to my mate in AZ that we pay on average twice the price for electronics across the board. We have done a bunch of comparisions and it really appears inflation has caused our minimum wage to be as high as it is. Any less than what is currently and you honestly will be struggling to get by, GW models would be a dream item that you couldn't justify even ordering from over seas.

We pay 200%+ for the same product and the average wage was published las weekend at $600 dollars.

oni wrote:I haven't seen this rumour mentioned over on Warseer.

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=303360

Make friends with UK members?

The Plastic Surgeon wrote:Make friends with UK members?

Worst comes to worst, my brother lives in France

Free shipping is bloody great though, so I'm not sure how much that would add onto orders.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Yeah that particular argument doesn't fly. GWOZ prices were not set based on wages, they were set based on exchange rates, and then never updated.

Try again.

Yes, and the prices that GW charge Australia for their product is no more out of whack then what Apple, Nike, Sony, Microsoft and most car manufacturers charge for their products when compared to US prices. Even with currency parity, you can't always have price parity, due to international shipping, tariff etc. Its complicated micro and macro economics at play.

I contemplated moving to Australia in the early 2000's and the recurring theme was that most goods are just plain more expensive over there, and its a begrudgingly accepted part of life. Why is GW evil or idiotic when they do what practically everyone else does in Australia?

I'm not trying to troll or anything, its just that I don't understand why in a land where its accepted to be paying extra then most of the world for anything, GW's business policy is such an absurdity.

NELS1031 wrote:I'm not trying to troll or anything, its just that I don't understand why in a land where its accepted to be paying extra then most of the world for anything, GW's business policy is such an absurdity.

Commonplace =/= Accepted.

Those Australians who are actually aware of the fact that we pay a huge amount more for stuff than other countries tend to be pretty cranky about it.

NELS1031 wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Yeah that particular argument doesn't fly. GWOZ prices were not set based on wages, they were set based on exchange rates, and then never updated.

Try again.

Yes, and the prices that GW charge Australia for their product is no more out of whack then what Apple, Nike, Sony, Microsoft and most car manufacturers charge for their products when compared to US prices. Even with currency parity, you can't always have price parity, due to international shipping, tariff etc. Its complicated micro and macro economics at play.

I contemplated moving to Australia in the early 2000's and the recurring theme was that most goods are just plain more expensive over there, and its a begrudgingly accepted part of life. Why is GW evil or idiotic when they do what practically everyone else does in Australia?

I'm not trying to troll or anything, its just that I don't understand why in a land where its accepted to be paying extra then most of the world for anything, GW's business policy is such an absurdity.

May be because it is not so accepted as you believe it is?. Just a thought, generally speaking telling someone that they dont think what they think does not usually make for a good argument.

xxvaderxx wrote:May be because it is not so accepted as you believe it is?.

Then where are the large scale boycotts of companies that might be price discriminating? Such as Apple. Their stuff is made in china and shipped from there, yet there is a significant price difference between US and Aus prices even with shipping distances relatively the same, or in Australian favor.

xxvaderxx wrote: Just a thought, generally speaking telling someone that they dont think what they think does not usually make for a good argument.

I think there is a typo in there, or I'm reading it wrong, as I don't quite understand what you are trying to say. Elaborate?

Actually, just PM me. Don't want this thread derailed.

NELS1031 wrote:Then where are the large scale boycotts of companies that might be price discriminating?

There's a fairly wide gulf between being unhappy about something, and being upset enough about it to [a]do without it on principle and [b]put in the effort required to attempt to make a change.


Besides which, I don't think it started specifically as price discriminating. Not so very long ago, our dollar was worth half the US dollar... so everything that was imported (which is most things) was more expensive.

Now that the Oz dollar is going gangbusters, nobody's quite figured out what to do about it, or even whether anything should be done about it or if it's just going to settle itself down again later.

NELS1031 wrote:

xxvaderxx wrote:May be because it is not so accepted as you believe it is?.

Then where are the large scale boycotts of companies that might be price discriminating? Such as Apple. Their stuff is made in china and shipped from there, yet there is a significant price difference between US and Aus prices even with shipping distances relatively the same, or in Australian favor.

What exactly do you call most of a country not buying local hiked prices? there is a reason GW is pulling this, its to brake the boycot you are asking for.

insaniak wrote:

NELS1031 wrote:Then where are the large scale boycotts of companies that might be price discriminating?

There's a fairly wide gulf between being unhappy about something, and being upset enough about it to [a]do without it on principle and [b]put in the effort required to attempt to make a change.


Besides which, I don't think it started specifically as price discriminating. Not so very long ago, our dollar was worth half the US dollar... so everything that was imported (which is most things) was more expensive.

Now that the Oz dollar is going gangbusters, nobody's quite figured out what to do about it, or even whether anything should be done about it or if it's just going to settle itself down again later.

There was a big furore over it recently wasn't there? When Gerry Harvey started complaining that Internet retailers were wrecking his business and he formed some sort of alliance with other retailers to try and convince the public that Internet Retailing had to go, inadvertently actually making the public aware of just how big the disparity was?

In fact it became quite a big issue for a while and then just died down.
But the common consensus was that after being price gouged for years people wanted the prices to drop, because even when our dollar wasn't as strong as it is now, we were still paying ridiculous prices.
Kinda fell to the wayside after the floods though,so I gues the retailers just wanted the issue to drop so they could keep continuing with their current practices.

Living in nz I am in te same boat as mu oz brothers. The other big 100-200% mark up here is games (PC, ps3...). I haven't sat down and worked it out but more than half my partners and my disposable income goes overseas. And most of our electronic items are imported as well. I never saw this as a boycott, we just make our money go as far as possible. If prices where within 10% of the uk we would buy locally again.

As would I deepeyes, as would most of those people buying from overseas.

Asuron wrote:
There was a big furore over it recently wasn't there? When Gerry Harvey started complaining that Internet retailers were wrecking his business and he formed some sort of alliance with other retailers to try and convince the public that Internet Retailing had to go, inadvertently actually making the public aware of just how big the disparity was?

In fact it became quite a big issue for a while and then just died down.
But the common consensus was that after being price gouged for years people wanted the prices to drop, because even when our dollar wasn't as strong as it is now, we were still paying ridiculous prices.
Kinda fell to the wayside after the floods though,so I gues the retailers just wanted the issue to drop so they could keep continuing with their current practices.

Gerry Harvey is a rip off witch who was whinging ebcause poeple had stopped buying his overpriced gak. A lot of other retailers distanced themselves from the dill weed who described avoiding taxes by buying o/s as "UnAustralian".

the fact is that even if you had added the 10% gst (same applies for GW stuff) buying from o/s is still significantly cheaper than buying local in a lot of instances.

I dont buy armies to play, i just paint, so if GW want to be witches and go through with this rumour i can boycott their stuff and not be affected, i feel for those who have already spent hundreds, if not thousands building their armeis and playing their game.

whats interesting to me is that Forge World (as yet) dont discriminate becuase you buy something from o/s, the price is the same no matter where you are

This wouldn't stop me playing 40k, nor my friends, as none of them buy online and I've only recently started looking at it. In our gaming group, honestly, I'd only be affected since I was planning on buying a new Fantasy army. Seeing as I can get it from Wayland games for about 50% of the price, I would have bought the start of it from there and then bought from my FLGS for the rest.

All this means is I'll be collecting my Vampire Counts a lot slower.

Special 'meeting' in some GW stores today (about this? hmm).

What i undestand is that GW will stop supplying indies that refuse to tow the GW line.

So if Maelstrom or Wayland decide that they won't tow the GW line they are dropped as customers and thus they no longer sell GW products.

Achaylus72 wrote:What i undestand is that GW will stop supplying indies that refuse to tow the GW line.

So if Maelstrom or Wayland decide that they won't tow the GW line they are dropped as customers and thus they no longer sell GW products.

Welcome to Dakka,

Pretty much that is one possible way it might go. However we are all waiting for the report today with should shed some light as to what is actualy happening, for reals.

when are we going to get the announcement? Nothing on the website as of yet, at 11:23pm AEST, which is 2:23pm GMT.

What BS! i would buy probably 20% of what i do now if this ever happened.

Or just start a different wargame.

ChocolateGork wrote:What BS! i would buy probably 20% of what i do now if this ever happened.

Or just start a different wargame.

I know what you mean. Though US retailers may still be available, and considering how well the AUD is doing against the dollar ATM, it may be worth it.

But if not, then my planned IG and DE army go down the drain, as does my new Tomb Kings army.

*IF* this is true it is possibly the most idiotic business decisions I have ever heard GW make, and they have made some stinkers in the past. If they do this they may as well write off the entire southern hemisphere market segment completely.

L. Wrex

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/369106.page#2806527

Meetings weren't about this, seems they were about the resin rumours. Oh, and the models transfered over got a nice 10-15% price rise too. Thats on UK prices, not sure how Aus will weather it.

Vain wrote:

Achaylus72 wrote:What i undestand is that GW will stop supplying indies that refuse to tow the GW line.

So if Maelstrom or Wayland decide that they won't tow the GW line they are dropped as customers and thus they no longer sell GW products.

Welcome to Dakka,

Pretty much that is one possible way it might go. However we are all waiting for the report today with should shed some light as to what is actualy happening, for reals.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I once spoke to a person in GW Australia Management as he was visiting one of the local stores in my extended area and i asked him why GW sells stuff here in Australia at 45% more than Europe and US and he arrogantly smiled at me and said, "Because we can". So that it is in a nutshell.

Maelstrom/Wayland are my option, i can't support the local shelf price, i refuse to blatantly ripped off by an arrogant organization such as GW Australia.

Case in point with the current value of the Aussie Dollar i bought two Chaos Space Marines Battleforces at Maelstrom at $148 Australian Dollars (with free delivery), while a single Chaos Space Marine Battleforce at GW is $150 Au shelf price, if you include the cost of travel that is a further $12.50 making it $162.50.


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Homunkulus wrote:http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/369106.page#2806527

Meetings weren't about this, seems they were about the resin rumours. Oh, and the models transfered over got a nice 10-15% price rise too. Thats on UK prices, not sure how Aus will weather it.

Probably in accordance to GW Australia policy most likely a 30% rise, May is traditionally the Price hike season for GW Australia.

Achaylus72 wrote:I once spoke to a person in GW Australia Management as he was visiting one of the local stores in my extended area and i asked him why GW sells stuff here in Australia at 45% more than Europe and US and he arrogantly smiled at me and said, "Because we can". So that it is in a nutshell.

Sadly that is the case for a lot of our luxury and recreational things, specifically our man dollies and video games. Here is the same bitch from a videogame perspective http://games.on.net/article/12462/Get_Off_My_Lawn_Aussie_Game_Prices

Embargo confirmed:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5513351&postcount=180

Guys,
I've just received word from Games Workshop that I am ok to talk about the new changes.

I'm afraid it is bad news. This is all you need to know in a nutshell: independent retailers supplied from GW Northern Europe cannot sell GW products outside the EU, plus countries like Norway and Switzerland. I will be posting a list of all the countries we will be allowed to sell GW products to on a news article on our website shortly.

I will refrain from commenting about GW's decision, but suffice to say that I am very sad for all of you Rest of the World customers - and for our own business, of course. However, we're offering you an 18% off UK RRP voucher for all Games Workshop products until the 30th of May - check out our webstore for details.

I would like to thank you all for your support, now and in the future. And remember - the wargaming world does not revolve around Games Workshop's products, so I'll still be seeing you all for our very own BaneLegions as well as Hordes and Warmachine and suchlike!

Cheers

Rob Lane
MD, Maelstrom Games


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Bloody hell Baragash, how did you beat me that quickly!

I can imagine that Wayland and Maelstrom are quietly fuming right now. No idea what the percentage volume of their sales that Australasia makes up but I assume its not insignificant.

I'm not usually one for bold sweeping statements but in this case I feel it is justified, combined with the thinly veiled resin price rises. Well, feth GW and feth their strategy. I'm done with them. Completely. No more. And quite frankly, I imagine I won't be alone. They really are incompetent.

Wow... Way to pull the pin on a live grenade and then not throw it.

Welp, Mantic sure has my undivided attention now! And lots of other suppliers. If this is the way GW thinks they can operate, they can get stuffed.

Will definitely be buying through Maelstrom in the future though. They're still fantastic value for myself and my friends. And he's right, the Banelegions stuff is awesome.

Maelstrom Games wrote:Guys,
I've just received word from Games Workshop that I am ok to talk about the new changes.

I'm afraid it is bad news. This is all you need to know in a nutshell: independent retailers supplied from GW Northern Europe cannot sell GW products outside the EU, plus countries like Norway and Switzerland. I will be posting a list of all the countries we will be allowed to sell GW products to on a news article on our website shortly.

I will refrain from commenting about GW's decision, but suffice to say that I am very sad for all of you Rest of the World customers - and for our own business, of course. However, we're offering you an 18% off UK RRP voucher for all Games Workshop products until the 30th of May - check out our webstore for details.

I would like to thank you all for your support, now and in the future. And remember - the wargaming world does not revolve around Games Workshop's products, so I'll still be seeing you all for our very own BaneLegions as well as Hordes and Warmachine and suchlike!

Cheers

Rob Lane
MD, Maelstrom Games

Please say you at least brought up the fact that the Oceanic gamers are paying prices that were set during an inflated exchange rate during your conversations with GW?

This wasn't a case of people just bargainhunting for the best prices. This was a case of people are royally(no pun intended) boned simply because of the stupidity of setting prices during an exchange boom.

You gotta be kidding me. Screw this, I'm outta here until GW gets their head out of their ass. I'm just going to finish off what I have already, then switch over to Warmahordes. If they ever decide to lower prices, gimme a call, then we'll talk.

Are GW trying to go under while wanting PP to out-profit them?

OPk I just saw the post Maelstromgames put in their website. Counrtries that will say goodbye to Maelstrom: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - as well as those from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

I´m from Brazil, Maelstrom and Wayland are my choice, thanks a lot GW.

Just a quick note, there are loads of UK mail forwarding companies which will give you a UK address, then will send on to any where in the world for a moderate cost. Obviously it is an increase in prices over free, but it would still work out cheaper for aussies and similar places with crazy price discrepancies. If anything, using one with one of the online distributors would lead to a pretty penny to be made on ebay now! (enough to pay for more models anyway).

Google 'UK forwarding address' for more info and some of the providers.

Well I'm sorry to hear about this. I only went to Maelstrom for GW stuff, as a FLGS opened here and it's either support that or go back to GWs only.

I hope they realise that this is a rather stupid idea so I can continue business soon.

All GW will get out of me until this is gone or the prices are sane is a $25 gift certificate, as they don't seem to believe in refunds. >_>

No doubt my friend will be mad, as he was a Tyranid player waiting for that second wave to come and already seemed bordering on just forgetting about it.

This is probably a silly question but... the war store is fine, right? They'll still ship to me in Canada, right?

At some point, people are going to say enough is enough and move their recreational dollars onto another product. Whilst this doesn't affect me it does leave a rather bad taste in my mouth.

I won't through out a grand "never buying from GW ever again" but prices and practices have severely curtailed my purchases. I only top up my Dark Elf and Ogre army now and have stopped playing 40k. Buy the occasional piece of scenery they release and that is about it. I had moved on to FOW, but BF are just as big a bunch of dicks as GW.

GW prices are now set where I think about what I buy and as I usually don't need what I pick up thinking about it causes me not to buy it. For example, wanted a pack of GK but 5 for $33 - nope, not doing that. Got tempted with GK Terms for that banner but no on $50 either.

Haven't started a new army in 3 years and don't see myself starting anytime soon. Won't happen unless something changes in management attitudes and that change isn't coming ever!

I am 42 with a high disposable income but as I am not the target my opinion and lack of purchasing won't count for anything.

Been looking at Everblight but dear god, can someone tell Werner Klock that not all elf woman need to sculpted with huge boobs, plunging cleavage and no armor in vital areas of the body.

I expected it, but now that it has happened, I'm even more incensed than I expected. I'm really sorry for Maelstrom (and Wayland who I hear are also good). I like to reward businesses that I feel give me good value with my money. Seems the Evil Empire doesn't want me to be able to do that. So I'm going to drop my full gaming budget for the year this month with Maelstrom, taking advantage of the gracious 18% discount. Then I'm going to figure out how I can best continue this hobby. After that, I am going to make it a priority to actively try to undermine GW's business in Japan by letting absolutely ever GW hobbyist I come across know about any alternatives I find. No more playing nice. I enjoy the models GW, and we have history but I don't think I can be in this relationship anymore.

I am looking forward to seeing how this brings the community together.

So, Maelstrom is not allowed to sell anywhere outside the EU anymore? this seems to be aimed at completely controlling online commerce on GW's part, not just screwing over the southern hemisphere. They don't deserve to get away with this, but they will.

(please note i have not read the entire thread)


I live in the southern hemisphere, and i want to know, what does this mean for online retailers based in the soutrhern hemisphere, and third party retail stores(like my comic store)?

Are they going to? if so, my new hobby just got removed...

Obsidian Raven wrote:(please note i have not read the entire thread)


I live in the southern hemisphere, and i want to know, what does this mean for online retailers based in the soutrhern hemisphere, and third party retail stores(like my comic store)?

Are they going to? if so, my new hobby just got removed...

No.

This is GW attempting to implement 'regional sales' and deal with the elephant in the room that is nobody buying from GWOZ(which likely won't happen unless they drop their prices) in the same stroke.

Obsidian Raven wrote:(please note i have not read the entire thread)


I live in the southern hemisphere, and i want to know, what does this mean for online retailers based in the soutrhern hemisphere, and third party retail stores(like my comic store)?

Are they going to? if so, my new hobby just got removed...

Pretty much nothing. This only affects you if you're outside of Europe and you order from stores in Europe. If you buy locally, this won't mean anything other than not allowing you to order from Europe directly in the future.

Obsidian Raven wrote:(please note i have not read the entire thread)


I live in the southern hemisphere, and i want to know, what does this mean for online retailers based in the soutrhern hemisphere, and third party retail stores(like my comic store)?

Are they going to? if so, my new hobby just got removed...

Nope, they just seem to be market restricting, probably because FLGS's in Auz and NZ have got fed up with being undercut by online retailers, which seems fair to me.

Agamemnon2 wrote:So, Maelstrom is not allowed to sell anywhere outside the EU anymore? this seems to be aimed at completely controlling online commerce on GW's part, not just screwing over the southern hemisphere. They don't deserve to get away with this, but they will.

Of-course they won't get away with it, this is obviously the final straw for many people - you are always far to cynical and just don't understand the passion for fair play that many GW gamers have. There will be a big shift to other games - PP, FOW Infinity will see a huge influx of gamers and therefore money that will allow them to increase their line up an improve casting. Already eBay prices for metal confrontation prices have risen based on this news and I have had 4 requests to start playing C3 again. Maybe even Rackham can phoenix out of the ashes - always loved those pre-painted models.

But as i have pointed out before, GW Australia is now in a position to begin to slam prices through the roof and we in Australia and those affected countries can not do a damn thing.

I expect that within the next 12 months that GW prices will rise exponentialy at least 30%. It is a sad day for all.

No not FLGS, GW OZ.
Though one of the close GWs I would consider a FLGS the other is quite the opposite.

Achaylus72 wrote:But as i have pointed out before, GW Australia is now in a position to begin to slam prices through the roof and we in Australia and those affected countries can not do a damn thing.

I expect that within the next 12 months that GW prices will rise exponentialy at least 30%. It is a sad day for all.

Don't buy then, I still have a catalogue/WD (though they did have how to build terrain and conversion articles) from 2005, it's depressing to see the prices in there at times compared to the current.

Land Raider was only $85 back then, whereas it's now at the nice price of $103.

Maelstrom Games wrote:Guys,
And remember - the wargaming world does not revolve around Games Workshop's products, so I'll still be seeing you all for our very own BaneLegions as well as Hordes and Warmachine

End of the day that is correct.....bet a few company's e.g. PP are popping corks tho

Achaylus72 wrote:But as i have pointed out before, GW Australia is now in a position to begin to slam prices through the roof and we in Australia and those affected countries can not do a damn thing.

You didn't "point out" anything. You posted an anecdote that doesn't sound remotely feasible and more like a charicture of a supervillain running GWOZ more than making a point.

fullheadofhair wrote:

Agamemnon2 wrote:So, Maelstrom is not allowed to sell anywhere outside the EU anymore? this seems to be aimed at completely controlling online commerce on GW's part, not just screwing over the southern hemisphere. They don't deserve to get away with this, but they will.

Of-course they won't get away with it, this is obviously the final straw for many people - you are always far to cynical and just don't understand the passion for fair play that many GW gamers have. There will be a big shift to other games - PP, FOW Infinity will see a huge influx of gamers and therefore money that will allow them to increase their line up an improve casting. Already eBay prices for metal confrontation prices have risen based on this news and I have had 4 requests to start playing C3 again. Maybe even Rackham can phoenix out of the ashes - always loved those pre-painted models.

I can't tell if you're being serious. The Rackham part at the end is most throwing me off.

fullheadofhair wrote:
Been looking at Everblight but dear god, can someone tell Werner Klock that not all elf woman need to sculpted with huge boobs, plunging cleavage and no armor in vital areas of the body.

Once again, I don't think you are the target demographic here either...

As for GW retail practices: I have played GW games for close to two decades, and have produced a second generation of consumers in my two sons.

I haven't payed full retail for GW in many years.

The closes "LGS" is 45 minutes each way.

If they banned all on-line sales I would be done with GW as I can't see myself going back to paying full retail and thus so would my sons be done.

GW would be losing many thousands of dollars of sales a week i would think.

Do they really think they can make up for this loss? Do they think most of these people will start paying full retail?

What about those with no local GW or LGS who would be effectively kicked out of the hobby?

Bad bad idea GW...

Achaylus72 wrote:But as i have pointed out before, GW Australia is now in a position to begin to slam prices through the roof and we in Australia and those affected countries can not do a damn thing.

...you could stop buying GW miniatures?

Or use other methods to get around this restriction. A few have been posted in this thread.

I know my case is very different from the majority here, but I buy from Maelstrom AND Wayland because they have free shipping and discount. There is not a single store in Brazil (used to have but charging 3 times the value of the product, do the math). There is a store in Chile that when I got in touch they said to buy from maelstron because it was difficult for them to sell outside the country... anyway.... My scenario is buy from GW or other store that do not have the good policy os Maelstrom AND Wayland...

What a pain in the @ss... What a ridiculous act.

I am not against the models the background the rules etc, but this wqas the last straw...

[Achaylus72]...those affected countries can not do a damn thing.

Look into the "UK forwarding address" per Legoburner's comment.

Paul wrote:Nope, they just seem to be market restricting, probably because FLGS's in Auz and NZ have got fed up with being undercut by online retailers, which seems fair to me.

Or would be if GW's prices weren't so completely screwed up. If GW were to change around the pricing structure I could see the sense, but as it is? Nope, completely borked.

Not sure how this works out cheaper.

When buying from UK resellers a small amount at a time, then having to pay the shipping cost of having it sent to places like Australia and works out cheaper than buying it from local resellers who would be getting goods from the UK in bulk. (Maybe even cheaper if it's coming from a factory closer by.)

This is me assuming there are resellers in the southern hemisphere too. Does GW not sell their stuff to resellers down there?

GW sells to resellers at nearly half the price they sell in store within the UK. There shouldn't be a great difference for southern resellers forcing them to sell it so expenisvely should there?

It'd be interesting to see how much it costs for southern H resellers to buy from GW (if they do at all)

... unless some gamers refuse to continue to be the sheep they are all i see is GW getting their lost sales back by charging the few who buy exorbitant prices

i really hate to be the cynic here but history has taught us that people will keep buying GW.

Well I just put a largish order through Wayland games and will do another one at the end of the month (get what I can now) and that should be my army built (a hell of a lot sooner than I wanted to). I only got into 40k in January and even I felt as if GW has done nothing but slap me in the face at every turn since I decided to play the game.

The FLGS are being undercut because the prices are just not reasonable (not their fault). Banning us from online retailers isn't going to fix the problem.

What ever. I have friends in the UK. I'm not going to be dictated by GW to pay their overly inflated prices.

Not likely to see any companies breaking this embargo are we ?

I've been playing GW games since 1997 and have always enjoyed their games and models. I've branched out to other systems over the years and have been playing WM/H a lot recently. I've always stuck by GW even as their prices skyrocketed, I just bought less.

Even though I live in America, and almost all of my purchases are at my FLGS, this news bothers me much more than I thought it would. Now I'm not going to go crazy and say I'm done with GW or anything like that, but I do think it's time to box up my GW stuff and put it in storage for a long while and wait to see if sanity returns to the company. For now I'll concentrate on PP's products, and it's a good time as a new expansion is coming out for WM and one in the pipeline for Hordes. Maybe I'll try out some other new systems too.

Maybe GW will get some sanity back some day. :(

Achaylus72 wrote:But as i have pointed out before, GW Australia is now in a position to begin to slam prices through the roof and we in Australia and those affected countries can not do a damn thing.

I expect that within the next 12 months that GW prices will rise exponentialy at least 30%. It is a sad day for all.

Sure you can. Don't buy from them any more.

So GW is mad at non-GW retailers because it isn't pricing its products competitively and they are?

What a shocker.

I liked someone's plan of an eBay store and some sweet OZ discounting...

Any one got a US online store that ships international? i am not paying local prices, if i can not get US/UK $ then that is it for the hobby i guess.

xxvaderxx wrote:Any one got a US online store that ships international? i am not paying local prices, if i can not get US/UK $ then that is it for the hobby i guess.

http://www.thewarstore.com/
http://miniaturemarket.com/
http://battleroadgames.com/

Okay, now that this action has been taken by GW, who are the winners and losers

Let us start with the winners………………………(cricket heard chirping in the background)

Okay, now the losers

European retailers – Just had GW artificially slash their income at the whip of a pen with nothing to offset the loss of income either in the short term or long term. What a way to screw over your best retailers GW and what a great message to send to the entire retail chain.

Non-European retailers – May see some increase, but won’t get the large groundswell of new customers as pricing and general dissatisfaction from GW dictating who and where your customers can buy from and not addressing the real root cause will drive off people. Furthermore, if those local stores were also sourcing their product from outside their region, they just found out they are now restricted to local distributor as well thus likely cutting into their margins such as they were.

GW – Making it harder for your customers to buy stuff, restricting consumer choice, and making your product much more expensive and not addressing the root cause only gets you bad PR, lower sales, and lower profits. Sure, you will get better margin on each box sold, but you well sell fewer boxes overall, resulting in lower revenue.

Customers – fewer choices, higher prices. Nuff said.

So there you have it. Nobody is a winner.

Instead of addressing the root cause (pricing way out of line with long trending exchange rates) and adapting to the realities of the global economy, GW instead has tried to turn back the clock and resort to outright pricing fixing through restrictive trade practices. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb………

Has there been any supporting evidence provided on any of this yet? From page one this sounded anecdotal and I'm not sure anything has changed 10 pages later.

And as an ignorant american, can you explain just why the Australian prices are so inflated? Is there a fee GW is passing onto the consumers for exporting to AUS?

Nvs wrote:Has there been any supporting evidence provided on any of this yet? From page one this sounded anecdotal and I'm not sure anything has changed 10 pages later.

Maelstrom has confirmed that they can as of May 31st no longer ship to outside of the European Union(nor to Norway and Switzerland).

And as an ignorant american, can you explain just why the Australian prices are so inflated? Is there a fee GW is passing onto the consumers for exporting to AUS?

Because many prices for many goods in Australia were set during a timeframe when the AUD was trending high in the exchange rates.

It no longer is, and goods were not changed to reflect that.

Time to say goodbye GW!

ps. its not southern hemisphere, its everyone not living in EU\USA
pps. and Russian GW "Distributor" sell only Boxed product, no blisters...

Nvs wrote:Has there been any supporting evidence provided on any of this yet? From page one this sounded anecdotal and I'm not sure anything has changed 10 pages later.

European retailer confirmed the new trade terms (see post somewhere on page 8 IIRC).

Nvs wrote:And as an ignorant american, can you explain just why the Australian prices are so inflated? Is there a fee GW is passing onto the consumers for exporting to AUS?

Hate to the answer a question with a question, but explain to me how a customer in Australia or anywhere outside of Europe can order a relatively small amount of product, have it shipped thousands of miles via a carton carrier for substantially less than what they can purchase the same product at a local retailer?

Obviously they shouldn’t, unless of course the manufacturer has artificially inflated their prices on the incorrect assumption that people are idiots ard would never, ever use the internet to source products but instead would always slavishly buy from the local retailer, regardless of the price.

Well, looks like I'm going to be only buying GW products when I'm in the UK now. Suddenly studying abroad has proven a major good thing.

Its 2:40 am in Oz so it'll be a while before this thread goes off.

I love how this will do nothing though.

Nice one legoburner on that UK forwarding address, I imagine that will become a popular option.

I had some purchases in mind for about 6months from now.. Don't know if I can personally be bothered with the forwarding address thing. But maybe one of these things will become recommended like maelstrom was.


Edit: This embargo or whatever doesn't affect the US though does it. So Aussies/kiwis could just by form US stores right?

Jeeze, what to do? Finish off my DE army, or jump ship now and sink money into PP (already spending "heavily on Infinity )......

PP here I come

Thing is I'm looking at Australia as a place I may move to work. I don't buy much GW anyway, so would probably get stuff on eBay or ask my parents to buy it.

Australian house prices/rent is insane though. What the hell's wrong with the place? Other than that, having a BBQ for christmas seems ok and the wife is coming around to the idea of living in a place with spiders.