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Popped into my local GW this lunchtime to pick up some paints. Whilst there, I figured I'd grab a blister or two of razorwings for my DE. Seeing none, I enquired of the friendly blueshirt, only to be told that GW shops no longer stocked any metal blisters, as 'they're all being replaced with Finecast'. I asked when the Finecast razorwings would be available to purchase and she said she didn't know and that I'd have to keep checking the website. If my need was urgent, I could order them online and have them delivered.

I find this a strange policy for a couple of reasons:

1) Why remove existing stock from sale when replacements aren't yet available? How much are they losing in impulse buys from shop customers?
2) If my only option was to order the blisters I need online, there are several places I'd order from before GW.

Am I missing something, or is this a really dumb policy?

Thats pretty dumb, should just keep getting them until they are made in fincast.

Many shops do not stock much in the way of metal blisters.

This is not news. Does your GW not have a point of sale terminal where you can select the Razorwings to order them?

"Global retail logistics are more complicated than a local man believed. More at 11!"

Kanluwen wrote: This is not news.

Which is why I posted it in General Discussions.

Kanluwen wrote: Does your GW not have a point of sale terminal where you can select the Razorwings to order them?

It does, but I refer you back to point 2.

Polonius wrote:"Global retail logistics are more complicated than a local man believed. More at 11!"

Indeed - that's why I was appealing for enlightenment!

1.) It is true that it is difficult or impossible to buy legal armies in GW stores without special orders for most armies. Makes no sense, but hey.
2.) Some items are recast in Finecast, but which ones is top secret and only revealed to staff (no hint in WD).
3.) Metal blisters are GW mail order only but I don't think that you can get them from other online stores once the old stock is depleted.

GW is crazy, best to not question it, and accept it.

I feel your pain. It used to be my local independent shop kept a nice stock of everything, there is less and less now...and even when I was willing to order it through the store, the list the store can order from is also limited...WTF...(I have been away for a while and am just getting back into the game)....I ended up ordering almost all my missing Guard army models from GW Mailorder. I think this is there way of strangling out the independent retailers all in the name of IP..or whatever.

I love GW games, I just hate that they are killing my local store and propping up these 1 trick pony hobby center/battle bunkers. This nonsense with the metal blisters and fine-cast also reeks of more shenanigans.
Not much you can do but roll with it, lucky for them it's a great game and hobby.

Perhaps an independent will have them on the shelves if you don't want to go online.

Howard A Treesong wrote:Perhaps an independent will have them on the shelves if you don't want to go online.

Not so, the lists (in the US anyway) that independent retailers are allowed to order from are limited. I wanted a box of Kasrkins and would have ordered it through my local shop since they didn't have any, but they told me it was a GW Mailorder only item. Not sure if that also applied to the hobby centers/battle bunkers. Maybe its because it was a metal item....who knows...

I mail ordered mine

Not seeing the problem here?

Howard A Treesong wrote:Perhaps an independent will have them on the shelves if you don't want to go online.

Aye - if I hustle, I can make it to a decent shop and back on my lunch break. It just seemed silly to me that GW is losing the chance to cash in on impulse buyers by removing entire lines from their stores because - someday - there will be Finecast replacements.

bombboy1252 wrote:GW is crazy, best to not question it, and accept it.

GW is at the cutting edge of business management using Fuzzy Illogic upon which to base their indecisions.

Mr Mystery wrote:I mail ordered mine

Not seeing the problem here?

I think the difference would be getting your item say today versus a week later. In the past you could get your item in a store, that very day, now you have to wait for the mail order trolls. So its not a problem unless you like inconveniencing your customers more than you used to. Most companies look to make these kinds of purchases more convenient, but I guess if you're say...GW, you can completely flip that around...because well you're GW!?!

And now this sort of ties in nicely with the fuzzy illogic of indecision above....

In the past, many stores didn't stock full ranges of metals either. Quite a few items (bits, certain metal figures, and the like) still had to be mail-ordered. The only difference was that you didn't submit the order via the webform, you talked to the shop owner or employees to do it.

I'm not seeing how that's different compared to having to get a book special-ordered(three of the Osprey books I like for painting resources had to be ordered...by Borders, of all places).

Kanluwen wrote:In the past, many stores didn't stock full ranges of metals either. Quite a few items (bits, certain metal figures, and the like) still had to be mail-ordered. The only difference was that you didn't submit the order via the webform, you talked to the shop owner or employees to do it.

I'm not seeing how that's different compared to having to get a book special-ordered(three of the Osprey books I like for painting resources had to be ordered...by Borders, of all places).

I think they used to carry much more in stock than they do now, just my 2. I remember when local stores had entire wall spaces dedicated to GW, now its a tiny corner which also includes LoTR. The army boxes are also much smaller. I think mail ordering was more the exception, than the rule then, with what I have seen in stores lately there is no reason to even bother going retail, just plan for a week delivery time and order everything online.

I think the interaction with the local store owner/employees back then added more to the gaming community.

Mr Mystery wrote:I mail ordered mine

Not seeing the problem here?

By giving me time to think about ordering a product, by delaying my purchase, you are letting me remember all the other responsibilities and expenses in my life. I cant count the number of times I dropped into a GWS to make a quick purchase, if it was on the shelf I bought it, if it had to be ordered I thought about if I really needed it or not and typically walked away without pulling out my wallet.

Bah. Its stuff like this that made me quit GW in the first place. I guess more people will have to do more conversions now to make a legal army.

My local GW store also no longer stocks any metal blisters at all. They do try to sell them to you though. If they find out you are interested in something that only comes in a metal blister they will attempt to special order it for you from the website through the store's account.

I think they want to put less blisters in a shop to reduce the potential for losses through shop lifting. It probably wasn't such a problem in the days when a tiny blister pack wasn't £14, but now you'd have a shop full of tiny things worth a load of money.

That's where you go to your FLGS because it's a given that most likely they have a good stock of metals left over. Personally I have a ton now set aside for my store because I know people will still want the models.

GW made the announcement months ago that they were abandoning metal and moving totally to plastic and resin. I haven't been able to order metal models through trade sales for months. (Some of the reasons behind this move are the same as why Privateer and Battlefront are also moving away from metal. A 400% increase in metal cost in 5 years with no end in sight being the main one)

I can order metal models from the GW website, getting a bit smaller discount than normal. I still order in melta and plasma gun bitz packs, special characters, etc to fill the shelves. Hopefully more and more models become recast in finecast resin, or new plastic models become available.

A pain to not have a complete line of models in, and something many retailers need to adapt to. Certainly not something new, it's been going on for some time now.

Empchild wrote:That's where you go to your FLGS because it's a given that most likely they have a good stock of metals left over. Personally I have a ton now set aside for my store because I know people will still want the models.

I wish my FLGS still carried metal, but alas they do not. Now I'm in the awkward position of needing exactly one Fiend of Slaanesh. With shipping it'll be $30 to order directly from GW. That's a dollar a point. (BOOOO.)

Hang on hang on hang on I think everyone is missing the point...

Necroagogo wrote:she said she didn't know

Since when the hell has a GW store had a female employee???!?!?! I've seen female gamers, but never a female blueshirt.

Anyway on topic. It does sound a bit counter intuitive to not have metal blisters there anymore. Most of my impulse buys are the blisters. If Howard is correct and its due to theft then the staff need to keep a sharper eye on their "customers" imo. I once stepped out of a store to get better reception on my mobile so i could make a call, what i didnt realise was that i still had a blister pack in my hand. I had no intention of stealing it but when i very sheepishly walked back in and put it back on the shelf one of the staffers noticed me and made a comment about how he didnt think i was going to steal it which is why he didnt call sercurity.

candy.man wrote:Bah. Its stuff like this that made me quit GW in the first place. I guess more people will have to do more conversions now to make a legal army.

Yep. My last attempt to get back into GW pretty much died a quick, gurgling death when basic components for my beastman army had to be special ordered because my store didn't think having army generals in stock was necessary. "I'm sorry we don't have the miniatures our game requires you to have to make a valid beastman army. Since you couldn't buy a general today, would you like to buy a river troll instead?"

I've been trying to buy snikrot from my FLGS for over a month. They can't get him.

Mannahnin wrote:I've been trying to buy snikrot from my FLGS for over a month. They can't get him.

You're like the HBO mini-series kid on Christmas who keeps asking for a toy that's out of the family's budget.

Don't worry, Mannahnin! Just keep wishing!

If the Finecast razorwings (and other beasts) aren't cheaper than the metal models then that'll be an even bigger fail than just pulling them off the shelves in my opinion. Building a beastmaster unit, just one, is so prohibitively expensive I immediately put the idea out of my head when I saw the prices for the metals when they first came out.

R3con wrote:

Mr Mystery wrote:I mail ordered mine

Not seeing the problem here?

By giving me time to think about ordering a product, by delaying my purchase, you are letting me remember all the other responsibilities and expenses in my life. I cant count the number of times I dropped into a GWS to make a quick purchase, if it was on the shelf I bought it, if it had to be ordered I thought about if I really needed it or not and typically walked away without pulling out my wallet.

Actuallly, a skilled salesperson can get you on the terminal, and picking up more than you intended with shinyitis.

But the way people are going on this, you'd think you weren't at all able to get the 'missing' blisters.

Brother Azul wrote:Hang on hang on hang on I think everyone is missing the point...

Necroagogo wrote:she said she didn't know

Since when the hell has a GW store had a female employee???!?!?! I've seen female gamers, but never a female blueshirt.

Anyway on topic. It does sound a bit counter intuitive to not have metal blisters there anymore. Most of my impulse buys are the blisters. If Howard is correct and its due to theft then the staff need to keep a sharper eye on their "customers" imo. I once stepped out of a store to get better reception on my mobile so i could make a call, what i didnt realise was that i still had a blister pack in my hand. I had no intention of stealing it but when i very sheepishly walked back in and put it back on the shelf one of the staffers noticed me and made a comment about how he didnt think i was going to steal it which is why he didnt call sercurity.

Seen a woman working in GW in one of the London stores

But on topic, perhaps they are gradually doing this shift to resin simply to use up what metal they have already bought?