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We all now that GW products are a bit.... expansive. Many theories go around about why it is so, some seems credible, other don't, etc. However this isn't the subject of this thread. The subject is about how much do you think GW should reduce (or augment if you think so) their prices (overall and/or for some pieces). So give your opinion, everyone is welcome to do so.

0%, even if they should reduce prices they should do it by not raising it despite inflation.

Nice unbiased poll.
GW doesn't need to reduce prices until their sales fall substantially so i'm going to go reduce 0%.
What i would do have some incentive to by direct from them, i've bought exactly 1 thing from a gw store, everything else i've gotten from LGS's at a discount. so... incentive of some sort might be to their benefit.
If i was in their postion, i wouldn't reduce it because i wouldn't have to. What i would do is stop increasing the prices, inflation is one thing, but still...

Why should they? People are willing to pay for 5 Space Marines for 35-40 bucks, why Change it? I think they shouldn't try to push and see HOW much someone is willing to pay for 5 Space Marines by raising the prices anymore, but as of right now I am more than happy to drop 30-60 bucks on their stuff.

Sorry, but I agree with the others - 0%. I don't know anyone - literally - who has given up 40k because of the price rises. Most people continue to purchase GW products regardless.
However, that isn't an excuse for GW to raise their prices (although I know they're using it as one).

While I mostly agree with the previous posters, and am all for companies setting their price to whatever the market will bear, I do wonder about the entry cost, and the effects it has on growing their customer base.

When new players can't start playing for under 200$ (realistically not for under 400$) I worry they are scaring away new customers. I know quite a few people who are really interested in 40k but are unwilling to start because of that hurdle.

For the established player I don't think the prices are so bad. 50$ a month is what it usually comes down to, and that isn't so bad for a hobby.

I don't think the solution is necessarily lowering prices. Starter kits that actually contain a full army. Lower point game types with more fleshed out rules.

They are just lacking that "gateway", a way to get new players hooked fast. Personally I got involved by playing kill team which required only 10 models, but it took me years after that to get enough troops together for a real match. And kill team rules aren't in the main rule book these days (not sure if they used to be). And there is little middle ground.

tl;dr, I think the barrier to entry might be too high, not necessarily the prices per model. There are numerous ways they could overcome this.

riplikash wrote:While I mostly agree with the previous posters, and am all for companies setting their price to whatever the market will bear, I do wonder about the entry cost, and the effects it has on growing their customer base.

When new players can't start playing for under 200$ (realistically not for under 400$) I worry they are scaring away new customers. I know quite a few people who are really interested in 40k but are unwilling to start because of that hurdle.

For the established player I don't think the prices are so bad. 50$ a month is what it usually comes down to, and that isn't so bad for a hobby.

I don't think the solution is necessarily lowering prices. Starter kits that actually contain a full army. Lower point game types with more fleshed out rules.

They are just lacking that "gateway", a way to get new players hooked fast. Personally I got involved by playing kill team which required only 10 models, but it took me years after that to get enough troops together for a real match. And kill team rules aren't in the main rule book these days (not sure if they used to be). And there is little middle ground.

tl;dr, I think the barrier to entry might be too high, not necessarily the prices per model. There are numerous ways they could overcome this.

I agree with you. I think they need to go back to the starter sets being about $60. It is enough to get into the game and yes it does make it way cheaper to get your tactical marines that way but you need to get new players interested not run them off. The rest of their line is not badly priced considering GW is first and foremost a model company. The gaming system keeps people around but they want you to have cool models.

The business major in me is saying a 20% drop would increase their sales astronomically while still maintaining a massive profit margin.

GW is starting to have some serious competition from other companies. 40k/WHF will always have a following who doesn't want anything else, but GW needs to make new customers. Something their current pricing system doesn't create. This is especially true since they sell a non-perishable/non-disposable product. Once I have an army all set, I really don't need to buy more stuff unless I start a new army.

GW's current rules favor larger and larger games, but their prices mean new customers will take longer and longer to get up to the level they would need for a good sized army.


GW could even skip a blanket price drop if they had regular sales or deals. Buy 2 get 1 Free would be a great way to boost sales, Army of the Month deals, and so on...

I have bought/aquired most of my stuff from non-GW outlets and have saved money as a result.

Wait, is this thread about what GW should change their price (for their benifit),
or what we (realistically) want them to change their price by?
Because for GW's benefit, they should keep the priceses at what they are now,
but I would like them to drop their prices around 10-20%. (Of course, I would like it if thdey dropped their price by 100%, but that is not realistic, heck 50% is not realistic)

riplikash wrote:
tl;dr, I think the barrier to entry might be too high, not necessarily the prices per model. There are numerous ways they could overcome this.

Thats an excellent point. I'd like to see some of these numerous ways because I don't think there are any without compromising quality or cost. Battleforces save you the cost of one of the units plus a little more (SM box "gives" you assault marines for the price of the rest) and the Mega boxes are an excellent value, but are limited time only.
Reworking the battleboxes to include everything you need to play say adding the plastic SM commander and a mini black reach type codex to the battleforce of; 15 tacticals, 5 scouts, 5 assault marines and a rhino.

That can happen, but it can't really be balanced to every codex. Imagine the amount of models and thusly the cost of the imperial guard box to match the marine battleforce. Although arguably they wouldn't need to be equivalent boxes, i think that fails to overcome the "entry cost".
Mega forces are limited for a reason, i'm guessing because they're too good of a deal, but creating a mega force for every army and making it avaliable all year round would be a great entry. Problem is there is a reason why GW doesn't offer it all year.

Overall 40k is a hobby, every hobby has an entry cost. Any parent with kids will confirm this, hobbies are expensive and your not guaranteed that they'll always stick. So i've seen 40k as a big hobby, if your playing 40k, your likely not an avid rc plane flyer, paintballer and cyclist. all the hobbies are expensive entry and require maintence so doing all casually is going to be expensive...

Over the past few years they have raised prices by about 20%. I think they should drop it by that much.

However, this inflationary period we are shows a problem with raising prices with inflation: just because more money is in circulation does not mean individuals have more money. Wages have no increased, yet prices have. I understand the prices of certain things have gone way up in the last few years (pewter, for instance, has more than doubled in cost), and the frailcast has been implemented as a cheaper (yeah right) substitution, but the increase in prices to me has very little to do with the costs of production (which have no doubt increased) and very much to do with GW being forced to appease its shareholders.

Khornate25 wrote:We all now that GW products are a bit.... expansive.

They do have a large product range, don't they?

Biased poll was a nice touch as well.

The prices are high, but it's a luxury item. I buy what I can and go to the secondary market for things I don't want to pay full price for. This has been the way of it since I started playing.

I do agree that as an 'adult' hobby 40k really isn't that pricey, though oddly it seems more targetted at teenagers and college students. And that is a crowd I think they could see more customers in if there was a way for them to get involved.

I think providing some smaller rule sets like kill team would be a big step forward. A more developed kill team game and something in between kill team and the full game would be a big step forwards, though GW might not want to encourage low and mid point games this way. Assault on Black Reach was a great product, and could have been even better if they had rounded out the two forces with enough troops to actually start an army, especially the orks.

I can see why they wouldn't be able to give every army a starter set or mega force at the same price point, but there are other options there. Even if the guard starter set was 250 or 300$ I think it would be a good way to enable people to start new armies.

Biased polls are pointless.

It just makes everyone never take you seriously again.

Due to the price hikes and such I've stopped buying. I'll still get off E-Bay but that is rare now. All it would take for me to buy again would be to make Australia's prices closer to the rest of the world's.
Last June's fiasco got me out of buying from them, and as I am now unable to buy anywhere else... They no longer can get any money from me.

I thought the prices were fine. The only complaint I have is that I think more weapon choices should be included. It's not a huge deal but I would like some combi-weapons or enough missile launchers to accurately fit a unit.

I can tell you that hobbies are easily very expensive. Ever want a nice fish tank, be prepared to shell out a grand for a medium sized freshwater tank(saltwater is a lot more expensive). Want to play electric guitar? Sure you can get starter equipment but serious players will outgrow it and be prepared to spend 1500. Want a decent bike? Want to cook? Want to play paintball?

The only hobby I have taken up that is relatively inexpensive is knitting. Even then you can go pretty crazy on yarn and needles.

For me a squad of space wolves justify their price by giving me many hours of enjoyment. I like modeling, I love painting, and after all that I get to use them in a game I enjoy.

Anyways, this is my perspective as a new 40k player. As an adult with a job I found the prices to be in line with a lot of hobbies. Just like any other hobby you are welcome to look for sales, buy used, and research what you need before you waste money.

I think the issue is more about their overall business model. I know they have a captive audience but this will inevitably decline and they need a supply of fresh players. Their instore approach certainly seems to feed this need. They always approach those who enter the store and engage them in conversation about their participation, trying to persuade them to buy, offer free painting and gaming trials, etc. Then they reveal the price of a serious army and I bet a lot of parents run a mile. I could not afford for my son to get in on the ground floor now. Or should I say I can afford it but I would not spend that amount of money on a child. I am a teacher and I know my experience is necessarily limited but I can genuinely say that I hardly ever hear of GW any more among the pupils. I used to hear lots about it and there were clubs, etc but now there is the very odd one, but not tens of dozens. They need to replace leaving customers with new ones, simple logic with a hobby like this.

The other issue for me is their bizarre approach to bulk buying and discounting. They clearly rely on a constant trickle of new figures/books/etc to keep up sales. I can't think of many companies who will not do deals on larger sums. Things like the megaforces are a good idea in that they allow for economies of scale. They do not need to produce a box for them, they could offer something like a direct-only build your own megaforce, say for each army take 3 basic troop boxes from a choice, one HQ, two vehicles, one elite, one fast attack for 80% of the usual cost. Then just package and send these boxes. No need for a special box or anything.

It is also weird in the extreme that you can buy cheaper from independents. Consider that these independents need to turn a profit and are not buying or selling in anything resembling the bulk that GW do and you start to get an unflattering picture of them. Amazon can discount games, etc because they buy in vast bulk, have a low-overheads business, sell from low sales tax regions, lack a front-end, etc. This does not really apply to independents. If Joe Average can sell from a shop at 20% off GW shop prices then you have to wonder at what the margins are. He has to pay his rent, does not buy thousands and thousands of GW boxes yearly and put food on the table. If he can still heavily undercut GW then that will raise people's suspicions.

As I've said before overall I dont think the prices are crippling, however, where I take issue is with price per point ratios or price vs value.
Take the ubiquitous Rhino as an example. 35 points per kit at 26 quid. Say you want 4 of them (which isnt unrealistic), thats over 100 euro for 200 points in your army(lets say you upgrade them). Sure you dont have to buy them, you can footslog or do a gunline army but thats forcing you down a certian route.
2 for 1 deals or buy 3 get the 4th free would be much fairer and would drum up immediate interest.
How about a box of 3 for 60 quid?

Having said that other kits I feel are value for money, their scenery kits are great quality imo and I have no issue paying for them, e.g. 3 killakans for 35 euro is pretty decent, 10 gargoyle for 23 too.

I just feel there are huge descrepencies between some of the kit prices and how much use you can actually get out of them (despite some of them being "must have" kits).

I think they need to drop prices down under by about 26%. Checked the aussie site (no idea why it went there) and after looking up US dollar to aussie dollar (1:1 roughly) they have a 26% mark up. Stupid embargo.

But id say a 15-20% mard down would still have a profit and increase sales. Plus end the embargo.

Voted for 100% to troll a biased poll.

Having checked the prices, when I started gaming and up until the last couple of years a standard Tactical Squad was £18. They now cost £23, which is just under a 30% increase.

I would like to see those prices back, so a 15-25% mark down on todays prices would be nice.

Reducing it by 30% would be fine. Biased poll is biased.

20% easy.

More realistically, re-balance pricing globally and adjust to exchange rate at the start of each financial year give or take a percentage so as not to sky rocket or bankrupt.

Also, I meant to say, if they brought the prices down the hobby would be more affordable, I (and many others) would buy more GW products, more people would take up the hobby as prices would put less people off. More players = more sales. More sales = more money.

I'll repost my thoughts here from another thread elsewhere

"The more I look at GW's products the more I think they just are either poor businessmen or just don't care anymore. I don't mean to say that in the "GW SUXXORZ" manner, but I genuinely believe they are simply not making competent long term decisions anymore.

GW's prices are rising at double to triple the rate of inflation or more in many cases. One need only look at stuff like Codex books or Imperial Guardsmen. Both functionally have increased in price 65% in the last 5 years (2006-2011), going from $20-$33 and $35 for 20 to almost $30 for 10 respectively, about an ~11% increase each year. In many cases this isn't accomplished just through plain price rises but rather reboxings as in the case of the Imperial Guard squads, or stuff like Leman Russ tanks and chimeras where they updated the vehicles and only slightly changed them but removed the accessory sprues with all the upgrade and bits options.

If we continue at this rate, Codex books will be $55 in 2016.

The current price rises are not sustainable in any sense, very few people are going to play a game where the basic rulebook and army codex are over $150 alone before buying any models, and what's more, may already have crossed the threshold in terms of what the market will bear for many new entrants and for existing players to branch out into new product lines given that we're already at $100 for that. The price of many armies is often ~50% or more what it was 5 or 6 years ago, way outpacing inflation by roughly 300% at a time when real average wages are in many cases decreasing.

Given the huge increase in the cost of armies compared to even 5 years ago, it is more difficult than ever to get into the hobby or branch out. I know that I personally have had the increased costs prevent me from starting new armies or fleshing out existing ones where they wouldn't have 5 years ago when I was in fact making significantly less money.

Given that a typical 2000pt army list costs about $900 after models, books, paint, hobby supplies, templates, dice, model bitz, etc, it's difficult to justify for many people, especially the "kiddie" market GW thinks is its core demographic, especially when 5 years ago it was closer to $600 (about what I was able to build my Iron Warriors, Tau and Eldar for).

I'm not trying to rant about how much "I HATE GW", but I do have some very serious concerns that their business practices are unsustainable and may already have passed the threshold at which they can maintain their current operations in the long run. "


A 30% price drop would basically bring us back to what prices were 5 years ago in real terms accounting for roughly 3% *averaged* inflation (which may be a bit high considering UK inflation was actually negative in 2009 and possibly 2010).

Yeah, GW's pricing really is that bad. If a 30% price decrease is what it takes to accurately reflect inflation from a mere 5 years ago, it really shows just how out of touch they are with the forces of the open market when in many cases real income has actually declined.

Vaktathi wrote:Text containing great wisdom

This nailed it, I can't think of anything to add to that. This is where my concerns lie.

While I went for 20% as I think that would be fair (and cancel out the next price rise) it should be more, everything was rediculously cheaper once upon a time and it wasn't too long ago, can't blame it all on materials.......

Grey Templar wrote:The business major in me is saying a 20% drop would increase their sales astronomically while still maintaining a massive profit margin.

I was good friends with my FLGS owner many years ago. He had a rep from GW bitch at him when he was trying to become listed as "Chapter Approved" because he sold his models for 20% off MSRP. The guy told him that even if he sold twice as much product, he's be losing money discounting it at 20%.

That company isn't being run by geniuses, lol. It's a fairly sure thing that GW would sell more product if they kept the prices lower. Given the relatively declined state of the economies in both the US and the UK, people have less money to spend on frivolous pursuits. So they are going to look at what gets them the most value for their bucks. Someone with $200 to waste might not waste any of that $200 on GW models because they won't get anything usable out of it, whereas they might spend all of it if they see actually having a playable amount of product. There's always a balance between charging what the market will bear and being smart about your pricing. The people spending boatloads of money on GW product are going to continue to do so. It's the people on the marginal end of the economic spectrum that aren't. Catering to a small demographic is fine for a company like Ferrari. For a company that isn't soliciting a primarily wealthy demographic, they certainly keep trying to price like they do. The price points and market strategy seems more wired towards the concept of "How much can we make off a player if they buy one army" rather than the idea that if the armies were more affordable, players would probably have more than one. Look at the signatures of most posters here. I have thousands of points of models (i don't have any of my three small Fantasy armies, Necromunda or Mordheim gangs listed either), though admittedly a bulk of them were purchased a decade ago. With the amount of money I have spent (even given the old days' only "kinda ridiculous" pricing), there's probably a greater amount that I haven't spent because I don't see the value in what I'd get. Do I want an Ork army for 40K to match my Fantasy Orcs? Of course. Will I ever have one? No. Looking through my collection of individual or squad sized elements of models that never made an army you find Necrons, and Chaos and Orks and even Sisters.

Reading back through some of the responses, you'll find me in complete agreement when I say their business model doesn't make sense. It prices out new players too easily, and it discourages additional purchases not due to a lack of funds, but a lack of value. I remember a buddy of mine asked me why a Thunderhawk from Forgeworld was worth so much money. My reply was "It isn't."

Veteran Sergeant wrote:I was good friends with my FLGS owner many years ago. He had a rep from GW bitch at him when he was trying to become listed as "Chapter Approved" because he sold his models for 20% off MSRP. The guy told him that even if he sold twice as much product, he's be losing money discounting it at 20%.

You're mixing up two different things here. The GW rep was saying that the FLGS owner would be losing money at 20% discount. Depending on the price he was obtaining goods from GW for, this very well could be true. This is MUCH different than GW dropping prices 20%.

Reading back through some of the responses, you'll find me in complete agreement when I say their business model doesn't make sense. It prices out new players too easily, and it discourages additional purchases not due to a lack of funds, but a lack of value. I remember a buddy of mine asked me why a Thunderhawk from Forgeworld was worth so much money. My reply was "It isn't."

Hmm. That answer is very misleading. FW does great business and the number of TH that they have sold could probably back that up. In your opinion, it isn't worth the money, that doesn't mean that they don't sell and that people don't want them. In my opinion, FW is pretty pricey for somethings and I wouldn't buy them, but that doesn't mean that they don't make bank.

GW's value is that you can go anywhere in the country/world and play a GW game pretty easily. No other miniature game has that value to a player. Are you paying a premium for that brand recognition? Yes, you are.

I think a 20% drop would be fine, bring them back to pre-price hike levels. I remember buying a box of 20 guardsmen for $25, now it is 10 for $29!

The Mad Tanker wrote:I think a 20% drop would be fine, bring them back to pre-price hike levels. I remember buying a box of 20 guardsmen for $25, now it is 10 for $29!

This always comes up as an example of OMG Increases! I agree that GW prices have increased significantly since I started, but so have other things. Think back to other things you bought for entertainment in 1999 and how much they cost now; it is scary.