Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Listen to Yakface! He is full of wisdom... and assorted candies!

GW is going to keep upping the prices until they see a drop off in sales they consider to be effecting (or is that affecting?) the core market. Remember, higher prices mean they need to sell less product. They can afford to lose the fringe folks.

If peopl eare really pissed off about the price increases then they need to STOP buying GW products. Vote with your wallets. That is the only thing that will ever influence GW. I am a total secondary market kind of guy.... it's all trading or ebay.

ender502

Could someone please explain why they try to use the GW retail chain to justify their massive price increases? If each individual shop doesn't, at least, sustain itself, GW should do what any retail chain would do. GW should CLOSE THE SHOP. There's no justification for price increases due to a large retail chain.

It's really simple. GW raises prices because they think they can get more money than they're currently getting for the same product. Do I begrudge them for it? No, but I don't buy their product anyway.

I buy my gaming products from Privateer Press, who sell their models at a range of prices, just like GW. If you want to do a compairison...

Troops
10 Space Marines $35 (3.50 each)
10 Mecanithralls $41 (4.10 each)
10 Revenant Pirates $46 (4.60 each)
10 Assault Marines $50 (5.00 each)
10 Bane Knights $66 (6.60 each)
10 Veteran Marines $70 (7.00 each)
10 Bane Thralls $75 (7.50 each)
10 Terminators $100 (10.00 each)

Light vehicle/cavalry
5 Space Marine Bikes $45 (15 each)
5 Iron Fang Uhlans $100 (20 each)
Space Marine Attack Bike $25
Rhino/Land Speeder $30
Typhoon/Razorback/Tornado $35

Warjack/Dreadnought
1 Iron Clad $25
1 Storm Clad $28
1 Hammersmith $30
1 Centurian $32
1 Dreadnought $40
1 Thunderhead $45
1 Venarable Dreadnought $50

Character
Severius $10
Salamanders Chaplain Xavier $11
High Reclaimer $12
Testament of Menoth $15
Space Marine commander/chaplain/librarian $15
Ultramarines Chief Librarian Tigurius $17
Captain Lysander of the Imperial Fists $20
Chaplain Grimaldus and Retinue $30
Harbringer of Menoth $35 (oh noes!)
Marneus Calgar with Honor Guard $45

There really is no saying that GWs models are cheaper, or that PPs models are cheaper. Both companies sell their products at a range of prices and neither of them is really cheap. It IS less expensive to build an army of PP models, than it is to buy an army of GW models, but GW games require many more models for an army.

When it comes right down to it, people will spend what they're willing to spend on their hobby, no matter what. That's all there is to it.

Knight

Posted By General Hobbs on 04/25/2007 7:43 PM

What exactly makes them wacked out?

I dunno... how about LOTR being legitimate value compared to Warhammer / WH40k despite being manufactured using the same sculpting, moulding and casting techniques?

All the old chestnuts of how GW product is superior to competing products don't apply in this case since the source is the same!  Is LOTR product somehow second rate?  Maybe they're less pieces... but the WH/WH40k "fill in boxes" of snap-tite figures are even more expensive than the regular regiments... (I guess to make up for the extra quality and bitz!).  GW sells LOTR product anywhere between 2-3x less expensive on a per model basis despite being identical in quality...

But I suppose In your world, that wouldn't indicate that Warhammer is overpriced in the least...  Its probably an accounting error.

I assume you're referring to the LOTR plastics. These are a lot smaller than the models in WH, and generally one piece sculpts. Less pieces, smaller pieces, means a lot less cost to manufacture the molds for them. Nice models, and I have several hundred of them, but I'd never use a 1 dollar urakai for a 2 dollar black orc. Each is a good scale for it's respective games.

Mikhaila: 

Those are the ones I am refering to.  While it is true that some of the LOTR sculpts are very small and weedy - especially the plastic moria goblins, the man sized models are fantastic.  The High Elves from the original box set and the Easterlings have fantastic detail (even if they were intentionally made size incompatible with the main set).

One of my pet peeves about how GW is packaging their current lines is the huge amount of extra gubbinz that they add to the sprues... and then they give the party line:  You pay more because we give you extra gubbinz!

You get less boyz because we put the gubbinz where the boyz could have been!

You pay for the gubbinz regardless of if you used them or not!

If you are converting... because the gubbin is now plastic... you have to BUY THE SPRUE.  (The old arguement about trading for those bitz is always an option, but some things like kneeling legs, scarab swarms and the good weapons like tau plasma... BWB or the sprue is usually the only option!)

I can understand why they did it (Win-win-win for GW...) but don't try to convince me that this approach is "value added" in any way!

Posted By mikhaila on 04/26/2007 6:24 AM
I assume you're referring to the LOTR plastics. These are a lot smaller than the models in WH, and generally one piece sculpts. Less pieces, smaller pieces, means a lot less cost to manufacture the molds for them. Nice models, and I have several hundred of them, but I'd never use a 1 dollar urakai for a 2 dollar black orc. Each is a good scale for it's respective games.

But by the same reasoning, Tamiya, Italeri, Academy and others offer kits that include anywhere from 4 to 12 infantry figures that are larger in scale, have as many or more pieces including all sorts of accessories and gubbins on better engineered sprues and yet are considerably cheaper than GW's offerings. And these are even more of a niche buy than wargaming figures as their use is usually limited to diorama display pieces, not fully fledged fieldable armies. Ditto with plastic vehicle kits, especially when you use comparably scaled kits.

The reality is GW charges as much as they do because they think they can get away with it. I say think as the last two year end financials show a drop in sales and an even more steep drop in units sold. To the point that they've had to borrow to pay dividends because profits were so short. And only a few months ago they had to put out an earnings alert after their 6 month interim report showed the situation only worsening. Something I'm sure a price hike will fix right up!

Mauleed said it best: The best thing to do to get GW to change is to play Warmachine (or any other non-GW game, like Flames of War, Infinity, or whatever else rings your bells).

Infinity looks cool. I don't have the terrain for that kind of table yet, but
I suppose GW and Pegasus could provide those things, yes?

So you are going to play a non-GW game, using GW terrain. Stick it to em!

Ozymandias, King of KIngs

On the chepskate thing:
What, an accidental mispelling can lose you an argument now?

Nope, since forever.

Yse

To Knight: Perhaps you should look more long term - as Yak says, GW is one of the largest, oldest, table top wargaming companies out there. They had to be doing something right to stay in business so long. Raising prices gives them more capital to open more shops, which they hope will ultimately become profitable in the long run. I doubt many GW stores turn a profit in their first or second year, but over time, as their foundation of customers grow, they just might make some money.

Now, if an older store starts losing money year after year, they should close it (and they do.)

Again, when I look at Privateer Press' prices vs GW prices, I understand that one company has much more infrastructure to support than the other, so I can see why some of GW's prices are higher. Doesn't mean I'm totally cool with it (who likes paying more,) but the GW hobby is well supported where I live, and to me the entertainment I get is worth the cost. Good gaming!

Zoned