Changes (Hikes!) to GW International Shipping

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**MrFlutterPie**

Is it illegal for GW to stop selling their products to other retailers? Is it illegal to self distribute only? Is there a law saying that a company HAS to sell it's products to other retailers including internet stores?

That's how they are going to do it. GW will stop selling their product to everybody. They will one day just tell everybody that they are closing their account with said store and will no longer be making their products available to them.

As for ebay I hope you are right but I'm betting GW will simply sue ebay repeatedly until ebay's legal costs get ridiculous and ebay will say screw it and just comply. I rather hope that's not the case.

**H.B.M.C.**

MrFlutterPie wrote:That's how they are going to do it. GW will stop selling their product to everybody. They will one day just tell everybody that they are closing their account with said store and will no longer be making their products available to them.

I'm sure that's what they want to do, and in a country as small as England it might actually work (or even in a large country with a small population, like Australia), but the US is a vast place with a lot of people covering almost every inch of it. They cannot cover that, and so they need gaming stores.

**derek**

Locking out local stores from carrying their product would kill their business. No one currently in the US that isn't already playing in a GW or exclusively at home is just going to all of a sudden say, "Oh well, guess we'll just order from GW and take up basement gaming."

No store that has been burned by this is going to just let players use table space for GW games, especially when it's basically providing advertising for something they've been locked out of selling.

I'm all for calling GW on their BS, but if they think they can move to being the only one selling their product, their fantasy life is the kind that requires living in a padded room.

**SickSix**

derek wrote:Locking out local stores from carrying their product would kill their business. No one currently in the US that isn't already playing in a GW or exclusively at home is just going to all of a sudden say, "Oh well, guess we'll just order from GW and take up basement gaming."

No store that has been burned by this is going to just let players use table space for GW games, especially when it's basically providing advertising for something they've been locked out of selling.

I'm all for calling GW on their BS, but if they think they can move to being the only one selling their product, their fantasy life is the kind that requires living in a padded room.

Actually, I bet you that MOST gamers in the US will just quit buying period. You really think gamers that are use to paying 20% less than retail and no shipping, are suddenly going to be fine with paying 20% more plus shipping??? I don't think so.

It is a very rare instance that buying from my FLGS is not the cheapest route for a new box. If they cut them off, I could move to Amazon.com, but if they cut both off, I'm done, period.

**derek**

SickSix wrote:Actually, I bet you that MOST gamers in the US will just quit buying period.

Most definitely. The closest game store to me doesn't offer discounts of any kind (other than a $5.00 gift certificate per $100.00 spent), so it doesn't see a lot of movement of their GW product due to the increasing backlash against the retail price set by Games-Workshop. So if GW fails/cuts off LGS from selling it wouldn't hurt them, they still make a decent living through their card gaming, board games, and Warmachine, which is far better stocked, and frequently sold than any GW product. In the very unlikely chance it happens, I feel sorry for any LGS that relies mostly on GW to survive. But then, I don't imagine there are many of them.

**Pael**

derek wrote:
SickSix wrote:Actually, I bet you that MOST gamers in the US will just quit buying period.

Most definitely. The closest game store to me doesn't offer discounts of any kind (other than a $5.00 gift certificate per $100.00 spent), so it doesn't see a lot of movement of their GW product due to the increasing backlash against the retail price set by Games-Workshop. So if GW fails/cuts off LGS from selling it wouldn't hurt them, they still make a decent living through their card gaming, board games, and Warmachine, which is far better stocked, and frequently sold than any GW product. In the very unlikely chance it happens, I feel sorry for any LGS that relies mostly on GW to survive. But then, I don't imagine there are many of them.

I agree with this the three closest stores to me all sell a little GW but it is not their main form of business. The cardboard crack or models is where they see the big bucks.

**insaniak**

MrFlutterPie wrote:That's how they are going to do it. GW will stop selling their product to everybody. They will one day just tell everybody that they are closing their account with said store and will no longer be making their products available to them.

Nope, won't happen.

In the UK, it's potentially feasible, although given the way they've been downsizing or closing GW stores recently, seems unlikely.

In Australia, not a chance. There are too many areas where their customer base is just too spread out for GW stores to be profitable.

In the US, likewise not a chance... at least not for the 10 or 20 years that it would take to expand their store network to have the same sort of coverage that it has in the UK.

Can't speak for Europe... no idea what the coverage is like for GW stoes vs independant retailers.

As for ebay I hope you are right but I'm betting GW will simply sue ebay repeatedly until ebay's legal costs get ridiculous and ebay will say screw it and just comply.

I'm betting that they wouldn't, since it would be a pointless waste of money.

Seriously, there are plenty of stupid things that GW have actually done that we can point and laugh at without having to invent more.

**cadbren**

Worglock wrote:The product is either worth it for you to pay the prices they want, or it's not.

It's not worth it and I wonder how much longer they can operate in countries like mine given our lower wages in comparison to other OECD countries. On a related note I found it odd that a shop that was selling a chinese language version of the Assault on Black Reach (which was unusual in itself) was selling it for $20 NZ less than the english version.
Weird inconsistencies like this abound though.

**PhantomViper**

Temujin wrote:Is having some customer service guy lie through his teeth supposed to make the situation better? Granted, I was already dissatified enough before this latest insult to put me in boycott territory, but every time they try to explain why they're treating us like dirt it just makes me hate them even more. If they'd just stopped international shipping altogether it would have been much less aggravating, but instead they've decided to close it down by inventing hilarious charges to ensure that it is more expensive in every possible scenario, which has the same practical effect with twice the insult value. Then we have the ungratifying spectacle of this Giovanni guy asking us to believe that it actually costs £60 to send a pot of paint to Japan. The fact that he's specifically addressing foreign residents who are invariably well acquainted with international shipping costs makes it all the more absurd.

My current project is missing a few models that I'd quite like to pick up. It's well within my means to buy these, even at the stupid prices they charge in Japan, but I'm resigned now to the fact that I will never buy them, because the ill will that GW has amassed with me is simply unsurmountable.

At the end of the day GW thinks that it can manipulate me into spending my money in the manner most advantageous to them, and I won't have it. They think they can just keep piling on punitive restriction after punitive restriction until all customers relent and behave as GW would like them to - visiting their stores to receive their weekly allocated dose of sales propaganda, buying their monthly sales catalogue to find out what new products they're releasing tomorrow, and buying our models at the full retail price they've jacked up as far as they feel they can get away with in our local currency. If GW wasn't happy with the money they were getting from me prior to all this embargo nonsense, they're welcome to dispense with my business. The idea that they can herd me towards their ideal by banning my avenue of purchase and repeatedly feeding me lies about it is laughable. Until they can restrict my option to just stop buying their products, this manipulation strategy of theirs is doomed to fail.

Exalted and I hope that you'ev sent a copy of this as a reply to that email.

So lying through their teeth is the new GW way of justifying price increases to their customers? Just when I thought that they couldn't sink any lower...

**FabricatorGeneralMike**

MrFlutterPie wrote:Is it illegal for GW to stop selling their products to other retailers? Is it illegal to self distribute only? Is there a law saying that a company HAS to sell it's products to other retailers including internet stores?

That's how they are going to do it. GW will stop selling their product to everybody. They will one day just tell everybody that they are closing their account with said store and will no longer be making their products available to them.

As for ebay I hope you are right but I'm betting GW will simply sue ebay repeatedly until ebay's legal costs get ridiculous and ebay will say screw it and just comply. I rather hope that's not the case.

Games Workshop will never do that. They make upwards of 55% of the sales through their trade sales account and that would just be the fething cap in the hat for Mr Kirby and show his utter disreguard for the company and the shareholders.

In the rest of the world GW has a miniscule presence, with no where enough stores to pick up the slack in lost sales. Think about north America ( I see you live in Canada also where abouts if I may ask? I live in port moody bc.) there are upward of 300 million american and around 30-35 millionish Canadians. Both Canada and america cover a vast amount of realestate and it would be completely luderious to think that they could open enough stores in all the major cities in north america let alone all the crappy little towns, villages, hamelets, etc etc that are serviced by FLGS.

Would GW be totally batfeth insane for doing this? Yes...would I put it past them...no... I really think there is that big of a disconnect between GamesWorkshop PLC and its' customers. Hell they don't even know who their customers are, they don't know weather or not they are a retailer or a manufacturer. They don't know whos buying there stuff or why. I know it's hard to believe as a 100 million + pound a year company, but honestly they have no clue.

They just think that because it's kids in their hobby centers that that's who must be buying there murchandice. Hence there 'churn and burn' mentallity with customers. Just remember kiddies, GW customers only hang around for 18 months tops. Thats why they keep pulling the same dumb stunts over and over again because each time it's a new set of customers to feth over.

**LunaHound**

scipio.au wrote:At a certain point though - the prices are just too high for parents and kids to support. Never mind us "hobbyists". With a Playstation 3 or 360 costing in the realm of AU$300 and games as cheap as $20... a Black Reach box can't compete with that.

There will be GW fans that willl tell you that a warhammer kit will last you indefinitely while a video game will only last you 8 hour play time.

Count on it, its been used defending GW prices many times xD

Are you still here HBMC? dont tell me you are on vacation....

Exalted this EPIC thread.

**Kouzuki**

lol I came across this too. Its pretty horrendous. I can literally order from forgeworld and get it delivered for CHEAPER than retail prices here in Japan.

Anyway, the best way to get around this is honestly, through e-bay stores from the US or the UK. Even with shipping paid in, buying from these stores is quite literally still 50% off GW Japan MSRP.

disgusting.

**FabricatorGeneralMike**

Kouzuki wrote:lol I came across this too. Its pretty horrendous. I can literally order from forgeworld and get it delivered for CHEAPER than retail prices here in Japan.

Anyway, the best way to get around this is honestly, through e-bay stores. I think they'll still ship outside of their "designated area."

Yeppers, I find it rather amusing that in Canada Forgeworld is the cheeper alterative to GW. I do love those mkII-MKVI marine kits and the contemtpor kit.

**HarlequinZero**

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
Yeppers, I find it rather amusing that in Canada Forgeworld is the cheeper alterative to GW. I do love those mkII-MKVI marine kits and the contemtpor kit.

Stop saying Forge World is cheaper than regular GW! If Kirby or his minions are reading this there will be a massive Forge World price hike and I need the Chaos Dwarf line to be fleshed out before that.

**FabricatorGeneralMike**

HarlequinZero wrote:
FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
Yeppers, I find it rather amusing that in Canada Forgeworld is the cheeper alterative to GW. I do love those mkII-MKVI marine kits and the contemtpor kit.

Stop saying Forge World is cheaper than regular GW! If Kirby or his minions are reading this there will be a massive Forge World price hike and I need the Chaos Dwarf line to be fleshed out before that.

Ok, i'll delete it if...since your from Japan..you send me all the Cool Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma toys and cool Gundam model kits you can find.

No worries about GW reading this though, to them this 'internet' thingy is just a fad and will pass soon and end like all fads....

**zombie**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
MrFlutterPie wrote:That's how they are going to do it. GW will stop selling their product to everybody. They will one day just tell everybody that they are closing their account with said store and will no longer be making their products available to them.

I'm sure that's what they want to do, and in a country as small as England it might actually work (or even in a large country with a small population, like Australia), but the US is a vast place with a lot of people covering almost every inch of it. They cannot cover that, and so they need gaming stores.

Arn't you working on the assumption that GW is still capable of making vaguely sane business decisions. These days I would not put it past them

**SagesStone**

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
HarlequinZero wrote:
FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
Yeppers, I find it rather amusing that in Canada Forgeworld is the cheeper alterative to GW. I do love those mkII-MKVI marine kits and the contemtpor kit.

Stop saying Forge World is cheaper than regular GW! If Kirby or his minions are reading this there will be a massive Forge World price hike and I need the Chaos Dwarf line to be fleshed out before that.

Ok, i'll delete it if...since your from Japan..you send me all the Cool Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma toys and cool Gundam model kits you can find.

No worries about GW reading this though, to them this 'internet' thingy is just a fad and will pass soon and end like all fads....

But what if they Screenshot it? They have a team employed just for this.

It may be too late.

**FabricatorGeneralMike**

n0t_u wrote:
FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
HarlequinZero wrote:
FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
Yeppers, I find it rather amusing that in Canada Forgeworld is the cheeper alterative to GW. I do love those mkII-MKVI marine kits and the contemtpor kit.

Stop saying Forge World is cheaper than regular GW! If Kirby or his minions are reading this there will be a massive Forge World price hike and I need the Chaos Dwarf line to be fleshed out before that.

Ok, i'll delete it if...since your from Japan..you send me all the Cool Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma toys and cool Gundam model kits you can find.

No worries about GW reading this though, to them this 'internet' thingy is just a fad and will pass soon and end like all fads....

But what if they Screenshot it? They have a team employed just for this.

It may be too late.

I don't know if the internet will stand still for 5 minutes while the picture focuses... =o].

All I want to know is, what are the top brass at GW smoking and where can I get some?

**SagesStone**

They are smoking Space Marines and you can get them at your local finely constructed Games Workshop Store.

**Azazelx**

LunaHound wrote:
scipio.au wrote:At a certain point though - the prices are just too high for parents and kids to support. Never mind us "hobbyists". With a Playstation 3 or 360 costing in the realm of AU$300 and games as cheap as $20... a Black Reach box can't compete with that.

There will be GW fans that willl tell you that a warhammer kit will last you indefinitely while a video game will only last you 8 hour play time.

Count on it, its been used defending GW prices many times xD

Heh. The thing is, I don't give a *expletive* about that counter-argument. I'm not the one that have to argue with - it's the multitudes of teenagers who have Xboxes and PlayStations. I personally have kits that are older than many of the people on Dakka, that I've gotten very much "love you long time" value from, but I'm not the one they need to convince.

Ask a teenager if they'd like a copy of AOBR or an Xbox. Or ask the teenager if they'd like AOBR or six games for their PlayStation. Better yet, ask a bunch of 13 year-olds which one they'd like better, or which one they own.

Oh, and the most popular games with "the kids" these days include things like Call of Duty et al where the hook is endless online play, often with friends, often for an hour or more each and every day.