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Do GW give them out to their employees for free?

or what do they do with the left overs?

They're melted down and the molds are destroyed, so no one can ever buy them again. Also, if you show up to a GW store with old models, they're confiscated and returned to HQ where they can be melted down to create more new models, forcing you to constantly spend money.

Sidstyler wrote:They're melted down and the molds are destroyed, so no one can ever buy them again. Also, if you show up to a GW store with old models, they're confiscated and returned to HQ where they can be melted down to create more new models, forcing you to constantly spend money.

If only they were anywhere near that pro-active.

GW did a big call-back of discontinued products from their stores last year, but that is the only one they have ever done iirc; the old products just get shoved into cupboards in the store, never to be seen again; apparently you can often phone up their product line and order old product because they still have it floating about in the warehouse (not literaly, though that would be cool). Metal miniatures are harder to get now though as they are the ones they wanted back to melt down due to high raw product costs last year.

Imo they should sell them at 50% discount, but in this country they are limited by the monopolies commision from giving any kind of discount or sale :-(

Sidstyler wrote:They're melted down and the molds are destroyed, so no one can ever buy them again. Also, if you show up to a GW store with old models, they're confiscated and returned to HQ where they can be melted down to create more new models, forcing you to constantly spend money.

Then if you ask for your old ones back, Jervis sends his death squads after you.

I would imagine the use of Archives to be the answer, with regards to molds.

As to unsold miniatures, I would assume they continue to sell them until they reach a critical limit where, under normal circumstances, they would recast a production run, or in this case, cease production and allow for "run out" of stock.

Bearing in mind, that stock "run out" could take years depending on how popular the miniature is, they have the choice of doing special sales / offers, however this seems to be a rare occurance from GW, if it has ever happened at all, so my guess is, they are very careful about their batch sizes in the first instance!!.....

These are tools that are availible to all areas of manufacture and production sales, not just GW however.

few weeks ago in my local GW the manager had to empty his boxes of old books to sell, and any he didnt sell had to be pulped

I went to Warhammer World a few years ago when they had just changed over to the new Ork line, and I think they actually cast me a fresh copy of the old Gaz model (I had to wait a couple of hours for it).

Was pretty cool.

into flithy managers pockets?

The molds are cast into the eye of terror; not to be seen or heard from again for 10,000 years.

They are certainly not doled out to staff, that I can tell you.

Grim.Badger wrote:...but in this country they are limited by the monopolies commision from giving any kind of discount or sale :-(

That has a 'not true' ring about it.

George Spiggott wrote:

Grim.Badger wrote:...but in this country they are limited by the monopolies commision from giving any kind of discount or sale :-(

That has a 'not true' ring about it.

As the manufacturer AND main retail company it has a monopoly on sales of its products, it could therefore wipe out it's competition very very easily and so is not allowed sales or offers of any kind.

They go right onto my painting table. I love old stuff.

Some of it goes to the collector's range on the GW site. I know the old Space Wolves upgrade sprue is in there now.

i was able to return my odl kits of are a 1:1 exchange for a promo they were doing

My local GWs have auctions mebbe once a year. This year there wasalmost no 40k stuff though. Mainy surplus space wolves boxes. The unloades a crapload of skaven and LOTR models though...

They archive the molds, Melt down any unpackaged metal minis, and warehouse the packaged ones.

My friend used to work in the US warehouse in Baltimore. He would spin cast bitz and collectors models from the old molds when ever an order came in. (this was in the glory days when you could order any OOP model or any bits from said model you wanted. Well at least until the model craped out and then it was gone for ever.)

Grim.Badger wrote:As the manufacturer AND main retail company it has a monopoly on sales of its products, it could therefore wipe out it's competition very very easily and so is not allowed sales or offers of any kind.

They used to have them (sales and offers). When was this legislation brought in because they were doing GW store only discount offers as recently as last year.

molds for the mold throne, oop models to appease frazz and keep him from leaving texas

George Spiggott wrote:

Grim.Badger wrote:As the manufacturer AND main retail company it has a monopoly on sales of its products, it could therefore wipe out it's competition very very easily and so is not allowed sales or offers of any kind.

They used to have them (sales and offers). When was this legislation brought in because they were doing GW store only discount offers as recently as last year.

A lot of stores used to do unofficial offers, if the Sheffield store is still doing them then they must be doing it on the sly and they could get into a lot of trouble for it.

Grim.Badger wrote:

George Spiggott wrote:

Grim.Badger wrote:...but in this country they are limited by the monopolies commision from giving any kind of discount or sale :-(

That has a 'not true' ring about it.

As the manufacturer AND main retail company it has a monopoly on sales of its products, it could therefore wipe out it's competition very very easily and so is not allowed sales or offers of any kind.

Are you sure that's how the monopolies commision works? They are main retailers of their own products? Hey guess what, so's every store in the world. Surely then Tesco has the monopoly on Tesco beans, but I sure do see those on offer.
GW don't have a stranglehold on the miniature wargaming market, they aren't threatening a monopoly. GW business practices are sketchy at the best of time, but I'm certain they're nowhere near in beach of the monopolies commision.

As for wiping out it's competition (see earlier statement on sketchy business practises), notice how small towns only get independant retailers, not GW stores?
Until, that is, that independant store does decent business of selling GW products, then GW opens up an offical store in said town, pushing our indie out of business.
Even then, I don't think you can call it 'wiping out' it's competition, as it's competition in this case are selling GW products. Surely GWs immediate competition is PP, who, according to you, have the monopoly on PP products, so therefore are immune from the section of the monopolies commission allocated to GW.
Your comments seem convoluted and confused tbh dude.

I'm pretty sure GW doesn't have sales because they're tight bastards. GW Hemel recently had a bitz sale, that was quite cool.

Grim.Badger wrote:A lot of stores used to do unofficial offers, if the Sheffield store is still doing them then they must be doing it on the sly and they could get into a lot of trouble for it.

I was referring to the Apocalypse boxes such as the three Baneblades box which was not available to independent retailers and the many official sales that GW have had in the past.

Tek wrote:Are you sure that's how the monopolies commision works? They are main retailers of their own products? Hey guess what, so's every store in the world. Surely then Tesco has the monopoly on Tesco beans, but I sure do see those on offer.
GW don't have a stranglehold on the miniature wargaming market, they aren't threatening a monopoly. GW business practices are sketchy at the best of time, but I'm certain they're nowhere near in beach of the monopolies commision.

That would be fine, except that Tesco's don't sell their beans to anyone else; GW DO sell their items to other companies and so limit themselves as to what they can do in terms of sales. That doesn't bother them as they make half of their sales through Indi stores, which translates into a lot of money as they then don't have overheads to pay. Also Tescos don't produce anything, it's all produced for them by other companies.

If a GW manages to out-compete a local FLGS, then it can be said that they have done it because they are a better store, because the FLGS is able to outcompete on terms of sales/prices; that kind of competition is not controled by the monopolies commission. Grimsby has a GW store and a model and hobby shop just around the corner, and several more in the area; they even recommend each other as they all do slightly different things.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Have just found this on the GW website:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1300063&prodId=prod150001a

They have split the old space wolf boxes up and are selling the upgrade sprue as a bits upgrade pack

Grim Badger, that doesn't really make sense. When GW changed over to white metal they had a well publicised nation-wide 50% sale on everything with a lead model in it. A few years ago in one of their post christmas sales I went to several stores which were offereing all the Dogs of War and other discontinued armies at half price. You seem to imply that stores offering such sales are doing so independently and possibly illegally. That's nonsense.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

TheFirstBorn wrote:few weeks ago in my local GW the manager had to empty his boxes of old books to sell, and any he didnt sell had to be pulped

Sounds about right. It's cheaper the destroy the books than transport them back to HQ and store them. Contrary to what some may say, books are produced for a fraction of the cover price, and hardbacks only marginally more, even though hardbacks are usually 2-3 times more expensive in highstreet shops. When a friend of my dad's worked on GWs original bookline in the 80s/90s he was sent to some event to promote the line and the books did not turn up until the final morning. They were told to simply get rid of them as they weren't being taken back. In the end most were given away in piles to people leaving, which is how my dad got the bulk of that set (Deathwing, Route 666, etc). I guess the rest were either taken home by organisers or thrown in a skip.

They are cast into the Warp and create the next version.

Hell.

LunaHound wrote: Do GW give them out to their employees for free?

or what do they do with the left overs?

Grim.Badger wrote:

George Spiggott wrote:

Grim.Badger wrote:...but in this country they are limited by the monopolies commision from giving any kind of discount or sale :-(

That has a 'not true' ring about it.

As the manufacturer AND main retail company it has a monopoly on sales of its products, it could therefore wipe out it's competition very very easily and so is not allowed sales or offers of any kind.

Whoever told you that has no idea what they are talking about. Despite my flag I am English - I actually know exactly how the M&MC works through my jobs as an accountant (having been through a M&MC examination - coffee if your interested in the product) and this is just a crock. For a start, GW isn't even a monopoly - there are hundreds of competitors out there. Secondly, even if it was a techinical monopoly you are allowed to hold sales - what you cannot do is sell your goods in a way that abuses your monopolistic power, i.e selling below cost price, excluding certain channels or selling below market price to hamper new entrants. GW & below market price aren't two phrases that go together.

Anyhoo - as I said, whoever told you this is really off base.

Jervis eats them for breakfast

but seriously i've wondered this too

FM

I always thought that they where taken to a nice farm with a old couple where they could roam free and be happy along all the missing dogs and cats.