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.

I think one major factor people may be overlooking is that GW has a production facility in the US. So when they need to produce goods in this country they can without shipping anything directly.

For other countries that don't have that luxury they obviously have to pay to have the goods shipped over there, and Australia has to have a pretty hefty shipping tag associated with it given its distance from the UK.

And of course what others have said...GW doesn't change prices based on currency fluctuation and when they set their prices way back when the Australian dollar was very weak compared to the US dollar.

It also has to do with taxes. I'd say that the taxes we have often factor in more than the shipping costs.

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Arctik_Firangi wrote:I personally find people who don't support their local gaming stores pretty distasteful - I've seen good independent stores go out of business due to plagues of Maelstrom-fever.

My local game store is a GW. What do you suppose I should do? Pay 50% more than the rest of the world so that I can sit atop some imagined moral high ground?

I don't think so.

As I said before, the average Aussie makes more than a lot of the rest of the world... but besides that...

If your hobby involvement has nothing to do with local stores then I don't really see a problem. You aren't associated with each other, despite your geographical proximity.
If you see some willingness to be a part of and support a community as some sort of moral fault on my part then I really don't know what to say. I'm aware of the massive GW purchases you make, and I'm aware that you're an older gamer and that actual GW stores probably aren't where you like to play. As I said before, GW stores are more likely in place to introduce people to the hobby, and given the sparse population of our country it's probably difficult to run an economically viable business with so many stores. They sure as hell don't typically cater to the scale of game you usually post pictures of.

I mean, I've only recently moved into the proximity of a GW store despite having spent most of my life involved in the hobby. I now spend my money at the GW store in preference to the many nearby stockists because I know that the shopfronts are important to the development of the hobby and gaming community as we know it. Stockists don't actively recruit new hobbyists. It's fair enough if you just play in your basement with old mates; plenty of my friends only order from Maelstrom and most of those are garage-gamers or pure collectors. A lot are tournament junkies too. Not my problem, and I don't give 'em an earful over it. I'm comfortable doing what I choose to do. If you can figure I'm sitting on some sort of imaginary high-horse then maybe you've been forum-surfing for long enough tonight.

Its because Jervis hates Aussies, an Aussie barman tried it on with his Missus once and he doesn't forget!

Oh and there are probably toads used in the making of minis (GW are evil you know), you know how you lot can get about toads.

Frogs? Surely you mean toads.
I'm aware that the paint is still made in France but that's more likely to bother our American fellows.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:If you see some willingness to be a part of and support a community as some sort of moral fault on my part then I really don't know what to say.

Ah-ah! Not so fast sunshine.

Do not try to turn my words around like that. I at no point stated that a "willingness to be a part of ... a community" was a moral fault. You on the other hand said that quite the opposite of that, saying that you found "people who don't support their local gaming stores pretty distasteful". You're attempting to turn an economic issue into a moral issue, and then when called upon it, stuff straw in my mouth to make me out to be the bad guy.

So, again, don't even try to do that.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:I now spend my money at the GW store in preference to the many nearby stockists because I know that the shopfronts are important to the development of the hobby and gaming community as we know it.

Then I will call your actions foolish and leave it at that. If you're going to lecture someone for being 'distasteful' because they do not 'support their local gaming stores', and then you yourself don't support your local gaming stores and instead choose to spend twice as much as I do on the same products, then there's little I or anyone here can do for you.

I will say this though - you're the first person I've ever seen defend GWOZ prices that wasn't a GWOZ employee. So you're unique. How special.

chromedog wrote:They've started turning stores into one man operations now as well. GW Miranda is the first Sydney one to go.

I noticed that the four regular staff I usually see manning my GW store have disappeared and a store regular customer is now staff, and a new guy I've seen once. These staff are a bit green but one thing I credit them for is that they are hobbyists, not salesman, so I respect them more.

I feel sorry for the owners / franchisers who are footing out money for these store fronts. If the exchange rates work against them what hope do they have? Just like the big department stores pushing for GST for imports under $1000 in value...

... I received an order from maelstrom today as well.

Oh, come on yeh beggar. I guess I just don't know what sort of moral highground you were implying on my part. I can guess, but you wouldn't like that.

You are quite wrong in your summary - I do and have always supported my local gaming stores and it just so happens that for the last six months mine has been a Games Workshop store. For the six years prior to that I was a regular customer at Armageddon Games in Lismore (previously the Online Games Centre, if insaniak pokes his head in here ), and I've always paid 90-100% of GW's RRP at every other store I've been around (down south where the weather is much nicer). I've ordered from ScrapDragon (now GamingDragon) a few times (about 20% discount) when I was not in the vicinity of any actual stockists...

In the end I'm not the first person I've met that isn't bothered by the prices, so I suppose that we must both be and know different people, as bewildering a concept as that is.

I didn't try to lecture anyone - I thought I made it pretty clear on the last page that I was having a personal rant. I don't see why the discussion of economic factors concerning a very involved and community based hobby (at least as far as I'm concerned) should be strictly objective. I'll just repeat that I find it odd that so many 'gaming community' oriented players of Games Workshop games have no interest in helping to keep their FLGS doors open.

Games Workshop or independent, I'll say it again - the shops I've seen shut their doors were often managed by good mates and those circumstances affected the local gaming community as well. It's a personal thing for me. I am aware that here in Sydney it's the difference of a raindrop, but I'm going to keep on doing what I do.

If you want to be a bad guy that's fine, but you can just come out and say it instead of trying to pretend that I did.
I really don't care - I'm taking the piss a bit and I'm typing my mind. I'm aware of your strong public opinions of GW and how our opinions differ. I don't lack any normal amount of respect for you, but you sure get grumpy fast. All in all, it hardly matters enough to try to make some sort of conflict out of it.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:I personally find people who don't support their local gaming stores pretty distasteful - I've seen good independent stores go out of business due to plagues of Maelstrom-fever.

If they were 'good' independent stores, then they wouldn't have gone out of business. Sucks to be them, but you said it yourself, they're a 'business.' Not a charity. If you can't figure out some way to make the value of your customers coming into your store greater than them buying from someplace else, and are instead relying on them throwing money at you 'cause a nice chap, you're setting yourself up for disaster and have no one else to blame.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:Games Workshop or independent, I'll say it again - the shops I've seen shut their doors were often managed by good mates and those circumstances affected the local gaming community as well.

And obviously it's our fault that their business plan of "charge twice as much as everyone else" failed.

People don't tend to notice a half-dozen-plus permanently available and free gaming tables with beautiful scenery, or very regular tournaments and events for various games when you're selling GW/FoW/WM/TCGs at 100% RRP on one wall and have an internet cafe set up along the opposite wall where Maelstrom does it for half the price.

I see the problem now.

The day a kid tried to print his Maelstrom receipt out and needed help with the printer was pretty bloody funny.

The internet isn't 'everyone else'. Independent stockists sell at or near RRP, and can not possibly compete with the prices offered by bare-bones internet stockists. Maelstrom sells at a cheaper price than the independents can even get their wholesale product for. I'm not burning the webstores, I just find customer loyalty to be a fickle thing, and I've never even been the retailer suffering for it. Brick and mortar stores are truly awesome things, and simply worth it in my opinion... and apparently no one elses!

Arctik_Firangi wrote:The internet isn't 'everyone else'.

No, but the rest of the world is. It's not the 10-17.5% discount that makes the difference, it's the lack of the 70% "Screw Australia" surcharge.

GW obviously hates Australians. I think we should be asking why this is.

From a globalist viewpoint what you are saying makes perfect sense. I am talking about local stores but no one is incorrect in pointing out that this thread is about why the prices are higher.

They are higher because GW has obviously built themselves up in our country in such a fashion that their local business model depends on it. Despite whatever factors of the past, initially dependent on the exchange rate but thereafter mostly affected by worldwide GW price fluctuations, our prices are higher.

To give non-Australians some perspective, here are some price comparisons.

Space Marine Tactical Squad
UK 23
US 37.25
AU 62

Space Marine Battle Force
UK 51.25
US 90
AU 150

Space Marine Land Raider
UK 38.50
US 62
AU 103

Codex: Space Marines
UK 18
US 30
AU 50 (other army codii are 48)

The Australian dollar is worth slightly more than the US dollar, and buys 62 UK pence. You can immediately see that this is a straight up 40% increase on the lower priced items.
Most independent stockists in Australia purchase GW products at approximately 60% of RRP for the country.

When I started making GW purchases a tac squad was 34.95au, and paints were 3.50 instead of 6... well over a decade ago.

I've never lived anywhere else in the world but have done plenty of overseas trades and made occasional purchases... and I personally don't notice it enough to care when I can take advantage of my local store's gaming tables and modelling supplies (depending on the store)! I have 99% of the painting and others supplies I need at home but I like talking about my hobby with a lot of random people. I like playing a lot of games. I reckon I get my money's worth out of it and that's all there is to it. GW's pricing doesn't exceed the value I personally put in it.

Does anyone know the respective average wages/hourly rates for each country? Could shed some light on how GW are pricing?

Does anyone on Dakka Dakka work for GW in Australia?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Balance wrote:GW obviously hates Australians. I think we should be asking why this is.

Meanwhile at GW



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Maybe GW is marketing as a sort of emergency shop. Tournament upcoming, no time for shipping. Opinions?

Arctik_Firangi wrote:From a globalist viewpoint what you are saying makes perfect sense. I am talking about local stores but no one is incorrect in pointing out that this thread is about why the prices are higher.

They are higher because GW has obviously built themselves up in our country in such a fashion that their local business model depends on it. Despite whatever factors of the past, initially dependent on the exchange rate but thereafter mostly affected by worldwide GW price fluctuations, our prices are higher.

To give non-Australians some perspective, here are some price comparisons.

Space Marine Tactical Squad
UK 23
US 37.25
AU 62

Space Marine Battle Force
UK 51.25
US 90
AU 150

Space Marine Land Raider
UK 38.50
US 62
AU 103

Codex: Space Marines
UK 18
US 30
AU 50 (other army codii are 48)

The Australian dollar is worth slightly more than the US dollar, and buys 62 UK pence. You can immediately see that this is a straight up 40% increase on the lower priced items.
Most independent stockists in Australia purchase GW products at approximately 60% of RRP for the country.

When I started making GW purchases a tac squad was 34.95au, and paints were 3.50 instead of 6... well over a decade ago.

I've never lived anywhere else in the world but have done plenty of overseas trades and made occasional purchases... and I personally don't notice it enough to care when I can take advantage of my local store's gaming tables and modelling supplies (depending on the store)! I have 99% of the painting and others supplies I need at home but I like talking about my hobby with a lot of random people. I like playing a lot of games. I reckon I get my money's worth out of it and that's all there is to it. GW's pricing doesn't exceed the value I personally put in it.

I agree, I think sometimes it's worth my money to buy direct from them
Other times when it involves veichles or units like terminators, I just shake my head and move on
75 dollars for 5 units of Chaos Terminators
103 for a land raider
I can't beleive they're serious about that

I don't think even with the experience you get, that the price for those type of things is worth it in the end
At some point you have to draw the line and when it involves things like that I refuse to buy those products from them
You know what the strangest part of it all is
That GW Australia is doing well in comparison to other countries
In fact its one of the most profitable countries which they are based in

Asuron wrote:That GW Australia is doing well in comparison to other countries
In fact its one of the most profitable countries which they are based in

That comes back to the 'higher disposable income' thing. GW charge as much as they do here because they can.

That will change when internet shopping becomes a little more mainstream over here... an awful lot of Aussies seem to share GW's opinion of the internet as some sort of new fad, or just won't go near overseas shopping due to not really understanding how it all works.

I am another lad in Aus who buys from overseas, typically from Wayland. The shipping is only 4-5 pounds, then i get that 40/50% discount from ordering from overseas (plus sales or further discounts i get).

With the recent price rise, a Games Workshop Valkyrie now costs you $103. Whilst i can order a Forge World Vulture for $90.11 (shipping will cost you more, but anytime a FW order goes around down here we just get a few mates together for the free shipping)

Asuron wrote:
May I ask what is your opinion on the one in Mcarthur, Campbelltown?
I frequent it often, but I don't visit others so I can't really compare

Given it's on the other side of Sydney from me - and I don't even live in Sydney, I have no opinion on it. I've never been there - but I drove past Campbelltown on the way home from Cancon.

I'd support a local flgs if I had one. My local store is a GW. A tiny dog-box full of screaming grots and scrots.

I did used to have two, though. One went broke (several things combined to do this), the other stopped the gaming part of their business.

I support a NSW based web-store (run by people who are ex-locals of the same town my club is in) for most GW stuff. Other stuff goes to another Sydney based dealer (not GW, and he price matches with int'l dealers as he gets stock direct from the company (Infinity - Corvus Belli in Spain).
One off large GW model purchases I get from OS. I have two valkyries and a landing pad. I didn't like the local price (the model is not worth that much) but essentially a two-fer from the UK was too good to pass up.

After 22 years, there isn't much more I do need from GW. I can scratcbuild, or adapt something else.
Hell, even the 'new' FW WarpHunter - I built one of these from a falcon back in 2nd ed (and it even looks a lot like the current FW model).

I used to go to the one at Macarthur.
The newer manager was kind of a good enough reason to stop going there, just came across as a jerk too often, not sure if he's still there though. Had a couple of good staff but they went away shortly before I stopped bothering to go there, so I started going to the one at Liverpool instead.

A tiny dog-box full of screaming grots and scrots.

This is actually a fairly accurate description of it when I used to go there. Just generally way too many people for the size of the store.

Why do they hate us? I think it's racism.

I aslo get stuff from here from time to time:
http://www.gamingdragon.com.au/

n0t_u wrote:I used to go to the one at Macarthur.
The newer manager was kind of a good enough reason to stop going there, just came across as a jerk too often, not sure if he's still there though. Had a couple of good staff but they went away shortly before I stopped bothering to go there, so I started going to the one at Liverpool instead.

A tiny dog-box full of screaming grots and scrots.

This is actually a fairly accurate description of it when I used to go there. Just generally way too many people for the size of the store.

I think I remember him when I used to go a few years back
Noone liked him and he yelled at people alot, for reasons to this day I still don't comprehend
My friends said people called him Peter Jackson
Never quite understood why

I started visiting again late last year
If its the same guy I can't tell, because either it isn't the same manager, he looks so different I can't recognise him or his personality has changed massively since then

I've been going down there and it is a nice store and the employees are pretty friendly
They do try a bit of the hardsell but I can't really fault them at that it's their job and they get pressured to do so

I don't think it is small though, its fairly big i think
Miranda on the other hand was tiny when I used to go until Macarthurs opened up
Anymore than 10 people and you were begging to get out

Compared to Liverpool it seems a bit small but it's more to do with the layout of the tables I think.

Still beats having no stores around at all and it being a patch of dirt when I started.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:It's not greed. It's sensible. GW stores are there to get people into the hobby, not to turn over massive profits. That's just not even a practical hope given the nature of the business. They make a huge proportion of their profits from trade sales anyway.

I personally find people who don't support their local gaming stores pretty distasteful - I've seen good independent stores go out of business due to plagues of Maelstrom-fever. I hate to see the destruction of local gaming communities but I am aware that some people prefer to just collect and paint models and are not involved with the gaming community. I presume that most GW customers don't play the games so often, but I find it really quite idiotic that it's often the real gamer types who advocate ordering from overseas and thereby affecting the local businesses that would otherwise support it. So who is it that was greedy again?

I don't mean to offend anyone here, I'm just an overinformed, dedicated hobbyist and determined gaming community member. Excuse me if I rant a little.

That assumes you need a local retail store to have a local gaming community, and I just don't know if that's true.

Gaming clubs meet regularly to play in community centres and the like, they're much cheaper than retail space and they typically smell better.

Yeah, the first club that I was a part of (with about 30 members meeting fortnightly) was in a town that had one store (a Toyworld) that sold GW stuff, and they had a shocking range, no gaming space, and no staff who knew anything about the product.

I don't think I ever bought anything more than White Dwarf from them, and most of the other gamers in the area bought through mail order instead.

A_F, Cairns is a one man store, although an extra bloke came up from Sydney to help out in the lead up to Christmas.

The two independent stockists here didn't really grow the game, and also sold at RRP, so no real incentive to buy there. I typically find the range in the stockist displays to be fairly uninspiring, anyway. With GW now in town, they don't even update what little stock they have remaining. Since we now have a GW, I figure that even if I buy from Wayland etc, the money is still going back to GW HQ. No harm, no foul. Some stuff I do buy locally. I even got to heckle the manager for stuffing up the build of his Stormraven. He's a nice guy.

It's something that drove me nuts as a Canadian GW employee. Could argue with a 30 dollar difference in the 90's for a box set when the Canadian Dollar was at 0.65 US. In 2006 though the dollar was at parity (as it remains) the 20-30 difference is insane.

yakface wrote:
I think one major factor people may be overlooking is that GW has a production facility in the US. So when they need to produce goods in this country they can without shipping anything directly.

I highly doubt that is much of a factor at all. If that were the case, Canadian prices shouldn't be creeping into the +25% range again, as our dollar sitting very close in value to the USD and Canada is now run out of and supplied by the same GW branch.

Australia is called the lucky contry - Lucky if you can live and survive!!

Everything is expenive here, i thinks is everyone wants to get rich and move to europe. Australia the only contry everyone will chuck a sicky from so they don't have to be in australia anymore.