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napalmr wrote:
I will be buying as little as possible from GW as paying double the rest of the world is absurd. It can cost anywhere up to 74 dollars for a pack of 5 units...

$102 for 5 models - MAC and Honour Guard. Shame can't find the "one click heroes" bundle. That was hilarious. Something like $180 for 6 models?

Pretty much. For example, we pay ~$1.40 per litre of petrol (so nearly $5us per gallon thanks to our dollars being so close these days). Another point is housing - in an area outside of the city with an hour long, or more, commute, rent is roughly ~$300 per week, and utilities roughly ~$400 per quarter. Got a mortgage? Add about 70% to that rent, and about 50% to those utilities (mostly to cover local council rate payments).

Minimum wage is high in Australia, but you can't realistically live on it, since cost of living is so much higher and minimum wage hasn't increased proportionally with inflation (neither have most wages, honestly).

Well in the city where I live its about 1000 bucks a month for a decent apartment 2 bedrooms and gas ranges from 1.20/L to 1.40/L
For a house its about 300,000 average with prices no lower than 150 000 (Unless its a dump) and going up to 1 000 000 tops (its a small town only 50,000 people).
Also utilities here are outrageously high for no good reason haha

People making minimum wage can't afford houses though here really so Canada is pretty expensive considering out minimum wage haha

Black Cultist for you Canberrans for a 20% discount, and free delivery. And they have some of the best customer support ever.

Well in the city where I live its about 1000 bucks a month for a decent apartment 2 bedrooms

That was ~$300 per week for a small unit/townhouse over an hour out of the city. A house, you'd be looking at ~$400-$450 easily.

and gas ranges from 1.20/L to 1.40/L

Fair enough. I was under the impression petrol was a lot cheaper over there.

For a house its about 300,000 average with prices no lower than 150 000 (Unless its a dump) and going up to 1 000 000 tops (its a small town only 50,000 people).

I'm building a house right now, even further from the nearest city, and I'm paying close to half a million. For a small 3 bedroom house. Even if I wasn't building, I'd be paying close to that amount anyway.

Also utilities here are outrageously high for no good reason haha

As they are here. There's actually quite a few agencies set up to try and get them under control that never manage to accomplish anything.

chiefbigredman wrote:
Well I know you guys don't want to say what the minimum wage is but in Canada (at least in Ontario) it's $10.25/hour.

It's not so much about not wanting to say what it is as it simply not being relevant.

Disposable income is the relevant factor when you're talking about luxury goods. And most people on minimum wage don't have a heck of a lot of that.




The one positive to come out of GW recently is that they do seem to be finally making an effort to equalise the prices a little. The new Eldar releases are mostly only around 10% dearer than in the US, which is reasonable when you factor in shipping.

The prices being high was never as much of a problem for me as the prices being different depending on geographical boundaries. In the age of the interwebs, that doesn't work, and just makes people cranky.

 insaniak wrote:
In the age of the interwebs, that doesn't work, and just makes people cranky.

Yes, yes it does.

I can understand increased prices based on current value of said national currency do to economic strain or instability, (for instance Bitz Box shows the UK pound to be worth 60% more then US dollar atm ) or even increased a little bit for the sake of shipping costs, but honestly it seems absurd to just double prices for those in Australia.

Is there any justification for these price increases by Games Workshop? Or are they doing for the sake they are rich money grubbers and they can?

GW originally set their regional pricing back when the Oz dollar was worth about 60 cents US. When the dollar went up, GW (and admittedly quite a lot of other companies) kept their pricing calculations the same, which let them pocket the difference between the wholesale price and the actual exchange rate.

As online shipping became more of a thing here, people started to notice, and GW is certainly not the only company currently copping flak for this practise.

 insaniak wrote:
GW originally set their regional pricing back when the Oz dollar was worth about 60 cents US. When the dollar went up, GW (and admittedly quite a lot of other companies) kept their pricing calculations the same, which let them pocket the difference between the wholesale price and the actual exchange rate.

As online shipping became more of a thing here, people started to notice, and GW is certainly not the only company currently copping flak for this practise.

Yep, the practice is rife with software too. Regional pricing for games on steam is a big problem, with Australians being charged $US90 for a game that costs $US60 if you have an American IP. Note that we are still charged in US dollars - just more of them. Easily checked with the use of http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=us or ?cc=au.

Widdershinz wrote:
Can't buy from ebay, the shipping kills the value.

I only buy second hand (preferably unassembled) because you just can't get a reasonable deal otherwise.

Although I am just about to move to Europe, and experience the joys of Wayland Games et al

Yea, second hand is pretty good, I'm getting (necrons) 3 tomb blades, 30 Warriors, 4 Lychguard, 2 overlords, 1 AB and a Ghost Ark for $200AUS from the owner of a independent FLGS... i just made money basically compared to AUS gw prices

The title of this thread poses an interesting question. What kind of impact will the mercenary practices of GW have on the future of the hobby in OZ? Unfortunately all the discussion is just recycled stuff about the pricing instead of its effect.

Not really very interesting stuff because it has all been said so many times before.

JWhex wrote:
What kind of impact will the mercenary practices of GW have on the future of the hobby in OZ?

What we've seen in the last 5 years or so is that, thanks to GW's increasingly insane corporate decisions combined with the sudden explosion of smaller games companies all over the place, people are finally turning to other games.

40K is still bigger than I've ever seen it, but then the gaming community is much, much bigger than it was back when I started playing. And large chunks of that community are turning to Warmahordes, Flames of War, Dystopian Wars... or even just boardgames, rather than continue to support a company that seems to be actively trying to drive them away.

Many table top gamers I know have started playing various other games which is somewhat upsetting as I have really gotten into 40k of late. With the way things are priced in Australia and the other games with better balanced play who can blame them?

I don't know how GW can justify the pricing... You cannot say its shipping tax.. I can buy at US retail price and pay US shipping to AUS and still come off alot better then paying GW AUS pricing. The free shipping on orders above $60 is laughable considering not much you buy is actually under $60.

In conclusion I think on the plus side this is giving people the oportunity to discover other wargames and GW is its own worst enemy.

I only play with a small gaming group in our homes - so I can't speak for the rest of the gaming community as my only contact with them is on these boards or the rare times that I go into GW stores (not many indy stores round these parts).

But in my group of about 8-10, we've all stopped buying from GW stores. We have been buying online for the last year or two - mostly Waylands before they were told to stop selling to us, and more recently Spikey Bits, until they were recently told to stop.

Now its only really paints (and the odd army book/codex)we buy from GW, the rest is from ebay, or we've just stopped and gone back to old projects. We still play the games, and haven't looked at others, we just don't buy now.

In regards to the local GW stores here, they were really good. Great staff, still good mates with past managers, but a brief golden period for the stores has ended with the old managers that were hobbyists through and through gone. The marion store has closed (and was probably the biggest around) due to obscene Westfield rents, and the other stores have gone down to one man stores. I can understand the reasoning behind this, they are costly things to run, but several times I've wandered past the store only to see a "sorry, gone to lunch" sign on the door, so I kept walking.

So, from my experience, the gaming side of things hasn't changed. But we are buying a lot less, and most of our discussions around the gaming table are about how poorly GW treat their customer base, and which blunder they are going to make next

We are by no means the solution but we can help ease the pain on your wallet a little. The solution is fair pricing for all.

I have not been on Dakka for a while, after a gaming sabbatical to blood bowl, and just found this tread and wanted to comment. Apologies if the self promotion is unwelcome. OzHammer was created after hearing stories just like these. We did not think it was fair and did something about it. OzHammer was created last July and continues to supported fellow gamers in Australia and New Zealand. We sell at UK prices, in the main, and give an alternative place to buy your Warhammer Fantasy, 40K and LotR models, paints and brushes.

We advertise on Dakka too because we like the site :O)

If you only buy Codexes we can ship the new hard backs for £43.25 (£30 codex + shipping). If it is just paints and brushes or anything for that matter a half kg parcel for £7.55 up to a 2 KG parcel for £24.56. We can go heavier and split orders over multipul parcels. The lighter /more you order the smaller the shipping costs becomes relative to the goods. For example you can get 8 blister packs, over £100 worth, in half KG parcel easy. Probably more to be honest.

We price up each order manually to keep the shipping as low as possible (We pay palpal fees on shipping but make no money out of it) Any questions or quotes etc. I am always happy to help. Either via PM here or on the email on the website.

I earn minimum wage in Sydney and let me tell you, I'm more concerned with what my wife and I are eating, when we can afford to fill up the car with petrol and how the hell we can pay rent.
Put simply, I can't foresee how people on minimum wage could possibly buy warhammer at RRP as it is normally out of reach for me.

So please... PLEASE... stop mentioning the minimum wage reason.

napalmr wrote:
I am working full time and make a decent wage but when I go to GW and see 5 plastic guys for 70 plus dollars I feel a little upset. Saying "dont Aussies have a high minimum wage" is as educated as saying dont us citizens all drive escalades and live in massive homes with picket fences tree swings and swimming pools with soccer moms who drive them to their local store and pay for their half price minis. The point is the pricing is absurd I have entered the hobby much later In life because quite frankly the price in aus for gw product has always been absurd and now that I am older with full time.work I can afford.... The EU/US priced minis from gw. The Australian price is far to inflated its beyond a joke.

I am in the US and make serious money and I go in and look at US prices on GW products and it makes me shake my head and stop buying them. Would have stopped buying a long time ago if I was looking those doubled aussie prices.

Skriker

I don't know about Eldar, but I was actually quite pleased with the Tau release. The gap for Australia was actually reduced in some places, some kits seemed slightly cheaper for their content, and the three-man Crisis team offers a discount. All in all, I think Games Workshop might be starting to notice us little guys down under.

<--- Is just finding out about this price disparity now.

Now to decide if saving ~$5-10 per item is worth no longer supporting my FLGS.

Does anyone know if Wayland Games are any good/trustworthy? Because so far, they appear to be the cheapest option I can find.

Night Scythe

Wayland: $43.07
Dicebucket: $54.60
FLGS: $60.80
GW: $76.00

lol Aussies don't even have it as bad as us Kiwis!

New Codex costs $98... That's right, $100 for your codex ladies and gentlemen...

I will be sending my second 'gift' to AUS containing 40k figs soon.

Last package containing most of the metal LotD figures before the failcost conversion cost me 11USD to ship parcel post. With that shipping (pretty damn reasonable) and me ordering them direct from GW my Aussie pal still saved a fist full of money.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
<--- Is just finding out about this price disparity now.

Now to decide if saving ~$5-10 per item is worth no longer supporting my FLGS.

Does anyone know if Wayland Games are any good/trustworthy? Because so far, they appear to be the cheapest option I can find.

Night Scythe

Wayland: $43.07
Dicebucket: $54.60
FLGS: $60.80
GW: $76.00

Im fairly sure Wayland is not allowed to ship to AUS any more - due to GW's Europe Embargo.

All in all I still buy from Ebay, even with inflated US postage it comes out cheaper in the end for most GW products - that and you still can buy second hand from euro sellers.

tallerguy: I hadn't heard of OzHammer - how are you getting around the embargo, are you Aussie based?

Regarding the future of Warhammer - I think its more the future of GW; I play 40K and a paint and collect 40K however i haven't paid a dollar directly to GW in at leat 7 years (even my indirect $ would be going to GW:US or GW:UK not GW:AUS).

Warhammer will exist aslong as people play it.

Yup, Wayland can't ship to Oz anymore, unfortunately.

They were supposed to be working on a legal RoW solution to the embargo - but it HAS to be legally watertight to get around the trade agreement they have with GW - I'm guessing it was harder than they thought.

Well, that's a shame. I got all excited when I saw it saw "ships worldwide" at the top of the page too.

I guess Ebay will do, it's still $10 cheaper than my FLGS. Of course, I do wonder if it's actually worth it, considering I won't be supporting the story anymore.

How does kings of war do down there?

It's nuts that you lot can get FORGE WORLD cheaper.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
How does kings of war do down there?

I've seen it for sale in quite a few places, and supposedly Mantic's stuff is popular amongst Fantasy players.

My FLGS stocks all of Mantics offerings, but I've never seen it played in store. Being Australia, that means little, as most gaming here is done at houses or in clubs, but still, my store has a rather large community of players that play at the store.

I did see one kid painting some Warpath Marauders to start a 40k Ork army on the cheap, but I only ever saw him there once.

Presumeably it sells well, because it never stays on the shelf long.

It's GWs own initiative to price the Aussies out of their game systems. So be it, let them lose business and hurt their PR (even worse than they are now, on both those fronts actually). You can always just eBay what you need. I tend to buy second-hand specifically to stick it to GW. Buying from Indies still ensures GW sees money, I prefer to not give them $113 CAD for a Riptide. LOL are you kidding me GW? I actually sell discount Warhammer in my eBay store (see sig link), and shipping is free on a lot of items - even to Australia. That probably explains why half my business is from Australians, it only costs me $10.00 to send a package there from my province, GW is bananas.

Their paints I actually think are worth it because for $4.50 you can stretch a single poultice for years with good painting habit (thinning the paints, not letting them dry, etc). Pretty much every single other thing they sell is unbelievably overpriced. It especially shows in their regional pricing where they ignore conversion rates and just slap 100% arbitrary pricing on stuff. Mind-boggling.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
Well, that's a shame. I got all excited when I saw it saw "ships worldwide" at the top of the page too.

I guess Ebay will do, it's still $10 cheaper than my FLGS. Of course, I do wonder if it's actually worth it, considering I won't be supporting the story anymore.

Oh, they do ship worldwide. It's just that due to the terms of their trade agreement with GW, they CAN'T sell GW stuff outside their zone). You can still get the PP, Infinity, flames of war, etc through them - just no GW.

I don't play in a store, so that's not usually my issue (not supporting a store). I get stuff from wherever is cheapest.
That said, I do buy stuff from my FLGS when I can. It tends to only be small purchases, though (<$50 at a time - which is every few months).

MarsNZ wrote:
lol Aussies don't even have it as bad as us Kiwis!

New Codex costs $98... That's right, $100 for your codex ladies and gentlemen...

(All prices converted to USD for ease of comparison)
Daemon Codex:
GW NZ - $80
GW Aus - $79
FLGS - $72
The copy I bought on Ebay and including shipping to the other side of the planet - $56
GW US site - $49.50
GW UK - $46

So I'm expected to pay just under double for the book, and even getting it drastically cheaper for me is a hefty jump above US/UK prices...

MarsNZ wrote:
lol Aussies don't even have it as bad as us Kiwis!

New Codex costs $98... That's right, $100 for your codex ladies and gentlemen...

I live in a mining town, IIRC Tau codex was over AU$100 at FLGS (don't know it in U$D).
But let's not turn this into a game of who has it tougher ('coz I'd win).
Anyways I think the pricing will definitely be driving current and prospective players away, I've seen whole prospective groups wither and die before they even start, worst case scenario Australia turns into South Africa in terms of wargaming, but that's really pushing it. When I left there was one GW store in the whole country and you had to save for 6 months to get a battleforce and then that's your entire army for the next few months unless you're really loaded or live close to one of the other weird stores that sells GW pieces.