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 skchsan wrote:

Yeah. If the rulesets are so poorly written that the book itself isn't worth buying as a rulebook, they'd better make sure I'm getting a brand-spankin-new book as a shelf decoration at the least.

Nice leap, there.

"Why do GW shrinkwrap their model kits? I want to be able to open them and check what parts are in them before I buy them.

What's that? I can look at the sprues online, on the GW website, or other sites?
Not good enough. What if I don't have time on the internet to search for the fluff sprues I want, but I can write a forum post saying why it's bad GW use shrinkwrap on the same site I could ask about the fluff sprues I want.

Goddamn GW."

^^^^^ my thoughts on the above.
They're shrinkwrapped because they're a product. If you want it, ask someone else for one, or use the internet. Everything in the codexes can be found online. The basic rules for models can be found in the boxes (in my experience), the rules are free, and lore can be found online in far better-organised manners.

Why do you need to be able to read a codex before you buy it?

 JohnnyHell wrote:
I suspect however that no-one has ever looked through a Codex and from that very look-through decided whether to buy.

That's how I've gotten about 8 of my friends to play the game.
If they hadn't been able to look at the codecs (3rd/4th ed) they never would have gotten into the game. They each spent about an hour looking through the books before decieding on the faction they wanted to play. Keep in mind not all stores have the complete inventory that GW offers.

I bought my Chapter Approved because it was the store copy. Dog eared and torn it cost me 15 bucks.

 Stormonu wrote:
Zero. The store(s) I buy from don’t do gaming in store - Books A Million and one of the two local FLGS.

Well, suck it up.

Thumbing through books quickly render them unsellable. Grubby finger marks, dog eared pages. Torn pages.. Snot. Blood. Pubes. Pus from some Spotty Little Herbert.

All that and worse can be found in non-shrink wrapped nerd books. And knackered spines. Ever seen some pimply little oik fold the pages they’ve skimmed over right back so they’re up against the back cover? I have. Guess where that book goes! Right in the ‘known loss’ book, then the bin - because it’s spine is wrecked and I cannot sell it?

And that’s working in a GW, where the actual loss to the shop is probably pennies, couple of quid at most.

For your FLGS? That’s their money Shorty Greasy Spot Spot has just ruined.

And no. Open Copies do not stop such nonsense. Ever seen two nerds with the same Chapter or Army rock up for a game, where they’ve both forgotten (or never bought) their Army Book/Codex/Battletome? I know I know. You’d think they’d have figured out at least sharing the Open Copy. But you’d be wrong!? So wrong it’s not even funny. Christ, I’ve seen both ‘orrible little yoofs both not bother with the open copy, and pluck them straight off the shelf. And sometimes, more than just the one book. Planestrike x 2, Codex Space Marines x 2. That’s a surprising amount of the FLGS stock money going straight in the bin.

In fact, I’m willing to bet that rather than Big Bad GW, The Company With The Temerity To Seek A Profit making the shrink wrapped decision - it wa actually third party vendors, wanting to protect the stock they’ve shelled out for from nasty, dirty, zit riddled urchins, and thus the bin.

If you pick an army based solely on the criteria of how powerful it is (which is the only conclusion that I can draw where you need to look through the entire book and compare with other books before coming to a decision, since aesthetics would not be a consideration) then I'd say just wait a few weeks for it to drop and then gauge the online rage to how powerful it is before you buy it.

This one time I was at my local GW and I wanted to look at the codex for an army I was thinking about starting. To my dismay all the codexes were shrink wrapped!!!!!! So then i pulled out my smart phone and used the complementary internet to look at pictures of the pages in the codex thats all over google. The End.

Pro Tip: GW don't actually do anything in each new edition other than fiddle some numbers. If you've read an older codex, you've already read the new shrink-wrapped one.

Sass aside, I work part time in a book store at weekends when I'm not in the laboratory and I find these shrink wrapped books an oddity designed to push blind sales.

 Stormonu wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
Its not a library. ether buy the book, ask to see a store beater copy or ask one of the locals.

why should Gw let you thumb through sell-able stock.

Because I can do so with every other RPG book in a bookstore?

If i had caught you doing that when i worked in a book store, i would have thrown you out. It's a shop, not a public library.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
Its not a library. ether buy the book, ask to see a store beater copy or ask one of the locals.

why should Gw let you thumb through sell-able stock.

Because I can do so with every other RPG book in a bookstore?

If i had caught you doing that when i worked in a book store, i would have thrown you out. It's a shop, not a public library.

You sir. Enjoy your exalt!

I think it's fine that the books are shrink-wrapped, to prevent Cheeto-stained greasy fingers from dirtying them.

How did this topic get to a second page?

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
Its not a library. ether buy the book, ask to see a store beater copy or ask one of the locals.

why should Gw let you thumb through sell-able stock.

Because I can do so with every other RPG book in a bookstore?

If i had caught you doing that when i worked in a book store, i would have thrown you out. It's a shop, not a public library.

What the hell are you talking about? It’s illegal to look through, say, a MM to see what creatures are in it and look at the pretty pictures?

You people are miserable.

Not miserable. In fact when i worked there we had a number of tables and chairs for people to sit and browse. But it got so abused by people sitting around for hours just reading, using reference books, damaging stock we had to take them away and keep an unoffical timer on people who disappeared into the back rows. If they hadn't moved in 15 minutes, we had to step in. Abuses means loss of privlege. And a lot of people seem to mistake a privilege for a right.

 Stormonu wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
Its not a library. ether buy the book, ask to see a store beater copy or ask one of the locals.

why should Gw let you thumb through sell-able stock.

Because I can do so with every other RPG book in a bookstore?

If i had caught you doing that when i worked in a book store, i would have thrown you out. It's a shop, not a public library.

What the hell are you talking about? It’s illegal to look through, say, a MM to see what creatures are in it and look at the pretty pictures?

You people are miserable.

Its also entirely at the digression of the business owner

or do you think you have any right to do anything you want anywhere?

 Stormonu wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
Its not a library. ether buy the book, ask to see a store beater copy or ask one of the locals.

why should Gw let you thumb through sell-able stock.

Because I can do so with every other RPG book in a bookstore?

If i had caught you doing that when i worked in a book store, i would have thrown you out. It's a shop, not a public library.

What the hell are you talking about? It’s illegal to look through, say, a MM to see what creatures are in it and look at the pretty pictures?

You people are miserable.

No, just practical.

You want to look through a book? Get over yourself and buy the damned thing. And if you’re too much of a cheapskate to buy new, have you heard of ebay?

Basically, Socialist as I am (and that’s very), the world owes you no more than a roof over your head, food in your belly, and a living wage.

When it comes to whining about luxury products not being exactly as you demand them? Yeah. You’re on you’re own.

"I don't have the codex, but I do have everything I need on my phone, I just took pictures of the relevant entries and points."- pretty much the next steps after someone taking off the shrink wrap in the store.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Basically, Socialist as I am (and that’s very), the world owes you no more than a roof over your head, food in your belly, and a living wage.

And no, it doesn't. He who does not work, does not eat. You can get three hots and a cot in a prison. But at least we 100% agree on the entitlement to recreational/luxury products.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:


And no, it doesn't. He who does not work, does not eat. You can get three hots and a cot in a prison. But at least we 100% agree on the entitlement to recreational/luxury products.

Geez. Someone better tell the AI companies to stop building robots then.

Plenty of companies shrinkwrap their books. And plenty of FLGS (like mine) will remove the shrinkwrap from at least one copy of each book, because GW does not require that books be sold with shrinkwrap, and the intent of the shrinkwrap isn't to prevent people from looking in the book before purchasing it

The shrinkwrap is there so that in the event of returned product it can be easily determined whether any damage to the book is the distributor's liability or not. Distributors will generally assume liability for damage to a book that is still shrinkwrapped, once it's removed, they won't.

Some people spend way to much time typing their opinions on forum, reading the responses, then replying ad nauseum when that time can be spent learning about the product they wish to buy. It's even funnier claiming not having enough time, due to family life, to look up on the Internet information that is easily found yet have enough time to leave the home and family, travel to the store, spend time perusing books for free then travel back home. If you are reading this post you should be researching products since you clearly have time right now at this moment.

But this thread isn't about improving oneself. It about the man keeping a brother down.

feth me people will complain about anything...

They should do what my GW used to do. Don't have shrink wrapped books but have books that are damaged and have people just read them for rules in store and not buy them.

I'd rather my Codex was pristine. The GW website description of each Codex gives a good overview of its contents and there are plenty of in-depth reviews online if you need more detail.

I agree with the OP. It's so petty to shrinkwrap them. I've never bought a book without looking inside.

I really despair at the people in this thread saying that the OP should not have made this thread. You are entitled to hold a different opinion (i.e. it's good that the books are shrinkwrapped), but stop saying that the OP shouldn't have an opinion in the first place. Discussing things is literally what a forum is for! The forum has been a bit light on new and interesting threads lately, so let's not stifle what discussion we do have, ey?

Sadly true but people treating bookstores as libraries is a major part of why it is a dying industry. Go in read through part of a book. Like it go order it on amazon.

 Sim-Life wrote:
How did this topic get to a second page?

I straight-up thought this was a joke thread/title before I started reading.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Well, suck it up.

Thumbing through books quickly render them unsellable. Grubby finger marks, dog eared pages. Torn pages.. Snot. Blood. Pubes. Pus from some Spotty Little Herbert.

What do they do with the display books in your ... actually I don't want to know...

My local GW doesn't have shrinkwrapped books. They have store copies of most of them, but I'm guilty of picking up a stock copy and looking at the pictures on occasion. If yours does, it must be a local decision; perhaps because someone keeps distressing the stock?

They shrinkwrap them because there will be some clumsy sod who thumbs through a copy and leaves pages in a mess. It's the same as them shrinkwrapping the models. They don't want to have to fork out more monies to replace kits that someone's broken after forcing it back into the box.

 Daedalus81 wrote:
Geez. Someone better tell the AI companies to stop building robots then.

"Muh Robutts" hasn't been a relevant hope since they started talking about it in the 1960's. Get a job.

Anyway, back on topic:

OP, you're going to have a difficult time convincing me that you're actually flipping through various books to make your decision on which Codex you want.

It would require you to know absolutely no one with that book, or a working knowledge of how that army plays, etc. It would also mean you've never been able to use Google, to find out what an army offers. It would ALSO mean that you're that one guy that has just come to the hobby and has no idea what you're going to play, and you need to read a book and refuse any and all aid from others to make your choice.

I'm more convinced you're just like the kids I have to throw out every now and then before a tournament- in there, flipping through the book, snapping pictures on your phone so you can get the units you want without paying money for it like everyone else (or being as creative as those of us who don't buy Imperial Armour books).