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My army was hot trash at the beginning of 8th, and now it's one of the best (iron hands).

I say buy and paint what makes you happy and don't chase rules/meta.

Unless tournament play makes you happy, which is actually just fine in my opinion.

I think we are seeing 9th ed already. The new marine books look drasticly different from any codex in 8th ed. even the paradigma shift from soup all day, is a huge thing.

Has there been any actual, verifiable rumors or 9th edition? Because the only source I’ve seen are people literally saying “there’s rumors of 9th edition”. The 6-7-8 transition was indeed quick, but with the supplements and FAQ/CA system GW has solved the issue of regular balancing (for the optimists) and routine book sales (for the cynics). 8th edition WAS the Age of Sigmar moment for 40k, the setting changed and all the rules were re-written.
If there is a 9th edition, it will be either 1) a minor re-skin with a few rules tweaks/FAQ integration or 2) a few years down the road. But all this talk of 9th Ed dropping soon is entirely unfounded from what I’ve seen, unless someone has actual rumors in which case there’s a sub forum for that.

All the talk about 9th Edition dropping soon is based on GW's established pattern of releasing a new edition about when they're done donig army books for everyone.

9th Edition may well be a minor reskin with a few rules tweaks; 4th->5th and 6th->7th were.

There is no "good time" to jump into 40K.
1. There is always the rumor of "The new edition is coming next year!"
2. There is always new stuff coming out, and it's starting to get to weird levels with new models/rules coming out at seemingly random times
3. The awesome new army that just came out will be in the limelight for about 2-3 months before the next new army comes out
4. Frequent FAQ's/Errata and Chapter Approved change the game significantly every time they drop

It might be a good time to get into the game if you want to play Space Marines. They have been getting a LOT of love lately. There are some good deals on army box sets during the Holiday Season. After Christmas and before the New Year, FLGS's will have insane sales to get rid of stock on the shelves. This helps with inventory and business taxes (varies by state).

The worst time to get into 40K would probably be the month or so before a new edition drops. No one will really know what is good/trash in the new edition until the edition drops. This is why GW really keeps release dates under wraps and plays their cards really close to their chest. Unless GW thinks announcing it early will generate more sales like the Sisters of Battle.

 Tamwulf wrote:
...There is no "good time" to jump into 40K...

Qualifier: This assumes that what you're aiming for is a competitive or well-balanced army list. The best way to have fun with 40k is to accept that rules are transient/may be taken away at any time and models last forever, buy models you like, and play whatever squishy homebrew half-baked strange narrative scenarios come out of the twisted back-ways of your mind rather than assuming it needs to be a standardized balanced game played the way the tournament people want to play it.

yeah. Imagine you start a BA jump troop army before CA killed the game play. Even if you never play in tournaments, like me, you still will suffer from the changes.

Best time to start an army is post CA, preferably with an army that just got a codex and had its FAQ/errata already out. This means that even if the army is good, it will still miss andy changes in the spring FAQ, because GW seems to nerf the meta that was a thing 6-9 months ago.