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The Australian dollar has hit US97c.
What does this mean?
That the RRP for a box of Tac Marines in Australia is now approximately US$62... but also that buying from US stores online is getting cheaper.

So the question I have for those familiar with economics is: Is it currently cheaper for me to buy GW products online from the US or from the UK?

Usually I shop at Maelstrom (discount and free shipping!), but if US is now cheaper, what are some suggested US-based online stores?

thanks in advance!

I have found after observational research that the free shipping from maelstrom tends to outweigh the extra discounts from other stores.

In any case, generally UK = cheaper than US, and our dollar is also getting better against the pound (sitting @ 1AUD = ~0.614GBP atm)

Freight is the big killer from the US.

Goods may be cheaper, but you'll eat up the difference in freight.

The big one is whether you select mail, UPS or FedEx.

FedEx costs more - but uses the SAME airfleet to get it to Oz as UPS (but FedEx has a more inclusive policy on damaged in transit goods).

del'Vhar wrote:I have found after observational research that the free shipping from maelstrom tends to outweigh the extra discounts from other stores.

I agree. I've put together orders from US retailers (even GWUS) and it's always cheaper to get it from Maelstrom (or even GWUK).

So after a little bit of number crunching, AUD$1 would have to be approximately US$1.12 for buying from the US to be viable (over UK)...


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[appendix] just for lulz: Marneus Calgar and retinue is worth $85 US from GW Australia.

Yes, our prices are stupid.

Don't buy locally. Our prices are too high.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Don't buy locally

This is the one rule I follow when buying GW.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Yes, our prices are stupid.

Don't buy locally. Our prices are too high.

Tim the Biovore wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Don't buy locally

This is the one rule I follow when buying GW.

So just out of interest (and back OT), what are some good US online stores for GW product?

Wouldn't really know sorry.

Only US store I order from is TheWarStore and I don't order GW stuff from them.

chromedog wrote:Freight is the big killer from the US.

Goods may be cheaper, but you'll eat up the difference in freight.

The big one is whether you select mail, UPS or FedEx.

FedEx costs more - but uses the SAME airfleet to get it to Oz as UPS (but FedEx has a more inclusive policy on damaged in transit goods).

Doesn't stuff just get sent Royal Mail from the UK?

I can't understand how GW even has a market in Australia. I can't see that import costs inflate their prices so much that they have to be passed on to the customer in the manner that it is. The increased cost is phenomenal. There's something wrong if a company ships stuff in bulk and has to charge more per item than if the customer just bought the item from the UK at RRP and paid for the postage to send it over. That's just mad. Is that how everything is in Australia? Are Star Wars figures £15 each as well?

Surely shipping costs are related to size and weight. So on the face of it why are the prices so inflated? Why is a box of blood dragons so exceedingly costly ($150AU) last time I looked when their box is so small? I imagine that a great big army box has greater costs attached when shipping but the smaller boxes don't so umm...why are they inflated to the same extent?

I always found Wayland games to be a couple of dollars cheaper than Maelstorm but the latter gives you moneyback and airsure for free depending on the size of your order.

Total Wargamer is extremely cheap (because it's UK based) but the best store to order from in my experience is either The Combat Company or Maelstrom Games.

Howard A Treesong, as a GW gamer for 20 years there are 2 important facts:
1: The Australian dollar is insanely high currently compared to where it normally sits. It was 30 UK pence to the OZDollar back in the 90's when GW really started to expand here . Normally as the dollar rises, imports fall in price. Not with GW, they stay the same and people stop buying from them (like me, >$2500 spent in the last 2 years, about $30 of it spent at GW OZ.
2: They have always been more expensive than GWUK by 20-30% (that is the transport and logistics costs) However as pointed out in point 1, that difference should have evaporated with the long term rise of the dollar.

I cannot work out how GWOZ is absorbing the loss of sales to the UK and US.

By opening up a new store in North Sydney of course!

Feel for you guys... but to answer the original question, most of us have great luck with TheWarStore in the US.

I've done several large orders from them, and they always get things right in the end, even if it takes a try or two . So I recommend them...

The important part of the above post is "... in the US."

To be as polite as possible - when ordering from TheWarStore to Australia prepare to be violated by the shipping costs.

I'd imagine that Australia also has the same problem as the UK does of ridiculous (up to 30%) custom charges when buying from the US?

whatwhat wrote:I'd imagine that Australia also has the same problem as the UK does of ridiculous (up to 30%) custom charges when buying from the US?

No, Australia's been pretty good about that, in my experience.

Not sending things to Austria, on the other hand...

AlexHolker wrote:

whatwhat wrote:I'd imagine that Australia also has the same problem as the UK does of ridiculous (up to 30%) custom charges when buying from the US?

No, Australia's been pretty good about that, in my experience.

Not sending things to Austria, on the other hand...

The US has different customs duty when sending to Australia?

What was it the UK did to piss America off?

whatwhat wrote:The US has different customs duty when sending to Australia?

What was it the UK did to piss America off?

I'd assume that it's the UK and not the US that is taxing you on imports from the US to the UK.

No, it's US customs duty.

edit: No you're right sorry. Got confused because it's always the US shipping companies that bill you. fething UK government again

Well, whenever I ship something overseas I mark is as "gift"... just so they don't have to pay customs for it.

Not sure if that's really how you're supposed to do it, but come on, I don't want them to have to pay just to pick up the package...

whatwhat wrote:I'd imagine that Australia also has the same problem as the UK does of ridiculous (up to 30%) custom charges when buying from the US?

Australia actually has no customs duty for (most) imports up to a value of AU$1000. So as long as we keep overseas orders under that amount, it's not a problem.


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RiTides wrote:Well, whenever I ship something overseas I mark is as "gift"... just so they don't have to pay customs for it.

Doesn't always work. Some countries charge customs duty on gifts based on value, which they'll just guess if you don't have one on the customs form.

As for if that's the 'right' way to do it... for personal trades or the like, it's probably fine. For commercial transactions, it's definitely a no-no... although I've found a lot of (generally small) businesses do it.

I used to get the occasional request on eBay sales for it to be marked as a gift, and still get the odd one through my webstore... On explaining that I would rather not risk my business by falsifying customs documentation, most people are fine with it though. Customs charges are just one of those things you need to factor in when buying something from another country.

I wouldn't be surprised if Australia had a better trade agreement with the US than with the UK, commonwealth notwithstanding. We share a tighter defense alliance (along with the kiwis).

It depends a lot on how the package is labelled, as well.

Apart from that, duties are only payable on amounts of $1000 or more generally (in some cases, the threshold is dropped to $800).

A $1000 package labelled "toy soldiers" will attract duty.

A $1000 package labelled "scale models" will not. Toys attracts a duty of around 30%. Scale models do not.

mal wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Yes, our prices are stupid.

Don't buy locally. Our prices are too high.

Tim the Biovore wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Don't buy locally

This is the one rule I follow when buying GW.

So just out of interest (and back OT), what are some good US online stores for GW product?

Thewarstore.com is my favorite. Ive never ordered GW from them, but they do GW at 20% off US retail prices. HOWEVER...ordering online is...funny. They arent allowed (by GW rules) to offer GW products in an online "shopping cart" forum...so you have to place your GW order via email. If your uncomfortable with that then you can place an order via phone.

Ive also used FRPGames.com before and they are good. However they are 5 days shipping (to me) compared to 3 days for the war store.

As far as the "shopping cart" rule...it may be only USA but no one other than GW themselves are allowed to sell GW goods in a shopping cart (IE: online store) system. Ebay somewhat does, but only because everything on the site is considered an auction.

Heres a link to the war stores explanation of GW online rules:

http://www.thewarstore.com/TheGWInternetOrdersPolicy.html

whatwhat wrote:What was it the UK did to piss America off?

Taxation without representation?

Mad4Minis wrote:As far as the "shopping cart" rule...it may be only USA but no one other than GW themselves are allowed to sell GW goods in a shopping cart (IE: online store) system.

Yeah, that's solely a GW US policy.

And Maelstrom's having a 15% off sale at the moment.

Voucher code is EARLY-CHRISTMAS.

insaniak wrote:

RiTides wrote:Well, whenever I ship something overseas I mark is as "gift"... just so they don't have to pay customs for it.

Doesn't always work. Some countries charge customs duty on gifts based on value, which they'll just guess if you don't have one on the customs form.

As for if that's the 'right' way to do it... for personal trades or the like, it's probably fine. For commercial transactions, it's definitely a no-no... although I've found a lot of (generally small) businesses do it.

I used to get the occasional request on eBay sales for it to be marked as a gift, and still get the odd one through my webstore... On explaining that I would rather not risk my business by falsifying customs documentation, most people are fine with it though. Customs charges are just one of those things you need to factor in when buying something from another country.

Ah! No, if I was doing this as a business I definitely wouldn't mark it as such... I was thinking of things like the Dakka Dice I sent out . I also always mark the value (for those I put $20 for all of them).

But again if I was doing any sort of business transaction, I would definitely not be marking "gift"...