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Last week I went to my LGS to order a wave serpent. They aren't in the normal stock, so he ordered them on GW. I gave him 40 and some odd dollars and went on my merry way. How much money does a non-GW store make off of purchases like this? I'm all for supporting local business and buy from the stock when I can, but for stuff like this is it just better to order off of Amazon or eBay?

It usually is better to order yourself at independent retailers, like maelstromgames.co.uk, especially if they've got a special kind of sale going on, like they do each couple months.

Many retailers can get products from the distributor (GW, in this case), at lower cost. This is because the distributor wants to get their product out there, and the more the product sees new customers, the more chance there is of long-term consumers coming into the fold.

So, you paid close to retail from the GW site, but the store itself will end up paying less. Thus earning a profit.

EDIT: Good Question! I didn't know this myself until a few weeks ago, asking a buddy of mine who worked as a cashier.

Justus wrote:Last week I went to my LGS to order a wave serpent. They aren't in the normal stock, so he ordered them on GW. I gave him 40 and some odd dollars and went on my merry way. How much money does a non-GW store make off of purchases like this? I'm all for supporting local business and buy from the stock when I can, but for stuff like this is it just better to order off of Amazon or eBay?

It depends. If your LGS has an account directly with GW, wholesale prices are usually 55% of MSRP (so if they sold it to you at MSRP, they have a gross profit of 45%, from which to pay employees, pay rent, etc.).

If they order from a distributor (and if Wave Serpents aren't usually stocked, I suspect this may be the case), they will pay more, with a smaller margin.

Janthkin wrote:

Justus wrote:Last week I went to my LGS to order a wave serpent. They aren't in the normal stock, so he ordered them on GW. I gave him 40 and some odd dollars and went on my merry way. How much money does a non-GW store make off of purchases like this? I'm all for supporting local business and buy from the stock when I can, but for stuff like this is it just better to order off of Amazon or eBay?

It depends. If your LGS has an account directly with GW, wholesale prices are usually 55% of MSRP (so if they sold it to you at MSRP, they have a gross profit of 45%, from which to pay employees, pay rent, etc.).

If they order from a distributor (and if Wave Serpents aren't usually stocked, I suspect this may be the case), they will pay more, with a smaller margin.

Note that unless it's changed recently, the retailer needs to order 2 of anything they order. So he will have to sell both of those before he sees the profit.

Unless it's paint, then he will need to order 6 of a single color at a time.

GW's policies towards their retailers are pretty despicable in a lot of ways. It's one of the reasons a lot of normal LGS don't do GW products.

Yeah, it'd have to be about the 45% profit margin on bulk buys at the most I guess; at least basing it off of my own lGS, where just about every one of their regular customers get a 10% discount for being part of ocal wargaming club.

Janthkin wrote:

Justus wrote:Last week I went to my LGS to order a wave serpent. They aren't in the normal stock, so he ordered them on GW. I gave him 40 and some odd dollars and went on my merry way. How much money does a non-GW store make off of purchases like this? I'm all for supporting local business and buy from the stock when I can, but for stuff like this is it just better to order off of Amazon or eBay?

It depends. If your LGS has an account directly with GW, wholesale prices are usually 55% of MSRP (so if they sold it to you at MSRP, they have a gross profit of 45%, from which to pay employees, pay rent, etc.).

If they order from a distributor (and if Wave Serpents aren't usually stocked, I suspect this may be the case), they will pay more, with a smaller margin.

The Prices gone down? Used to be 60/65% of GW retail price....

An LGS is obviously going to make less profit than online resellers as they have rent and utilities to pay for. I try to buy mine from my LGS because I like to support them.

They're still cheaper than GW though. I'm not sure how much of a difference there is between the UKs rates and the rest of the world when reselling GW stuff.

Justus wrote:Last week I went to my LGS to order a wave serpent. They aren't in the normal stock, so he ordered them on GW. I gave him 40 and some odd dollars and went on my merry way. How much money does a non-GW store make off of purchases like this? I'm all for supporting local business and buy from the stock when I can, but for stuff like this is it just better to order off of Amazon or eBay?

What does it matter how much a store is making?

What IS important is whether you see value in your specific purchase.

The best rate a FLGS gets, at least in the UK, is about 65% off retail after you include VAT. That's what I'm getting, at least.

obsidianaura wrote:An LGS is obviously going to make less profit than online resellers as they have rent and utilities to pay for. I try to buy mine from my LGS because I like to support them.

They're still cheaper than GW though. I'm not sure how much of a difference there is between the UKs rates and the rest of the world when reselling GW stuff.

sorry for bumping. But that is incorrect. Online stores, have to have a property, and infact being bigger you get more discount when buying the stock from GW, its not a set number (or at least wasn't a year ago, and it wasn't that long before they brought in that criteria) In UK, Maelstrom games, i believe have a huge place as they are hosting Open War this year, and thats pretty big. And I know Darksphere has a shop in London.

Wyrmalla wrote:Yeah, it'd have to be about the 45% profit margin on bulk buys at the most I guess; at least basing it off of my own lGS, where just about every one of their regular customers get a 10% discount for being part of ocal wargaming club.

About the same at my LGS too. Though they've given me 20% off of a larger purchase I made.