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I'm ripping this straight from Warseer, and claim no more information than what is in the thread already.

Thread OP wrote:Hi,

I am Brazilian and currently live in Argentina. The local player forums have been discussing a rumour lately, that GW is to impose a ban on sales to the southern hemisphere for all the independent retailers. That would cover South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

I remember reading a rumour about something like this affecting Australia some time ago, but it was largely dismissed...

But now a couple stores, including Maelstrom, have almost confirmed it to my friends in Brazil. One email got this response:

Hi there,

We have had some news regarding this. We will make a post about it once we have spoke to GW about it ans found out what exactly we can and cannot do.

Cheers,
Chris

Nothing definitive, but sure seems like it might happen.

Has anyone heard about this?

If true this is... a deal breaker. I won't buy things at twice the price.

Surely even GW wouldn't countenance such a move...

I wouldn't believe it. Just a gut feeling here but the amount of money they'd lose from not selling to independant retailers must be a lot. It would just be another nail in their coffin.

Wait, I'm a little confused. Would this mean that Maelstrom Games could no longer ship stuff to Australia?

The way I'm reading it means that stores like Wayland and Maelstrom would be forbidden from filling orders made out by people in places such as Australia.

Well, that would end the hobby for me. I'd probably take up Hordes, or something.

Perhaps we could build some kind of Games Workshop underground railway or something

Surely not. I can't believe it, but then maybe I can...

Surely this "request" from GW, if indeed the rumour is true, would be impossible to enforce....who a retailer sells to is outside the control of GW.

I imagine then, that the only thing GW could do, would be to refuse to sell their products (at trade prices) to said retailer.....but as someone above rightly stated, the knock on effect to earnings would be massive.

No, I don't think this will happen....it'd be corporate suicide.

Honestly I do not see how this is possible either to legally justify or to impliment.

Salt please!

tune in Next week for Red Aquilla: model drive


this must be so they can put your prices up even more but this is insane, they'll lose so much money from this, though GW probably think that they'll MAKE money from it.

If this is true, and I'm not pulling out any pitchforks unless its 100% confirmed.
But if it does indeed turn out to be true, I'll be stunned. Do they honestly think folks will return to paying twice the Price.

Whatever the reasons GW Aus charges the mad prices they do, it seems bizarre to hamstring sales here that go to Aus out of spite.
I mean its not like Maelstrom kicks in the Warhammer World door and makes off with a load of stock.

GW makes money from it, just not as much as if we buy it direct, but they are making money.

*shakes head at the possibility this is true*

Of course it'll be another step down this odd path GW have been walking for a while, it started with the many, many lines going direct only in the UK. This would seem to be the next step.

SilverMK2 wrote:Perhaps we could build some kind of Games Workshop underground railway or something

If there is demand, supply will inevitably find a way to reach it. It is a fact of life. Provided that this boneheaded
policy actually materializes, someone will find a loophole and organize a "railroad of plastic".

Actually, you see these sort of arrangements all the time with the historical market. It's more of a gentlemen agreement to only sell in the US or the EU.

So I would not dismiss it as out of the realm of possibility.

However, seems that if the cost is significantly different folks will just work through a 3rd party buddy or friend. Tough to put an end to it.

Still one can understand, if your going to have a trade presence in those markets, and your unable to control the customs arrangements. If that market is a prime area for hobby growth. You can not make the investment in growing those markets and allow internet retailers to under cut your efforts.

Something to consider are these internet retailers actively marketing this service to these markets?

Man. I would say BS to this rumor, but since they won't allow on-line retailers to use a shopping cart for their stuff....

I hope this isn't true for my buddies down under.

Manufaturers (GW) can't control what is sold buy its resellers can they?

They could just refuse to sell to the resellfer but I find it hard to belive.

A big fat WTF....that just sounds strange but wouldn't suprise me considering how stong our dollar is atm.

Lucky I get 15% off at my local indie but still that isn't the point.

obsidianaura wrote:Manufaturers (GW) can't control what is sold buy its resellers can they?

They could just refuse to sell to the resellfer but I find it hard to belive.

They can impose whatever conditions they choose on the independent retailer as part of their terms and conditions when a sales contract is signed. Or to put it another way, if GW told Maelstrom that they weren't allowed to deal with Aus customers on pain of losing their ability to supply GW product, then you can bet Maelstrom would comply pretty damn quick. Of course, there are pretty valid business reasons not to impose such conditions but who knows what goes on in the GW hive mind...

kronk wrote:Man. I would say BS to this rumor, but since they won't allow on-line retailers to use a shopping cart for their stuff....

I hope this isn't true for my buddies down under.

That's a US only policy, which was a misguided attempt to curtail online discounters here in the US.

It did a decent job of cleaning out the discounters that never filled orders though.

I'm sure all they can do is refuse to supply the trader with stock in future, but that would hurt companies like Maelstom I'm sure.

I'm surprised it's legal actually, to impose such things upon private companies. Aren't there laws about free trade and the like to prevent them having the monopoly on sales in places like Australia? It seems dodgy to me that they are trying to crack down on webstores without a fixed 'brick and mortar' store. They claim it's about 'supporting the hobby' to keep brick and mortar stores but we know a lot of it has to do with preventing shops sell stuff at a discount.

Like price fixing their products I can't see that its right they can get shops to agree not to ship to certain countries. Maybe it is perfectly legal, I dunno, but it's not at all in the spirit of free trade.

_____

I'm still not clear on why Australian prices are so high. Maelstom can buy stuff from GW wholesale (which is a hefty amount I gather) and post individual items to Australia, and offer a discount AND still make money. But apparently GW can't bulk ship their *own* product to their own stores without making the RRP twice what the rest of the world pays. Surely the fact that they are sending their own product (so no huge overhead from buying it from a wholesaler like an independent retailer) and sending in bulk, means they are more cost efficient. What about economy of scale?

GW Australia is screwed up. If their prices are a genuine reflection of the costs involved and there's no economy of scale, or scale is actually costing MORE, then they should close up the shops and simply go online, and post all the stuff from the UK. Because it's clearly cheaper that way. Assuming of course that their prices are remotely a fair reflection of the costs...

Feels like an extreme assumption to make, the email from Maelstrom doesn't really say anything decisively. I'd wait until all the info has been laid out.

Why?

I don't think this is true in the slightest, but what I'm wondering is what GW's motivations behind such a move would be IF it were true...

Just Dave wrote:Why?

I don't think this is true in the slightest, but what I'm wondering is what GW's motivations behind such a move would be IF it were true...

Isn't it obvious? When they are selling stuff at such an outrageous mark up in Australia they feel threatened by independent retailers undercutting them by selling at comparable UK/US prices.

Just Dave wrote: but what I'm wondering is what GW's motivations behind such a move would be IF it were true...

Have you SEEN the prices GW AUS sells at? They don't compute when compared to many other GW sectors' pricing.

GW has long had the belief that the fans of thier products are so fanatical that they would be willing to pay anything to get them. I'm betting they believe that so much they think that by cutting off the indie shippers, the customers who used to order from them will return in enough amount to make up for the loss of sales to the indies.

If this is the case, I'm willing to bet that that it is only a matter of time before we lose all online stores.

I expect that it's more likely being touted to help GW retail in Oz and independent stores in Oz. must be a pig trying to maintain a 'discount' when in competition with the net. I heard that independent stores was one of the reasons that they are trying to leave bigger chainstores like Hobbycraft in the UK.

Upon hearing the news, Privateer Press staff clinked champagne glasses and moved to Australia.

What an absolutely idiotic move. Why not try to address the outlandish prices down under---rather than make sure you completely alienate that market?

I believe it's entirely legal for GW to demand its resellers not ship product to certain locations so long as it is not done for discriminatory non-business reasons. If they feel it would compete too much with their own efforts in those regions then yes, IIRC they are entirely wihtin their rights to ask resellers not to ship to those areas. Whether it this is 100% true, or is an intelligent move or not on their part is yet to be seen.

Darkness wrote:If this is the case, I'm willing to bet that that it is only a matter of time before we lose all online stores.

This is my greatest fear, I've not mentioned it, but it has crossed my mind on more than one occasion.