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According to a manager in MI i talked too this morning, games workshop has decided to ban trade/bits trade days at all gw store sights.
what will we be reduced to cons and basement trades?
or some online trade with someone you have never meet and risk losing an army?

wazgold wrote:According to a manager in MI i talked too this morning, games workshop has decided to ban trade/bits trade days at all gw store sights.
what will we be reduced to cons and basement trades?
or some online trade with someone you have never meet and risk losing an army?

Well, it certainly sounds like something GW would do, since it slightly prohibits a second hand market.

Then again, you could just meet people at your GW store, agree to trade, and then walk right outside and do the trade.

And there's always the chance that this is the manager pontificating via his posterior.

Sites, not sights. Sites, sights, cites. Homophones can be your friend or your enemy.

This news is true. An email memo went around today stating that as of now "Bizarre Bazaar" type customer flea markets are strictly forbidden at GW stores.

An interesting turn of events since GW pretty much innovated the idea of in-store customer flea markets just a few years ago. I was at the the very first ones held at the GW stores in Maryland.

Fortunately, the idea has caught on and many independent stores have flea markets now, but for the time being there will be none in GW stores till the pendulum hopefully swings the other way.

Interesting.

I got the idea for my 'used bitz Auctions' from a GW Metro Manager. They've been getting larger each time and we've done over a dozen of them the past few years. We've had people clear out their gaming room of crap, and take in hundreds of dollars. Highest so far was about 2300.00 in store credit.

Guess I'll have to run more of them, if GW isn't.)

We've been running them independently too, especially as we lost all our GW's. A couple stores in the area have them, in fact we just had one today!

I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

If the rumor's true and if this is the actual reason, not GW trying to eliminate easy alternatives for getting that one last bit you need to be WYSIWYG, the irony would be staggering.

Did they explain why?

They must love the feeling of buckshot on their lower legs, because they just can't stop pulling that trigger...

H.B.M.C. wrote:Did they explain why?

They must love the feeling of buckshot on their lower legs, because they just can't stop pulling that trigger...

I'm surprised there is anything left below the waist to be honest

I bet it was less noble than trying to protect children, and more along the lines of "We don't want people buying kits and stuff second-hand because then we don't make money for selling it at the absurd retail price!", or "If people trade for the bits they need to finish their models then that means we lose money because they would have had to purchase new kits to get those bits instead!"

why GW why

You had bits trading at stores?

well, you can't miss what you never had, so this doesn't really affect me.

I had no idea that this was ever allowed: my local GW has a blanket ban on customers selling trading anything in the store (you can give spare bits away, but God help you if you try and get anything in exchange). The manager actually tried to ban me for a month after he found out that I'd sold my Dark Elf army to another regular at the store, even though the transaction took place outside of the shop and was none of his business. I'm afraid my reaction was less than polite (stupid, in hindsight- I should just have made a formal complaint) and I haven't been back in since.

I went the the GW Bunker in Chicago late last year/early this year for the Bazaar, only to discover they had canceled it. I asked the mananger why and he said they would not be holding them anymore because a young man(kid) traded away his army for a few tanks. The kids mother came in and complained since she had spent quite a bit on a large SM army for him and he traded it for 3 Leman Russ's (or something silly like that). Now I can understand why she was angry. What I dont get is why everyone these days seems willing to blame someone else for their childrens failings. Mabye if she had actually taught her kid about the value of money and the difficulty of earning it, mabye he wouldnt have thrown so much of it away. But she didnt, she Blamed GW for the trade.

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

I used to Ontario CA flea market a few months back and it was great. I think it is better for instore trades then hey here is my email let me rip you off out of store.

To be fair, if trading is going on in GW commercial premises, there is an argument that ethically they should oversee it to prevent people being ripped off.

It's easier just to ban it, though.

The hits just keep on coming!

I swear, it is like GW doesn't understand the value of positive PR...

I made about $450 in store credit at the last official GW Bizarre Bazaar that I went to. Obviously, every single penny of that was spent at the store.

If handled properly, the event can be very lucrative for a store if some basic rules are obeyed.

1. No cash trades. All bits "purchases" are handled by putting money on a gift card and trading the gift card. If you want cash for your stuff, go use eBay.

2. Fair distribution of table space and no employees allowed. One GW BB event I went to allowed former and current employees with the day off to set up before store opening. There was quite a bit of grumbling about how much space they took up as well as the fact that they were effectively reselling full boxes they had purchased at 50% off. Kinda ruined it for a lot of potential sellers/traders. Disclaimer... the manager in question is no longer with the company, so I'm not throwing anyone under the bus.

3. Whoever is in charge (GW/Independent Retailer) has a moral obligation to oversee all trades to make sure kids/etc. aren't getting ripped off. As a former hobby store manager myself, you pretty much have a good idea of who your "hobby douches" are. Pay attention. Also, telling the parents ahead of time what is going on will avoid any issue of angry parents in the future. An ounce of prevention and all that.

A good Bizarre Bazaar type event can generate thousands of dollars in sales for a store. Unfortunately, GW's one man store model doesn't allow for much oversight of the process. While it can be a big money maker, without oversight, the above rules are pretty hard to follow/enforce.

My 2 cents.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also... for those of you who are complaining about this being a poor PR decision by GW...

Try running a retail store alone and see how much time you have to run events like this. There is an element of realism in these decisions that the average ragequitting/trolling/hyperbolic forum poster refuses to embrace.

Hmm, doesn't this just lead to more people not going into a GW store since there is pretty much no point any more?

You can't play on the tables as they are reserved for showing new customers how to play.
You are not allowed to paint your starter paint mini in the store.
You can't trade bits anymore?

So if you can't play, paint or trade what's the point? To buy stuff? Well the FLGS down the street sells for 10-20% off, allow you to play, paint and trade so why even go to the GW store?

GW are well on their way to losing 50%+ of the market share within 5 years...

In my local GW you can still play on the tables in the shops and people are often painting in the shop. Maybe things are different outside the UK.

Artemo wrote:In my local GW you can still play on the tables in the shops and people are often painting in the shop. Maybe things are different outside the UK.

The one-man stores up here are pretty strict about playing and painting: the only painting allowed is painting introductary sessions, and pre-arranged painting lessons with the staff chappy. Additionally, about 60% of the board space in the shop is reserved for intro games, except on gaming evenings, where the players are given a whopping 60% (</sarcasm&gt of the store's table space to play on.

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

Kids can't afford to play 40k. . .

puma713 wrote:

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

Kids can't afford to play 40k. . .

Which has nothing to do with the example he gave, as noted in bold.

I think Kilkrazy got it spot on. GW shops were ethically bound to step in and oversee to ensure people don't get ripped off.

Some of the stuff that comes out on Bits Bazaars is OOP with no real tangible value outside of "whatever someone will pay for it".

There might be another reason in that they're doing it to avoid giving recasters a place to get rid of their 'stock' while getting real stuff in return.

Kriswall wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also... for those of you who are complaining about this being a poor PR decision by GW...

Try running a retail store alone and see how much time you have to run events like this. There is an element of realism in these decisions that the average ragequitting/trolling/hyperbolic forum poster refuses to embrace.

Also... I would add a #4 to your list: Keep your gameplay/model assembly/bitz trade away from your retail shelves. With lots of people walking around with product, it is close to impossible during a bitz trade event to distinguish store inventory from people's 'stuff' and distinguish purchased from non-purchased.

While the battle bunker HQ had a store area cut off from the trade area and has multiple staff to protect inventory, the smaller GW stores get robbed blind. One near me claimed they lost around 400-500$ of product the last event they had. The trade for giftcards don't come close to making up for that. Pretty hard when your store is a hole int he wall and the walls hold your products.

I don't know how retailers run stores... children shoplift like crazy... And trading for gift cards is cumbersome and half the people try to get you to deal in cach anyways so they are trying to circumvent the benifit to GW.

There is plenty to hate on GW about but this frankly isn't one of them. It was always awkward and never the type of 'draw in new customers' people claim it is... It sounds like angry parents complained about thier kids being ripped off and that is a liability so why risk it?

Kanluwen wrote:

puma713 wrote:

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

Kids can't afford to play 40k. . .

Which has nothing to do with the example he gave, as noted in bold.

It was a joke. Try not taking yourself so seriously 24/7.

puma713 wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

puma713 wrote:

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand. Regardless, I've not had any problems with any of the online trading pages and even had great results with the Swap Shop.

Kids can't afford to play 40k. . .

Which has nothing to do with the example he gave, as noted in bold.

It was a joke. Try not taking yourself so seriously 24/7.

Try not posting terrible jokes and you'll get a better reaction from people.

automatonsleuth wrote:

Artemo wrote:In my local GW you can still play on the tables in the shops and people are often painting in the shop. Maybe things are different outside the UK.

The one-man stores up here are pretty strict about playing and painting: the only painting allowed is painting introductary sessions, and pre-arranged painting lessons with the staff chappy. Additionally, about 60% of the board space in the shop is reserved for intro games, except on gaming evenings, where the players are given a whopping 60% (</sarcasm&gt of the store's table space to play on.

You may not be able to play there, paint there, only open 5 days a week, GW items are more expensive there and you can't trade bits there.



You're not much use to me alive, are you retail shops?

mortetvie wrote:I think the reason, so I heard from various GW management, is that this is to prevent kids who bring their stuff in from getting ripped off. Not everyone is a vulture in this sense but it's not good to have a kid who gets a 90$ battle force for a present then sells it out of ignorance for something like 10 dollars, you know? GW just wanted to prevent this sort of thing from happening from what I understand.

(not directed at you personally)

That's a load of $%&! GW has good customer service, but it rarely ever has policies that look out for the customer - let alone kids. Think of all the recent 'changes'...NONE of them are customer friendly. ALL of them are for it's benefit.

I have a nine year old who has been going to GW events since he was six. I have to continously point out to them the SAFETY aspects of their events and stores regarding children. They respond appropriately and immediately, but it's not part of their training nor perspective. So if it's to protect the kids...did they sell you a bridge too?

You know, fellows, I'm beginning these Games Workshop chaps simply are trolling us all, in a months long, carefully orchestrated dare inside management.

yeah,
Wasn't it GW who invented (or at least encouraged) the AOBR swap your marines for orks?

AgeOfEgos wrote:
You're not much use to me alive, are you retail shops?

Damn it LegoBurner I want a 'Like' button now!
Panic...