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I thought it would make an interesting topic to spark a discussion. Why is GW just so darn expensive? I have heard it is more expensive here in Australia; I mean $55 for an Assault squad and $96 for the rules (I think, can't remember). Discuss

Oh and btw, if it's wrong thread I'm sorry! I wasn't really sure on where.....

The prices were balanced back when the AUD was weaker and thus it was more accurate. However we continued to get the annual price rises on top of the now inaccurate pricing rather than balance it out again. Our pricing should actually be about the same as the US.

I guess another possibility is they saw themselves as a monopoly for a while when it is now more of an oligopoly (unless you count the market as being a wargaming version of their IP ). Though likely it's that way at the moment due to the head start they have on their current competition.

They're just trying to save HBMC from burying himself alive in 40k sprues.

Expensive is quite a subjective term, personally I find a lot of GW product is quite reasonably priced for the amount of enjoyment it brings but like I said its very subjective.

Unfortunately it's because they have gone into 'business' mode, an odd one seen as it annoys most people and they don't really care about the hobbyists anymore.

Oh and prepare to get some hate for starting this thread lol some people are a little touchy of this subjects reoccurance

I could give you a more economical reason but I think this would make more sense

Games workshop is expensive

Why though?

It's expensive because it's Games Workshop

Never ending loop

Your signature aptly foreshadows the rest of this thread.

Yes, GW products ARE quite often, rather expensive. But if you think the prices are all messed up and wrong, then you know what?

DON'T BUY THEM THEN!

To be fair though, it's important to look at the flag of the poster in this kind of thread.

Part of me wonders whether GW is deliberately keeping the price disparity, to see what kind of prices the market will tolerate with a view to future price increases. i.e. if a lot of Aussies keep buying GW stuff, then the rest of the world is going to be in a lot of trouble

Pacific wrote:To be fair though, it's important to look at the flag of the poster in this kind of thread.

Part of me wonders whether GW is deliberately keeping the price disparity, to see what kind of prices the market will tolerate with a view to future price increases. i.e. if a lot of Aussies keep buying GW stuff, then the rest of the world is going to be in a lot of trouble

You'll see our list of demands on the fridge, assuming the magnets are strong enough to hold the bloody thing up. All figures are in kilograms, not pounds, and I'll be counting every last one of those jellybeans.

Games Workshop doesn't exactly seem to have much competition down here, though. I've only discovered other war games through long term contact with the Games Workshop community itself, and certainly not through the part of the community that only games in-store.

GW stuff is extra expensive in Australia because GW still considers it part of the empire, and it has gone untaxed for far too long.

Realistically, all media is more expensive in Australia. Video games often cost twice as much as well. It's because the perceived value of the Australian dollar is decidedly low, even if that is no longer true.

Pretty simple... it's not.

GW expensive? Nah, try the Early Learning Centre. THAT's expensive!

Lepuke wrote:Expensive is quite a subjective term, personally I find a lot of GW product is quite reasonably priced for the amount of enjoyment it brings but like I said its very subjective.

I think they sell them at the prices because well, they know people will buy it.....it's so addicting
A lot of my friends say, '$55 for a bunch of plastic?'

Eh, it's your fault for not selling more blood plasma.

marielle wrote:Pretty simple... it's not.

That flag next to your avatar? Imagine that shrunken, then moved up to the top left hand corner of a blue-coloured flag, then add half a dozen stars to it.
Suddenly, that box of BloodKnights jumps from £61 (the UK cost) to £115.
To me, that has gone way past a casual purchase, towards a serious investment. While some of the people on this forum (who naturally will be made up of the hardcore fan element) might pay that sort of money, there is no way that the casual customer walking into the store is going pick that up and take it to the cash register.

That other companies, outside of wargaming, choose to sell at an inflated price in Australia is irrelevant. The point is that no other company within the industry does it, and even when ordering from overseas their prices are way, way lower than what GW are asking for their product.

To put it frankly, GW are taking the pee with their Aus pricing strategy, and for their own sake as well as fans of the game in that part of the world I hope they see sense soon.

Same reason everything else is expensive. people will buy it. If you take away something you filled time with you will have to find another way to fill it with something. most people would just continue to pay out expensive prices.

daedalus wrote:Eh, it's your fault for not selling more blood plasma.

You donate blood down here mate .

Either way, I don't think the prices are expensive when I buy off ebay, sometimes I pay cost price ($5 for a $55 box from here) on the goods as well, more than worth it.

As has been said, the only reason it's high is because the dollar wasn't so great, then we hit a mining boom and everyone else CBF'd being fair about it, as for wages we only make 10% more than the US average.

If I recall what I read earlier properly...
GW plans on the participants in it's hobby to have a certain amount of money per month to drop on frivolous purchases, aka disposable income.
If you have around $30 a month to spend on "entertainment" you aren't gonna buy their game, and they don't want you.
But if you have enough money to regularly buy a $50 box of models each week or so, you can afford to buy an update to your army.

But why charge $50 when you could charge $30 and still turn a profit? Because if you really want it model, you'll save up or break down and buy it for that price eventually.
They also don't price things based on how much they cost to make. It's the worth to the player.
Typically that's by points, but considering a Rhino is only 35 points, and is still a $30 box, It's got a serious worth to a player in preventing a tac squad from dieing before they get to do something.

Furthermore, they don't make money by the fact we play the game.
They actually lose money the better an army is, or the longer we play it. Instead they make money if we buy an army, want to try something else, and then buy a new one.
A bit surprising considering Grey Knights and Necrons are so gosh darn devastating as of late.

GW apperently doesn't want the game to be accessible to "everyone" Just the people who have the money to buy a whole army and play properly.
Actually, if it only cost say, 100 dollars to get into the hobby, getting a minimum two troops and a HQ. The rules needed to play and field your army, and maybe even the glue and paint needed to make them look nice. They'd get a horde of players who only want or need to buy 500 points of an army, and screw around a little before dropping the hobby. Many of which are still gonna want to play against people who know what they're doing, and have to cull their army to fight them.
Of course, they could just make it "against the rules" to play with less than 1000. But that's a dick move and we'd all probably play out favorite little 500 point games anyway (oh wait, we already do)

Put simply, GW charges whatever they want for their stuff on whole because the entire purchase is excess money. If you can't afford it, you shouldn't be playing. If you can, you will buy it regardless of it's actual price.
And they aren't going to undercut them selves any time soon.
They make money selling figures, and unlike model trains, they added a game to the modeling aspect to make buying the models seem like less of a waste, yet charge us more for comparatively less expensive pieces.
(of course, this is just what I've read in the last 24 hours. But it makes some sense.)

As Brother SRM said, GW isn't the only company gouging us.

Practically everything is double US price. Video games, new, hit between $100au and $120au. Even Blurays, new, are RRP $40au. Not many placed actually charge RRP anymore, and pass on some kind of saving on practically everything. What makes GW different is they don't. And even from FLGS's, on any kind of miniature, we only ever see a 25% drop at best.

Pacific wrote:

marielle wrote:Pretty simple... it's not.

That flag next to your avatar? Imagine that shrunken, then moved up to the top left hand corner of a blue-coloured flag, then add half a dozen stars to it.
Suddenly, that box of BloodKnights jumps from £61 (the UK cost) to £115.
To me, that has gone way past a casual purchase, towards a serious investment. While some of the people on this forum (who naturally will be made up of the hardcore fan element) might pay that sort of money, there is no way that the casual customer walking into the store is going pick that up and take it to the cash register.

That other companies, outside of wargaming, choose to sell at an inflated price in Australia is irrelevant. The point is that no other company within the industry does it, and even when ordering from overseas their prices are way, way lower than what GW are asking for their product.

To put it frankly, GW are taking the pee with their Aus pricing strategy, and for their own sake as well as fans of the game in that part of the world I hope they see sense soon.

Yeah back in the real world....

Go and look at figures made in Australia, and then compare...

Shaozun wrote:

daedalus wrote:Eh, it's your fault for not selling more blood plasma.

You donate blood down here mate .

Either way, I don't think the prices are expensive when I buy off ebay, sometimes I pay cost price ($5 for a $55 box from here) on the goods as well, more than worth it.

As has been said, the only reason it's high is because the dollar wasn't so great, then we hit a mining boom and everyone else CBF'd being fair about it, as for wages we only make 10% more than the US average.

I see. Hrm, well, you have two kidneys right?

I hear your pain though. I'm usually hard on people who are overdramatic about GW's "problems", but I still don't understand what they're thinking with the Australian price thing.

Brother SRM wrote:GW stuff is extra expensive in Australia because GW still considers it part of the empire, and it has gone untaxed for far too long.

Realistically, all media is more expensive in Australia. Video games often cost twice as much as well. It's because the perceived value of the Australian dollar is decidedly low, even if that is no longer true.

Maybe this is GW's revenge. Maybe one of the ancestors of the C.E.O of GW had his coin purse nicked in London, and the person who did it was transported. And so to balance karma the suits have decided to further punish the Austrailian people's decedents the only way they know how. Huge and swinging price increases.

I've heard in Aus you can sell your kidneys to buy a blister pack from GW, that or donate blood and organs.

In Aus. it literally is blood for the blood god; a pint gets you a box of berzerkers.

blood reaper wrote:I've heard in Aus you can sell your kidneys to buy a blister pack from GW, that or donate blood and organs.

You don't get money for 'donating' blood lol.

Vallejo also charge us more (P3 is actually cheaper here by a dollar per pot, and AUD is worth more than USD), many other companies do it's just not as obvious and not by as much.

Edit:

Just found this beauty quote

'This model has proven so popular that we are now sold out in every country, save for a scant few that managed to make their way to our Australian warehouse earlier in the week (you lucky people!'

(about the anniversary), so now we're LUCKY, as if they should happen to grace us with their presence we should kiss their feet.

aka_mythos wrote:In Aus. it literally is blood for the blood god; a pint gets you a box of berzerkers.

No, it gets you the down payment on one. Then at an additional 15%pa compounding, you can pay it off with 12 additional payments.

Shaozun wrote:

blood reaper wrote:I've heard in Aus you can sell your kidneys to buy a blister pack from GW, that or donate blood and organs.

You don't get money for 'donating' blood lol.

So if I donate my blood I'm not paid! (Grumbles)

kenshin620 wrote:I could give you a more economical reason but I think this would make more sense

Games workshop is expensive

Why though?

It's expensive because it's Games Workshop

Never ending loop

blood reaper wrote:

Shaozun wrote:

blood reaper wrote:I've heard in Aus you can sell your kidneys to buy a blister pack from GW, that or donate blood and organs.

You don't get money for 'donating' blood lol.

So if I donate my blood I'm not paid! (Grumbles)

In other countries, they need to bribe people to give up their blood - like you bribe children to behave properly. Pretty apt, actually.
They work off the voluntary contribution model here for blood. All you get out of it is the good feelings for helping out.

You can't SELL your organs, either (it's illegal to do so). You either donate them, or they don't leave you (they can't take them when you are dead without an organ donor registry entry). You cannot voluntarily donate an organ you can't live without (so no heart or complete liver donations) - as that would constitute 'self harm' and be illegal also, but a single kidney and part-liver donations are fine.

They charge more here partly because their operating costs here are sooooo much higher. Wages, store rents and taxes are higher, so they have to sell higher to make money back.
Their store model is flawed in this country. IT absolutely cannot work long term without constant tweaking and having certain areas subsidise the rest.

As an example: There are 13 stores in NSW (the state where GW head office is). 11 of them are in Sydney (4.5-5 million people). The other 2 are in Newcastle and Wollongong (regional cities north and south of Sydney) - THERE ARE NONE outside of these cities in the state. Most are located inside expensive shopping malls that charge even more for rent and an extra percentage of your profits per year unless you are one of the big operators (the big 4 who told Westfield to "shove it" - because W needs them more than they need it).