Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Still can not find it where Neal said this?

I heard GW is chaning the word sprue to skrew-u

GW wants you to buy their box sets, blisters, and bitz packs. If you want bits then you will buy them packaged in whatever manner and quantity GW wishes to make them available.

Ravenous D wrote:

jfrazell wrote:Thats just stupid from a business standpoint. They are shutting off a sales channel. As they just shut off their own bitz lines (I almost dare you to find some type of bits remaining) this just kills a whole revenue stream FOR NO PURPOSE.

What's worse is GW ceasing to sell mail order only items (all the bitz I might add) to the indy stores at their retailers discount of 50%. If they want them they have to pay the same as the rest of us. So basically GW just smashed all the online bitz retailers who were making money off of them. Which doesnt make any sense because those bitz retailers were buying FROM GW, so squashing them only proves to lose them money.

It's typical GW though, screw the little guy as much as possible and still lose money. I don't understand how the company seems to think it's policy of "screwing over your customer base = profit".

Number one you need to stop talking number two your are telling incorrect statements

retailers did NOT have a mail order discount of 50% so either a you are misinformed or you are misinformed. Retailers
discount never was 50% not in the time i am aware of retailers discount through mail order is 35% which is why i know stores that wont order through mail order its not financially a good move for them

in fact retailers dont even get 50% when they buy their stock from gw they get is at only 45%

so please check yourself before you wreck yourself

and as a secondary thought the ony way GW can blackmail a site is if the site has a direct account with them if you do and dont do as they say they will close your account however if they buy from a distributor they cannot make you sstop selling anything

NAVARRO wrote:Ok thats like the guy that is just toooo fat and instead of stop eating he cuts his balls off to be lighter

Yet i cant see how do they save any money by chasing and hunting independent bitz providers? The warstore is mainly plastic bitz off sprues so they dont order bitz by catalog they order boxes.

Thats exactly it, GW knows what it's doing wrong but have the options of A) Be nice and risk losing more money or B) Keep gouging because it gets consistant money. Why fix their business when they can just gouge us more?

I mean look at the new bloodknights for the VC $75US and over $100 Canadian!

Rle68 wrote:

Number one you need to stop talking number two your are telling incorrect statements

retailers did NOT have a mail order discount of 50% so either a you are misinformed or you are misinformed. Retailers
discount never was 50% not in the time i am aware of retailers discount through mail order is 35% which is why i know stores that wont order through mail order its not financially a good move for them

in fact retailers dont even get 50% when they buy their stock from gw they get is at only 45%

so please check yourself before you wreck yourself

and as a secondary thought the ony way GW can blackmail a site is if the site has a direct account with them if you do and dont do as they say they will close your account however if they buy from a distributor they cannot make you sstop selling anything

Tell that to the store I work at, I'm using the numbers in Canada, I know in the US the numbers change slightly (as in they get an additional 5% discount for whatever reason).

Although you are correct about the mail order only discount being less then 50%, when we could get it I believe it was 40%, but now its 0%.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Agamemnon2 wrote:The cessation of GW Bitz and Classics sales has several positive (for them) effects. It reduces the amount of product codes in the system (which means easier inventory handling), stops the need to stockpile quite that many old moulds (I'd be willing to bet several of them will be scrapped to "free up space"), and reduces the amount of manual work required on behalf of the staff collecting the orders (it's easier to gather an order composed of only blisters and boxes as opposed to one of 25 separate loose components).

It's not a case of some evil overlord going "Mwahahahahahaaha!!!" in their volcano lair. It's a desperate attempt to cut costs.

All valid points but if GW was really pricing bitz at below the cost of producing and packaging them what does that say for their business skills?

I always assumed my $5 powerfist included the cost of inventory and packaging.

All I wanted to say is that it's a stupid oversimplification to say GW is doing these things out of the wickedness of its black little heart. There are reasons, not good ones but they're there.

I'm not sure they are so smart. Can one really believe they were losing money on the bitz service, considering how pricey it was? Bitz price increased steadily (ie, doubled every 3 years or so) to the point you would not save any money on bitz if you wanted 2 or 3 from a multipart miniature - it was the same cost than the miniature itself.

It only made sense if you wanted to save resources or used really high number of similar bitz.

I can't believe GW closes the bitz service to cut down costs, simply because I can't believe GW setting up any service losing money in the first place.

I think they just expect some people to buy complete kits instead of bitz and hope to make MORE money with this new situation.

Rle68 wrote:
so please check yourself before you wreck yourself

Awsome dude ! what are the prices like where you're from ? i assume you're from 1994, here in 2008 things are all that and a bag of chips.....

I wouldn't have as much of an issue with them reworking the bits service and once again putting the screws to the independant retailer if I actually thought they were going to do something about it. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening. I'm going to use my army as example of what typically happens and why GW could make money on this change, but probably won't.

I buy a box of CSM. I want twin-melta guns in the squad as I'm going to use them as for anti-tank. The core box contains a flamer, heavy bolter and plasma gun. It has ZERO melta guns. I also cannot buy a meltagun equiped CSM in blisters, they are either flamer or plasma gun. I means I have to order the Raptor melta gun bit in order to get the squad options I want. Without the bits, I either proxy (/wrists) or do without out.

Under GW logic, I should buy 1 box of CSM and 2 boxes of Raptors in order to get the options I want. I don't think this makes any sense and will drive me away from the hobby.

I don't know how many people remember this, but GW used to produce close combat sprues for CSM and SM that contained pistols, CCW and various power weapons. The sprues were cheap and most of the pieces could be used through out the army. I didn't feel like I was wasting my money.

GW should produce a sprue for each army that has all the crap that doesn't come in the box and possibly some extra "character" stuff people can use. For example, the CSM sprue would contain 1x meltagun, 1x left lightning claw, 1x right lightning claw, 1x power weapon axe, 2x chain axe, 2x left arm, 2x right arm, 1x combi-flamer, 1x combi-melta, 1x combi-plasma and maybe 1-3 other "chaos" bits. This way I can fill almost all the options I can take and don't feel cheated on spending a ton of money. The sprue also gives some options that other armys may want to use. This could EASILY be done for around $8 per sprue, probably around $6.

GW will probably do nothing if you want to know the truth.

Kotrin wrote:I'm not sure they are so smart. Can one really believe they were losing money on the bitz service, considering how pricey it was? Bitz price increased steadily (ie, doubled every 3 years or so) to the point you would not save any money on bitz if you wanted 2 or 3 from a multipart miniature - it was the same cost than the miniature itself.

What's stupid is not having bits prices cost more to buy individually than the actual blister/box. It should have started that way.

The ones I purchased were.

Man, I am beginning to think an evil god took over at GW. Just seems like the shoot themselves in the foot every time they do something like this. I think back in the day it was called a monopoly.

I have noticed that they are selling conversion kits on some of the GW sites. But what fun is it to create something that someone else did first.

Guess I should start selling my GW stuff.

Warrior 50

Kesher wrote:In conclusion we are still committed to providing the largest bits selection on the internet, at the best prices possible. We just invested in a larger facility to house and process bits orders, and expanded our mailing operation. We are committed to you as much as you are to us.

Thanks and Happy Gaming
Rob Baer
Founder BWBits
Evil Warmaster TheWarStore

The contrast between TheWarStore and GW is, well, stark.

How is it a Monopoly, they don't own the whole miniature wargaming market?

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Techboss wrote:I buy a box of CSM. I want twin-melta guns in the squad as I'm going to use them as for anti-tank. The core box contains a flamer, heavy bolter and plasma gun. It has ZERO melta guns. I also cannot buy a meltagun equiped CSM in blisters, they are either flamer or plasma gun. I means I have to order the Raptor melta gun bit in order to get the squad options I want. Without the bits, I either proxy (/wrists) or do without out.

My CSM boxes have had Melta Guns in them.

Eric

Thats great but brilliantly beside the point.

proves how desparate and pathetic GW is. They think thier sales will improve by stomping out the competition. THey should work on improving themselves before pointing the finger at the little guy.

I saw that things like this where going to happen when they replaced Kirby with a marketing guy.

Marketing is all about getting people to buy stuff they don’t need, or don’t want.

This path became apparent when the Eldar came out. The removed all of the blisters for Eldar and just started to make Aspect Warriors in boxes of 6. Well, what do you do if you want a unit of 10? Well, before you could call GW and order the 4 extra guys which is a big hassle but you could do it, but not anymore. Now you have to buy 2 boxes and have 2 extra guys.

@Blackmoor, it is even worse with warpspiders. They come in boxes of 5, including the exarch. Try to build a unit of 10.

Darrian

MagickalMemories wrote:My CSM boxes have had Melta Guns in them.

Does it have 2x melta guns or only one per box (iron warriors box)?
Does it also have 2x flamer and plasma gun per box?
Lastly, does it contain a heavy bolter, missile launcher, autocannon AND lascannon in each box?

If not, you cannot field the sqaud in any configuration available in the codex and thus, except for heavy weapons, are buying bits to complete the squad.

My point still stands.

Oh noes! My Tactical Squad box is b0rk3n because it only has Missile Launcher & Flamer.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Oh noes! My Tactical Squad box is b0rk3n because it only has Missile Launcher & Flamer.

For the price they ask for it, it should most certainly contain all the options needed to make that squad.

Kilkrazy wrote:Is "frame" the US word for "sprue"?

not particularly. I say sprue and I am in the US.. Frame might be what that person uses instead of sprue. but it is not a US specific thing..

stonefox wrote:

Kotrin wrote:I'm not sure they are so smart. Can one really believe they were losing money on the bitz service, considering how pricey it was? Bitz price increased steadily (ie, doubled every 3 years or so) to the point you would not save any money on bitz if you wanted 2 or 3 from a multipart miniature - it was the same cost than the miniature itself.

What's stupid is not having bits prices cost more to buy individually than the actual blister/box. It should have started that way.

that is how it started.. if you bought all the pieces to a model it would cost you more than just the model itself. I am not sure when GW made it it equal, but I do remember some dakkaites complaining about buying a model by bitz and it costing more than the model itself and the GW was screwing them because of it. To be honest, I think the bitz (arms, weapons etc should be made available at a mark up, and the main body or whatever metal piece is the basis of the model should only be available in a blister).. as for plastic bitz services, well that's a whole 'nother monster isn't it?

GW has been using the term 'frame' a lot lately. I'd guess they either feel:

1.) It's more correct (A Frame is an entire sub-assemley, where sprue is technically just the excess)

-or-

2.) They're tired of a certain class of players who think the word is 'spruce.'

(The latter was a pet peeve of mine when I posted on GW's own message boards.)

Blackmoor wrote:I saw that things like this where going to happen when they replaced Kirby with a marketing guy.

Marketing is all about getting people to buy stuff they don’t need, or don’t want.

Meanwhile at GW Headquarters...

TOM KIRBY: Hey, I got an idea! Instead of selling SM heavy weapons in blisters, let's sell them in box sets and let's not make the individual sprues available for purchase separately! And let's also do everything in our power to stop anyone else from making them available! What do you think Marketing Guy?

MARKETING GUY: That's the right idea Tom, but why stop there? At 2 per dev squad box, lascannons are still way too easy to obtain. So let's phase out tactical, devastator, assault, and command squad boxes along with the rhino, razorback, and SM commander boxes, and replace them with the SM battle company box. And make it a direct exclusive! Can you say $100 per lascannon? I can - CH-CHANG!! Our lascannon profits will increase x10! It's like a license to print money!! We can't lose!

TOM KIRBY: Brilliant! That's just the kind of business savvy we need here at GW! I can see you've got a bright future ahead of you, Marketing Guy! You're going straight to the top! In fact, I'm making you CEO! Tell the old CEO he's fired! What's his name again?

MARKETING GUY: Tom Kirby?

TOM KIRBY: Yes, tell Tom Kirby he's fired!

MARKETING GUY: But you're Tom Kirby!

TOM KIRBY: Oops! Darn, I already said it! I guess that means you're CEO now Marketing Guy! Congratulations!

MARKETING GUY: Gee, thanks!

And that's the story of how Tom Kirby stepped down as CEO of GW.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Oh noes! My Tactical Squad box is b0rk3n because it only has Missile Launcher & Flamer.

Tell me JohnHwang - why do you hate freedom?

I hate freedom because you let the terrorists win.

freedom is like a prison with glass walls

I thought freedom was just another word for nothing left to lose?

To be truly free you have to have nothing ...

I like my stuff, my sife, my kids, and my 40K miniatures.

I'll take my diminished freedom with all my nice crap, thank you

They'll never take my freedom...

BYE