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I know a Price Hike thread exists for general discussion but I really want to have a thread focusing on theories as to why the price hikes might have happened (and what your opinions are on why these price hikes might have happened). Anyway, the price rises went into issue today and they're just as baffling as we thought they might be.

Feel free to answer the poll and go or comment below with discussion on why you think some things got increases but other didn't.

Below is a video of some examples of the just weird price rises seen by GW.

Looks like they just put older models in line with newer model prices, and rounded to more even dollar amount (in USD). There’s still some outliers of course.

Some of the increases were pretty painful sadly. I was thinking of getting another Corvus Blackstar but they suck (in rules but the model is awesome) and now they’re $75 instead of $65. Still some available on eBay at the lower price. I would suggest checking eBay for the less popular units that got a price increase and buy now before they’re gone. Another example is the AdMech Ironstrider. Super expensive in money to field them and they went up to $55 each.

Usually, they update the box art and that is as good a time as any to increase the price.

I didn't look at the full list, but at a glance it was almost entirely old kits.

This does a couple of things. First it brings old kits closer in line with the more expensive new kits (after GW discovered they could sell ten marines for $60...), and by bumping the cost on older kits it makes newer kits more attractive (though some armies literally have no new kits). Moving forward if they keep older kits adjusted to the new prices people will eventually see less and less value in them.

Lower sales = justified killing off old kits eventually, etc.

 Elbows wrote:
I didn't look at the full list, but at a glance it was almost entirely old kits.

This does a couple of things. First it brings old kits closer in line with the more expensive new kits (after GW discovered they could sell ten marines for $60...), and by bumping the cost on older kits it makes newer kits more attractive (though some armies literally have no new kits). Moving forward if they keep older kits adjusted to the new prices people will eventually see less and less value in them.

Lower sales = justified killing off old kits eventually, etc.

It's weird how some of the exact same kits are priced differently though. Right now it's cheaper to buy the chaos land raider and then just not use the extra chaos sprues. But yes, I think the idea of ricing prices on things that don't sell well to justify getting rid of them is more likely (it also gives them a spike in sales before they put the prices up as everyone freaks out and goes buying stuff).

As I mentioned in the other thread above this one - new players also don't know the difference. They have no clue how old a kit is, or why it's different. A Land Raider might as well be priced the same as a Repulsor, etc. That new player doesn't know the difference and may not care. What he will care about is if the older kits are far cheaper than the new ones. Then the new stuff doesn't sell.

There are heaps of reasons. The question and the balancing act will always be the same equation:

Are X+Y greater than Z.

In this equation:

X = New excited buyers, fresh blood.
Y = Dedicated fans who won't stop buying
Z = People who leave the brand and stop purchasing.

As long as that equation remains in the positive, then GW is making money/advancing their business. It's a long-ago anecdote but back around the early 2000's, my buddy ran a GW retail store. Now of course the entire staff and HQ was different back then, but it's an insight into how the company operates. The annual big meetings for area and store managers at the time pushed the following: concentrate on new young players with rich parents, don't waste too much time on established players. It was bluntly stated (and probably rightly so) that the established players were only dropping $10-20 a week on paints and occasional blisters. The aim was to target the younger kids who had parents willing to buy $200-300 to appease their kid. GW is a business like any other, they look and study everything and plan accordingly. They won't come out and say it - but what company does?

So behind all the price raises, the newer prices, etc. etc. etc. are simple business decisions. None of it is conspiratorial but I just tire of some of the people on Facebook and Dakka who insist that GW exists solely out of the goodness of their hearts and that nothing is ever a calculated sales technique or process. We can comment and critique stuff...but it doesn't make GW bad or illegal (which seems to be what people immediately assume when you critique a GW policy or sales method).

I think they raised prices on kits that were not selling in hopes of people buying these kits before the price bump.

saves warehouse space by clearing out inventory and increases profit margin in what inventory they have left.

 lolman1c wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I didn't look at the full list, but at a glance it was almost entirely old kits.

This does a couple of things. First it brings old kits closer in line with the more expensive new kits (after GW discovered they could sell ten marines for $60...), and by bumping the cost on older kits it makes newer kits more attractive (though some armies literally have no new kits). Moving forward if they keep older kits adjusted to the new prices people will eventually see less and less value in them.

Lower sales = justified killing off old kits eventually, etc.

It's weird how some of the exact same kits are priced differently though. Right now it's cheaper to buy the chaos land raider and then just not use the extra chaos sprues. But yes, I think the idea of ricing prices on things that don't sell well to justify getting rid of them is more likely (it also gives them a spike in sales before they put the prices up as everyone freaks out and goes buying stuff).

I believe the Chaos Land Raider will come with a Chaos Accessories sprue and not the Imperial one. The sprue with a combi-bolter and Havoc Launcher etc. instead of the sprue with the Storm Bolter, Hunter Killer etc. But yes, the spike sprues are just extra plastic for no extra $$.

Also global tarriff and trade wars slowing almost every global corp who focus on import and export of their products but no, probably a conspiracy as suggested.

Well the new Genestealer Cult characters all got raised to $30 each, and the Ridgrunner went up as well, so I think that throws out the "updating old models pricing" theory.

I know other factions have the same issues . . . but what the hell, how can they justify charging $30 for a single model with the same detail and size as the ten neophytes in a $40 box??? That's not an economics issue.

GW is selling as fast as they can produce. If demand exceeds supply, you raise the price (easy) on increase production capacity (slow and expensive!). Raising the prices of old kits gives GW a good reason to spare production time to make more of them, rather than simply making more of the kits that sell for more (i.e. are more profitable).

In other words, when GW is at their production capacity limit, the smart thing to do is to NOT make the cheaper kits, at all, because GW makes less profit on the cheaper kits.

So we can either complain about GW raising the prices of the older kits, or complain about how GW doesn't restock the older kits.

 John Prins wrote:
GW is selling as fast as they can produce. If demand exceeds supply, you raise the price (easy) on increase production capacity (slow and expensive!). Raising the prices of old kits gives GW a good reason to spare production time to make more of them, rather than simply making more of the kits that sell for more (i.e. are more profitable).

In other words, when GW is at their production capacity limit, the smart thing to do is to NOT make the cheaper kits, at all, because GW makes less profit on the cheaper kits.

So we can either complain about GW raising the prices of the older kits, or complain about how GW doesn't restock the older kits.

^ This. Also, the uncertainty around the big Brexit elephant in the room means they're probably wanting to get ahead of the curve when it comes to export/import tariffs.

My suspicion is they had way more chaos landraiders in warehouses etc and wanted to clear them so make them cheaper even though they are the same kit +extra.

 John Prins wrote:
GW is selling as fast as they can produce. If demand exceeds supply, you raise the price (easy) on increase production capacity (slow and expensive!). Raising the prices of old kits gives GW a good reason to spare production time to make more of them, rather than simply making more of the kits that sell for more (i.e. are more profitable).

In other words, when GW is at their production capacity limit, the smart thing to do is to NOT make the cheaper kits, at all, because GW makes less profit on the cheaper kits.

So we can either complain about GW raising the prices of the older kits, or complain about how GW doesn't restock the older kits.

I look forward to seeing what happens when GW completes is expansion into the adjacent property and complete construction of their new manufactorum.

I can't say why those particular items were chosen, and why they received those particular increases, but I think it's highly likely that a UK company that relies on plastic imported from China, might be impacted by Trump's trade war while simultaneously trying to buffer against the uncertainty of Brexit. Games-Workshop are currently experiencing a golden age, which might all come to an abrupt end on October 31st.

nareik wrote:

 John Prins wrote:
GW is selling as fast as they can produce. If demand exceeds supply, you raise the price (easy) on increase production capacity (slow and expensive!). Raising the prices of old kits gives GW a good reason to spare production time to make more of them, rather than simply making more of the kits that sell for more (i.e. are more profitable).

In other words, when GW is at their production capacity limit, the smart thing to do is to NOT make the cheaper kits, at all, because GW makes less profit on the cheaper kits.

So we can either complain about GW raising the prices of the older kits, or complain about how GW doesn't restock the older kits.

I look forward to seeing what happens when GW completes is expansion into the adjacent property and complete construction of their new manufactorum.

Oh, that's easy. We'll get another price hike.

I just assume GW's doing it to annoy you in particular, yes you the person reading this thread right now! it's all intended to annoy, and befuddle you

 Ginjitzu wrote:
I can't say why those particular items were chosen, and why they received those particular increases, but I think it's highly likely that a UK company that relies on plastic imported from China, might be impacted by Trump's trade war while simultaneously trying to buffer against the uncertainty of Brexit. Games-Workshop are currently experiencing a golden age, which might all come to an abrupt end on October 31st.

A hard brexit would eventually accelerate the end of GW's golden age.

 wuestenfux wrote:

 Ginjitzu wrote:
I can't say why those particular items were chosen, and why they received those particular increases, but I think it's highly likely that a UK company that relies on plastic imported from China, might be impacted by Trump's trade war while simultaneously trying to buffer against the uncertainty of Brexit. Games-Workshop are currently experiencing a golden age, which might all come to an abrupt end on October 31st.

A hard brexit would eventually accelerate the end of GW's golden age.

I agree. Though it might be less "eventual" than one might expect. On the other hand, Games-Workshop might take a hard Brexit to mean the end of their admirable, yet expensive tradition of manufacturing in Nottingham. I for one, think Brexit may well be the death knell of what little remains of British manufacturing, and the smart companies will realize that ultimate survival means taking the ship abroad. I don't know where Warhammer's biggest markets are; I presume the UK is number one, followed by the US and EU. Perhaps they could open up manufacturing in each of those markets and avoid trade barriers altogether.

So reading through this thread gave me a thought maybe GW are not happy with Primaris sales being lower than they forecast. But this being GW rather than thinking this might be because of the shonky rules and questionable aesthetics they figure it’s because the real marine kits are cheaper, so naturally the best way to increase Primaris sales is to increase the price of kits older than most of there customers by 17-20%


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ginjitzu wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:

 Ginjitzu wrote:
I can't say why those particular items were chosen, and why they received those particular increases, but I think it's highly likely that a UK company that relies on plastic imported from China, might be impacted by Trump's trade war while simultaneously trying to buffer against the uncertainty of Brexit. Games-Workshop are currently experiencing a golden age, which might all come to an abrupt end on October 31st.

A hard brexit would eventually accelerate the end of GW's golden age.

I agree. Though it might be less "eventual" than one might expect. On the other hand, Games-Workshop might take a hard Brexit to mean the end of their admirable, yet expensive tradition of manufacturing in Nottingham. I for one, think Brexit may well be the death knell of what little remains of British manufacturing, and the smart companies will realize that ultimate survival means taking the ship abroad. I don't know where Warhammer's biggest markets are; I presume the UK is number one, followed by the US and EU. Perhaps they could open up manufacturing in each of those markets and avoid trade barriers altogether.

While Brexit is gak beyond belief and Trump has all the economic sense of a turnip neither explains this price rise as the only plastic kits produced in China is some of the scenery and certainly not the majority of the kits actually put up in price, also Brexit is likely to be a money maker for GW as they have all ready unlinked there foreign currency prices from the British rupee previously known as the pound. In fact given Brexit you would think that you would want the UK prices as low as possible if you intended to sell to anyone other than the uk royal family and the 1%. As for ending uk production I doubt it as they barely pay over the minimum wage now and once the right wing muppets like boris have turned the uk into a 3rd world country Labour is going to be cheap.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 John Prins wrote:
GW is selling as fast as they can produce. If demand exceeds supply, you raise the price (easy) on increase production capacity (slow and expensive!). Raising the prices of old kits gives GW a good reason to spare production time to make more of them, rather than simply making more of the kits that sell for more (i.e. are more profitable).

In other words, when GW is at their production capacity limit, the smart thing to do is to NOT make the cheaper kits, at all, because GW makes less profit on the cheaper kits.

So we can either complain about GW raising the prices of the older kits, or complain about how GW doesn't restock the older kits.

Actually that’s not how plastics production works, the old kits which have all ready paid off there mould costs are the most profitable I mean they literally cost pennies to make the box costs more than the sprue’s, the margin on the guard boxes alone must be phenomenal bearing in mind they have gone up in price over 400% since release. The lord of the rings stuff is the same the quality of the old plastics are pretty shocking and they too have increased over 300% in price since launch.

The new kits on the other hand have to sell a minimum amount before they start making the margins that GW like, as such I would guess this price rise is to subsidise the new lines that are not selling as well as expected(ironically because they are overpriced in most cases).
If you were really cynical they could have crunched the numbers on new releases and decided that Sisters are not going to make the money expected and so there off setting that now with a “SoB tax”

They probably factor in a lot to why some things get a price rise, That makes it look a little random.
Probably its just they look at feedback and think if they just raise some things at a time, to the general consumer its rising slowly.
And the people who go though every option probably spend more anyway on the products, So its not as big a issue.

I sort of wonder if they have been so focused on there niche that any slow down there is just a huge risk. So they raise prices on older kits they can afford to sell a few less off for the extra each one brings in.

While Brexit is gak beyond belief and Trump has all the economic sense of a turnip neither explains this price rise as the only plastic kits produced in China is some of the scenery and certainly not the majority of the kits actually put up in price, also Brexit is likely to be a money maker for GW as they have all ready unlinked there foreign currency prices from the British rupee previously known as the pound. In fact given Brexit you would think that you would want the UK prices as low as possible if you intended to sell to anyone other than the uk royal family and the 1%. As for ending uk production I doubt it as they barely pay over the minimum wage now and once the right wing muppets like boris have turned the uk into a 3rd world country Labour is going to be cheap.

SeanDrake: You are certainly not a Brexiteer.
British rupee. Certainly not a bright future one can predict atm. And with Trump as the new best friend, you don't need any foes.

SeanDrake wrote:
So reading through this thread gave me a thought maybe GW are not happy with Primaris sales being lower than they forecast. But this being GW rather than thinking this might be because of the shonky rules and questionable aesthetics they figure it’s because the real marine kits are cheaper, so naturally the best way to increase Primaris sales is to increase the price of kits older than most of there customers by 17-20%

This seems to be a recurring idea that makes no sense to me. Sure they want Primaris to sell, but I fail to see how intentionally crippling a sale on one kit to boost the sale on another makes any sense. A pound is a pound, why would they care where it comes from?

SeanDrake wrote:
While Brexit is gak beyond belief and Trump has all the economic sense of a turnip neither explains this price rise as the only plastic kits produced in China is some of the scenery and certainly not the majority of the kits actually put up in price, also Brexit is likely to be a money maker for GW as they have all ready unlinked there foreign currency prices from the British rupee previously known as the pound. In fact given Brexit you would think that you would want the UK prices as low as possible if you intended to sell to anyone other than the uk royal family and the 1%. As for ending uk production I doubt it as they barely pay over the minimum wage now and once the right wing muppets like boris have turned the uk into a 3rd world country Labour is going to be cheap.

Yeah, but doesn't the actual plastic itself come from China, even for the stuff made in Nottingham? Also, they may have un-linked international prices with the pound, but for stuff still manufactured in the UK, EU customers will now also have to start swallowing customs duties if the UK crashes out without a deal.

 wuestenfux wrote:

While Brexit is gak beyond belief and Trump has all the economic sense of a turnip neither explains this price rise as the only plastic kits produced in China is some of the scenery and certainly not the majority of the kits actually put up in price, also Brexit is likely to be a money maker for GW as they have all ready unlinked there foreign currency prices from the British rupee previously known as the pound. In fact given Brexit you would think that you would want the UK prices as low as possible if you intended to sell to anyone other than the uk royal family and the 1%. As for ending uk production I doubt it as they barely pay over the minimum wage now and once the right wing muppets like boris have turned the uk into a 3rd world country Labour is going to be cheap.

SeanDrake: You are certainly not a Brexiteer.
British rupee. Certainly not a bright future one can predict atm. And with Trump as the new best friend, you don't need any foes.

Not to get political but i’m Disabled, my wife works for the NHS and I have a 3 year old son who I don’t want growing up in the Brexiters wet dream of the UK as Victorian era theme park. So as you can imagine I find Brexit sub optimal to say the least.

Back on topic I think what a lot of people have forgotten thanks to the Nu GW hype train is that while Kirby and Merritt left GW which is certainly a good thing the remaining board and upper management are mostly the same people hired by Kirby and who were happy with his little red book, his opinion of the customers and the price hikes. In the end the only reason Kirby got the boot was not because of what he did but that he was getting caught out publicly and was likely going to derail the gravy train.

Now they have generated some goodwill and gotten the sales figures back up expect business as usual to commence with price hikes, shonky rules and all that other good GW classic stuff to return. They will gladly burn off some goodwill to maintain there “record” profits for as long as they can.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ginjitzu wrote:

SeanDrake wrote:
So reading through this thread gave me a thought maybe GW are not happy with Primaris sales being lower than they forecast. But this being GW rather than thinking this might be because of the shonky rules and questionable aesthetics they figure it’s because the real marine kits are cheaper, so naturally the best way to increase Primaris sales is to increase the price of kits older than most of there customers by 17-20%

This seems to be a recurring idea that makes no sense to me. Sure they want Primaris to sell, but I fail to see how intentionally crippling a sale on one kit to boost the sale on another makes any sense. A pound is a pound, why would they care where it comes from?

SeanDrake wrote:
While Brexit is gak beyond belief and Trump has all the economic sense of a turnip neither explains this price rise as the only plastic kits produced in China is some of the scenery and certainly not the majority of the kits actually put up in price, also Brexit is likely to be a money maker for GW as they have all ready unlinked there foreign currency prices from the British rupee previously known as the pound. In fact given Brexit you would think that you would want the UK prices as low as possible if you intended to sell to anyone other than the uk royal family and the 1%. As for ending uk production I doubt it as they barely pay over the minimum wage now and once the right wing muppets like boris have turned the uk into a 3rd world country Labour is going to be cheap.

Yeah, but doesn't the actual plastic itself come from China, even for the stuff made in Nottingham? Also, they may have un-linked international prices with the pound, but for stuff still manufactured in the UK, EU customers will now also have to start swallowing customs duties if the UK crashes out without a deal.

Ok roughly speaking as a company that is driven almost entirely for the benefit of the board and share holders in which the financial figures are king. If on an old kit factoring in costs every pound spent gives GW 93p profit but on a new kit every pound spent only gives GW 70p for the first 20000 units and then it increases to 93p, if you are only ever focused on the next 6-12 months like GW you need to burn through those initial units quickly to get to the margin you want.

Now they have generated some goodwill and gotten the sales figures back up expect business as usual to commence with price hikes

In the modern corporate structure it is not enough to have a lot of money - you must have all the money. It's an attitude that is choking the life out of the industry.

Who knows? We're not playing with the full deck here. We can't even speculate what does and doesn't sell well, beyond anecdotes about how many we've seen.

There are lots of things going on the world, and GW, as a Publically Limited Company, have legal obligations to their Shareholders to provide the best return on a given investment.

This may be an attempt to get a few extra miles out the tank. It may be something more sinister (but I for one doubt that).

End of the day, the prices have gone up. All we as individuals can do is pay them, or go without.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Who knows? We're not playing with the full deck here. We can't even speculate what does and doesn't sell well, beyond anecdotes about how many we've seen.

There are lots of things going on the world, and GW, as a Publically Limited Company, have legal obligations to their Shareholders to provide the best return on a given investment.

This may be an attempt to get a few extra miles out the tank. It may be something more sinister (but I for one doubt that).

End of the day, the prices have gone up. All we as individuals can do is pay them, or go without.

as for the "pay them or go without" and needing to do well for the shareholders part though... GW has to see all of the companies makign really good counts as models for 40k and often undercutting GW. raising prices is just goign to drive more people to the 3rd party mini makers and recasters. I wonder if GW lowered prices exactly how many customers would return.

on that same note I wonder how many peopel have/will move to 3d printing. I personally have a few 3d printers and my resin SLA printer can do every bit the detail of a GW model and newer cheaper dlp resin printes likewise can do the same detail level of gw. I still snag new ork kits but am literally churnign out dnd minis left and right as well as making my own co9utns as GW models and even origional bits to add to existing armies to make mine unique.

But those other companies are clearly not impacting GW if their recent financials (which have been nothing less than stellar) are anything to go by.

GW also has a handy stranglehold on the Tournament Scene, where it's more common for them to adhere to a 'GW only' rule. This helps keep 3rd Party Counts As fairly niche.

GW raising their prices - and lets face it, it wasn't across the board, isn't going to affect that.

Lowered prices need to pull in a ridiculous amount of returning or new players. I'll explain with nice, round numbers purely for effect.

Let's say GW sells a £100 model kit. And they've got a markup on that of the often touted, but never proven, 75%.

For every one they sell, it costs them £25, so they make £75.

If they dropped prices 10%? Well, that's coming out their profit margin first and foremost. So each sale nets them only £65.

To make up the difference? That's a lot of extra kits they need to sell. Far more than one might think.

Yes it's just an example, not some insight into GW's pricing structure - because I ain't got one!

s. 172 Duty to promote the success of the company

(1)A director of a company must act in the way he considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole, and in doing so have regard (amongst other matters) to—
(a)the likely consequences of any decision in the long term,
(b)the interests of the company's employees,
(c)the need to foster the company's business relationships with suppliers, customers and others,
(d)the impact of the company's operations on the community and the environment,
(e)the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct, and
(f)the need to act fairly as between members of the company.
(2)Where or to the extent that the purposes of the company consist of or include purposes other than the benefit of its members, subsection (1) has effect as if the reference to promoting the success of the company for the benefit of its members were to achieving those purposes.
(3)The duty imposed by this section has effect subject to any enactment or rule of law requiring directors, in certain circumstances, to consider or act in the interests of creditors of the company.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/172

/thread

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
But those other companies are clearly not impacting GW if their recent financials (which have been nothing less than stellar) are anything to go by.

GW also has a handy stranglehold on the Tournament Scene, where it's more common for them to adhere to a 'GW only' rule. This helps keep 3rd Party Counts As fairly niche.

GW raising their prices - and lets face it, it wasn't across the board, isn't going to affect that.

Lowered prices need to pull in a ridiculous amount of returning or new players. I'll explain with nice, round numbers purely for effect.

Let's say GW sells a £100 model kit. And they've got a markup on that of the often touted, but never proven, 75%.

For every one they sell, it costs them £25, so they make £75.

If they dropped prices 10%? Well, that's coming out their profit margin first and foremost. So each sale nets them only £65.

To make up the difference? That's a lot of extra kits they need to sell. Far more than one might think.

Yes it's just an example, not some insight into GW's pricing structure - because I ain't got one!

I don't think most players are playing in tournaments. sure there are more and mroe people doing so, but even the biggest tournaments liek the LVO or adepticon have what 500-750 players? compared to the number of 40k players in general I don't think its very big. Don't get me wrong I play some tournament play locally and find it fun but a huge swatch of local players here are mostly interested in open war/beer and pretzels type games and fun scenarios. many of them have recently started to build full armies of counts as models specifically due to GW prices.

I do get that they would need to move more plastic to make the same or more money. I just wonder if the less profit per kit would result in more profit overall with mroe sales. I wonder if they have considered dropping prices for a few kits as an experiment to see how that ends up working. or release a new imperial guard regiment at a lowe price and matching heavy weapons/such matching and see how well they sell. if not well then increase, if they sell liek hot cakes.. well maybe keep the experiment going