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Like an Ork Warboss being stalked by a vindacre assassin, or a high elf noble about to charge into a unit of dark elf spearmen concealing an assassin, I fear GW's days are numbered...

This is honestly a stupid move. I don't know much about economics and all that stuff, but GW must gain a lot of money from selling to independent retailers. And, if this change does go ahead, it won't be worth independent retailers buying off GW, because they won't be able to sell enough. This'll probably make them reduce, if not stop, orders from GW, which is gonna hit GW BAD.

I see nothing wrong with independent retailers doing what they do, and how this change will help AT ALL!

I have no idea what GW are playing at...

Don´t worry neither does GW.

M.

Either way, people will still buy their products. so they dont care, people complaining in this thread will probably stiill buy them, no matter how hard GWS feth you.

Stop supporting them and maybe they will open their eyes?

im really fethed off with GWS, this is uuter crap what they are doing to AUS

people will still buy their products. so they dont care,

People do care whether they are still buying them or not.

I know a lot of long-time GW fans like myself who never used to think much about what or how much they bought who are suddenly buying a lot less and I'm also finding myself for the first time in 2 decades being much more careful about what I buy from them, especially at full price new in store. They really have pushed the outer limits of what is reasonable the past couple years more than ever, especially on certain items and since May 28 it's been a different game for many customers.

Eldar Own wrote:Like an Ork Warboss being stalked by a vindacre assassin, or a high elf noble about to charge into a unit of dark elf spearmen concealing an assassin, I fear GW's days are numbered...

This is honestly a stupid move. I don't know much about economics and all that stuff, but GW must gain a lot of money from selling to independent retailers. And, if this change does go ahead, it won't be worth independent retailers buying off GW, because they won't be able to sell enough. This'll probably make them reduce, if not stop, orders from GW, which is gonna hit GW BAD.

I see nothing wrong with independent retailers doing what they do, and how this change will help AT ALL!

I have no idea what GW are playing at...

yeah. GW's days have been numbered since at least 1993.

Any day now, that house of cards is all going to come crashing down. Any day now. Everyone that works for GW will be out of a job, and everyone that plays Warhammer will be left holding the bag of a dead game.

Any day now, if you just hope for it a little harder, pray for it a little more every night when you go to bed.

All crashing down.

Then you'll dance in the street.

rattman wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:...so if you're in Australia you can order directly from the UK site and they'll still ship it to you? Have you actually tried that H.B.M.C.?

Yes a friend did it as a test.

Got it sent from GK UK to a mail forwarder. Then got it sent on to aus, about a 25% saving over getting it from GWAU

Its the standard GW frieght from UK to aus thats the killer.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Feight forwarder isn't quite the same...

Sidstyler wrote:...so if you're in Australia you can order directly from the UK site and they'll still ship it to you? Have you actually tried that H.B.M.C.?

Friend of mine did an order. It showed up without an issue. Difference (factoring in shipping) was AUD$100 off the standard GWOZ price.

rattman wrote:

AesSedai wrote:Hey guys, would you be so kind as to recommend a freight forwarder. I'm tired of waiting for Wayland to get their RoW going. Which one did your friend use?

We were discussing 2, one was http://www.alfasent.co.uk cant remember what the other one was. The other option was getting it through an american mail forwarder like www.shipito.com. Think the costing works out around the same price GWUS an GWUK

If you go to the trouble of buying from the UK, why not buy from a UK local discounter, have it shipped via freight forwarder and mitigate some of the shipping by doing so?

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Brace for new developments.
I heard last week that GW is set to start opening '1 man stores' in new locations in Oz.
Similar to what they wre doing with smaller shops in the UK when I lived there in 1999 and 2000.

1 guy on staff at any time (2 school holidays) shop designed to introduce new people to the game, not to allow people to turn up and play or sit and paint etc.

They've been doing that for years. Melbourne CBD started off as a decent sized store, they reopened a few years later in the same arcade as a huge store that was actually pretty great - I never played there buy bought stuff there to support them as well as the other FLGS, and got to know some of the staff. They then moved to Melbourne Central (much bigger mall) for a few years with a smaller but still decent store. Last time I was in town, the shop was a small place hidden away from the real retail area of the city where you have to seek out the place. They also only had 1 staff member in there. They may have 2 in there at times, I don't know, but the few times I've gone through they've only had 1 in there.


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Eldar Own wrote:
This is honestly a stupid move. I don't know much about economics and all that stuff, but GW must gain a lot of money from selling to independent retailers. And, if this change does go ahead, it won't be worth independent retailers buying off GW, because they won't be able to sell enough. This'll probably make them reduce, if not stop, orders from GW, which is gonna hit GW BAD.

The way I see it is with the market contracting, they're looking at alternative ways to maintain their profits. They've always changed up their blisters and boxes sets to give you "less for more". In the beginning RT days when I started playing you used to get 5 metal models in a blister of things like IG and Eldar and Elves for AU$10. 4 models for larger things like SM and Orcs. $45 for a box with 3 Rhino kits in them. Over the years that all changed. The blisters slowly grew in price (some of that is inflation) and over time had fewer figures in them (and some of that is not). More recent stuff like the WFB Orc Boys box set going from 19 figures to 10 or the changes from the old Beastman Herd box being split into 2 more expensive Gor and Ungor boxes last year are just the latest incarnation of this.

What they do is slowly give you less for more in these things. Plastic was cheaper than metal, and for awhile the plastic figures were cheaper then the metals they replaced. Then the same price, now they are often more. Now you get fewer plastic figures for more money, so you need to buy 2 "regiment" boxes to get the unit. Same deal with Finecast. Just the same, they're squeezing their retail costs on things like staff, lease hours, etc.

With the changes to previews and shipping times, they're trying to encourage those people who live in real countries to buy their product direct from their GW stores. With the changes to indy shipping to those of us who live in "third-world" countries like Australia and Japan, they're again trying to encourage us to buy from our local GW stores, so again, they make more from less.

They have been slowly squeezing for years. Will this be the point where they can get no more blood from a turnip? Who knows?
The average GW gamer is supposed to be about 13 years old and only last for about 3-4 years until they discover girls. Old grognards like most of us they know will generally stick around forever in one form or another.

Over 10 years ago I heard the following from a friend who worked in GWAUHQ - older gamers (18yo+) tend to have a gaming budget. Whether it's $20 a week or $50 a week or whatever. They will spend that much. When they raised the prices, these people still spent the same amount - they still spent their budget. They got less, but they still spent their $20 or $50 or $100 or whatever. They might have pissed and moaned a lot, but they still spent their money every week. Over time they leave/stop playing/die but there's always enough new ones to maintain that aspect of the market. The kids however come in, buy a boxed game, buy an army box or two, a few blisters/vehicles/other boxed sets - all in a short time. They then put them in the back of a cupboard when they hit 16 and discover girls, but by then there's another 13 year old kid who has started their first Ultramarine army.

After reading this thread i took the chance to ask a GW employee about the whole situation .He seemed to get really edgy about it but explained that GW where being Taxed for other companies sending their products to australia and that australias GW prices are so high due to the luxuary goods tax also he said that this wasnt a new decision and that it was laid out in the agreements from the very start.

Im not defending GW but i wanted to post what i heard.I dont know if its true or just some BS he made up to defend GW.
Crux

CRUX wrote:He seemed to get really edgy about it but explained that GW where being Taxed for other companies sending their products to australia

This is nonsense. The receiver pays tax (where applicable) for products coming into the country. They don't tax the original maker of the product.

... and that australias GW prices are so high due to the luxuary goods tax

A 10% GST doesn't explain prices being double what they are in the UK... particularly when the UK's comparable tax is almost double that. So if that's the problem, GW OZ's prices should be 8% lower than the UK, to make up for the difference between Oz's GST and the UK's VAT.

also he said that this wasnt a new decision and that it was laid out in the agreements from the very start.

Which is also clearly nonsense. There has never previously been any prohibition on GW stockists selling overseas.

CRUX wrote:After reading this thread i took the chance to ask a GW employee about the whole situation .He seemed to get really edgy about it but explained that GW where being Taxed for other companies sending their products to australia and that australias GW prices are so high due to the luxuary goods tax also he said that this wasnt a new decision and that it was laid out in the agreements from the very start.

Im not defending GW but i wanted to post what i heard.I dont know if its true or just some BS he made up to defend GW.
Crux

He's a lying sack of gak. The luxury goods tax he refers to doesn't exist, and hasn't for a decade. The tax being charged to GW doesn't exist: exports are actually 16.7% cheaper (since the government doesn't collect VAT on exports). The import levy on scale models is 0%.

I assumed he was talking trash he was a bit of a tw*t. I only posted it to show what GW staff where saying on the matter like i said before i dont support games workshop on this.

Crux

AlexHolker wrote:He's a lying sack of gak.

That's a little strong. It's entirely possible it's just what he's been told to say to anyone asking about it, and he really doesn't know any better.

insaniak wrote:

AlexHolker wrote:He's a lying sack of gak.

That's a little strong. It's entirely possible it's just what he's been told to say to anyone asking about it, and he really doesn't know any better.

Very good chance he doesn't have a clue, and was just guessing. GW's not going to send out notices on stuff like this to redshirts. It's silly to expect an answer out of them, and if they were briefed, you'd get the same answer as the higher ups are putting out.

Dudes, this is about to get a whole lot worse. The next prong in the attack, I'm now hearing that GW is making moves to discontinue discount online mail order retailers completely.

They might run into some legal problems there.

"Sell within this region or we won't sell you stock" is one thing. "Sell at this price and no lower" is another altogether.

Unless they're simply planning on not allowing any retailer to sell their stock if they have an online store (which might bring legal issues) or simply stop selling to non-GW retail outlets that have any online presence at all (which would be the financial equivalent of cloning yourself just to have your clone rape you).

filbert wrote:Surely even GW wouldn't countenance such a move...

Never underestimate the stupidity of large organizations.

But I don't think they would do that, that would just be throwing away potential income.

But if true, luckly I live in Canada lol

AlexHolker wrote:He's a lying sack of gak. The luxury goods tax he refers to doesn't exist, and hasn't for a decade. The tax being charged to GW doesn't exist: exports are actually 16.7% cheaper (since the government doesn't collect VAT on exports). The import levy on scale models is 0%.

It's the "Kirby needs 1 million £ dividends per year" tax

H.B.M.C. wrote:They might run into some legal problems there.

"Sell within this region or we won't sell you stock" is one thing. "Sell at this price and no lower" is another altogether.

Unless they're simply planning on not allowing any retailer to sell their stock if they have an online store (which might bring legal issues) or simply stop selling to non-GW retail outlets that have any online presence at all (which would be the financial equivalent of cloning yourself just to have your clone rape you).

Ringing the store up and getting them to send it overseas would probably still be cheaper.

H.B.M.C. wrote:That's because their shipping starts at a flat rate, so one item orders are always going to be more expensive unless it's a big boxed item with different shipping.

There's a 'sweet spot' for ordering.

What's the "Sweet Spot" to .au? I need to pick up a couple of parts that are GW-only, and I'm sure as hell not paying .au retail for them.

Well that's simple to do.

Go through the order process right up until you get to the credit card bit and it will calc the shipping costs. Then compare it to the AU price.

Easy.

BrassScorpion wrote:Dudes, this is about to get a whole lot worse. The next prong in the attack, I'm now hearing that GW is making moves to discontinue discount online mail order retailers completely.

Very, very difficult to do. There are some precedents of companies argueing that discounting is devaluing the product, but it's no where near a set in stone attitude in the courts.

They'd also have to restructure how they sell to distributors, or cease selling to them. Stores could still go through a secondary source for product, and discount it. Although with less profit as those distributors sell at a lesser dicount.

And it's been mentioned in the past that such restrictions are illegal in the EU...

And yet Battlefornt do it across the globe - They stipulate no more than a 10% discount I believe.

Battlefront isn't a European company.

Because, I suspect, "No greater discount than X%" is different to "You must sell at X price".

Well, obviously. It's all fancy legal wording coming into play again, which means there will be more squeezing and getting around corners still to come.

insaniak wrote:Battlefront isn't a European company.

However, it is bound by all European regulation when operating in Europe.

HMBC - I would have thought that would still constitue price fixing as a means of keeping the price set at a point rather than allowing the consumer to get the product at the best price?

insaniak wrote:Battlefront isn't a European company.

Battlefront distribute in Europe through a European subsidiary, called Battlefront Europe, so it is.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Because, I suspect, "No greater discount than X%" is different to "You must sell at X price".

Not really. "No greater discount than 0%" is still pretty much the same thing as "No greater discount than 10%".

If they really don't want to sell their product to me, they could just tell me so. They have my email address, phone number, and could even use the postal service to send me a letter. I'm not some off the grid person that they can't contact. My trade rep seems to want to sell stuff to me still, did he just not get the memo yet that they're moving into the "We make product, but don't want to actually sell it" market?