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I don't agree. I think the laws of supply and demand apply to the product, but not to some people. Some people will buy GW products no matter what the price is (or for that matter, what the product is). That has no bearing on the rules of the product itself.

Why do you suppose I wrote that SOME people will continue to buy despite price hikes?

Also people will have a different beaking point before the elastic snaps. The point is that the model is not a simple price increase causes a fall in demand which all things being equal would then stabilise the price.

I went into GW store for a pot of paint the other day. It cost me £60 or so. But I did get a few boxes of stuff at the same time. . . .

Face it, as soon as I walk into GW store, I am going to spend money.

I therefore try and keep away, but this is not always possible. . . More stores, more opportunity for me to be enticed.

I buy WD regularly although I understand that it is 100% about advertising GW.

They are onto a winner and I expect will be for some time.
I just wish I had thought of it first.

So, we're here talking about the Price Hike Which Hasn't Happened yet?

Come on guys, let's at least wait until it is announced!

@ Alpharius: Tru dat. It'll be at least 6 months before the next one.

Now that we're talking about price raising..
Johira has a valid point; there is no product, other than food that I'm aware of, that is immune to the laws of supply and demand. Just look what happened to gas prices here in the US after they topped $3/gallon...the elastic broke and the prices rebound down to $1.98/gallon (here in Oklahoma) before leveling off.

One of the oft stated maxims on this board whenever this topic arises is that lil Tommy's parents seem to have bottomless wallets and buy whatever their pride and joy demands from them. In reality, as parents already know, parents don't buy just anything their kids want (I wish, when I was a kid) and on top of that, Tommy's dad may be one of the millions that is currently out of work. I guess I disagree with this view, based solely on my own experience; the game stores I go to have the same faces, day in and day out with only the occasional new gamer. If GW depended soley on Tommy (and by extension his parents), the game wouldn't exist in my neck of the woods. I was in the local shop a few months ago when a young man (maybe 11) came in with his mother, there were several of us playing 40k and he was going on about how cool it was, came over, asked some questions and then he and mom went to look at the GW section of the shop. Before they left, I heard mom say that there was no way she was going to pay that much for a game.

GW is in fact, IMHO, driving up prices as customers fall out of the market. It's a finely tuned dance to maintain/slightly increase a profit level that is fairly stagnant in business terms. Go back and look at the sales charts and note how they correspond with major new releases. What would be even more interesting is to see a month-by-month breakdown of sales firgures, you'd probably see spikes in certain months followed by flat or decreased sales.

Overall, they're a healthy company and I don't look for them to die out,be bought out, or suddenly close shop.

/2 cents

This is yet another example of GW surfing the wave. Everything they do is used as justification for price hikes but as the falling sales figures attest what they are trying to do is maintain short to medium term profitability over long term growth.

Yes, a 10% price increase will offset a 9% loss in sales, but what I have never understood is the blinkered approach of GW management to the marketing value of their customer base. The vast majority of gamers play because they were introduced by an existing player (friend, relative, colleague, etc) so the more players GW has, the more it is able to grow.

The model aught to be grow the customer base until saturation, then look at price rises, not put up prices and watch sales falling whilst saying 'its ok, we're still making profit'. This is not sustainable in the long term and all it will take is for one of GW's competitors to start seriously challenging them in the global market and they'll fold faster than superman on laundry day...

I never realized that a simple hobby of playing with plastic model miniatures could be so complicated and life altering!

I never realized the desire to remain ignorant on a subject made people come on a thread specifically to taunt those who do.

BrassScorpion wrote:

They can only raise them so high until people draw the line.

I've had many conversations on this topic over the many years I've been buying GW products and that phrase always comes up from at least one of us in the conversation, yet the prices keep going up and people are still buying their products. I'm not sure where that line is that customers won't cross over, but no matter how many times I or my friends think GW has reached it it has not happened yet. Seriously, I remember that comment coming up in conversations twelve years ago or more, yet it just never happens.

In fairness, you're probably seeing a bit of sample bias there: after all, people so turned off by the pricing structure may simply sell off their models and stop playing, moreover, few people announce that they have hit the wall with purchasing, they simply drift away. I myself haven't bought a GW product in some time, not because some of their models aren't fantastic, but because the sticker shock is simply too much.

For me, the "straw", as it were, was looking at the new plastic ravagers; the price point for the trygon I could justify to myself, but ravagers at nearly $15 each? I shelved any plans for a nid army, and simply drifted away.

You can't expect people who stop caring to announce that they stoped caring, after all.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Karon wrote:GW lost a little this year, so they'll have another price increase.

Eventually, what will happen is that they'll raise prices so high, that discount retailer's prices will be what GW's prices are RIGHT NOW.

They can only raise them so high until people draw the line.

"Hey mom, can I get this box of spess mehreens? There's 10 for $70!"

Wrong. GW made more profit this year, so price increases are clearly working.

Ahh, my poor little n00b, that has *already* happened several times since I got into The GW Hobby over a decade ago. Indeed, way back then, Wraithlords were made of metal and called Eldar Dreadnoughts. They retailed for a whopping $25, and could be gotten on discount for as little as $15 shipped. Now, this model is plastic and GW charges an outrageous $44.50, which means that a typical retailer with a 40% discount pays more today than what GW stickered it for way back when. The average discounter charges over $35, which is more than twice what I would have paid for one back in the day.

As continuing sales of Chaos Daemons and other Fantasy 10-packs show, you are grossly mistaken.

I wonder, what princely sum does GW charge Australians for 10 Tactical Marines?
____

BrassScorpion wrote: I've had many conversations on this topic over the many years I've been buying GW products and that phrase always comes up from at least one of us in the conversation, yet the prices keep going up and people are still buying their products. I'm not sure where that line is that customers won't cross over, but no matter how many times I or my friends think GW has reached it it has not happened yet. Seriously, I remember that comment coming up in conversations twelve years ago or more, yet it just never happens.

QFT.

I don't know what the point is, but I suspect that GW can raise prices by 3 to 5% per year on average from here to infinity.

Appreciate the enlightenment.

I was just saying, that eventually, it will be too expensive. Right now, its outrageous, but GW can only raise so high (I can't imagine a parent in the right mind who would buy 10 plastic miniatures for $70+)

Heh, I am relatively new to the hobby compared to many on here, so I take my lashings.

wait till january when VAT goes up to 20% over here in the UK can't wait to see how that will effect the market on the continents. plus now BP seem to be getting a proper solution to their leak, can see price of oil shooting up which will also mean price of plastics rising. what miffs me is how much stock is produced at cheaper times then released (or should i say rules change so people want them in armies) when market price is at a high.

Karon wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Karon wrote:They can only raise them so high until people draw the line.

"Hey mom, can I get this box of spess mehreens? There's 10 for $70!"

As continuing sales of Chaos Daemons and other Fantasy 10-packs show, you are grossly mistaken.

but I suspect that GW can raise prices by 3 to 5% per year on average from here to infinity.

Appreciate the enlightenment.

I was just saying, that eventually, it will be too expensive. Right now, its outrageous, but GW can only raise so high (I can't imagine a parent in the right mind who would buy 10 plastic miniatures for $70+)

Heh, I am relatively new to the hobby compared to many on here, so I take my lashings.

No biggie, it's GW in perspective over time.

Over a decade ago, if you had told people that the Eldar Dreadnought would be plastic and $45 *each*, they probably wouldn't have believed you. 5 years, ago, they would have, and been scared about the coming price hike..