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The prices were always high, but I was willing to save up money to buy a unit after 2 months or so. That was in 6th grade when my friend first introduced me to the game. Out of the 8 or so who I played with, I'm the only one left now. Many people at my college have commented on how nice my models look, etc. When they ask what game its from and I tell them 40k. they always say I wish I could play, but it's just to expensive. I can say without exaggeration that has happened more than 20 times in 1 semester alone.

As it is, I find myself much more willing to pay for forgeworlds models now than I was when I first saw them years ago. For the price I pay, I much prefer the higher quality and more detailed forgeworld models then GWs recent offerings. And even then, I'm basically buying a unit and accesories every 6 or 7 months, as opposed to 1 a month.

I really miss playing the game with friends. Some good memories.

They would probably make more money if they lowered the prices.

If I tried to get my 5 main friends into a skirmish army

maybe 1 would buy the units at current prices.

Probably 3 or 4 would buy them if a ork boys box costed aprox 20 US
or space marine tactical about 30

Some armies didn't get boned... that bad. Deathwing is still about the same. Terminators are still $50 a box. My friend runs pure terminators and it's a pretty good hard army to face. I think the cost for the models has gone up due to oil and other fun stuff like that.


The codexs are way to much. Ya, hardcover books always cost more but why did GW switch from soft to hard?

To get more money out of you before you quit. Things like codexes and army books are "must haves" if you want to play the game. So if they can increase the cost of those, people they get into the game will buy them before they quit and that means more money per customer that GW churns through.

And as I've noted over and over, hardcovers only cost a few cents extra to produce over a softcover.

the 5 plastic command figures for 60bucksw is 12bucks a mini made of plastic? expensive.

 Fafnir wrote:
And as I've noted over and over, hardcovers only cost a few cents extra to produce over a softcover.

Including the indentations? And the colour printing?

I have noticed i do look in my local gaming shops like toymaster etc, there is a good one up beside my GF's and he has a small warmahordes section but a lot of GW stuff, which arent at current GW proces, so i can get stuff a little bit cheaper.

I tend to go to GW for the new stuff but the bread and butter units i pick up if i see them cheaper.

 BryllCream wrote:

 Fafnir wrote:
And as I've noted over and over, hardcovers only cost a few cents extra to produce over a softcover.

Including the indentations? And the colour printing?

Colour printing isn't incredibly expensive these days. I don't know the values myself, but it's certainly not worth a $20 price increase. Probably only a few dollars, at most. Hell, I just recently bought a paperback copy of Mark Waid/Alex Ross' Kingdom Come for $15. 230 pages, full colour.

The difference is especially minimal when you get them all bulk printed in China and shipped over.

 Fafnir wrote:

 BryllCream wrote:

 Fafnir wrote:
And as I've noted over and over, hardcovers only cost a few cents extra to produce over a softcover.

Including the indentations? And the colour printing?

Colour printing isn't incredibly expensive these days. I don't know the values myself, but it's certainly not worth a $20 price increase. Probably only a few dollars, at most. Hell, I just recently bought a paperback copy of Mark Waid/Alex Ross' Kingdom Come for $15. 230 pages, full colour.

And most of DC/Marvel stuff is printed in Canada, but for some reason a hardcover full colour book with the same amount of pages is $40 more with GW and printed in china and full of typos. Hmmm.

And unlike a GW codex, Kingdom Come was a good read!

I work for a publishers that make highly illustrated books that are mostly printed in the Far East. Because our page counts typically range from 48–196, they are very close to the sort of material that Games Workshop produces.

Hardcover, full-colour books on heavyweight paper (i.e. the sort of book that the new Codices/Army Books are) do cost more than the older sort (i.e. soft cover, largely black-and-white with a central colour signature, on decent paper), but it's in the region of £1 ($2) or so, assuming a print run of 3–5,000 copies.

Special bits, like a fifth colour process (to give you a gold effect on the cover, for example) or non-standard stuff, like debossed/embossed slipcases push these up.

Given that the limited edition of the Dark Angels Codex was limited to 2,000; and had a heavy board slip cover, I'd expect that to add roughly £3–5 to the cost per copy. Economies of scale kick in the more you print, and the standard version of the Codex would likely have a pretty hefty print run.

Personally, I only buy Codices for the armies I play (so one every few years), and haven't bought one of the new style ones (largely due to the price). That said, I think the books are absolutely gorgeous – I think the decision you have to make is whether you think the artwork, design and editorial time that go into the books is worth the payout; as you do for all books.

The cost of a book to a publisher supports the commissioning, editorial, photography, artworking, design, marketing, sales, production and shipping departments, plus sundry other bits and pieces. Raw figures of how much it is to produce a book are misleading – though slips like the editorial faux pas (the Warhammer paragraph in the new Dark Angels Codex, for example), or the misaligned pages in the main rulebook, are sloppy, to my mind. If I'm paying a premium for a book, I expect a premium product. I do think that the production values in GW literature are fantastic (the production of so much artwork, even if it is reused, is phenomenal).

Just my tuppence worth.

I am fairly new to the warhammer universe and imho the cost of the product is a great value for the the time you spend painting and playing. I for one love the hardback books. The models get better and better. I will say a lower price would be better for the future of the hobby as most kids will never get into the hobby. On the flip side there are more stores in my local area selling GW stuff and hosting more tournaments, events etc. I guess its a matter of priorities spend 100 for a good dinner or a video game or a 100 on GW stuff.

warhammernut wrote:
its a matter of priorities spend 100 for a good dinner or a video game or a 100 on GW stuff.

... or £50 on wargaming stuff from a more reasonable company. I know where my money goes!

Riquende wrote:

warhammernut wrote:
its a matter of priorities spend 100 for a good dinner or a video game or a 100 on GW stuff.

... or £50 on wargaming stuff from a more reasonable company. I know where my money goes!

Or £10 on a book. Etc.

It seems odd that simply repeating "I think GW is too expensive" is a valid response in this thread. That's more or less what most of the whining amounts to. We get it now.


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 Fafnir wrote:

 BryllCream wrote:

 Fafnir wrote:
And as I've noted over and over, hardcovers only cost a few cents extra to produce over a softcover.

Including the indentations? And the colour printing?

Colour printing isn't incredibly expensive these days. I don't know the values myself, but it's certainly not worth a $20 price increase. Probably only a few dollars, at most. Hell, I just recently bought a paperback copy of Mark Waid/Alex Ross' Kingdom Come for $15. 230 pages, full colour.

You're right, I'm sure there's no full colour hardback rulebooks of comparable price. Like, anywhere in the world.

I understand everyone has a different set of priorities thats fine of course. One thing I like about GW is the number of people that play. Here in my local area Northern California it seems the hobby escpecially fantasy is growing. Our local store just had a tournament of 40k with 80 plus players. My sons who play they are in there twenties save up and buy as they go. I do the same and spread my business around local game shop, online and yes even the localGW store. For me its a matter of when we paint or play its me and the wife just having a grand time. I host events at my home also. its as much a social event as well as an excuse to game. I will say a friend who got out of warhammer a few years ago and swore I will never play again prices etc his reason. Is now doing a Dark eldar force and Tomb kings. Never say never the new models and codexes is what lured him back.

warhammernut wrote:
I am fairly new to the warhammer universe and imho the cost of the product is a great value for the the time you spend painting and playing. I for one love the hardback books. The models get better and better. I will say a lower price would be better for the future of the hobby as most kids will never get into the hobby. On the flip side there are more stores in my local area selling GW stuff and hosting more tournaments, events etc. I guess its a matter of priorities spend 100 for a good dinner or a video game or a 100 on GW stuff.

Well I am pleased you feel you're getting value for money. I feel the same to an extent. However your frame of reference is somewhat limited. This year marks my silver anniversary of involvement with GW, not always as a player but to some extent.

What myself, and I think a lot of other vets, have a problem with is not the prices per sé, but the disproportionate increases. No sane hobbyist would still expect 3 Rhinos for a tenner or 30 Marines in one box for not much more, times change and the modern product is better in most ways, inflation alone would have brought those prices up significantly in the time since that happened. What really fans my flames is when they pull tricks like reducing box numbers AND increasing prices, or charging 15 quid for a single mini, that was sculpted 20 years ago and was sold at half that price, presumably with a healthy margin when it was released and made from a higher priced raw material.

Again, like many, I get angry, no.. not angry, frustrated at the criminal laziness that GW appear to exhibit. I can see a hundred different ways that GW could make 40k better for us as fans and make more money, but they seem happy to churn out more marines and keep jacking up prices. It's ironic that a company that owes it's very existence to the creative powers of it's founders should display such a singular lack of imagination in any of it's endeavours.

I read somewhere that in the 70s (I wasn't there, so I wouldn't know) a wargaming ruleset could cost 1.50 pounds? What the hell happened?

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
I read somewhere that in the 70s (I wasn't there, so I wouldn't know) a wargaming ruleset could cost 1.50 pounds? What the hell happened?

I can't say for sure, I only existed from the beginning of 1978! But I can say that during the eighties you could by a full price video game for 8 pounds and the likes of Codemasters specialised in making budget games for less than 3.

Not a fair comparison though, as, like video games, a modern, high profile war game is a massively more sophisticated affair.

It is, most definitely, but even so - what happened? Cheap rules vs some really, really, bank-breakingingly expensive rules.

warhammernut wrote:
I am fairly new to the warhammer universe and imho the cost of the product is a great value for the the time you spend painting and playing. I for one love the hardback books. The models get better and better. I will say a lower price would be better for the future of the hobby as most kids will never get into the hobby. On the flip side there are more stores in my local area selling GW stuff and hosting more tournaments, events etc. I guess its a matter of priorities spend 100 for a good dinner or a video game or a 100 on GW stuff.

What's problematic to me are silly things like Catachans or Sisters of Battle seeing price increases when their models haven't changed for years.
Finecast comes out? Better increase the cost of Catachans!
New Edition comes out? Better increase the cost of Catachan??

It's the same product, and sure, inflation happens...but GW is practically laundering money at this rate.
My preference: buy the models you like the look of (GW or not, since it doesn't particularly matter what models you use anymore. GW stopped sponsoring tournies in the U.S. afaik), buy your food and make your favorite meal from scratch (organic, if possible), and buy your games used...a year after they come out.

You'll save a lot that way.

It's expensive, model wise, and game wise though they have no competition. FoW, Mantic, Privateer Press, etc. are not as widespread or easy to find games for. I've only a few boxes of Kings of War at Hobbytown USA, and they are long gone and haven't been restocked in a year.

There is just no FLGS near where I am that even carries a book for these games. And if it wasn't for the internet, I'd of never heard of have of the alternatives to GW.

Every store I go to plays this: 40K, Magic, D&D, and Pathfinder

That's it.

As far as the books go, the more expensive they get the more people are just going to pirate them, and get them for free.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:


As far as the books go, the more expensive they get the more people are just going to pirate them, and get them for free.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
It's expensive, model wise, and game wise though they have no competition. FoW, Mantic, Privateer Press, etc. are not as widespread or easy to find games for. I've only a few boxes of Kings of War at Hobbytown USA, and they are long gone and haven't been restocked in a year.

There is just no FLGS near where I am that even carries a book for these games. And if it wasn't for the internet, I'd of never heard of have of the alternatives to GW.

Every store I go to plays this: 40K, Magic, D&D, and Pathfinder

That's it.

As far as the books go, the more expensive they get the more people are just going to pirate them, and get them for free.

I'm having a real trouble wrapping my head around this.

How come in a piddly little hell hole of a country like mine I can instantly find people to play even semi-obscure games like FoG and FoF and Empire of the Dead, but someone in the US of fraking A, only finds games of 40K?!


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 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
It is, most definitely, but even so - what happened? Cheap rules vs some really, really, bank-breakingingly expensive rules.

You have literally dozens of free rule sets out there, and some of them are actually pretty good as well.

http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/

I think it's worth noting that those $50 codexs and $80 rulebooks for all their hard covers, color plates, and margin rococo contain some of the worst rules I've ever read. Maybe if this game had more steak and less sizzle it would be worth the time and money.

 BryllCream wrote:

Riquende wrote:

warhammernut wrote:
its a matter of priorities spend 100 for a good dinner or a video game or a 100 on GW stuff.

... or £50 on wargaming stuff from a more reasonable company. I know where my money goes!

Or £10 on a book. Etc.

It seems odd that simply repeating "I think GW is too expensive" is a valid response in this thread. That's more or less what most of the whining amounts to. We get it now.

Oh right, you need it explaining.

The post I was responding to thought GW represented good value for money because "the cost of the product is a great value for the the time you spend painting and playing.". You can spend the same amount of time painting and playing with far cheaper figures. Get it?

Your comparison to books is irrelevant.

It seems odd that GW's white knights feel the need to keep responding in this thread saying "no GW actually isn't expensive for X or Y reasons". We get it now, don't agree, you can toddle off to a GW store and drop £500 on a new army.

OR, we can treat this board like the discussion forum it is and discuss it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Boggy Man wrote:
I think it's worth noting that those $50 codexs and $80 rulebooks for all their hard covers, color plates, and margin rococo contain some of the worst rules I've ever read. Maybe if this game had more steak and less sizzle it would be worth the time and money.

Excellent point. I do think GW is far too expensive for what it is, but would be prepared to pay a premium price for a premium product. Unfortunately the figures are so-so, and the rules are just awful (entirely subjective opinions, obviously).

 BryllCream wrote:

 Fafnir wrote:
And as I've noted over and over, hardcovers only cost a few cents extra to produce over a softcover.

Including the indentations? And the colour printing?

The cost difference really isn't much by opting for hardback, but the price increase means the profit margin is much greater with hardbacks. That's why many novels are published in hardback first and paperback later. It's widely accepted by the public that hardbacks cost significantly more, but the margin is fairly small for the publishers. Various things like cardboard inserts into magazines and fancy effects on the covers like foul, spot uv and embossing also add a little but not enough to warrant the increase any publisher puts on hardback over paperback. GW has the advantage that all their codexes are sold direct from the publisher meaning they get a greater cut. Most books are sold through a distributor, wholesaler, retailer, meaning that they get a small fraction of the cover price. GW get it all.

As someone in the hobby for 22+ years, GW's prices have definitely hit a point where I have lost most of my interest for the games. The biggest problem is that new releases no longer follow any sort of pricing structure, they are just whatever they feel like charging for them. The new Warriors of Chaos releases are a prime example.

The Slaughterbrute / Vortex beast kit according to the new Ipad version of White Dwarf is $85 US. I can't even comprehend that price for the kit in question. An Arachnarok Spider kit, which is much bigger of a model, costs $57.75. Why is this kit almost $30 more?

Another model is the new plastic Single Fig Chaos Lord. He is listed at $25. That is over $10 more than all the other single figure WFB Character kits (which are all around $14.75). What reason for such a huge increase?

They have definitely priced me out of the new products, good thing if I plan on doing much these days I have such a huge backlog of existing models!

Nope, GW did not price me out.