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@ Sean_OBrien:

The video game thing (and electronics) is another thing. For the longest time computer games (and most console games) sat around AUD$100. US prices were $50, but this was long before the Aussie dollar even hit 80 US cents. It kinda sorta made sense. Then the exchange rates changed, and suddenly we're paying far more for something. Then the current gen hit and games went to AUD$110 each (US prices went to an average US$60). PC games went down from their standard AUD$100, but that's a market force thing with PC games generally getting the glamour of console releases (they now sit around $70-$80, other than so-called AAA titles like Call of Honour: Battlefield of Duty).

But people took notice. Games and electronics, being faaaaaaaaar more mainstream than table-top games, began to affect local retailers, with a conglomerate calling for an lowering of the tax free threshold for import duty (right now we don't pay tax for imports of less than $1000, and the local retailers didn't like that as we could just buy all our games from the UK or the US). That didn't get any ground, so now there's an nation-wide enquiry into electronic prices to see why we pay so much. Don't know what the results are yet (or even if there are any). This also includes the cost of eBooks I might add, which are more expensive here for no God-damned reason. There's nothing physical about an eBook, and often times they're coming from the same server. Why the hell are they more expensive?

So to simply say "Australian's get paid more!" is so far from the crux of the issue that it's almost laughable (not that you said that, but it's been said by others).

 Hillbilly wrote:
Ha! you'll like (nooo, love) the prices, and how does an american miss hit the AUS website comeon you have 54(<is that right ) stars on your flag>

You'd be surprised man. At times it's like a weekly thing, threads with people freaking out that the prices have all jumped into orbit. It's always the same though - someone's clicked 'Australia' by accident and seen our prices.

 Hillbilly wrote:
its just he hates it. hes trying to make money too. plus its not like every day someone buys something or plays a game. he also lets us use the paints for free. on Friday night


Automatically Appended Next Post:
lol who changed the name of the thread


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My parents say (I KNOW i am 17 still at school) got a job)

They say that i should pay more at the store because its helping him keep the shop open.

(they care about my money) but i don't think mum would like to see packages come through her mail box (the ones at the post office (u know the ones you hire))

plus she thinks i should but i don't know, maybe someone should talk to GW and tell them or something.

never been to a store that charged you to play, if the one, say back home did-I'd turn round and go to one of the other FLGS in the city and play there, I arranged all my games anyways
I have no loyalty to the GW here
I hate when people try and sell me things, I hate it more when they treat me like a noob when I've been at this for 12 years lol
But I haven't found a closer FLGS where I live, so I'm stuck with them

 Hillbilly wrote:
i would like to know where that money goes

 Rainbow Dash wrote:
never been to a store that charged you to play, if the one, say back home did-I'd turn round and go to one of the other FLGS in the city and play there, I arranged all my games anyways
I have no loyalty to the GW here
I hate when people try and sell me things, I hate it more when they treat me like a noob when I've been at this for 12 years lol
But I haven't found a closer FLGS where I live, so I'm stuck with them

Dakkadakka's brick and mortar used to charge to play. I believe the first was free and then you paid like $2 to play. There was a monthly thing you could pay into, which I did when I was in the league. Of course, they had really great tables, terrain and a nice place to play.

Aus and NZ are islands. If GW tries to get product to them by air they get attacked by Rodan (Japanese flying dinosaur). If GW tries to use boats they get attacked by great whites (giant sharks). Literally 1 in 3 product are lost. Hence the 3x markup.

 ph34r wrote:

How about you can have cheap 40k and I'll take cheap prescription medicine

Can we trade?

 MightyGodzilla wrote:
Aus and NZ are islands.

Technically Australia is a continent.

Also, while I know you are kidding, I don't really buy this whole shipping argument, otherwise FOW would be more expensive the further you got away from NZ (or Malayasia).

Hillbilly, were you raised in Australia or did you move here? If it's the former, you need to work on your grammar and sense of humour.

But yeah, as people have said, you can order from overseas quite easily if you don't mind waiting for shipping.

I think the main reason GW costs more in Australia is the exchange rate has only been the way it's been for a couple of years and companies don't adjust to the exchange rate overly fast (what if it dropped back to 60 cents next week? We'd be back to paying the same price as the yanks). You do also have the thing of wages, minimum wage (which is probably close to what GW pays their employees, though that's just a guess) is significantly higher in Australia than the US. That would drive up prices, though not nearly as much as all that. Shipping, I'm sure that costs them bugger all on a per-unit bases. The more you ship the cheaper it gets.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Exchange rates: 20 years ago, when accountants used abacuses and wore funny green visors - exchange rates were calculated manually by looking up numbers in charts from the various treasuries and exchange agencies. It wasn't uncommon to pay a 5% or so fee on the exchange of currency from one form to another. Now - my bank doesn't charge me anything...though I have heard that some banks still do charge a nominal fee on currency exchanges - so lets assume they are still doing things by hand and let them tack on a 5% currency exchange fee.

You'll find that even if you don't have exchange fees, the banks simply offer you far worse exchange rates than they themself get unless you are transferring millions of dollars at a time. I go through a 3rd party company to do my international exchanges, there's no direct fees, but the exchange rate is a few cents worse than what you might see online (still far better than the banks).

So - if we go ahead and take a look at something like a Land Raider - it has a retail price of £45.00 in the UK. Subtract the VAT from that and you get £36.00. Convert that price to AUD and you get $55. Add in a dollar for shipping and you get $56. Add in 25% to cover the increased cost of living for the distributor and retailer and you get $70. Now add a 5% currency exchange for when they bring money back from GW Australia to GW UK and you get $73.50. That is what it should cost - given the worst case scenarios in everything.

Australia does also have 10% tax which is included in the online prices.

Australians would pay lower prices if they weren't all surfing on Bondi Beach, tossing more shrimp on the barbie or throwing Boomerangs at Koalas whilst dodging dangerous wildlife.
Live in a proper country, you croc-dodging, shrimp-tossing, ute-driving, chook-farming, wave-surfing, Kylie-worshipping upside-down ex-convicts. Now that all the stereotypes have been used up, Hillbilly can cease being offended.

Off to my roast beef, bad teeth and sexual repression. Tally ho!

Riquende wrote:
Australians would pay lower prices if they weren't all surfing on Bondi Beach, tossing more shrimp on the barbie or throwing Boomerangs at Koalas whilst dodging dangerous wildlife.
Live in a proper country, you croc-dodging, shrimp-tossing, ute-driving, chook-farming, wave-surfing, Kylie-worshipping upside-down ex-convicts. Now that all the stereotypes have been used up, Hillbilly can cease being offended.

Off to my roast beef, bad teeth and sexual repression. Tally ho!

Oi! We aren't all Kylie-worhshipping.

Riquende wrote:
Australians would pay lower prices if they weren't all surfing on Bondi Beach, tossing more shrimp on the barbie or throwing Boomerangs at Koalas whilst dodging dangerous wildlife.
Live in a proper country, you croc-dodging, shrimp-tossing, ute-driving, chook-farming, wave-surfing, Kylie-worshipping upside-down ex-convicts. Now that all the stereotypes have been used up, Hillbilly can cease being offended.

Off to my roast beef, bad teeth and sexual repression. Tally ho!

You forgot kangaroo riding.

 Kaldor wrote:
You forgot kangaroo riding.

We only do that when the tide's down, as it's the quickest way to get to Tasmania.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I think the main reason GW costs more in Australia is the exchange rate has only been the way it's been for a couple of years and companies don't adjust to the exchange rate overly fast (what if it dropped back to 60 cents next week? We'd be back to paying the same price as the yanks). You do also have the thing of wages, minimum wage (which is probably close to what GW pays their employees, though that's just a guess) is significantly higher in Australia than the US. That would drive up prices, though not nearly as much as all that.

Exchange rates are always volatile though - unless they want to stop trading with anyone out of the Eurozone - it is something that GW will just need to learn to deal with. They have been fairly consistent for several years now and are still moving in a generally positive direction.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Australia does also have 10% tax which is included in the online prices.

Had forgotten about the GST - still, that leaves them with 40% or so to make up for on the cost of a Land Raider.

Now that all the stereotypes have been used up, Hillbilly can cease being offended.

I think you forgot something about going on a walk-about and of course the beloved didgeridoo.

I don't know about New Zealand, but certain South American countries have very steep customs/ tariffs on imports to protect their markets and encourage people to buy locally. And encourage foreign companies to have manufacturing in their country. This drives up retails considerably and provides an opportunity for the "grey market" (e.g Ebay) to emerge.

Perhaps this happening in Australia / New Zealand?

Last, transportation costs are A LOT more than people realize, cargo ships don't run on rainbows you know.

Swan-of-War wrote:
I don't know about New Zealand, but certain South American countries have very steep customs/ tariffs on imports to protect their markets and encourage people to buy locally. And encourage foreign companies to have manufacturing in their country. This drives up retails considerably and provides an opportunity for the "grey market" (e.g Ebay) to emerge.

Perhaps this happening in Australia / New Zealand?

I feel as though this is unlikely, most western (as in culture, not geographical location) have been moving away from protectionist measures for the last 20-30 years.

Swan-of-War wrote:


Last, transportation costs are A LOT more than people realize, cargo ships don't run on rainbows you know.

Then how come you don't see the same sort of price mark up in the UK on FOW stuff (which is manufactured in Malayasia, possibly packaged in NZ)

Also, what about those GW products which come from China (Codexs and books and such).

Isn't this kind of ridiculous pricing simply due to the ease to create a monopoly or at least make a deal with 'competitors' on remote islands ?
I know it's been a big issue in some of France's oversea territories and I read that some markets behave the same way in Australia.

 Dawnbringer wrote:

 MightyGodzilla wrote:
Aus and NZ are islands.

Technically Australia is a continent.

Also, while I know you are kidding, I don't really buy this whole shipping argument, otherwise FOW would be more expensive the further you got away from NZ (or Malayasia).

Nah, it's not shipping. H.B.M.C. summed it up about as well as you could get. It's a money grab ploy based on exchange rates that are old as hell. GW won't change that unless the exchange rates get even worse for them.
When I run GW I'll make sure you islanders get good prices.

And someone mentioned Koalas.....aren't those drop bears?

How many Big Macs does a tac squad cost in the UK, US and Aus ?

Then we might get a relative ratio.

 Spyral wrote:
How many Big Macs does a tac squad cost in the UK, US and Aus ?

Then we might get a relative ratio.

Big Mac
UK £2.69
Australia $4.45
US $4.33

Tac
UK £23.00
Australia $62.00
US $37.25

Big Macs per Tac
UK - 8.55
Australia - 13.93
US - 8.60

<---Loves Bic Mac math. Thank you so much.

$22 for a dark angels standard bearer and we get a thread about how low prices are. You have fun with your $75 council of elrond or $100 vampire knights I guess

Swan-of-War wrote:
Last, transportation costs are A LOT more than people realize, cargo ships don't run on rainbows you know.

No, they really aren't. I (as in, me, your average consumer) can get a large car shipped from the opposite side of the world to Australia for around $4000. You'd fit over 2000 average sized boxes in the same volume, so that's less than $2 shipping per box, and that's for your average joe, I'm sure GW can swing better deals than that and have good connections with their shipping companies to swing a bargain.

The shipping might start to add up if you want to ship things separately or the things you are trying to ship are inconveniently sized and awkward, but when you can bundle thousands of packages in to a shipping crate, it is really not that expensive. Hell, Australia used to make the Pontiac GTO and ship it to the US and sell it in the US for less than the same car sold in Australia, so clearly GM wasn't paying the same import costs your average consumer pays and/or could just absorb the extra cost in to the cost of the car.

 Harriticus wrote:
$22 for a dark angels standard bearer and we get a thread about how low prices are. You have fun with your $75 council of elrond or $100 vampire knights I guess

or $150 hobbit box, or $110 azhag finecast abomination!

 Harriticus wrote:
$22 for a dark angels standard bearer and we get a thread about how low prices are. You have fun with your $75 council of elrond or $100 vampire knights I guess

Those prices are low to us. Those Blood Knights here are $165, which as 5 mounted models doesn't look so bad next to the White Council at $125 for 4 normal sized humans.

 -Loki- wrote:

 Harriticus wrote:
$22 for a dark angels standard bearer and we get a thread about how low prices are. You have fun with your $75 council of elrond or $100 vampire knights I guess

Those prices are low to us. Those Blood Knights here are $165, which as 5 mounted models doesn't look so bad next to the White Council at $125 for 4 normal sized humans.

I can tell ya if I lived "down under" I'd never set foot in a GW, unless to induce vomiting

 Delephont wrote:
I understand your point, but, the theory falls down when you consider "what is anything worth?", surely, from a business perspective, the answer is, whatever the market can "bear". If I sell a Tactical Unit in America, and the market will bear it at $40, then that's what it's worth, now, IF Australia, through economic reasons, etc, can bear it to be $80, then it's worth is automatically $80 in that specific region.

I know this seems "unjust" in a global economy setting, but, until we have a truely global economy (not regional based as is currently the case) maximising your product ROI means taking advantage of these region peculiarities. Just because media and information has become "intercontinental", economic prosperity hasn't.

Pretty much correct. The correct price is however much the market dictates.
This leads to the fact that GW is obviously NOT pricing at what the Australian market can bear; they are/were making a loss in Australia the last few financial reports.

Unfortunately, despite what HBMC says, regional pricing is a real thing and occurs with most goods. A litre of petrol might be 'worth' $1.50 in Perth, but get out to the nullabor and the nearest petrol station is 200km away, it really is worth $3/L. Go to Bali and you can get a three course meal with a lobster main for $15, but that doesn't really help you when you want to buy lobster for $60 over here. Its all fine that a plumber in the US costs $20/hour, but I can't very well convince a plumber in Australia to price match to the US guy, can I?

GW is far from the only country that 'abuses' regional pricing. There is an entire website dedicated to the regional differences in Steam prices, where they don't have even the dubious excuses of retail chains or shipping costs. Booko does the same thing for books and DVD's.

Essentially the problem is the rapid rise in acceptance of online shopping by customers everywhere, compounded with the 'recent' abrupt change in exchange rates, and the particular class of products we're talking about. These items fall into a set where shipping from overseas is acceptable: 1) Perceived unreasonably high price point in the home country. 2) Low shipping cost. 3) Identical items in both destinations. 4) Able to wait for shipping. 5) No care about the warranty.
So we see people buying Warhammer, designer clothes and cosmetics, jewellery, books, dvd's and games and portable electronics from overseas. But we don't buy groceries, china plates, cars or televisions, because for various reasons they just won't work. At one point, the high end department stores were up in arms over the frequency with which customers would come into a store, try on clothes to get the correct size, then return home and buy it online from overseas; they were considering implementing a 'fitting fee' of $5 to enter the changing rooms.....

Its a natural result of the situation and hopefully will lead to a change in business practices. However, there is only a certain level to which retailers can lower their prices: the high Australian wage and rental costs mean that no matter what a retailer does, they can't stay in business if they are trying to match overseas costs.

So the TLR: Buy from overseas until the companies begin to listen.