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Give it time and they might just be since they're doing it for almost half of the world really.

Hm, what caused all this? Did the Australian dollar surge upwards in value compared to the USD, but prices not drop to match? It's a strange dilemma, because I'm fairly sure it's been going on for a few years, I've just never bothered to ask how it started to begin with.

 Dr. Delorean wrote:
I think the higher prices are fair enough, after all they need to get through the box jellyfish, the funnelweb spiders, the inland taipans, kangaroos, koalas, wombats, emus, great white sharks, and serial killers to get to us, so there's bound to be an increase in shipping costs*

Of course, this hardly applies to digital versions.

*/sarcasm

And the Drop Bears.... you forgot the Drop Bears!!

 -Loki- wrote:

By enable it you of course mean they're allowed to sell it.

They outlined this in a supreme court hearing about a month back. Apple admitted they actually want to move prices closer - hence why the hardware is quickly nearing parity. Their license to sell music, books and movies comes with strict terms from those industries, both in terms of what they can sell here (which is why we sometimes wait over a year for an iTunes album the US has had since release) and also pricing.

I'm not going to get into the whole apple-market-share-gives-them-wiggle-room debate, because it's boring. This is what we do know from a supreme court hearing.

And to be fairer to Apple, Microsoft and Adobe basically said 'feth you, you'll pay what we want you to pay in Australia, there's nothing illegal about geo-blocking prices'. Apple at least show they do want to acheive better pricing, which is evidenced in their hardware prices.

Also, when you said you'd never heard about Australians complaining about non-GW pricing, I brought up this very case you're discussing now in the last price thread. And several other Australians commented on it. Maybe you missed it?

Glad to hear at least one company is doing it. Still, lots of companies aren't and that has an affect of driving everything up around the country. The idea of a nation wide conspiracy holding prices up just seems impossible to sustain and that is why I have a hard time believing it is the only cause. Has there been an other noticeable drops on other products? It sounds like the government is taking action on this finally.

Xyrael wrote:
Hm, what caused all this? Did the Australian dollar surge upwards in value compared to the USD, but prices not drop to match? It's a strange dilemma, because I'm fairly sure it's been going on for a few years, I've just never bothered to ask how it started to begin with.

Yes, that's pretty much what happened.

silent25 wrote:
Glad to hear at least one company is doing it. Still, lots of companies aren't and that has an affect of driving everything up around the country. The idea of a nation wide conspiracy holding prices up just seems impossible to sustain and that is why I have a hard time believing it is the only cause. Has there been an other noticeable drops on other products? It sounds like the government is taking action on this finally.

It's definitely not nation wide. Plenty of stuff, even luxury goods, have fallen in price, or maintained their price from a decade ago. A decade ago we paid $30au for most movies and albums, and $100 for most games. We still pay that now, so the music, movie and game industries aren't gouging us as much as some make out. They are, however, gouging us harder than the US. Prices haven't gone up with inflation - they just haven't come down due to the strong dollar either. They also don't really do anything to stop us buying overseas - a sale is a sale, which is sensible. Only region locking on DVDs hindered this, but that wasn't hard to get around.

Some industries and sole companies are doing it, however, Microsoft and Adobe make no qualms about it - they're quite happy to let Australians know they're doing it, and ask us to bend over and let them. And for the most part, people do. GW is the outrider in the miniatures industry. While other companies adjust up (I haven't found any that sell in Australia for a direct conversion of their homeland price), only GW and PP seem to do it at the higher end, thought PP not quite as hard.

Xyrael wrote:
Hm, what caused all this? Did the Australian dollar surge upwards in value compared to the USD, but prices not drop to match? It's a strange dilemma, because I'm fairly sure it's been going on for a few years, I've just never bothered to ask how it started to begin with.

I'm willing to bet the GFC, I think it was during that time when the US, and pretty much the rest of the world's economy was going to gak while Australia just kept going along fairly well with no major dramas. At least nowhere near the scale that other economies endured. This caused Australia's dollar to surge as many people saw it as a safe currency to invest in.

Many companies used the excuse that this was just a temporary thing and that they can't constantly adjust prices due to an ever changing exchange rate. And that's a perfectly reasonable explanation, 5 years ago. Now however with the AUD being consistently higher than the USD for the last few years people are NOW starting to ask questions as to why prices haven't been adjusted.

For me this seems worst because it wasn't a new product that was expensive like the miniatures are but prices just jumped for all "hardback" ibooks. It was like a pricing adjustment but normally don't they let you know they are going to do it first? its like one day something is worth 50 and now its 80 with no announcment at all on the GW website.

GW used to forecast price increases. They pretty much stopped doing that publicly though we tend to find out from retailers a few weeks before the jump happens now because it gets to them in their order sheets.

The Aussie dollar was sitting at 98.x US cents, and had been for a very long time before the GFC hit. During the GFC it raced down to 64.x US cents, and then spent the next few years climbing back up. At one point it reached 1.10 US cents, but it didn't stay there long, and now sits in the 1.03-1.05 US cents area.

But none of this has much to do with GW's digital book prices, which are absurd.

Thachng wrote:
For me this seems worst because it wasn't a new product that was expensive like the miniatures are but prices just jumped for all "hardback" ibooks. It was like a pricing adjustment but normally don't they let you know they are going to do it first? its like one day something is worth 50 and now its 80 with no announcment at all on the GW website.

Just a suggestion - if you wait until you see iTunes cards on sale for 20% off, you can effectively get the book for $60.

It's not an ideal solution, but still a good way around it.

Although.. the interesting thing would be, how many people are now going to be disposed to pay that price when they know they are getting fleeced (for want of a better term?)

The thing is - you know this new codex is practically the same as the old one. A few minor updates to rules, background shuffled into a different order and spiced up slightly, a couple of new bits of artwork - especially without the 'Emperor's new clothes'-style hardback cover. If you don't stoop to piracy, you would be far better off just photocopying a few of the rule pages from a friend's copy, and spending the money you have saved on miniatures (read: you could probably any one of half a dozen different non-GW game systems for the money you have saved!)

Based on GWs pricing of the IBook codex I decided not to buy a Tau army. I'm guessing this must have been as they intended as they didn't have enough to sell anyway.

Cos you're a long way away and it cots a lot to ship it to you.... bugger, it's in digital format!

Thachng wrote:
I noticed the price of codex and army books on ibooks are now $80 instead of $50 was there a reason for that. Seems really expensive for a digital book. I don't know what they are doing really. Do they want to price themselves out of Au?

Pretty normal practice for GW though, normally, the actual
Demand for online codices might be high, but GW just decides to
Fack people over and rob them at brightest day.

I do sometimes wonder if the idea that GW using Oz as some kind of sandbox to test the market to destruction. Is not so far from the truth. First they were isolated by the embargo, so they were all alone. Then some kind of NSFW prison rape analogy ensued.

So to answer the question: "Why did the prices go up?". It's because they are on the leading edge of butthurt... and we're all next!

 Wolfstan wrote:
Cos you're a long way away and it cots a lot to ship it to you.... bugger, it's in digital format!

Do you know how many electrons die trying to cross the Pacific to bring you that content? It's horrible! Hundreds of baby orphan electrons exist now because Australians had to have a DIGITAL copy. Callous.

Could be they are charging you p+p ;P! After all to GW, Australia is a long way even by broadband...

 insaniak wrote:
An iBook version of a hardcover book is clearly going to be more expensive than an iBook version of a softcover... because... er...


Hey, look! Rotating pictures!

They don't even rotate. They're 2D pictures for the painting guides, pathetic for the price, they don't even show rear shots of their paint progress tutorials.

YouTube and other painting tutorials on the internet are free. GW are really pricing themselves out of the market in Australia.

A few potential reasons:

1. Translating into Aussie is expensive.

2. The iBooks are custom made for Australia as the images have to rotate the other way.

Honestly, the title of this thread may as well have been "Why did the chicken cross the road?" answer: "Why not?"

Because they hate you.

Almost as much as they hate making money.

Should have seen my last internet bill - I almost cried when I saw the price... realised i'd been browsing Dakka long distance!

 Banicks wrote:
GW are really pricing themselves out of the market in Australia.

If they are really pricing themselves out of the market, we should see fewer and fewer of these threads as Australians flock to other games.

I haven't had time to do much wargaming since I had kids, but I know that at an upcoming con the registrations for the WM/Hordes tourney are something like 4x higher than registrations for the 40k tourney. A few years ago it was the other way around, and I wouldn't be surprised if GW pricing in Canada was at least part of this.

OTOH, if GW keeps making more profit by selling less stuff for more money, why would they stop?

ddogwood wrote:

 Banicks wrote:
GW are really pricing themselves out of the market in Australia.

If they are really pricing themselves out of the market, we should see fewer and fewer of these threads as Australians flock to other games.

I haven't had time to do much wargaming since I had kids, but I know that at an upcoming con the registrations for the WM/Hordes tourney are something like 4x higher than registrations for the 40k tourney. A few years ago it was the other way around, and I wouldn't be surprised if GW pricing in Canada was at least part of this.

OTOH, if GW keeps making more profit by selling less stuff for more money, why would they stop?

From what I hear, much the same thing is happening down here as well. The sad part is most have heavily invested in GW product and don't want to see their investment count for naught. There are the few of us who have very little to do with the game itself anymore and our miniatures are petrifying in display cases with fond memories of what once was. I consider myself more a collector (hoarder?) these days, just mopping up the few rarer pieces out there and only for a single army.

Perhaps one day, when GW is gone and the IP has transitioned to a company better run, the Warhost will grace the tabletop in a swathe of destruction the likes of which was only ever seen in 2nd Edition

If I had to guess they did it to see if it was actually possible to make the aussies whine any louder you know turn it up to 11 metaphorically speaking, because seriously there's a new wargaming rule that states any discussion even tangentially linked to pricing will result with the arrival of a moaning upside downer with in 10 posts.

Seriously we get it GW's prices are stupidly high in australia we know this very well because you have been banging out about it now for years but news flash GW are expensive everywhere but in relative terms do the Aussies really get it as bad as they say?

At current uk minimum wage it will take roughly 6 and a half hours rounding down to earn enough for the Tau Battlesuit team.
At current Aus minimum wage it will take roughly 5hrs rounding down to earn enough for the Tau Battlesuit team.

At current uk minimum wage it will take roughly 2hrs to earn enough for the Cadre Fireblade.
At current Aus minimum wage it will take roughly 1 and a half hours to earn enough for the Cadre Fireblade.

At current uk minimum wage it will take roughly 8hrs to earn enough for a riptide.
At current Aus minimum wage it will take roughly 5hrs 45min to earn enough for the Riptide.

Also these are based on the maximum UK minimum wage but only the highest level junior Aus minimum wage (20yr old) if you use there main minimum wage the ratios skew further in the favor of OZ but given target audience I was generous.

TDLR yes GW is expensive but that is what you get for paying your janitors the equivalent of a uk retail manager and living at the arse end of the globe, I do however agree that there is no excuse for the digital increase but is there any chance you could give it a rest for a couple of months 9 and you have the check to call us whinging poms)

Minimum wage argument strikes again!

Ah, another minimum wage fallacy. Min wage does not determine global pricing structure, and certainly wouldn't have an effect on something like Games Workshop. Shipping prices would impact GW's prices before minimum wage did.

In any case, the reason I call it a fallacy is because you're only looking at two countries in a vacuum. Let's try another country... like... I dunno... Brazil! Did you know that in Brazil the price of a Tactical Squad is nearly that of one in Australia, yet the minimum wage in Brazil is (roughly) 13 times less than that of Australia? How come the Aussie Tac Squad is AUD$60 and the Brazillian Tac Squad is then AUD$50. Shouldn't the Brazillian Tac squad be 13 times cheaper?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Ah, another minimum wage fallacy. Min wage does not determine global pricing structure, and certainly wouldn't have an effect on something like Games Workshop. Shipping prices would impact GW's prices before minimum wage did.

In any case, the reason I call it a fallacy is because you're only looking at two countries in a vacuum. Let's try another country... like... I dunno... Brazil! Did you know that in Brazil the price of a Tactical Squad is nearly that of one in Australia, yet the minimum wage in Brazil is (roughly) 13 times less than that of Australia? How come the Aussie Tac Squad is AUD$60 and the Brazillian Tac Squad is then AUD$50. Shouldn't the Brazillian Tac squad be 13 times cheaper?

You are as likely to educate everyone who believes in that argument as Don Quixote was to kill those giants. Is it worth it? You could also just copy and paste your best response each time.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Ah, another minimum wage fallacy. Min wage does not determine global pricing structure, and certainly wouldn't have an effect on something like Games Workshop. Shipping prices would impact GW's prices before minimum wage did.

In any case, the reason I call it a fallacy is because you're only looking at two countries in a vacuum. Let's try another country... like... I dunno... Brazil! Did you know that in Brazil the price of a Tactical Squad is nearly that of one in Australia, yet the minimum wage in Brazil is (roughly) 13 times less than that of Australia? How come the Aussie Tac Squad is AUD$60 and the Brazillian Tac Squad is then AUD$50. Shouldn't the Brazillian Tac squad be 13 times cheaper?

My point is not that global prices should be used to determine pricing but that despite the complaining in relative terms australians pay less for the products when compared to their purchasing power.

Also as a rule when these discussions come up it's uk prices that are used to show the injustice of of the australian prices hence me using those to show that there is no injustice and that global pricing structure or not you are nowhere near as hard done to as you like to make out.
At the end of the day what it comes down to is that you want to pay peanuts for the product and hell I don't blame you for that I would love to pick up a Tactical box for £5 but it ain't going to happen. In fact given that gw pay 5% import and 10% GST plus shipping you guys get a bargain.

And to throw another figure out there at the highest Japanese regional minimum wage it would take 9 and a half hours to earn a riptide.

Also what minimum wage fallacy any company will aim to charge the maximum the market can afford which in australia's case is directly affected by their very generous minimum wage.

Also did you know that Brazil is a poor choice due to GW having no direct involvement with sales there as all prices are set by the one local distributor I'm going to guess you did.

SeanDrake wrote:

Also what minimum wage fallacy any company will aim to charge the maximum the market can afford which in australia's case is directly affected by their very generous minimum wage.

It only seems generous to someone not trying to live off it.
Yes we have a higher minimum wage, but we also have a higher cost of living. Essential goods are affected by minimum wage, luxury goods aren't.