I'd like to make a challenge...GW standard prices are not insane.

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**Kingsley**

Alfndrate wrote:
Kingsley wrote:
The market can bear GW's prices, and it does. Therefore GW's prices aren't insane. I suspect GW will increase their prices again this year (by the typical small amount, of course), that the usual suspects on the Internet will freak out and say the sky is falling, and that everyone will go right on buying GW products.

I'm taking an over/over under on the average price increase on vehicles. Will we have 82 dollar Heldrakes?

I wouldn't be surprised if the Heldrake were to hit the 85 dollar Riptide price point.

**Elemental**

Kingsley wrote:
The market can bear GW's prices, and it does. Therefore GW's prices aren't insane. I suspect GW will increase their prices again this year (by the typical small amount, of course), that the usual suspects on the Internet will freak out and say the sky is falling, and that everyone will go right on buying GW products.

But a few less people will keep on buying with each price hike. I'll hazard a guess that while the people who are loud about their abusive relationship with GW usually don't stop buying, there are others who just quietly and undramatically figure they're not paying these prices any more and stop buying new stuff.

You can't keep raising prices and chopping bits of your company off forever, the question is how long.

**JWhex**

25$ for a single plastic infantry figure is bat crap insane. I have had many hobbies during my life, almost all of which are more expensive than 40K/whfb but the price insanity for some GW products is completely out of whack.

I have decided to just get by with what I have, and luckily I have a lot of stuff in the que for painting and modeling. If I need figs to update an army I will just get them used or not at all.

I started buying GW figures in 1983 and for the most part I just no longer think many of the models are worth what they cost.

**Jack_Death**

I'm missing what point? You are repeating my point back to me. Did you miss the part where I said "GW is not focused on competitive pricing"?

Saldiven wrote:
Jack_Death wrote:
I think the relevant point here is that GW does not consider Tamiya et. al. to be competition for their customers. Clearly, they are not focused on competitive pricing. This conversation is overdone and moot.

You're missing the point.

GW claims they make the best models out there and charge a premium for the quality of their product.

Other companies make better models for half the price.

GW doesn't charge what they do because of the "quality" of their product; they charge it because they haven't yet gotten to a point where their pricing policy hurts their profit margin by a figure larger than what they can adjust for through internal cost-cutting measures.

**Azreal13**

Jack_Death wrote:
I'm missing what point? You are repeating my point back to me. Did you miss the part where I said "GW is not focused on competitive pricing"?

Saldiven wrote:
Jack_Death wrote:
I think the relevant point here is that GW does not consider Tamiya et. al. to be competition for their customers. Clearly, they are not focused on competitive pricing. This conversation is overdone and moot.

You're missing the point.

GW claims they make the best models out there and charge a premium for the quality of their product.

Other companies make better models for half the price.

GW doesn't charge what they do because of the "quality" of their product; they charge it because they haven't yet gotten to a point where their pricing policy hurts their profit margin by a figure larger than what they can adjust for through internal cost-cutting measures.

His point was that GW base their pricing on a false assertion.

They claim to make the best toy soldiers in the world. While its impossible to disprove that objectively, many people disagree.

The factual claim would be "we make reasonable kits at a higher price than we can reasonably justify, but if anyone tries to undercut us with a similar product, we'll litigate them to feth."

Which isn't as catchy.

**BunkerBob**

Just a small input from being a friend of a store owner. When 6th edition hit, GW dropped the cut independent stores get for ordering from them in half. The normal discount for a store would recieve was 20% off anything custom ordered or regular order. Now it is only 10% off on new orders and suddenly GW was reporting record profits again with a new release from the edition and each redone army.

Take that as you will.

**Sidstyler**

Kingsley wrote:
Alfndrate wrote:
Kingsley wrote:
The market can bear GW's prices, and it does. Therefore GW's prices aren't insane. I suspect GW will increase their prices again this year (by the typical small amount, of course), that the usual suspects on the Internet will freak out and say the sky is falling, and that everyone will go right on buying GW products.

I'm taking an over/over under on the average price increase on vehicles. Will we have 82 dollar Heldrakes?

I wouldn't be surprised if the Heldrake were to hit the 85 dollar Riptide price point.

Maybe they'll surprise us all and just hike the price up to triple digits already. Considering how much the storm raven went up that one year it's not exactly out of the realm of possibility, either, since it would take a similar increase for the heldrake to reach that point. And then bump the riptide up to $100 too, why the feth not.

**jcrone2**

Ascalam wrote:
jcrone2 wrote:
bolo wrote:
OP lives in the US, his point is invalid.

I'd like to make a challenge of my own. Change your GW webstore to be "Australia", spend a year buying models at our prices, then post how you feel about GW pricing then.

Just checked.

I apologize for you.

Why is dark vengeance 165$? Is there something that can be done to help you guys ?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ascalam wrote:
But are they worth it?

If they are, the prices are not yet insane.

YMMV of course My wife thinks i'm insane for spending what i do on robot components, and they are FAR spendier than models in the main..

You build robots!?

To quote A-team's 'you speak swahili??' line ...

'you don't??'

Robots are my spendy-as-gak hobby that occasionally has me teetering on the edge of sleeping on the couch/porch/park bench (depending on the severity of the credit card bill) when the wife sees it.

By comparison sneaking a box of plaguebearers or whatever past the audit is easy

I build combat robots (think battlebots/Robotwars et al) and they often get vaped in fights. Right now the only one i have on the boil is a bipedal (my first) superheavy (450-500 lbs when complete approx), but that's a year or more away. The control board and remote are the first part of any robot i build, and the components run to thousands of bucks, though the remote can be reused and modified for each bot rather than starting from scratch.

I'll do a P and M blog on the guy, when i start doing his body. Right now he's mostly piles of wire and gizmos

edit: can't spell for gak on a 7'' tablet

hahahahahha.....get past the 'audit' lololol

I'm not gonna lie the robot thing is pretty sick. Do you have a masters or Phd or just really into it ?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I don't want to use the search tool. I like this thread.

Lighten up Francis.

treslibras wrote:
Totally redundant discussion, this topic has been milked to death.*

For the sake of forum hygene, you might want to have a look at the top of the forum, one of the features reads "Forum Tools", there you will find "Search". Try it.

*Mind you, that won't keep half the dakkanauts from unloading the same opinions again.

**puma713**

Pacific wrote:
Sigvatr wrote:
Oh, a thread on GW prices. Why hasn't there been one like these yet?

.. expect a 30-40 page special within the next month or so, when the perennial price rise hits Europe and the US.

I cannot wait until the next price rise. Literally. Since I don't buy GW anymore, this is one of the most entertaining times of the year for thread-reading.

**puma713**

Kingsley wrote:
I suspect GW will increase their prices again this year (by the typical small amount, of course)

Ah, your posts are always good for a laugh. Below you'll find last year's price increase, with percentage of increase to the right. A 25% increase on Stormraven Gunships. Yeah, that's the typical small amount.

Spoiler:

**Jack_Death**

I think I said something about overdone and moot. I think you are missing the point after all

I'd bet GW set a target for their gross margins and price accordingly. In fact I think I've read that somewhere (in a financial report published by GW, of all places). But carry on, very entertaining.

azreal13 wrote:
Jack_Death wrote:
I'm missing what point? You are repeating my point back to me. Did you miss the part where I said "GW is not focused on competitive pricing"?

Saldiven wrote:
Jack_Death wrote:
I think the relevant point here is that GW does not consider Tamiya et. al. to be competition for their customers. Clearly, they are not focused on competitive pricing. This conversation is overdone and moot.

You're missing the point.

GW claims they make the best models out there and charge a premium for the quality of their product.

Other companies make better models for half the price.

GW doesn't charge what they do because of the "quality" of their product; they charge it because they haven't yet gotten to a point where their pricing policy hurts their profit margin by a figure larger than what they can adjust for through internal cost-cutting measures.

His point was that GW base their pricing on a false assertion.

They claim to make the best toy soldiers in the world. While its impossible to disprove that objectively, many people disagree.

The factual claim would be "we make reasonable kits at a higher price than we can reasonably justify, but if anyone tries to undercut us with a similar product, we'll litigate them to feth."

Which isn't as catchy.

**TheAuldGrump**

Jack_Death wrote:
I think I said something about overdone and moot. I think you are missing the point after all

I'd bet GW set a target for their gross margins and price accordingly. In fact I think I've read that somewhere (in a financial report published by GW, of all places). But carry on, very entertaining.

azreal13 wrote:
Jack_Death wrote:
I'm missing what point? You are repeating my point back to me. Did you miss the part where I said "GW is not focused on competitive pricing"?

Saldiven wrote:
Jack_Death wrote:
I think the relevant point here is that GW does not consider Tamiya et. al. to be competition for their customers. Clearly, they are not focused on competitive pricing. This conversation is overdone and moot.

You're missing the point.

GW claims they make the best models out there and charge a premium for the quality of their product.

Other companies make better models for half the price.

GW doesn't charge what they do because of the "quality" of their product; they charge it because they haven't yet gotten to a point where their pricing policy hurts their profit margin by a figure larger than what they can adjust for through internal cost-cutting measures.

His point was that GW base their pricing on a false assertion.

They claim to make the best toy soldiers in the world. While its impossible to disprove that objectively, many people disagree.

The factual claim would be "we make reasonable kits at a higher price than we can reasonably justify, but if anyone tries to undercut us with a similar product, we'll litigate them to feth."

Which isn't as catchy.

Overdone?
Moot?

Possibly.

But also... most likely not untrue.

Which, if correct, means that the basic premise of 'not overpriced' is.
Optimistic.
Naive.

And untrue.

If the premise of the thread is untrue then there can be no true reply within the context of that thread.

Which means that it is the thread has missed the point, not the replies thereto.

You are complaining because people are cluttering up your beautiful theory with ugly facts.

Which... worked so well for Aristotle....

The Auld Grump, there is a reason that Newton discarded Aristotle....

**Ascalam**

jcrone2 wrote:
Ascalam wrote:
jcrone2 wrote:
bolo wrote:
OP lives in the US, his point is invalid.

I'd like to make a challenge of my own. Change your GW webstore to be "Australia", spend a year buying models at our prices, then post how you feel about GW pricing then.

Just checked.

I apologize for you.

Why is dark vengeance 165$? Is there something that can be done to help you guys ?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ascalam wrote:
But are they worth it?

If they are, the prices are not yet insane.

YMMV of course My wife thinks i'm insane for spending what i do on robot components, and they are FAR spendier than models in the main..

You build robots!?

To quote A-team's 'you speak swahili??' line ...

'you don't??'

Robots are my spendy-as-gak hobby that occasionally has me teetering on the edge of sleeping on the couch/porch/park bench (depending on the severity of the credit card bill) when the wife sees it.

By comparison sneaking a box of plaguebearers or whatever past the audit is easy

I build combat robots (think battlebots/Robotwars et al) and they often get vaped in fights. Right now the only one i have on the boil is a bipedal (my first) superheavy (450-500 lbs when complete approx), but that's a year or more away. The control board and remote are the first part of any robot i build, and the components run to thousands of bucks, though the remote can be reused and modified for each bot rather than starting from scratch.

I'll do a P and M blog on the guy, when i start doing his body. Right now he's mostly piles of wire and gizmos

edit: can't spell for gak on a 7'' tablet

hahahahahha.....get past the 'audit' lololol

I'm not gonna lie the robot thing is pretty sick. Do you have a masters or Phd or just really into it ?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I don't want to use the search tool. I like this thread.

Lighten up Francis.

treslibras wrote:
Totally redundant discussion, this topic has been milked to death.*

For the sake of forum hygene, you might want to have a look at the top of the forum, one of the features reads "Forum Tools", there you will find "Search". Try it.

*Mind you, that won't keep half the dakkanauts from unloading the same opinions again.

Taking reply to PM, as it's off-topic

**SwampRats45MK**

Talizvar wrote:
I can see the point a bit.

Our Australian and Japanese friends I can appreciate their pain.

I hate looking at the WD and comparing the HUGE difference in cost of USA vs. Canada cost. Our dollar has been higher and they can charge as much as 20% more? I have ordered from the US and got models cheaper than locally.

**edit**
I must add that is including shipping and any other incidental costs...

This, its almost got to the point that its cheaper to drive across the border. The FLGS I buy my stuff at basically has a discount that equates the price to what Americans pay for GW store price, makes no sense whatsoever.

**Andrew1975**

All you have to do is look at the dreamforge stuff to see what can be done.

The detail on these figs are amazing, light years ahead of the Cadians. I got mine for less than $1 a piece.

There is no reason GW could not make their minis cheaper. They just know what some people will pay.

Sure dreamforge does not have to pay for retail stores, but neither does GW. Maybe the US is different but I have never even seen a GW store here, why the hell do I have to pay for them. If your retail stores don't make money, you should close them. Are there any other retailers that use this f'ed up concept.

**Kilkrazy**

If you look at the whole market you will find that historical figures are about 1/3rd to 1/2th the price of equivalent GW figures. (Basic infantry and cavalry.) The most expensive metals (vari-pose figures) -- Wargames Foundry -- are about the same price as snap-fit single pose GW figures.

Historicals doesn’t have major characters and monsters, of course, so we can’t compare.

Specialist, SF and Fantasy models from boutique makers like Hasslefree, Heresy and Studio McVey, are more even with GW prices, being about 1/2th to equal for what are effectively minor character figures rather than bulk infantry.

Vehicle kits are roughly comparable in price. You can certainly get cheaper historical and SF kits than GW, but there are also many kits which are just as expensive. These tend to be the larger kits aimed at high end modellers, and are larger with more detail than GW models. With the Yen value falling, we are going to see Japanese kits becoming cheaper again.

On the whole I would not say that GW are insane, but they are more expensive for what you get.

**Pacific**

As Andrew1975 says, really the situation will only change when they realise they are not operating in a monopoly. And that will only happen when the sale levels start to take enough of a hit, and they start to look around at what might be causing it and what they can do to start remedying the situation (beyond laying off hundreds of staff, and other cost cutting measures).

Actually.. it might be kind of nice, and a pleasant surprise to the fans, if they had a price freeze this year?

I made this comment last year, just before the 2012 increase (hence it not being entirely relevant - FC comments, and Mark Wells etc) - can you imagine if this was released by GW, just prior to when the price-rise period arriving?

"To the customers and supporters of Games Workshop,

You, as our fans, are really important to us. We appreciate the support you have given Games Workshop over the years and through our development from a small business, into an internationally spanning franchise bringing more people than ever before the high quality miniatures, evocative and fun gaming world and community-building games that they have come to expect.

We also understand that the introduction of our new Finecast product has been met with some minor issues. The switch to Finecast miniatures has required a massive overhaul of infrastructure and the technology involved in ensuring that you as the customer receive the highest quality miniatures possible. As such some teething difficulties were unavoidable. We at Games Workshop pride ourselves on producing the highest quality miniatures possible, and rest assured that we are doing everything that we can to rectify the situation. We know that resin as a material is the future of miniature production, and we fully expect both Games Workshop and it's customers to benefit from the direction we have taken once the initial minor difficulties have been corrected.

With this in mind, and with the knowledge that the world is facing an unprecedented level of economic difficulty both at home and abroad, Games Workshop would like to announce that for the year 2012 we will be applying a price freeze to all of our products across our entire range.
We hope that this will allow our customers to try more Games Workshop games and miniatures, and also to remain as our valued customers in these trying and difficult financial times.

We hope that you as customers will continue to benefit from our wonderful products both now and in the future. Thank you for your support."

**Kilkrazy**

If you want to play 40K with official figures, GW is a monopoly.

If you accept playing a different game, or 40K with unofficial figures, there are plenty of alternatives depending on your choice of army.

IG, Marines and Orks are all covered by cheaper alternatives (IG especially!) There are no good substitutes for Tau or (D)Eldar as far as I know.

Tyranids are difficult to find a whole range for.

**Kingsley**

Andrew1975 wrote:
All you have to do is look at the dreamforge stuff to see what can be done.

The detail on these figs are amazing, light years ahead of the Cadians. I got mine for less than $1 a piece.

There is no reason GW could not make their minis cheaper. They just know what some people will pay.

Sure dreamforge does not have to pay for retail stores, but neither does GW. Maybe the US is different but I have never even seen a GW store here, why the hell do I have to pay for them. If your retail stores don't make money, you should close them. Are there any other retailers that use this f'ed up concept.

I have a box of Dreamforge guys myself. They are definitely much better than GW's Cadians, and cheaper to boot. That said, they're out of scale for 40k use-- even taller than a Marine, and with different proportions. I was quite disappointed by this, as I was hoping to use them for Inquisition guys.

**Pacific**

You could say that they are some form of 'gene-hanced' humans, made in the Inquisitors secret labs. The background is full of stuff like that

**Flood**

I'm certain I am not alone in looking at the price of say, the Tyranid Biovore (unavailable for online discount which is where I normally make my purchases), taking pause, glancing at my pile of unpainted mini's, and then deciding that no I'm not forking out that much; I have plenty to keep me occupied for now until either the price is reasonable, I find one on ebay or look for a substitute.
Little by little people are being put off buying this or that model, either withholding indefinitely or looking for alternatives. It isn't a mass boycott or landside protest, it's individuals deciding one at a time not to spend money on that one item.
At some point GW will have to change tact or die, simple as that.

**Flippa**

Peregrine wrote:
The biggest problem with GW's prices is the total cost of an army. Sure, Infinity models might cost as much per model, but I only need 10-15 of them compared to 50-100+ and multiple vehicles for a 40k army. If you want to get started in a GW game you're spending $500+ before you can even play a single game, and that's a big barrier to entry for new players.

This is exactly the kind of mis-information that is prevalent on the interwebz. It gets people riled up until at fever point a tirade of rubbish starts spouting from everyone.

$500 before you can play a single game of WFB or 40k right?

Island of Blood = $100
Dark Vengeance = $100

That's $50 a piece for you and a friend to have a perfectly enjoyable game of 40k or WFB, it might not be what you want to collect but to say you can't is plain wrong.

Would I like to see cheaper prices? Sure... Will it happen? Doubtful... given that when I was working for GW the only time they ever had a sale was on a store opening and to the best of my knowledge they have never reduced prices on their models.

Also the quality of the models now is incredible! Sure they make some howlers but some of them are just brilliant.

One more thing...

Space Marine Dreadnought mid 90's = £20 now £28 not a bad rise in nearly 20 years

Ork Meganob mid 90's £5.50 now £15 sure now that's excessive but GW have been pricing their models on the models effectiveness in game since the early 90's nothing will ever change that I don't think. For a company to suddenly be damned over what they have done for 20+ years seems a little daft.

On the flip side, I've had a look at some bank statements from the same sort of times... Electric early 90's £17 for 3 months... now £185 and you think GW are bad. Petrol £0.57 per litre now £1.42.

So lets have a little perspective eh... Oh and I bash radio control cars too... car+radio gear £800 + £10-£20 per month maintenance and running costs plus that will only depreciate. I have some models that will sell for well over £100 unpainted.

**Grimtuff**

Flippa wrote:
Peregrine wrote:
The biggest problem with GW's prices is the total cost of an army. Sure, Infinity models might cost as much per model, but I only need 10-15 of them compared to 50-100+ and multiple vehicles for a 40k army. If you want to get started in a GW game you're spending $500+ before you can even play a single game, and that's a big barrier to entry for new players.

This is exactly the kind of mis-information that is prevalent on the interwebz. It gets people riled up until at fever point a tirade of rubbish starts spouting from everyone.

$500 before you can play a single game of WFB or 40k right?

Island of Blood = $100
Dark Vengeance = $100

That's $50 a piece for you and a friend to have a perfectly enjoyable game of 40k or WFB, it might not be what you want to collect but to say you can't is plain wrong.

Thanks for missing the point.

Neither of those contain legal armies, nor do they give you the full rules to play them. So we'll need to drop another 50 odd quid on a couple of army books. Thirdly, unless you only plan to play your friend over and over again with just the starter box then you're not going to get what GW considers to be the standard sized game against anyone. GW wants you to play at around 1500 to 2000pts, with it veering heavily towards the latter with the 6th ed. codexes (the CSM one being a standout example).

These are the size of games GW wants you to play. Finally, what happens if I don't want to play DA/CSM/HE/Skaven? Hm?

**Peregrine**

Flippa wrote:
That's $50 a piece for you and a friend to have a perfectly enjoyable game of 40k or WFB, it might not be what you want to collect but to say you can't is plain wrong.

The starter sets are not complete games. They're only useful if you're playing the two starter set armies in the starter set scenarios. If you show up to 40k/WHFB night at your local store you aren't going to be able to play.

So lets have a little perspective eh... Oh and I bash radio control cars too... car+radio gear £800 + £10-£20 per month maintenance and running costs plus that will only depreciate. I have some models that will sell for well over £100 unpainted.

Nobody is claiming that GW's prices are high compared to all hobbies, the point is that GW's prices are high compared to other similar products. Obviously playing 40k is cheaper than $150/hour airplane rentals (though much less fun), but if I'm a new player looking at 40k vs. Infinity it's pretty obvious that one of them is a lot more expensive than the other.

**Flippa**

It's not a question of missing the point, the point is you can play WFB/40k without spending $500 per army on it and it will be a perfectly enjoyable game.

Sure it's designed to get you into the hobby and therefor spend more money but isn't that what all business is about.

Compared to other stuff it's not hugely expensive my RC cars cost more. I spend more than $100 on 1 night out with my friends so again it's not hugely expensive and if you do what you claim GW want you to do it's to buy something for your army, paint it up pick something new for your army, buy it, paint it up etc.

Spread the cost out over a period of months/years. That's what GW want you to do, not blow all your wad on a $500 army get disheartened at the massive amount of painting you have to do and ebay it.

**Peregrine**

Flippa wrote:
It's not a question of missing the point, the point is you can play WFB/40k without spending $500 per army on it and it will be a perfectly enjoyable game.

And, again, it's not the same game. It's a variant game that can only be played with the starter set. If you don't have a friend willing to play special starter set games with you then you aren't going to be playing at all. If you want to get a real army and play the normal game with random opponents then you're spending $500+ just to get started.

**Sidstyler**

Flippa wrote:
Spread the cost out over a period of months/years. That's what GW want you to do, not blow all your wad on a $500 army get disheartened at the massive amount of painting you have to do and ebay it.

Actually that is what GW wants you to do. They don't expect any of their customers to stick with the game for longer than a year. They do indeed want you to blow your wad and don't really care if you like the game or not after you've left the shop, so long as you helped them meet their sales quota and bought whatever hot new models just got released.

**V1ND4LOO**

surixurient wrote:
I actually sent a belligerent email to games workshop recently about their pricing. This was the canned response they gave.

"Hello,

Games Workshop makes the best fantasy miniatures in the world. Our pricing reﬂects that. Each year our product gets better and better and each year we adjust our pricing to reﬂect that improvement in quality. How much? Over the last 5 years, our objective has been to keep our prices in line with UK retail price inﬂation, which has been 3-4% per annum. In our opinion product quality has improved by more than this, but we feel that limiting price increases to inﬂation offers hobbyists fantastic value for money. Over that same period, Games Workshop has had to deal with some major cost price increases, signiﬁcantly higher than the prices we have charged our customers. We protect hobbyists from those cost pressures by efficiency improvements in the way we make our products. We intend to keep doing that in the future. I hope you can see that the changes we make to our prices are neither excessive nor unreasonable, especially given the constant improvements in product quality we make each year.

Games Workshop
North America Customer Services "

There's just so much B.S. in that statement I don't even know where to start. Yet I keep buying regardless I am such an enabler of the B.S.

Haha, so why are their older sprues also rising in price?

**Grimtuff**

Sidstyler wrote:
Flippa wrote:
Spread the cost out over a period of months/years. That's what GW want you to do, not blow all your wad on a $500 army get disheartened at the massive amount of painting you have to do and ebay it.

Actually that is what GW wants you to do. They don't expect any of their customers to stick with the game for longer than a year. They do indeed want you to blow your wad and don't really care if you like the game or not after you've left the shop, so long as you helped them meet their sales quota and bought whatever hot new models just got released.

Yup, their whole model is built around 2 big purchases (Christmas and birthday) from the parents. Anything else in between or after is just gravy.

**BryllCream**

Sidstyler wrote:
Flippa wrote:
Spread the cost out over a period of months/years. That's what GW want you to do, not blow all your wad on a $500 army get disheartened at the massive amount of painting you have to do and ebay it.

Actually that is what GW wants you to do. They don't expect any of their customers to stick with the game for longer than a year. They do indeed want you to blow your wad and don't really care if you like the game or not after you've left the shop, so long as you helped them meet their sales quota and bought whatever hot new models just got released.

What you've just said is confusing -

Newcomers will likely fill up the FOC chart first - HQ and two troops. Neither of these are likely to be new models, since new troop models are rare and most new HQs tend to be quite niche (i.e. not the ones that are commonly played).

Also, can you explain why GW would make more profit from new kits than they do from older kits?