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I'm leaning that way too.

A fifty dollar mini rulebook? This is great news!

 Piperi wrote:

haroon wrote:
Pretty shocked there is no 100$ collectors edition.

That's because they already have a deluxe edition of the rulebook.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440162a&prodId=prod1620012a

Ha, like that ever stopped them there's 4 special editions for the demon codex alone. Rumored to be more for space marines.

To all the people complaining about the price here, do any of you realize that the soft-cover rules book from the starter set fetches $35-40 on eBay? I think a $15 markup for hardcover is not out of line given that it is similar to the markup for novels produced in hardcover and paperback. I mean, GW gives us plenty of things to legitimately complain about but the price of this rulebook really isn't one of them.

Seriously, guys. Don't you have some posting to do in one of the Finecast threads?

 Breotan wrote:
To all the people complaining about the price here, do any of you realize that the soft-cover rules book from the starter set fetches $35-40 on eBay? I think a $15 markup for hardcover is not out of line given that it is similar to the markup for novels produced in hardcover and paperback. I mean, GW gives us plenty of things to legitimately complain about but the price of this rulebook really isn't one of them.

Seriously, guys. Don't you have some posting to do in one of the Finecast threads?

Maybe these are the people who keep buying the DV box sets, and are selling the rule book themselves.

Also, these are the same people who keep complaining about GW, but still buy and PLAY their products. Go figure.

Davor wrote:

 Breotan wrote:
To all the people complaining about the price here, do any of you realize that the soft-cover rules book from the starter set fetches $35-40 on eBay? I think a $15 markup for hardcover is not out of line given that it is similar to the markup for novels produced in hardcover and paperback. I mean, GW gives us plenty of things to legitimately complain about but the price of this rulebook really isn't one of them.

Seriously, guys. Don't you have some posting to do in one of the Finecast threads?

Maybe these are the people who keep buying the DV box sets, and are selling the rule book themselves.

Also, these are the same people who keep complaining about GW, but still buy and PLAY their products. Go figure.

Huh? I stopped playing GW well over a year ago. This prohibitively overpriced rulebook is just another reason not to get back in.

Yes, the starter set booklet may be going for $35 on Ebay, but that's only because it's still the cheapest and most useful version of the book. And with this, GW's done nothing but ensure that those $35 starter books will continue to sell on Ebay. If they were to take the exact same booklet, and sell it for $25-30 on their own stores, they'd undercut all those ebay sellers and make a killing off that. While also seeming to be halfway sensible.

 Fafnir wrote:
And with this, GW's done nothing but ensure that those $35 starter books will continue to sell on Ebay.

Wut? Producing this hardback book isn't supposed to kill eBay sales. If anything, it's GW's way of cashing in on them.

 Fafnir wrote:
If they were to take the exact same booklet, and sell it for $25-30 on their own stores, they'd undercut all those ebay sellers and make a killing off that. While also seeming to be halfway sensible.

That really doesn't make much sense business wise. Having the booklet as part of the starter set is one of the things that makes the starter look "not so bad" price wise. Does a customer pay $75 for the big book and more for a DA/Chaos battleforce or get similar value in the starter for less money? If the rules booklet were available separately at GW for $25-30, then there would be no reason to buy the big book and less reason to buy the starter (especially multiple starters as some of us have done).

By having the small hardcover at $50, it is close enough to the big book in price that not everyone will balk at paying $25 more for all the extra content (doesn't apply to most veteran players). It also is close enough to the eBay price that it will (GW apparently hopes) leech customers away from the resellers and put more money directly into GW's pocket. If it also drives down the price of the book on the secondary market, I'm sure GW will be happy with that, too.

I just don't get why.

Why go to all the trouble of making a fancy pants hardback, multiple ribbon bookmark, coloured edge pages basic rulebook?

Why not just order a bunch of extra DV copies from the printer and sell them for ~£25?

The target market for this product is surely the vet "no frills" gamer, or someone who perhaps wants a portable copy so they can leave their big book at home.

They've added a bunch of value that nobody wants, then charged them extra for it.

 azreal13 wrote:
They've added a bunch of value that nobody wants, then charged them extra for it.

Because the Black Library novels and LE codex/rulebooks have shown GW that people will buy it just because it has a hard cover.

Some people just can't be pleased people constantly complain about not having a mini rule book not having quality rule books so GW puts out what seems to be a good quality mini rule book and people still complain that now it costs too much. REALLY!!! What do you want them to do give it away no one said this hobby is cheap you really need to decide what you really want but please stop complaining about EVERYTHING!!

 Breotan wrote:
To all the people complaining about the price here, do any of you realize that the soft-cover rules book from the starter set fetches $35-40 on eBay? I think a $15 markup for hardcover is not out of line given that it is similar to the markup for novels produced in hardcover and paperback. I mean, GW gives us plenty of things to legitimately complain about but the price of this rulebook really isn't one of them.

Pfft - here's 5 for $30 or under - took me 2 minutes of searching.


And yes - this is one of the price reasons to legitimately complain about. $50 for a mini-rulebook is way more than most everyone else charges for their full-sized rulebooks* with fluff & art and whatnot.

They could have released the mini-rulebook that they already produce(!) for like $25, made a nice profit off that, and made a lot of gamers happy while at the same time hurting the pocketbooks of bits-sellers (who they do not like) by destroying a lot of the sellable value in the starter kits. Instead - they add some ridiculous features to give themselves an excuse to offer the book at a ridiculous price and so now we have threads like this one where everyone (again) laughs at clueless, greedy GW.

Hardback adds no real value here, it would be like if the 7th edition rulebook having a gold-plated cover for $250. Yes being gold plated does tend to make things more expensive - but nobody wanted a gold-plated rulebook. They'd just like them to be more affordable.

(*Seriously - the full-sized Hardback Warmachine rulebooks have a MSRP of $45)

 Breotan wrote:

 azreal13 wrote:
They've added a bunch of value that nobody wants, then charged them extra for it.

Because the Black Library novels and LE codex/rulebooks have shown GW that people will buy it just because it has a hard cover.

Sorry, not having that.

People buy the hardbacks from BL because they come out first, people buy the LE codexes because they are limited.

Who is going to buy one of these? Every 40K player will already have the rules, anybody joining will have DV sold to them, anyone who still just has the large book wanting a smaller one will look on EBay for a split DV set.

The sum total of customers for this are new players, who have not bought DV or the big book yet, who want a small copy for portability and are completely unaware they can get the DV book from the aftermarket. Oh, and likely a small number of completionists who will want it because they don't have it.

I just can't believe that represents sufficient numbers for it to be worth producing this instead of just releasing the existing soft back mini book separately.

Schmapdi wrote:
Hardback adds no real value here, it would be like if the 7th edition rulebook having a gold-plated cover for $250. Yes being gold plated does tend to make things more expensive - but nobody wanted a gold-plated rulebook.

This. The whole point of a rules-only book is to have a small lightweight book that you can throw in your gaming bag instead of carrying around a heavy hardcover book. Making a $50 hardcover just shows that GW doesn't actually understand what their customers want.

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
Some people just can't be pleased people constantly complain about not having a mini rule book not having quality rule books so GW puts out what seems to be a good quality mini rule book and people still complain that now it costs too much. REALLY!!! What do you want them to do give it away no one said this hobby is cheap you really need to decide what you really want but please stop complaining about EVERYTHING!!

Because when people say "mini rulebook" they mean cheap rulebook.

Not "small but still remarkably expensive" rulebook.

As a point of order, a lot of games companies do give their rules away, and all of them sell the books for less than the GW equivalents, frequently with higher page counts and comparable production values.

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
What do you want them to do give it away

So I guess to the average GW fanboy, "reasonable price" always means "give it to me for free".

 Peregrine wrote:

Schmapdi wrote:
Hardback adds no real value here, it would be like if the 7th edition rulebook having a gold-plated cover for $250. Yes being gold plated does tend to make things more expensive - but nobody wanted a gold-plated rulebook.

This. The whole point of a rules-only book is to have a small lightweight book that you can throw in your gaming bag instead of carrying around a heavy hardcover book. Making a $50 hardcover just shows that GW doesn't actually understand what their customers want.

Yep, I agree.

I also wouldn't attribute any master plan to this price point. I would imagine, like The Hobbit release--they simply overpriced their product in the mass cash grab GW seems hellbent on pursuing.

 azreal13 wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
Some people just can't be pleased people constantly complain about not having a mini rule book not having quality rule books so GW puts out what seems to be a good quality mini rule book and people still complain that now it costs too much. REALLY!!! What do you want them to do give it away no one said this hobby is cheap you really need to decide what you really want but please stop complaining about EVERYTHING!!

Because when people say "mini rulebook" they mean cheap rulebook.

Not "small but still remarkably expensive" rulebook.

As a point of order, a lot of games companies do give their rules away, and all of them sell the books for less than the GW equivalents, frequently with higher page counts and comparable production values.

Fair enough you don't want a high quality book that you have to pay more for, unfortunately it seems GW is trying to out out higher quality products. I honestly think this is an attempt to put out nice products that yes you may have to pay more for but are better quality,and it is cheaper than the main rule book so I don't see how it is "remarkably expensive". Oh and on your point of order I am aware of those games that give away rules in my opinion there play settings background/fluff or rules are lacking, but hey if you prefer that than fine go play those games no one is making you buy GW products.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sidstyler wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
What do you want them to do give it away

So I guess to the average GW fanboy, "reasonable price" always means "give it to me for free".

No I just fail to understand your idea of reasonable do I think 50$ is expensive maybe for some people but I also recognize a better quality product than other rule books I have bought from other company's that are 35ish dollars so I feel GW's price is reasonable.

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
What do you want them to do give it away

So I guess to the average GW fanboy, "reasonable price" always means "give it to me for free".

No I just fail to understand your idea of reasonable do I think 50$ is expensive maybe for some people but I also recognize a better quality product than other rule books I have bought from other company's that are 35ish dollars so I feel GW's price is reasonable.

Mind telling us exactly who's rulebooks you're buying? I want to know if you're actually serious, or just a really great ventriloquist.

This takes me back to when Battlefront was coming out with the third version of Flames of War. Remember that? I walked into my local game store, showed them a copy of my v2 book, and received a softcover, full color, 300 page mini rulebook for free. The only money I paid was getting it ring-bound at Staples. Battlefront was throwing those mini rulebooks away - the Warstore had them as an optional free addition with every Battlefront purchase you made. I remember plenty of people asking, 'Are you watching this, GW?'

I guess we know our answer.

What is your definition of "quality", because I've bought Warmachine rulebooks, D&D rulebooks and a couple of FFG's RPG books and I'm not seeing how GW differs greatly in quality from any of them.

 infinite_array wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
What do you want them to do give it away

So I guess to the average GW fanboy, "reasonable price" always means "give it to me for free".

No I just fail to understand your idea of reasonable do I think 50$ is expensive maybe for some people but I also recognize a better quality product than other rule books I have bought from other company's that are 35ish dollars so I feel GW's price is reasonable.

Mind telling us exactly who's rulebooks you're buying? I want to know if you're actually serious, or just a really great ventriloquist.

I have rule books from multiple game systems ranging from RPGs to include dnd, rifts, vampire, Star Wars, and quite a few others; to table top games to include Mage knight, hero clix(mostly star trek), war machine/hordes and many others I have picked up over the years. So yes I have spent a significant portion of my money on nerd games(what my wife and I call them) over the years and I consider the quality of GW's products over the past year or so(excluding the fine cast stuff) to be a higher quality and thus justifies the price.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sidstyler wrote:
What is your definition of "quality", because I've bought Warmachine rulebooks, D&D rulebooks and a couple of FFG's RPG books and I'm not seeing how GW differs greatly in quality from any of them.

Quality to me hard back over soft back a reliable spine descent paper quality artwork that fills the page but at the same time not overwhelming the reader with too much bland artwork, few typo mistakes, and extra tid bits such as built in ribbon book marks. Am I saying GW's rule books are the best no but I do believe the price is justified.

News and Rumors right? Soooo any rumors about updated content? Tables for dakkajet, stormraven... Oh I guess that's it. Dang it I want to complain too!!!

LOUD NOISES!

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
few typo mistakes

Ha!

I got just DV book and was hoping lower price tag.

Proceeding to get Ipad version, screw the printed books.

£30 used to buy the full size rulebook, if you wanted to.

Personally, I prefer the starter box book. Smaller, lighter and much cheaper if you sell off the sprues.

The title for their sales pitch reminds me of Spaceballs: The Movie.

And more specifically the merchandise: Spaceballs: The Toiletpaper.

Hm, not that it really matters for most people here, but I find it curious that this book is English only..

Everything is fine, GW can do no wrong! You guys just sound like a bunch of haters. Why don't you instead go and "support" those independent stockists who are killing the hobby?

 infinite_array wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:

 BlackRaven1987!! wrote:
What do you want them to do give it away

So I guess to the average GW fanboy, "reasonable price" always means "give it to me for free".

No I just fail to understand your idea of reasonable do I think 50$ is expensive maybe for some people but I also recognize a better quality product than other rule books I have bought from other company's that are 35ish dollars so I feel GW's price is reasonable.

Mind telling us exactly who's rulebooks you're buying? I want to know if you're actually serious, or just a really great ventriloquist.

This takes me back to when Battlefront was coming out with the third version of Flames of War. Remember that? I walked into my local game store, showed them a copy of my v2 book, and received a softcover, full color, 300 page mini rulebook for free. The only money I paid was getting it ring-bound at Staples. Battlefront was throwing those mini rulebooks away - the Warstore had them as an optional free addition with every Battlefront purchase you made. I remember plenty of people asking, 'Are you watching this, GW?'

I guess we know our answer.

You do know that despite all the ridicule, each and every limited edition rulebook and codex GW has put out has actually sold out? Yes, I know we're not talking tens of thousands of... actually, yes, I think we are. Add up all the limited edition hardbacks and I think we've hit (or are damned close) to the 10,000 unit mark by now. Guess somebody is buying their stuff. Must be some amazing ventriloquism going on there.

Let's see what other companies are doing. Wizards are reprinting some of their (really) old D&D books in hardback and is selling them between $34.95 - $49.95. This is for an OOP edition they do not and will not support in the way of new material - it's a blatant play on nostalgia. So, who's buying those rulebooks? Oh, yea. People are buying them. People who want them in the "cool" new hardback covers even though they can still get the exact same rules on eBay for pennies on the dollar. I guess these are the same type of people who buy the GW books in hardcover.

 Sidstyler wrote:
What is your definition of "quality", because I've bought Warmachine rulebooks, D&D rulebooks and a couple of FFG's RPG books and I'm not seeing how GW differs greatly in quality from any of them.

It's the Ferrari of mini rulebooks!

I like this, the one in the box set is tatty as a tatty teddy now. I just hope this is updated with FAQ to justify the price rather than a straight re-print.