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I remember a year or more ago GW changed its terms of sale explicitly forbidding wholesalers from selling kits by the bit.

And sure enough when I look at old favorites like Bitzbarn and Hoard of Bitz today I see almost everything is out of stock.

Anyone out there still selling bitz other than random ebay lots?

Wait, what?
They did that?
Why?

 Verviedi wrote:
Wait, what?
They did that?
Why?

So that you have to buy a whole kit to get the parts you want.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Wait, what?
They did that?
Why?

So that you have to buy a whole kit to get the parts you want.

Lol.
Now instead of giving them some money bu buying bitz from someone who buys from GW, I'll just recast.
A guy even said he was fine wih recasting as long as the bits were rare (such as the one Combi-weapon base in the tac squad box) or unavailable (Combi-Flamer)

 Verviedi wrote:
Wait, what?
They did that?
Why?

Because they hate us all with the firey passion of a thousand exploding suns.

And yeah, making us buy a whole kit to get that one sword you NEED.

Because they know at the end of the day we're all just crack monkeys.

 Verviedi wrote:

Now instead of giving them some money bu buying bitz from someone who buys from GW, I'll just recast.

Same here, I've started looking at casting tutorials, looks easy enough. Now I just gotta get some materials and start experimenting...

 Cothonian wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:

Now instead of giving them some money bu buying bitz from someone who buys from GW, I'll just recast.

Same here, I've started looking at casting tutorials, looks easy enough. Now I just gotta get some materials and start experimenting...

REMINDER, DAKKA DOES NOT CONDONE PIRACY. RECASTING YOUR OWN BITZ IS FINE, RECASTING SOMEONE ELSE'S IS NOT.

Just a word to the wise.

eBay

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Cothonian wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:

Now instead of giving them some money bu buying bitz from someone who buys from GW, I'll just recast.

Same here, I've started looking at casting tutorials, looks easy enough. Now I just gotta get some materials and start experimenting...

REMINDER, DAKKA DOES NOT CONDONE PIRACY. RECASTING YOUR OWN BITZ IS FINE, RECASTING SOMEONE ELSE'S IS NOT.

Just a word to the wise.

Please don't ban me, don't ban me, don't ban meee I'm in the middle of trades oh god please no it's not even against the rules, no, NO!

Good God GW hates us. I guess that's the price I pay for being a 20 year customer.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
Good God GW hates us. I guess that's the price I pay for being a 20 year customer.

With the firey passion of a thousand exploding suns.

And I'm still coming back for more (AHEM) years later...

Nah, they're just driving us all to the Chinese and Russian re-casters who will gleefully welcome the bitz market now that the West is out of it thanks to GW.

I still get all the bits I need off various sellers on ebay.

I haven't noticed problems with stuff being out of stock, but from the little bit of looking for bits that I've done lately, it seems prices have definitely gone up since GW told us all to go F ourselves.

 Bookwrack wrote:
I still get all the bits I need off various sellers on ebay.

Seriously! This thread is a discussion of a non-existent problem. The kvetching comes off as willful blindness.

I just "accidentally" bump into in use gaming tables at the local GW, then help everyone pick up the poor shattered minis. Sometimes pieces just disappear.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Note: the above was a lie. I don't go to GW.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

REMINDER, DAKKA DOES NOT CONDONE PIRACY. RECASTING YOUR OWN BITZ IS FINE, RECASTING SOMEONE ELSE'S IS NOT.

Just a word to the wise.

Wait, recasting your own bitz is fine?

All these years, I thought I was a criminal!

tgjensen wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

REMINDER, DAKKA DOES NOT CONDONE PIRACY. RECASTING YOUR OWN BITZ IS FINE, RECASTING SOMEONE ELSE'S IS NOT.

Just a word to the wise.

Wait, recasting your own bitz is fine?

All these years, I thought I was a criminal!

To clarify, if you made those bits yourself (sculpted, scratch-built ect) then it's fine, you 'own' those bits. If, on the other hand, you're casting a flamer or SM head from GW then it's not technically allowed.

To answer the question in the OP, Ebay seems to have bits sellers still (probably individuals rather than companies), but nothing like it used to.

On a related note I wouldn't have an issue with GW not having bits if they didn't give so many options. If they aren't going to offer you everything you need to build a complete unit in a single box, they should limit the options to what comes in that box. This "buy multiple boxes to make one unit with the options you want" stuff is total bullgak.

GW stopped selling their own bits and have since moved to prevent anyone filling this market by attacking third party manufacturers and companies breaking up boxes to sell genuine GW bits individually. They're only interested in shifting sealed product, they don't see any wider benefits to facilitating the modelling/converting side of the hobby.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I remember a year or more ago GW changed its terms of sale explicitly forbidding wholesalers from selling kits by the bit.

And sure enough when I look at old favorites like Bitzbarn and Hoard of Bitz today I see almost everything is out of stock.

Anyone out there still selling bitz other than random ebay lots?

I've been using Blackdagger and HOB for years and I have noticed a very steady decline in both of their stocks.

Luckily, newer kits are stuffed full of bitz, and GW are getting back in the habit of posting pics of the sprues.
So, GW are stamping on bitz sellers' fingures, but they are providing (a bit) less reason to go to them.

Why not Amazon?

If this is the case then they're a bunch of idiots. Sales tot those bits sites must make up a considerable percentage of their sales. They only stand to lose by kerbing such sites.

Thankfully I've already acquired most of what I need. Nonetheless II hope it isn't true. If I can't get acquire GW parts, I'll just go with 3rd party miniature companies. I'm not insane enough to buy a full box of devastator sjust to get 1 extra missile launcher. I wouldn't say many people are.

Yea this will end up hurting them.

Also, to all the people crying ebay has what you need. Maybe you should actually go check it out. I bought out all the stock I though I would need for my DE from Hord-o-bitz and bitz-world because their stock is vanishing rapidly and there are not replacements for much of it.

Any replacements you do find usually don't offer the quantity you need and are auctions with ridiculous prices.

Sorry but if I need 5 combi meltas, I am not going to pursue 5 separate auctions all with separate shipping for my sternguard.

GW could get a clue and offer single sprues from direct but their idiots who hate money.

 thegreatchimp wrote:
If this is the case then they're a bunch of idiots. Sales tot those bits sites must make up a considerable percentage of their sales. They only stand to lose by kerbing such sites.

Thankfully I've already acquired most of what I need. Nonetheless II hope it isn't true. If I can't get acquire GW parts, I'll just go with 3rd party miniature companies. I'm not insane enough to buy a full box of devastator sjust to get 1 extra missile launcher. I wouldn't say many people are.

How are you reaching that conclusion? I can't imagine sales to bits sites making up more than a tiny percentage of their sales, unless you have some info to the contrary. I can understand why they would forbid bits sales, since it doesn't benefit them at all. The sales they made to bits sites would probably have been offset by the sales they lost because people bought bits rather than complete kits. Their own bit service was amazing, but it must've been complete HELL logistically. And with plastic kits the labor required just to sit there and snip bits and organize them... I can't imagine that being even close to worth it.

Which is why they could just offer the sale of individual sprues...

 brendan wrote:

 Bookwrack wrote:
I still get all the bits I need off various sellers on ebay.

Seriously! This thread is a discussion of a non-existent problem. The kvetching comes off as willful blindness.

Not really. Ebay isn't bad, but not as comrephensive or easy to use as say, battlewagon bits was, especially if you were browsing. It's great if you know exactly what you're looking for, but if you want a lot of different parts, you also usually end up having to go through multiple sellers.

When I could get a good discount, I used to LOVE selling bits. I'd happily sit on the couch with the missus after work, just clipping away. I loved the excitement of starting all auctions at $.99 and watching them rise (or not sell ). I even loved packing them all up and sending them off. I also loved that it helped to pay the mortgage every month, I relied on it in fact.

I'd bring it back again with a dedicated website if I could find a distributor.

How can GW stop someone from busting a box apart and selling bitz out of it? All I can think of is revoke their account. If I were to buy under Joes game shop and sell under Sams bitz place how would they know?