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In the USA, even in the least expensive cities, minimum wage is not enough to live off.

It basically requires 3x minimum wage to be able to afford the basic amenities of life.

And if you live in a city like NYC, SF, or LA, then it is more like 5x to 9x Minumum wage that is needed to live.

And even more than that to meet renter's demands for an income for the usual rent.

For instance, most renter's demand a yearly income that is 3x rent.

Yet rent in SF, for a one room studio apartment is around $1,500/month.

Even with SF's $10/hr Minumum wage (soon to go up a few dollars), that is only $1,600/month, before taxes.

Which is roughly ⅓ of what is needed for rent, and doesn't event incle other living expenses. And that assumes that one can even find an apartment that cheap.

But.... As for GW Hating Australia.

It hates you because you are closer to Penguins than they are, and Penguins are cute.

MB

Because they miss you and want you to come back home to Britain. Or they are trying to kill you all:That is why you were sent there in the first place....

Ironically, I've been looking at the prices of Star Wars: Armada and Imperial Assault between the UK and USA recently and asking myself "why does Fantasy Flight Games hate the UK." - So I'm definitely starting to get what you feel.

For example, the Han Solo Ally pack costs $10, in the UK, the RRP appears to going to be £9. Going purely by exchange rates, it, in theory, should cost £6.62.

So yeah, I know how you feel...

A little of topic, But I have noticed the GW stores ive been to in the UK vs the stores here in aus. The Australian store staff really try make up for the extra cost. They have a lot more time for the customers and provide some of the best customer service I have ever received. Not to mention the amount of free time my local GW manager puts in to the hobby by running games nights and comps without pay on his days off.

Yes i agree Australia pays through the nose for everything due to our outdated ways but there isnt much we can do until the laws and tax is adjusted.

I just want to say thank you to the GW staff for going that extra kilometer to make an overpriced hobby enjoyable

 XdeadpoolX wrote:

Yes i agree Australia pays through the nose for everything due to our outdated ways but there isnt much we can do until the laws and tax is adjusted.

Sure there is: Stop paying Inflated Australian prices for stuff that can be purchased cheaper from overseas.

 insaniak wrote:

 XdeadpoolX wrote:

Yes i agree Australia pays through the nose for everything due to our outdated ways but there isnt much we can do until the laws and tax is adjusted.

Sure there is: Stop paying Inflated Australian prices for stuff that can be purchased cheaper from overseas.

And what about the younger players who have no ebay access? the age bracket in most GW stores is >16. So what are they supposed to do?

 XdeadpoolX wrote:
And what about the younger players who have no ebay access? the age bracket in most GW stores is >16. So what are they supposed to do?

In most cases, I would assume that they have at least one parent.

I'm not sure why a 16 year old couldn't access ebay. When I was 16 I had a job, debit card and ebay account. If I saw something I wanted, I bought it.

 Toofast wrote:
I'm not sure why a 16 year old couldn't access ebay. When I was 16 I had a job, debit card and ebay account. If I saw something I wanted, I bought it.

eBay's user agreement requires users to be at least 18.

I wasn't aware they had any way to track or enforce that policy.

 Toofast wrote:
I wasn't aware they had any way to track or enforce that policy.

I doubt that they do. It's more likely to cover them in case of any legal difficulty... In some parts of the world, legal minors either aren't allowed to or aren't able to make legally binding contracts... which is a problem for an auction site that relies on legally binding contracts for its terms of sale.


It also helps in situations like one I had years ago, where I received a rather cranky email from the mother of a customer who bought some plasma guns or something from one of my auctions, who blasted me for ripping off kids by selling them tiny pieces of plastic at ridiculous prices. I pointed out that (a) it was an auction that started at 99c, so the price was determined by the buyer, not by me, and (b) eBay's terms of trade required users to be 18 years old, so as far as I was aware I wasn't selling anything to kids... Oddly enough, that seemed to be the end of her complaint.

 XdeadpoolX wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 XdeadpoolX wrote:

Yes i agree Australia pays through the nose for everything due to our outdated ways but there isnt much we can do until the laws and tax is adjusted.

Sure there is: Stop paying Inflated Australian prices for stuff that can be purchased cheaper from overseas.

And what about the younger players who have no ebay access? the age bracket in most GW stores is >16. So what are they supposed to do?

I'm shocked that there's still an active audience for GW in that age bracket, given current prices. Clearly their parents are pretty much entirely footing the bills there.

 Azazelx wrote:

 XdeadpoolX wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 XdeadpoolX wrote:

Yes i agree Australia pays through the nose for everything due to our outdated ways but there isnt much we can do until the laws and tax is adjusted.

Sure there is: Stop paying Inflated Australian prices for stuff that can be purchased cheaper from overseas.

And what about the younger players who have no ebay access? the age bracket in most GW stores is >16. So what are they supposed to do?

I'm shocked that there's still an active audience for GW in that age bracket, given current prices. Clearly their parents are pretty much entirely footing the bills there.

There parents probably learn quickly that when asked you say no first, look closely latter !

GW is really annoying, defiantly the worst company I have had the displeasure of dealing with.
I can only imagine the stress they cause now to store owners now.

Wow english fail me today !

This might be slightly off topic but I thought it was relevant.

Back in the early to mid-nineties Australia was one of the best performing GW regions.

It was doing so well that the "Australian model" as it was known was set to be rolled out across all GW stores world wide.

I was due to go out to train new managers in Hong Kong for 6 months when GW expanded into that territory in roughly 1994-19995 and then the idea was to go and see how Australia was getting such great sales for another 6 months after that.

Sadly I left the company at around this time so I didn't see what happened after that but it saddens me to see the Australian retail market a shadow of what it used to be.

 Toofast wrote:
Probably because every living thing in Australia wants to kill you. Watch out for drop bears, look up, stay alive.

And don't ever forget to hold on tight to something, lest you fall off the Earth.

StraightSilver wrote:
I was due to go out to train new managers in Hong Kong for 6 months when GW expanded into that territory in roughly 1994-19995

Sounds a little optimistic about GW's longevity.

In the year twenty-five twenty-five, I wonder if GW will be alive...

Considering that at their current pace they will be posting a loss in 12-18 months and have already cut costs down to the bone, 2525 seems overly optimistic to me. I doubt they have the cash reserves to operate in the red for 10 years.