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From WarCom:

A Quick Heads-up

Hiya folks,
In the spirit of openness, we’ve got a quick bit of news for you today: as of the 4th of February this year, the price of paints and some of the Start Collecting! sets will change.
Paint pots will have a small increase of 20 pence per pot (or local currency equivalent). The paint sets, though, will have no change, making them an even better way to round out your painting arsenal.
The Start Collecting! sets are going up a little too, but you’ll still save at least 20% over buying the contents individually and in some cases more like 40%!
Happy painting,

– The Warhammer Community Team

its a 5 or 10£ increase on the start collecting boxes, confirmed by gw on facebook

Now would be a really good time to address some of the pricing imbalances in the international markets. Start collecting boxes already cost the equivalent of more than £80 here in Japan. Do they really need to make them cost even more?

"the price of paints and some of the Start Collecting! sets will change" & "affected Start Collecting! sets will change in price by either £5 or £10" - I wonder which ones will go up (and I don't think it's a good idea to have Start Collecting! boxes at different prices).

Really? A price rise?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Really? A price rise?

Nothing weird about it.

I just want to say thank you to GW for the heads up on the approaching price rises! Another sign of their big attitude change toward gamers!

In the past we'd have only gotten this on the day of the rise or in a garbled series of confusing updates from retailers around the world updating their listings here and there in bits and at varying discounts and local prices. So its really great that we are getting this update direct from GW themselves and in advance!

Sure...

There's nothing great about this. The heads-up is just the least bothersome part about it.

With how many people often profess their support for GW's competitors' paint ranges, I have to wonder why they think increasing the price for paints is a good idea.

This is a pretty bizarre choice. The start collecting sets seem pretty much as gateway drugs towards getting you to spend more on other, non-discounted models. They offer only limited purchase choice per faction, after which the consumer suddenly has a reason to pay the laughably high prices for other kits in the faction (like 160 dollar monsters or 40 dollar single infantry models).

GW must be feeling pretty confident in themselves to make the shift.

The problem is that they have come off the back of a couple of years of record profits and sales. The reintroduction of meaningfully discounted box sets has been a big part of their recent success.
Despite the heads up, this price increase will put off new players and people buying gifts for family members.
It is a pretty well known fact that most people's number one complaint about GW is their high prices. There is no explanation in that little article about why they are increasing prices. Will those slight increases really make such a difference their bottom line that it is worth driving away a certain number of potential customers?
It is also a very British centric article. GW needs to be aware that they are a global company. If they want to be transparent, they should be publishing a list of the new prices for every country they operate in rather than just saying local currency equivalent.

I’m one of the real wackos as I prefer the GW paints as I paint straight from the pot, no dropper bottles is my preference. That said I have about 100 various dropper bottles from the different ranges to fill in colors. Guess I’ll be trying out the instar paints soon.

Also I had been considering getting some start collecting sets, but then have continuously walked away thinking I can still get better value from other brands. GW still has improved greatly over the last few years.

I guess we'll see the paints start costing $8 Australian now. There already $6 a pop.

I'll be more interested in seeing how much crazy markup they add on all australian prices. IIRC every new set costs at least 40% (after conversion) more when compared to our UK cousins.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Really? A price rise?

They've been generating a lot of good will recently with their continued smoke and mirrors. They probably figure if they do this now, people will defend it and some might even support it out of some weird place of fanboyism.

The last minute bump to their profits when everybody scoops up the paints/SC's they want probably won't hurt either.

I would take the price rise if they refreshed the contents of the Start Collecting boxes, some of them are looking a bit tired now. I guess I need to grab the other Militarum Tempestus ones I intended to buy at the end of January then. They must be a prime candidate with their £80+ content "value".

 Arbitrator wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Really? A price rise?

They've been generating a lot of good will recently with their continued smoke and mirrors. They probably figure if they do this now, people will defend it and some might even support it out of some weird place of fanboyism.

The last minute bump to their profits when everybody scoops up the paints/SC's they want probably won't hurt either.

UK Financial year runs April-March though?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Arbitrator wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Really? A price rise?

They've been generating a lot of good will recently with their continued smoke and mirrors. They probably figure if they do this now, people will defend it and some might even support it out of some weird place of fanboyism.

The last minute bump to their profits when everybody scoops up the paints/SC's they want probably won't hurt either.

UK Financial year runs April-March though?

GW's financial year ends on May 31, and they do two half-year reports.

Either way, there's no last minute boosting going on with this price increase.

Chikout wrote:
Now would be a really good time to address some of the pricing imbalances in the international markets. Start collecting boxes already cost the equivalent of more than £80 here in Japan. Do they really need to make them cost even more?

Yes, it's a fact that in Japan everybody is swimming in big money. It's only fair that we pay a 60% extra to our GW overlords.

M.

 Miguelsan wrote:

Chikout wrote:
Now would be a really good time to address some of the pricing imbalances in the international markets. Start collecting boxes already cost the equivalent of more than £80 here in Japan. Do they really need to make them cost even more?

Yes, it's a fact that in Japan everybody is swimming in big money. It's only fair that we pay a 60% extra to our GW overlords.

M.

Oh I know y’all are loaded over there. It’s kind of gotten to be a thing at the FLGS where foreign visitors have been leaving one of their local bills behind to be tacked to the wall behind the register. They’re mostly all 5 and under, plus one 10. The Japanese note? 1000. Fancy schmancy big spenders.

I wouldn’t be nearly as perturbed at a paint cost raise if they would change to a better pot.

We all pretty much know that GW paint is designed to dry out and now they want more for the privilege.

 AduroT wrote:

 Miguelsan wrote:

Chikout wrote:
Now would be a really good time to address some of the pricing imbalances in the international markets. Start collecting boxes already cost the equivalent of more than £80 here in Japan. Do they really need to make them cost even more?

Yes, it's a fact that in Japan everybody is swimming in big money. It's only fair that we pay a 60% extra to our GW overlords.

M.

Oh I know y’all are loaded over there. It’s kind of gotten to be a thing at the FLGS where foreign visitors have been leaving one of their local bills behind to be tacked to the wall behind the register. They’re mostly all 5 and under, plus one 10. The Japanese note? 1000. Fancy schmancy big spenders.

We even have 10,000 ones!

M.

March 29 is when Brexit will hit (with all the uncertainty around it, whether it will be hard-, soft- or will not happen at all).
Like it or not, but GW is UK-based and such an event inevitably has an impact on its financials.

Heh. Given how small and numerous they are, .20+ per pot is a pretty hefty increase to the price of GW paints. I know I spent upwards of $150 filling in the holes/refreshing the commonly used paints in my paint collection last year. Now I have to ponder if it'd be worth doing again, or running down other paint lines.

A rise on start collecting is pretty terrible, too. I've picked up several for my current army project, at 5 or 10 pounds more (which probably means a rise from 85 to 100 dollars), that's a clear discouragement from buying them.

Now I'm worried about the prices for the new stuff this year.

 Aenar wrote:
March 29 is when Brexit will hit (with all the uncertainty around it, whether it will be hard-, soft- or will not happen at all).
Like it or not, but GW is UK-based and such an event inevitably has an impact on its financials.

The effect has been positive for them so far, due to their sales being over 70% overseas. Unless the lack of uncertainty when it happens strengthens the GBP (which is reasonably likely to be fair) then they'll be creaming even more in with their $1 to £1 swap.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Really? A price rise?

Must be a day ending in a "y"...

This doesn’t bode well for pricing in general going forward. $100 Start Collecting sets means I won’t be buying anymore of them.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

is it confirmed 15$ hike?

Mr.Church13 wrote:
I wouldn’t be nearly as perturbed at a paint cost raise if they would change to a better pot.

We all pretty much know that GW paint is designed to dry out and now they want more for the privilege.

Exactly, Absolutely the worst designed paint pot I've ever seen and also basically the most expensive per oz paint. People have a leg to stand on when defending GW on their paint quality and color range vs cost but I don't think ive ever heard anybody justify the design choices inherent in their pots.

Price increase of the Start Collecting boxes I think is going to price some people out of starting the hobby or starting new armies while not everyone getting into the hobby wants to buy the various renditions of the "Employee of the Month Marines" vs the "Should of Called in Sick Marines". Not sure GW understands the psychological perspective that throwing on a 3rd digit to the price will have to American consumers (if it goes that high but 10£ probably means at least 15+ in freedom money). $100 vs $85 is a big deal in the minds of a lot of people which I wouldn't be surprised if it negatively impacts sales more than it helps boost profit margins.

The most expensive miniature paints per ml becoming even more expensive...nice. Gakky price with gakky pots.
Pretty rubbish product. The competition is way ahead.

There's nothing special about the GW paints except the price.