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I am in no way looking to discuss BREXIT in any way, shape, or form. I am simply wondering if we might see price increases / decreases due to the event itself seeing as Games Workshop is a United Kingdom - based company. Any thoughts?

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
I am in no way looking to discuss BREXIT in any way, shape, or form. I am simply wondering if we might see price increases / decreases due to the event itself seeing as Games Workshop is a United Kingdom - based company. Any thoughts?

I think there might be a slight increase, but nothing drastic. Though it might depend on where you live, if you come from America like me then the price may be higher than say some other country in Europe.

They've never needed an excuse to overinflate prices.
Pretty sure this year will be no exception, Brexit or otherwise.

I think the whole panic about its effect is overall manufactured- just like any of these things. I don't think the impact will be as significant as you may think- there could be brief ups and downs, but overall I don't think you'll see anything drastic or long-term.

The price may go up due to import/export tariff. The same way that purchasing something from the States attracts an import charge.

GW's raw materials will also attract tariffs as they're imported into the UK, so you'll likely see a gouge going on there.

Of course, if the guys and gals in the UK manage to actually agree to ratify a Withdrawal Agreement, then there should be no reason for prices to change.

Prices in the States shouldn't really be affected, again unless there's a WTO scenario where import/export tariffs are set at a sort of default until trade deals are concluded. Which shouldn't happen. Not even North Korea trades on purely WTO terms.

So, to sum up. Prices will only be drastically affected in the case of a No Deal scenario. Depending on how 'hard' or 'soft' Brexit is (how closely aligned to the EU the UK remains) prices may go up slightly.

They sure as shootin' won't go down!

GW has already demonstrated that if exchange rates go against them they will set international prices based on some delusional "exchange rate" that is far in their favor. Brexit, like anything else in existence, will at best produce no change in GW prices and will likely be an excuse for a price increase.

They have done something quite devious here. In setting up there international warehouses they have insulated themselves against the worst problems of fluctuating currencies and import / export tarrifs.

This is particularly problematic for Forgeworld international prices which would previously have been awesome for non UK buyers to buy direct from Nottingham given the £ will likely drop. Now they can price as what they consider to be the same profit margin as domestic UK purchasers.

I expect literally nothing will change for US customers and probably not for anyone else.

They have been quitely increasing prices anyway like the change in paints and brushes and army bundles. New kits come out with faantasy pricetags anyway

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
They've never needed an excuse to overinflate prices.
Pretty sure this year will be no exception, Brexit or otherwise.

This.

I'm sure more than a few companies will take the opportunity to crank up prices and use Brexit as an excuse, regardless of necessity.

Considering their growing international market, if anything it would see their sales improve due to the weaker pound and above mentioned international warehouses. Not that they'll mention it in the hike of course.

Out of curiosity, did you blame Britain being in the EU for all of GW's previous price-hikes?

In theory if the UK and the EU reach a deal £ will rise against $, € etc, which would make goods more expensive.
If they fail to reach a deal £ should fall, making goods cheaper.

As said however, GW have their own rather arbitrary exchange rate, and they can vary it as they want.

If someone in the US will pay $X for a product, they will charge $X. There isn't much point charging less. The bulk of the costs for GW are labour rather than plastic, so I don't think tariffs etc would meaningfully impact prices. I could be wrong there though.

Products are also not just in time perishables, so if there are logistical logjams, it will just mean occasional shortages and longer windows for resupply. It shouldn't drive up prices.

It's impossible to gauge what effect Brexit will have on GW's own costs, given that nobody (even the Tory leadership) have any real clue what form Brexit could take. Right now, literally anything from Remaining in the EU after all, to crashing out without a deal, is possible.

How GW chooses to pass on any cost increases, or just put prices up anyway, is also unknown.

Predicting the future is hard...

 Ian Sturrock wrote:
It's impossible to gauge what effect Brexit will have on GW's own costs, given that nobody (even the Tory leadership) have any real clue what form Brexit could take. Right now, literally anything from Remaining in the EU after all, to crashing out without a deal, is possible.

How GW chooses to pass on any cost increases, or just put prices up anyway, is also unknown.

Predicting the future is hard...

This basically sums it up - and the longer it gets drawn out the more companies can't plan for the future because "its unknown".

The other issue to consider is that its likely companies will go through several stages once any formal break happens. This could be anything from no cost variation through to increases and even decreases (far less likely) which in turn might or might not be passed onto the customer. If GW can see short term rises which will steady out to similar prices to what they pay now the might soak the difference and not pass it onto the customer; however it might be they've no way to tell and have to apss it on even if it proves only to be short term.
You can bet there will be a least months to a year of all the dust settling once any formal split happens and that many companies that trade or rely on international goods/services will go through a similar pattern of instability. Hopefully its minor.

I’ve deleted off topic discussion about whether this thread should even exist. Obviously, the topic isn’t about whether or how Brexit should transpire but solely how it may affect GW prices. Carry on, on topic. Thanks!

Basically?

We’ve not a scooby doo at the moment, as we’ve no idea what sort of Brexit is going to happen.

If we crash out with no deal expect prices in Europe to go up as GW (or distributors) have to pay VAT, and some of that is bound to be passed along

if we do a deal including goods (& services) no change

which happened nobody knows (least of all the politicians in this country)

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
if we do a deal including goods (& services) no change

Hah. That's extremely optimistic. "Great news! We have decided to introduce Citadel™ FinePricing™! You no longer have to worry about how political instability will impact your budget, all Citadel™ Multi-part™ Space™ Marines™ will have a bespoke price just for your country." Sure, the exchange rate used for these prices hasn't been seen since 1968, but aren't you glad you don't have to worry about the chaos of Brexit?

Something to note is that as is now stores in uk can sell gw stuff to eu but not outside due to contract with gw. Gw can't due to eu laws prevent stores selling to eu countries. If uk goes full brexit that doesn't apply so gw can apply that to eu countries making cheap pound harder to utilize

We've already passed legislation to import all EU laws on to our own statute, so any anti competition legislation will remain unless we later decide to modify it.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
I am in no way looking to discuss BREXIT in any way, shape, or form. I am simply wondering if we might see price increases / decreases due to the event itself seeing as Games Workshop is a United Kingdom - based company. Any thoughts?

Any excuse they can come up with, they raise prices. At this point, the market is going to decide. Our local market is leaning to skirmish level and stuff everyone already has... there is no stop to the amount of gakking over prices.... Its bad, and at the breaking point. the 65.00 Havocs are the stress cracks in the dam.

Even worse than $60 vanilla CSM? What, are there only five Havocs in the box? That would be bonkers.

I remember the £ dropping relative to other currencies after the initial Brexit vote came in and expect it to drop at least a little more should England actually leave the EU. This drop in value created what we call the "RotW Tax". While prices stayed the same in England (and thus made GW kits cheaper they didn't adjust the value outside England. I believe this would repeat itself when England eventually parts ways with the EU.

The interesting bit is that if you were to fly to England, you could buy GW models from a discounter and then just take them home with you on your way back. Or, if you have a friend at RAF Lakenheath, you can just ship them home for more or less standard air fair (APO surcharge would apply).

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Even worse than $60 vanilla CSM? What, are there only five Havocs in the box? That would be bonkers.

£6 a model? Even with any extra pieces that's still silly. The baseline for a plastic figure aught to sit at £0.50, £1 if the model's larger like one riding a horse. At least for those companies outside of Games Workshop. At £6 that's what, the cost of a lunch and dinner?

As others have said, Brexit will have as much of an effect on their prices as any other event. The company's used phoney excuses in the past, it'll apply whatever it wants if another increase is necessary. Well, necessary for the share holders that is. Games Workshop's going to keep testing the market till it breaks. And so far it hasn't. I can remember comments threads on this forum from a decade ago of people complaining about the prices being ridiculous and the community wouldn't stand for any more. ...And they continued to buy the product. Less figures to a box for more money, and so on.

If they don't increase the prices the community will praise them for lenience. If they increase them a while later then they can have the excuse that the economy's changed further. If they do increase the prices then well, they can pick their excuse out of a hat - regardless of if its warranted or not.

Meanwhile yes, you can buy a set of Perry Miniatures Foot Knights at £20 for 38 figures, with a similar amount of parts to the Empire infantry, or Mantic Game's Man at Arms at £20 for 20 models. Meanwhile its £15 for 10 Empire figures (in other words 3 times the price as the Perry's - for admittedly worse quality too, though people are into the chunky "I learned human anatomy off of Peanuts" look). Games Workshop charges what it wants as it knows the majority of its customer base will continue to buy their product. If it loses customers then they'll just increase their prices and/ or wait a while and act like they've reformed themselves to gain those customers back. People were saying the company was haemorrhaging customers a decade ago, and they're still here, so well, expect the same old crap to follow.

 vipoid wrote:
Out of curiosity, did you blame Britain being in the EU for all of GW's previous price-hikes?

GW consistently blamed 'currency fluctuations' for lower sales profits for years in annual reports.
There are very valid reasons for suspecting GW will pull a price rise and blame it on Brexit, as it is consistent with their past behavior and explanations to shareholders.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
If we crash out with no deal expect prices in Europe to go up as GW (or distributors) have to pay VAT, and some of that is bound to be passed along

if we do a deal including goods (& services) no change

which happened nobody knows (least of all the politicians in this country)

Funnily enough GW prices in Norway are pretty exact UK conversions while they overcharge the Euro zone by about 20% (about what you'd expect with customs tariffs) for no damn reason.

Well, I suppose the reason is the high standard of living in Germany, while smaller countries with 1/4 the purchase power can get bent. So GW will charge whatever they feel like the market will bear.

I noticed that paints went up 20p on April 1st. I'd be far more surprised, shocked even, to see GW drop any of their prices.

They don't need Brexit to hyper-inflate their prices, just look at the price of the new Abaddon!!

Just my 0.02 on this subject.

I'm sure they will use it as an excuse to raise prices.

 Azreal13 wrote:
We've already passed legislation to import all EU laws on to our own statute, so any anti competition legislation will remain unless we later decide to modify it.

Yes. "Unless". But generally when anybody opens up option to modify standards/laws it tends to be not in favour of customers/workers/whatever. Wouldn't surprise several big companies starting to lobby for change of laws.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:
I am in no way looking to discuss BREXIT in any way, shape, or form. I am simply wondering if we might see price increases / decreases due to the event itself seeing as Games Workshop is a United Kingdom - based company. Any thoughts?

For outside EU i don`t expect any change, but even now it`s less expensive to purchase with pound than with euro. Inside EU will depend if there is deal, if there is`t it will depend if GW can easily start selling the models with the right values.
For example they sell Abaddon for 37.5 pounds and that should be around 44 euros, but their store price is 50 euros.
That is the reason GB retailers are so popular, since with the discounts(since more people buy from them) they can sell with much lower prices than small rest of EU shops.

Yes, GB prices are currently about 10% lower than corresponding EU prices. At the moment it's often not worth ordering in the UK for people who have a local source of GW products, unless you order a lot of stuff at the same time (because shipping + exchange fees usually make it a lot less profitable, and the angst of international shipping has a cost of its own), but that could change with a lower pound.
And UK's VAT is at 20%. Depending on the deal, it might be possible to buy stuff in the UK without paying the VAT, and then paying your own country's VAT as in import fee. Many European countries have a lower VAT, which could further increase the profitability of buying directly in the UK.

fresus wrote:
Yes, GB prices are currently about 10% lower than corresponding EU prices. At the moment it's often not worth ordering in the UK for people who have a local source of GW products, unless you order a lot of stuff at the same time (because shipping + exchange fees usually make it a lot less profitable, and the angst of international shipping has a cost of its own), but that could change with a lower pound.
And UK's VAT is at 20%. Depending on the deal, it might be possible to buy stuff in the UK without paying the VAT, and then paying your own country's VAT as in import fee. Many European countries have a lower VAT, which could further increase the profitability of buying directly in the UK.

Except many UK stores have this thing free shipping(I don't recall when I ordered from UK FLGS WITHOUT free shipping. Just makes sense. 20% off AND free shipping AND pound ratio vs 10% off(best you usually have here) with euro prices?). And inside EU no VAT payment. And outside EU stores generally don't ATM sell anyway.

Of course how brexit affects is another thing. Hard to say since we don't know what kind of brexit if any happens. Certainly VAT is likely going to be charged. Free shipping could also become non feasible for stores.