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Each time they do "1 per customer" it does use up more of a scalper's time to work around it.

Ideally, they wouldn't announce it beforehand, and only show it on the pre-order page, then the scalpers can't have workarounds ready in advance...

 Overread wrote:
In fairness we don't actually know how bad the whole scalper issue is. We also have to remember that every time GW does "1 box per customer" any dedicated scalper will work out ways around it. Heck even regular people can often find tricks around that (eg same address, different person in the household; or same street/block address or a neighbour etc...)

GW at least sees the raw sales data so they have a far better potential to know how multi-buyers have actual impact; at least when they show the same address/order in bulk

I think the difference is that a sizeable chunk of scalpers won't go to the length of multiple accounts/bots to try and secure their loot. I imagine many of them are just people eager to make a few extra quid rather than trying to run it as a lifestyle. That chunk 'saved' from the more casual scalpers is a chunk going to people who actually want the product for the product's sake.

I don't think GW really cares much about scalpers beyond frustrated customers resultant from the bad PR. Obviously there's fifty bajillion Space Marine players who wanted Indomitus, so they couldn't really ignore the amount of fall out from that, but less so a few packs of Necromunda cards and Siege of Terra special editions. If anything they probably see scalping as 'driving up the value of their product' and encouraging people to be parked at their website at 09:59.

GW just wants all their stuff sold, they don't care what people do with the models afterwards

everything that helps selling it and keeps the prices high is welcome

Right. They only care that SOMEONE buys their product directly. Most companies do.

But a billion dollar company that knows there’s going to be a supply/demand issue can and should implement purchase limits with an IP checker and an in cart reserve system on their website. Better yet, if they can’t be bothered to pay someone to do those basic website features, they should just make the product made to order so there’s no supply/demand issue at all! Sure, people won’t get them in time for the holidays, but that’s more of an issue in that they intend it to be a gift product yet only opened up the orders exactly one month before the holiday.

I get that COVID majorly fethed up their production and release schedule, but that doesn’t excuse them from using the data they have from every pre-COVID release to gauge demand (reminder that every single limited box set last year had supply issues) and again they can just ignore the supply problem by making them MTO in the first place, and all demand is met.

a company that paid 5 Millions for a website that resets all your settings/shopping cart if you change the currency should get an IP tracker?
(not even thinking that IP blocking does not work in Europe that way as there is no fixed IP per user but for the provider and blocking the IP a website sees will block a million other users from the same provider in the same region as well)

 zend wrote:

I get that COVID majorly fethed up their production and release schedule, but that doesn’t excuse them from using the data they have from every pre-COVID release to gauge demand (reminder that every single limited box set last year had supply issues) and again they can just ignore the supply problem by making them MTO in the first place, and all demand is met.

2 mistakes here
first they did thought about the demand based on based experience, hence why Necrons are already gone, because there was much less interest for them in the past
that a new Codex and new Models help sales is something GW haven't got yet after 30 years and never will

second one is to think that they want to meet the demand, this is not a fan service but a storage clearing sale, they want to stuff to be gone and the most expensive part of it for GW are the printed cardboard boxes
so they only order enough boxes in sommer what they think (based on based sales) is going to be sold out soon

if they made all the boxes made to order they'd get further and further behind on their restocks of existing stuff

and all we'd be able to get wold be made to orders with 6 month delivery windows

 kodos wrote:
a company that paid 5 Millions for a website that resets all your settings/shopping cart if you change the currency should get an IP tracker?

Fairly sure this is deliberate? You don't just change currency on the GW store do you, you're selecting where your stock will be dispatched from, and they have different stock around the globe

Plus made to order over that many sets and armies would be insane. They'd cripple themselves and flood their own market with loads of people splitting kits. It would be easier on that many kits with that much focus to just give a year old discount on the actual kits that comprise the battleforce. It would net sales, but wouldn't have the panic buying power impact that Christmas boxed sets bring.


Made to Order won't happen; however I can well envision a second wave/second production run or even that GW held stock back to spread it out.We also have to consider that the internet stock sold out, but physical stock hasn't and that might make a huge difference.
I recall after Indomitus there was a fair number of sets around in physical stores for a reasonable length of time.



That said we've no idea what GW's back end of production looks like right now. We know its not as good as normal in terms of output; but we've no idea how much pressure they are under in terms of how much room they've got to do stuff like this.

IP Trackers etc.

Amazon don’t bother, why should GW?

Yes I am a would-be disgruntled PS5 owner.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
IP Trackers etc.

Amazon don’t bother, why should GW?

Yes I am a would-be disgruntled PS5 owner.

NGL, 90% of my complaint stems from salt over me having a PS5 in my cart on Best Buy’s site and losing it because they sold out in the 5 seconds it took my checkout to process. The complaint is applicable to both.


But anyways, GW has had record high profits for the past 4 years. They could reinvest in more factories to ramp up production, and the idea that they would have to halt all other releases to do MTO is bollocks. Give people a week to order the box sets like they did with Indomitus and every other MTO product they’ve done. Have dedicated machines and crew for that MTO product, everything else is business as normal. It’s what they’ve been doing since they started MTO lol

 zend wrote:
They could reinvest in more factories to ramp up production, and the idea that they would have to halt all other releases to do MTO is bollocks.

They did - bought the land, built the factory*. They also invested in a huge new warehousing storage site as well.

However all this I think came online at the start of 2020. You know the year of the pandemic. What's making GW struggle right now is that their factory and packing and warehouse can't house as many staff all at once as normal. Plus other things like one-way systems. They basically can't rebuild their entire operation for what might only be 1-2 years of disruption (assuming vaccines work in 2021); so they have to lump it along with us with seriously reduced performance; a 3 month backlog; a market of existing customers that are buying MORE than normal as well.

Basically its a huge double hit of less production and more consumers.

We've already noted several times in this thread that Christmas Bundles do NOT sell out tihs fast normally and that many last months into the new year and some even last the entire year. Meanwhile we know that Made to Order Indomitus did impact them because it wasn't planned for yet GW did it at the same time as having Covid restrictions and being shut down for 3 months before that. Don't forget when the GW webstore came back onilne after the first lockdown they closed the webstore each night. Likely so that they could at least keep a handle on orders coming in each day and feel like they were making progress and to also likely cut down on people making multiple smaller orders and encourage people to make singular bigger ones etc...


GW aren't alone in this - other miniature firms have felt the pressure of this year. Creature Caster running out of stock fiarly regularly on popular things; Warcradle up and cancelled the multi-year awaited relaunch of Dystopian Wars (though its had a bonus as now core ships are coming in plastic next year).



* I see to recall the value of £9million for land and factory being reported when they announced it in their shareholders minutes. That value might well have gone up as the project went on. Suffice to say it was a serious investment and a new factory means higher upkeep costs and more staff etc...

Billicus wrote:

 kodos wrote:
a company that paid 5 Millions for a website that resets all your settings/shopping cart if you change the currency should get an IP tracker?

Fairly sure this is deliberate? You don't just change currency on the GW store do you, you're selecting where your stock will be dispatched from, and they have different stock around the globe

the reason is that they have fixed prices for each country therefore they cannot use a normal currency translation tool using real exchange rates
yet for the money they paid, having a website that would update the shopping cart accordingly (not only with prices but also stock) instead of just deleting it should have been possible

 zend wrote:

But a billion dollar company that knows there’s going to be a supply/demand issue can and should implement purchase limits with an IP checker and an in cart reserve system on their website. Better yet, if they can’t be bothered to pay someone to do those basic website features, they should just make the product made to order so there’s no supply/demand issue at all! Sure, people won’t get them in time for the holidays, but that’s more of an issue in that they intend it to be a gift product yet only opened up the orders exactly one month before the holiday.
.

Assumption there being GW wants to sell DISCOUNT boxes a ton...Rather than selling just some for goodwill PR(the nu-GW is basically old GW with improved PR department) but mostly at full price.

Why sell kit for 70% when you can sell it for 100%?

tneva82 wrote:


Assumption there being GW wants to sell DISCOUNT boxes a ton...Rather than selling just some for goodwill PR(the nu-GW is basically old GW with improved PR department) but mostly at full price.

Why sell kit for 70% when you can sell it for 100%?

These limited run boxes are a great way to get people to start new armies, which means further sales down the line.

I also disagree with the posts saying that GW doesn't care who they get sold to. reputation matters, and if someone who frequents a FLGS constantly hears Warhammer fans (rightfully) bitiching about GWs practices and scalpers it's going to put them off. They'd much rather that person hear about what a good deal these boxes are and how they are a great way to get into the hobby, and for that person to then have the ability to actually buy one

 kodos wrote:

Billicus wrote:

 kodos wrote:
a company that paid 5 Millions for a website that resets all your settings/shopping cart if you change the currency should get an IP tracker?

Fairly sure this is deliberate? You don't just change currency on the GW store do you, you're selecting where your stock will be dispatched from, and they have different stock around the globe

the reason is that they have fixed prices for each country therefore they cannot use a normal currency translation tool using real exchange rates
yet for the money they paid, having a website that would update the shopping cart accordingly (not only with prices but also stock) instead of just deleting it should have been possible

I disagree with this on a bunch of levels really, there's really no need to preserve the shopping basket between regions because they have different stock and in some cases product ranges available and it's really not intended for customers to change between them often. You're meant to pick your locale on entering the store and stick with it. They may well have separate database objects behind the scenes for these different locales, and having something that updates your basket with current stock levels between them may well be more complex than you appreciate. I mean, if Amazon doesn't do it, why be surprised that Games Workshop don't do it

Amazon shouldn't be used as any kind of benchmark, their functionality is awful (by design, to squeeze an extra few pence out of users).

They're the biggest e-commerce business on the planet, so I'm quite comfortable using them as a benchmark, but you do you

I disagree with this on a bunch of levels really, there's really no need to use a dysfunctional system as your benchmark just because that system is used by the biggest e-commerce business on the planet. Why not use a better system used by a smaller company as the benchmark?

Billicus wrote:

 kodos wrote:

Billicus wrote:

 kodos wrote:
a company that paid 5 Millions for a website that resets all your settings/shopping cart if you change the currency should get an IP tracker?

Fairly sure this is deliberate? You don't just change currency on the GW store do you, you're selecting where your stock will be dispatched from, and they have different stock around the globe

the reason is that they have fixed prices for each country therefore they cannot use a normal currency translation tool using real exchange rates
yet for the money they paid, having a website that would update the shopping cart accordingly (not only with prices but also stock) instead of just deleting it should have been possible

I disagree with this on a bunch of levels really, there's really no need to preserve the shopping basket between regions because they have different stock and in some cases product ranges available and it's really not intended for customers to change between them often. You're meant to pick your locale on entering the store and stick with it. They may well have separate database objects behind the scenes for these different locales, and having something that updates your basket with current stock levels between them may well be more complex than you appreciate. I mean, if Amazon doesn't do it, why be surprised that Games Workshop don't do it

Fine if shop country would stay same. Less funny when you go there and shop is on it's own switched to austalia or whatever.

Now albeit i don't know how crappy code gw shop is. If it's any half decent shouldn't take too much effort. I know i could anyway

Billicus wrote:

 kodos wrote:

Billicus wrote:

 kodos wrote:
a company that paid 5 Millions for a website that resets all your settings/shopping cart if you change the currency should get an IP tracker?

Fairly sure this is deliberate? You don't just change currency on the GW store do you, you're selecting where your stock will be dispatched from, and they have different stock around the globe

the reason is that they have fixed prices for each country therefore they cannot use a normal currency translation tool using real exchange rates
yet for the money they paid, having a website that would update the shopping cart accordingly (not only with prices but also stock) instead of just deleting it should have been possible

I disagree with this on a bunch of levels really, there's really no need to preserve the shopping basket between regions because they have different stock and in some cases product ranges available and it's really not intended for customers to change between them often. You're meant to pick your locale on entering the store and stick with it. They may well have separate database objects behind the scenes for these different locales, and having something that updates your basket with current stock levels between them may well be more complex than you appreciate. I mean, if Amazon doesn't do it, why be surprised that Games Workshop don't do it

big difference with Amazon is that there are different websites and I need a different account to actually switch between regions
while people still selling in GBP on the German website that gets converted to Euro

yet GW let me switch between Germany and Austria on their website, with the stuff always being send from Germany anyway and the difference is the shipping cost but the the basket still resets each time the you do it (which you need to do because the default shops you get switches on its own between different versions)

something that actually works with Amazon as it does not matter if I enter der German or Austrian website, the basket is not deleted if I switch the country but shipping costs and stock availability is updated

use Amazon as a Benchmark and the GW online shop fails on the very basic things the Amazon Website can do

 kodos wrote:

big difference with Amazon is that there are different websites and I need a different account to actually switch between regions
while people still selling in GBP on the German website that gets converted to Euro

Do you though? Albeit　haven't checked have i set them same　password manually but for both .co.uk and .co.jp i get in via same email/20+ random char password.

Got me curious enough that i'll try setting new password to one and see if other changes

I think from GW's point of view does their website need the feature in the first place. Amazon cross delivers into different territories. GW doesn't, they even block 3rd parties delivering their products outside of their region.

So from GW's point of view you log into the GW store in the country you're in and you order from that store. There's no need for you to change the region or country setting and preserve your inventory. It's just not a feature they would consider important or needed to bother having it.

 Overread wrote:
I think from GW's point of view does their website need the feature in the first place. Amazon cross delivers into different territories. GW doesn't, they even block 3rd parties delivering their products outside of their region.

So from GW's point of view you log into the GW store in the country you're in and you order from that store. There's no need for you to change the region or country setting and preserve your inventory. It's just not a feature they would consider important or needed to bother having it.

Now if only they would actually KEEP the country setting then. Yo( say no need to change region. Why i then need to keep switching back to finland?

tneva82 wrote:

 kodos wrote:

big difference with Amazon is that there are different websites and I need a different account to actually switch between regions
while people still selling in GBP on the German website that gets converted to Euro

Do you though? Albeit　haven't checked have i set them same　password manually but for both .co.uk and .co.jp i get in via same email/20+ random char password.

Got me curious enough that i'll try setting new password to one and see if other changes

I needed a different account for Amazon Spain, UK while Austria and Germany is the same

could be possible it changed now, did not tried it recently

I’ve never had it switch on me, are you sure it’s a problem with the GW site and not something on your own computer (cookies, caches, clearing history?)?

I mean a 1 day "Made to Order Christmas special" would do wonders for PR.

 DominayTrix wrote:
I mean a 1 day "Made to Order Christmas special" would do wonders for PR.

Until all those who didn't spot it for that 1 day complain.

And it would be a production disaster for GW right now - Indomitus was 1 set for 2 armies. Even ignoring those who wanted it just for the free rulebook and sold both halves that's still nothing compared to 8 full army packs across 8 different armies. Heck even in a normal year going made to order on those bundles would be a massive task for GW to produce.

Made to Order volumes would be huge, esp since every product in them is regular retail products with long shelf life. You'd have a lot of people buy into them on made to order just to stock up for reselling.


It's a no-win situation for GW. A second wave of known quantity is potentially possible and might happen, its at least got more practical chance.


Or we accept this is what 2020 and corona has given us and we wait for 2021 and the vaccine and next Christmas when things should hopefully be more normal.

I would like it if GW offered a second chance at these sets if it meant that they sold them in a regular cardboard or plain white box. Since there’s no one off special models in these they could be print/ cast/ picked on demand. When Sly Marbo was first sold in stores he had a printed box, and when he was sold on the website later he was in a white box. Why can’t these be sold the same way as long as all the individual parts are available?

Smaug wrote:
I would like it if GW offered a second chance at these sets if it meant that they sold them in a regular cardboard or plain white box. Since there’s no one off special models in these they could be print/ cast/ picked on demand. When Sly Marbo was first sold in stores he had a printed box, and when he was sold on the website later he was in a white box. Why can’t these be sold the same way as long as all the individual parts are available?

Because they are a business and want to make money. The Christmas bundles are to spur on new army builds, they are not meant to actually save you money in the long haul. If they kept them available all the time then people would just buy these boxes and their full priced individual units would sit collecting dust on the shelves. This is to help them get a quick influx of money right before Christmas without having to retool anything or develop anything new.

We all would like to save money on an existing army, but that is what the start collecting boxes are to GW. These are just panic buy plastic crack bundles to get people addicted to a whole new army.

off topic, never mind