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 Skinnereal wrote:

 Kall3m0n wrote:
They should never be removed from sale. Let people buy the old stuff if they want to.

That's the problem though. How do new people know...?
How do current people know too? It's not as though GW labels their books "Compatible with the 8th edition ruleset" or anything like that. There's hardly any publication date or version information either.

I think there are two scenarios that are quite different.

The first is what we currently have with the Death Guard Codex. I'd argue anyone about to commit to buying a new army is very likely to do at least some level of research about the topic so I'm not sure how common it really is for someone to buy a Codex a week before pre-orders for the new one are available. That said, I think a note on GW's website and from their staff once a new Codex is announced is probably a good idea to help people who are in that research phase.

The second scenario is trickier. GW know which Codices are in the pipeline well before they tell the general public so the question is at what point should they announce that? It's a careful balancing act to get accurate information out there while not looking too far ahead in case there are delays and you invoke the wrath of the gamer who can't get their shiny new toys when they were told they could. I think in this case GW probably should add a note to their website and have their staff let people know that, for example, the new Dark Eldar Codex is out soon, even if we don't have a confirmed date yet.

Obviously there are business reasons why a company might not want to do that, but it doesn't make those reasons morally correct.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
Does GW just have all these old books hanging around in workshops? Are they printed on demand? I can't imagine they'd exactly fly off the shelves.

Yes, but GW also has PDFS AND a webstore.
They could either sell them in a quasi OLD-SCHOOL type of deal with the corresponding FAQ and errata's attached of course OR do massive goodwill action and make them freely available.

but then again i often felt that GW may have a webstore / page but isn't really there yet in regards to understanding that they are indeed in the 21. th century.

A webstore doesn't hold stock on the internet. It still has to be stored somewhere climate controlled to be collected and distributed when it's purchased.
This sort of storage isn't free, it costs money. PDFs, sure. A lot of old PDFs are still available (at original asking price I might add).

GW will never do anything to add legitimacy to anything but the newest hotness. That's their entire business model and they're not going to undermine it.

 kirotheavenger wrote:
A webstore doesn't hold stock on the internet. It still has to be stored somewhere climate controlled to be collected and distributed when it's purchased.
This sort of storage isn't free, it costs money. PDFs, sure. A lot of old PDFs are still available (at original asking price I might add).

GW will never do anything to add legitimacy to anything but the newest hotness. That's their entire business model and they're not going to undermine it.

Who said they should print on demand.
Making the PDFS available in an orderly fashion wouldn't be too complicated or bad for GW.
Alas you are right about GW's modus operandi.

As I said, leaving the PDFs up is fine, and indeed they already do do this (at least for some publications).
I thought you were also saying they should stock physical books to be distributed through the webstore, apologies if I was mistaken.

Old books aren't hard to find though. I can find the majority of them online for free, and there's old books popping up on eBay semi-regularly.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 Kall3m0n wrote:
They should never be removed from sale. Let people buy the old stuff if they want to.

That's the problem though. How do new people know...?
How do current people know too? It's not as though GW labels their books "Compatible with the 8th edition ruleset" or anything like that. There's hardly any publication date or version information either.

Yeah, you're right. People are unable to read and do very quick research into the hobby before comitting to buying stuff. We need to moderate people since they're too dumb to look up stuff.

THat being said, I know a shop that used to sell Warhammer stuff and GW pushed stuff onto them. Including five rulebooks for 5th just a couple of weeks before they released 6th.
Resellers doesn't really do the research. They buy and resell what the company tels them.

 Kall3m0n wrote:
Yeah, you're right. People are unable to read and do very quick research into the hobby before comitting to buying stuff. We need to moderate people since they're too dumb to look up stuff.

That goes against GW's storefront impulse-buy strategy, though. The staff in the shop are to pile stock on an unsuspecting customer, and send them on their way.
Reading up is tough enough when the GW webstore does not list the publication age of a codex, or list imminent re-publications. The GW community page drops hints, but the store page shows none of that.
That's the point of this thread

 Skinnereal wrote:

 Kall3m0n wrote:
Yeah, you're right. People are unable to read and do very quick research into the hobby before comitting to buying stuff. We need to moderate people since they're too dumb to look up stuff.

That goes against GW's storefront impulse-buy strategy, though. The staff in the shop are to pile stock on an unsuspecting customer, and send them on their way.
Reading up is tough enough when the GW webstore does not list the publication age of a codex, or list imminent re-publications. The GW community page drops hints, but the store page shows none of that.
That's the point of this thread

I thought the point of this thread was to answer the question: "When should all codices be removed from sale when a new one is coming up?" since it's the title of the thread. I guess I can't read properly.

 Kall3m0n wrote:
I thought the point of this thread was to answer the question: "When should all codices be removed from sale when a new one is coming up?" since it's the title of the thread. I guess I can't read properly.

There is an underlying reason for the issue in the OP. If GW listed the publication date on their stuff, and if old books were marked as having been replaced, they could leave old stock on the shelves as long as they liked.

Q. "When should all codices be removed from sale when a new one is coming up?"
A. Never, if the books are marked as out of date.

That way: "They should never be removed from sale. Let people buy the old stuff if they want to." This, without any issues for new buyers.

And, all without any sarcasm or snark.

However, GW would much rather clear the shelf space and use it to advertise better things than obsolete rulebooks.
Shelf space for them is already at a premium, most shops have only a fraction of what's necessary to advertise all of their projects.
It's not uncommon in GW shops for entire factions to have just one small shelf of merchandise on display.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 Kall3m0n wrote:
I thought the point of this thread was to answer the question: "When should all codices be removed from sale when a new one is coming up?" since it's the title of the thread. I guess I can't read properly.

There is an underlying reason for the issue in the OP. If GW listed the publication date on their stuff, and if old books were marked as having been replaced, they could leave old stock on the shelves as long as they liked.

Q. "When should all codices be removed from sale when a new one is coming up?"
A. Never, if the books are marked as out of date.

That way: "They should never be removed from sale. Let people buy the old stuff if they want to." This, without any issues for new buyers.

And, all without any sarcasm or snark.

Good response! (honestly)
I agree!

But I love snark, sass and sarkasm! :3

 kirotheavenger wrote:
However, GW would much rather clear the shelf space and use it to advertise better things than obsolete rulebooks.
Shelf space for them is already at a premium, most shops have only a fraction of what's necessary to advertise all of their projects.
It's not uncommon in GW shops for entire factions to have just one small shelf of merchandise on display.

They could (but won't) label them as old, mark down the price, and free up that space. It saves them having to ship them back to the warehouse, which I heard they do with old stock.
Surely selling them off is better than sitting on them. If they do that with a warning, everyone wins.

 Kall3m0n wrote:
But I love snark, sass and sarkasm! :3

Don't let me stop you. My usual tone does need a foil most of the time.

 Kall3m0n wrote:

 Skinnereal wrote:

 Kall3m0n wrote:
They should never be removed from sale. Let people buy the old stuff if they want to.

That's the problem though. How do new people know...?
How do current people know too? It's not as though GW labels their books "Compatible with the 8th edition ruleset" or anything like that. There's hardly any publication date or version information either.

Yeah, you're right. People are unable to read and do very quick research into the hobby before comitting to buying stuff. We need to moderate people since they're too dumb to look up stuff.

THat being said, I know a shop that used to sell Warhammer stuff and GW pushed stuff onto them. Including five rulebooks for 5th just a couple of weeks before they released 6th.
Resellers doesn't really do the research. They buy and resell what the company tels them.

I will say that the 7E/8E codexes did look too much alike. I actually had an instance where I purchased a 7E codex thinking it was 8E and had to return it. Luckily, the store did allow me to swap.