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I loooove Pegasus terrain. I have done some really cool kitbashing with their stuff and it's crazy cheap. I made this enormous cathedral and I think it probably cost less than 80 bucks in kits.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Companies really need to realize their shareholder reports are public documents.

You don't get to brag about record profits in one outlet and the plead poverty in another one.

They know that they will be defended, even applauded for pretty much any action they take.
They could have posted record profits in their price rise announcement and folks would be there to say how great it is.

More importantly their income won’t suffer even if a percentage of people stop or lessen buying.
The increased prices help offset any potential quitters.

Have any of the other various game companies announced similar price hikes?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Companies really need to realize their shareholder reports are public documents.

You don't get to brag about record profits in one outlet and the plead poverty in another one.

Objection!

 privateer4hire wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Companies really need to realize their shareholder reports are public documents.

You don't get to brag about record profits in one outlet and the plead poverty in another one.

They know that they will be defended, even applauded for pretty much any action they take.
They could have posted record profits in their price rise announcement and folks would be there to say how great it is.

My favorite defenders are the people on Facebook who can't do basic math and think they aren't affected because they buy from discounters.

This sucks. Underworlds has already seen continuous hikes since the beginning of 2020, with warbands going from CAD$35 to $50 - plus tax (which runs 12% where I live). The starters went from $70 to $125, and while the current starter is exempt from an increase (since it was already built in!) I'm sure the next starter won't be.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Have any of the other various game companies announced similar price hikes?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Companies really need to realize their shareholder reports are public documents.

You don't get to brag about record profits in one outlet and the plead poverty in another one.

Objection!

This response might be entirely out of context as I'm too lazy to load and read the previous page, but Victoria recently jacked up the prices of her 10 man squads to 59.99 USD from 49.99 USD which unfortunately put the kibosh on my Tanith IG army.

I'm simply not willing to pay these prices.

GW shouldn't be raising the prices on any kit that is one sprue duplicated. The whole point of the blood bowl teams being done that way was to reduce production and design costs and even any effort involved.

I think GW saw an opportunity here to gouge consumers at an opportunistic moment and just blame inflation.

 Thargrim wrote:
GW shouldn't be raising the prices on any kit that is one sprue duplicated. The whole point of the blood bowl teams being done that way was to reduce production and design costs and even any effort involved.

I think GW saw an opportunity here to gouge consumers at an opportunistic moment and just blame inflation.

Tell me you don’t understand pricing and that without telling me you don’t understand pricing and that?

The U.K. (where the majority of GW’s production is done) is in a ropey economic position right now. Inflation is up. Power prices are going through the roof.

And remember. Inflation is based on whatever The Office For National Statistics consider to be Household Staples. That of course does not include our plastic crack. Nor is any company by any means beholden to only raise prices in line with inflation.

The Consumer Price Index (by which inflation is judged) is not The Whole Of The Thing. I mean, let’s look at my Council Tax (a tax in the U.K. not linked to income, but to property values set around 1991). My Council Tax is waaaaaay above inflation. That directly affects my disposable income - yet doesn’t factor into the CPI, which again is the benchmark of inflation.

It’s….it’s almost as if economics are really bloody complicated. This isn’t an issue solely limited to GW. At all. It’s a much wider problem - especially when you’ve enough of a clue to know that, in the U.K. at least, salaries haven’t kept up with inflation in a long, long time.

But sure, if it makes you feel better, you just blame it on GW’s greed. Because I guess that’s a helluva lot easier and more self satisfying than trying to understand the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is still just greed, just on more levels.

Well, the good new is that we don't need GW to play Warhammer.

Cobblers. Utter cobblers.

Now. Please note I am not attempting to justify, approve etc the exact amount of the increase.

Rather, I’m attempting to illustrate that “bUt EaCh sPrUe R pEnNiEs Of PlAsTiC” and “muh inflation rate” are, whether purposefully or not, simply bogus arguments. Because neither are even remotely how real world economics work.

And frankly, I am bored to death of the “evil GW” trope. They’re a for profit business. Not a charity. Being on the stock market, and regardless of what us Sad Nerks on the inter webs might think of it, their first and ultimately only duty is to maximise their profits, and generate the best return for their share holders. That’s a legal thing. Non-optional. But hey, we’re just as free as anyone else to buy them shares and reap some of that for ourselves.

Do prices rises suck? Yeah. Of course they do. 100% suckitidue. They suck more than a cordless Dyson switched on in space.

But that doesn’t mean they’re the result of greed. At all.

Now. Here’s another thing for people to at least try to get their head round. The announced increases may well be outside of inflation. And whilst we’ll never know (because GW don’t publish, nor have to publish the exact breakdown) what the true impact of the various financial woes and shenanigans that are going on is on their bottom line.

But let’s look back at my statement about price rises sucking. I still stand by that statement as I consider it to be the most factually accurate statement in this whole thread.

GW knows this. We know this. Their shareholders know this. Nobody wants to scare off their customers. That’s a very silly plan.

The exact percentages here could well be a form of shock absorption. Rather than increase prices year on year, by differing percentiles? These increases may well future proof GW against economic oddities yet to come.

Sucks to be us, the buyer. But what they’re doing just….isn’t immoral. At all.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And frankly, I am bored to death of the “evil GW” trope.

And a lot of us are really frickin' tired of the "They’re a for profit business. Not a charity." excuse.

I’m sure every jerkass has a reasonable explanation for their jerkass behavior. But it is equally reasonable to conclude someone who’s always being a jerkass to you is really just a jerkass.


Meanwhile, Victrix, Perry, Wargames Atlantic, and to lesser extents Mantic, Shieldwolf, Gripping Beast and Fireforge are over here with their apparently alien economics, not doing jerkass things all the time.

There is a difference between "not a charity" and "bragging about year on year record breaking profits but still raising prices". In the grand scheme of things, and especially with their bogus foreign exchange rates that always favors them, they could easily soak most any shortfall and still be reaping millions in profit. And hard to see raising prices across the board by 5-10% as protecting from inflation when they already rose prices by vast sums over the past 4 years.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
....a bunch of dreck

Why should the serfs complain about their feudal master when it's not their lord's fault that they own nothing and have to toil to create value for him. It's just because the system was built that way.

Ah, it’s the price rise bitching thread time of year, is it?

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Ah, it’s the price rise bitching thread time of year, is it?

You only seem to enter threads to comment on the people discussing the topic.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

The Consumer Price Index (by which inflation is judged) is not The Whole Of The Thing. I mean, let’s look at my Council Tax (a tax in the U.K. not linked to income, but to property values set around 1991). My Council Tax is waaaaaay above inflation. That directly affects my disposable income - yet doesn’t factor into the CPI, which again is the benchmark of inflation.

Read the underlined sentence back to yourself and tell me again why this is a great time for GW to be raising its prices.

Compared to the increased cost of other toys I've seen over the past few months, this latest GW hike seems almost reasonable. Last time I looked at Transformers deluxe action figures, they were around $10. Now they're almost $20. I've seen MSRP on certain Lego sets go up over 30% since December. Funko Pops over 25% increase in the same time frame. Some McFarlane figs went from $20 to $25 not long after. Attack ships burning off the shoulder of Orion and all that.

Rather worrisome and makes me concerned about the impending toy-induced collapse of civilization. At least my backlog is big enough that I can laugh at everyone who whined about "moderation" and "buy more only when you paint what you already have." Poor fools.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The exact percentages here could well be a form of shock absorption. Rather than increase prices year on year, by differing percentiles? These increases may well future proof GW against economic oddities yet to come.

Didn't GW make a statement along those lines for one of the prior price hikes only to hike prices again the very next year?

No One Important wrote:
Compared to the increased cost of other toys I've seen over the past few months, this latest GW hike seems almost reasonable. Last time I looked at Transformers deluxe action figures, they were around $10. Now they're almost $20.

Yeah. The Studio Series and War for Cybertron Trilogy lines were a joke for pricing. Power of the Primes was the last time Voyagers were below $25 and it was the last time that stuff was generally worth the price. At least they had gimmicks that were fun. Don't get me wrong, Kingdom gave us a gorgeous Cyclonus but they've definitely lost quite a bit of the "fun" factor in favour of 100% G1 accurate. And apparently, Hasbro is upping the prices again soon, you won't catch me paying £15 for a bloody Scout size figure. Man I miss the Unicron Trilogy stuff...

I hear the new Gobots toys are all jumping off the bridge, GW.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Ah, it’s the price rise bitching thread time of year, is it?

Weird how a price rise provokes complaints about a price rise.
It seems pretty straightforward as cause and effect goes.

The GoBots are like the Kmart of Transformers.

Look at it this way....the value of your current miniatures went up by 5 or 10%.

 zedmeister wrote:

 Segersgia wrote:
If I can see one positive out of this, it is the announcement itself.

Didn't we want them to be more upfront about stuff like this? I can't recall them ever giving us a heads-up announcement about price-increases.

And, just in case anyone thinks they're being in any way generous with this annoucement, they did say:

We’re writing now because we wanted to give you as much notice as we can so þat you can take advantage of þe current prices.

Which, in other words, means shut up and buy.

Well, it IS helpfull.
I have a decently expensive 40k project in mind that I was debating on doing/not doing & if doing, when.
Now I know I need to decide by this weekend, maybe next at the latest, rather than keep mulling around in my head for a few more months.

Wages are up 4% in the US. That is close to break even on a 5% price hike. Personally, I work for as much as my employer can justifying paying me, not the least I can earn and survive. If GW charges too much, people will buy from competitors or stop snorting plastic crack. That is a GOOD thing. GW will have to make their kits (and maybe their game) so awesome it is worth it to buy at higher prices, or drop their prices. I haven't been able to afford/justify GW for years, and it bothers me not a jot.

 kestral wrote:
Wages are up 4% in the US. That is close to break even on a 5% price hike.

What sort of dust are you snorting son?

 GrosseSax wrote:

 kestral wrote:
Wages are up 4% in the US. That is close to break even on a 5% price hike.

What sort of dust are you snorting son?

Anecdotally, the factory I work at raised their starting wages from 15.50CAD at the beginning of 2021 to 19.00CAD today, because we can't get people in the door. It's not just inflation driving wage increases, there's a supply side issue with labor at the moment. Heck, one of the local GW outlets had to close because the manager (i.e. the only guy running the store) has moved on and they have no replacement.

 John Prins wrote:

 GrosseSax wrote:

 kestral wrote:
Wages are up 4% in the US. That is close to break even on a 5% price hike.

What sort of dust are you snorting son?

Anecdotally, the factory I work at raised their starting wages from 15.50CAD at the beginning of 2021 to 19.00CAD today, because we can't get people in the door. It's not just inflation driving wage increases, there's a supply side issue with labor at the moment. Heck, one of the local GW outlets had to close because the manager (i.e. the only guy running the store) has moved on and they have no replacement.

Wage increase for the peasants doesn't mean gak when it doesn't match the rapidly increasing cost of living in the US (and CA). Why bother?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Companies really need to realize their shareholder reports are public documents.

You don't get to brag about record profits in one outlet and the plead poverty in another one.

Sure you do, you just need a legion of unpaid promoters who will defend your actions no matter what.

 privateer4hire wrote:

The increased prices help offset any potential quitters.

I used to joke that under Kirby, their end goal was to sell a single model to a single customer for $200M. Then you don't have to worry about pleasing a bunch of different people with vastly different desires from a wargame, or worry about anyone complaining about prices. It's a weird strategy for something that requires 2 people to play the actual game, you would think they would want as many people as possible in the hobby.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And frankly, I am bored to death of the “evil GW” trope.

And a lot of us are really frickin' tired of the "They’re a for profit business. Not a charity." excuse.

Me too, there's plenty of companies on GW's scale that don't raise their prices more than the rate of inflation literally every year of their existence. If other companies followed GWs pricing increases, a new pickup truck would be $150k and a snickers bar would be $5.