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deano2099 wrote:
I picked up last years' Sylvaneth box last week. Got the Kruelboyz one sometime in summer. Plenty of the boxes from last year were available well into this year which is also not the objective GW are trying to hit.
The reality is they overproduced some and underproduced others last year. May well be the same this year too but the notion that these sets always sell out in an hour isn't right. The most popular ones tend to but plenty of others don't.

I'm tempted to say GW overestimates the popularity of AoS. Like they want to push the game by making stuff available in large enough numbers, but people aren't biting.

Let's not forget that GW introduced Warhammer Day the same year AoS 3rd ed was released and they sold leftover Dominion boxes for half the price, which was an unprecedented move at the time.

Whereas I doubt you'll have as easy a time finding 40k boxes so late.

 Geifer wrote:

deano2099 wrote:
I picked up last years' Sylvaneth box last week. Got the Kruelboyz one sometime in summer. Plenty of the boxes from last year were available well into this year which is also not the objective GW are trying to hit.
The reality is they overproduced some and underproduced others last year. May well be the same this year too but the notion that these sets always sell out in an hour isn't right. The most popular ones tend to but plenty of others don't.

I'm tempted to say GW overestimates the popularity of AoS. Like they want to push the game by making stuff available in large enough numbers, but people aren't biting.

Let's not forget that GW introduced Warhammer Day the same year AoS 3rd ed was released and they sold leftover Dominion boxes for half the price, which was an unprecedented move at the time.

Whereas I doubt you'll have as easy a time finding 40k boxes so late.

Not sure how it works but Leviathan still around?

I remember a recent AdmEch box persisted for a looong time, probably because it had Cawl in it and literally everyone already owned him.

Part of the issue with battleforces are the incessant need to have them individually packaged. Only collectors - who might I add, most likely don't even open them - want the special box they come in.

GW should just embrace specific discount bundles that the discount is automatically applied on the checkout, then have a note underneath stating any orders after the initial stock run have been allocated will be on a 180 day order. Boom, problem solved, scalpers can't scalp, genuine customers for the models can get their discounted models and everyone is happy in the end... A fair amount of people buying these bundles aren't looking to build and paint immediately, they can wait up to 6 months, most likely less than that.

If GW are really that concerned, they can limit the amount that go on made to order.

 NAVARRO wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

deano2099 wrote:
I picked up last years' Sylvaneth box last week. Got the Kruelboyz one sometime in summer. Plenty of the boxes from last year were available well into this year which is also not the objective GW are trying to hit.
The reality is they overproduced some and underproduced others last year. May well be the same this year too but the notion that these sets always sell out in an hour isn't right. The most popular ones tend to but plenty of others don't.

I'm tempted to say GW overestimates the popularity of AoS. Like they want to push the game by making stuff available in large enough numbers, but people aren't biting.

Let's not forget that GW introduced Warhammer Day the same year AoS 3rd ed was released and they sold leftover Dominion boxes for half the price, which was an unprecedented move at the time.

Whereas I doubt you'll have as easy a time finding 40k boxes so late.

Not sure how it works but Leviathan still around?

There's still a huge amount of Leviatihan. Element cant' shift it and two stores close to me have it stacked up against the wall. Nobody really wanted it.

No one wants it at £150. With the starter sets, and the added space marines you don't get in the starter sets, it is still a great deal if you can get it for £120.

Oh my locals are discounted, they've got it down at £110

I'll take another for £110, what is the store?

 Rolsheen wrote:
GW now what they are doing, it's simple market economics. Produce a certain number of discounted feeder boxes that sellout, customers are then forced to buy the individual items from said boxes at full price. Yes, they may lose a few customers initially but overall, they'll end up making more profit at the end of the year.

I will disagree with you here. GW doesn't know all that much of what they are doing. They are working it from an inventory perspective. But honestly producing more of the discount sets, not only gives more people an avenue to enter but also encourages those who have entered to start a new army. Most of this years holiday boxes are only like 800 points, they still make a profit on them but where they really make the profit is on people having to buy the individual kits to complete the army.. spending an extra $300-$500 dollars.

That is money they are leaving on the table, without the discount boxes, I don't think many people will go out on their own and just start a new army as easily as they would if they felt like they would if they were getting a deal.

I honestly think making them super limited is probably one of the most horrible marketing ideas possible. Only part of it that would make sense is they know they can only produce so much... then the problem is production, and if that is the problem that should be what they are addressing.

I think Element and the handful of other retailers who still have stock might be struggling to shift Leviathan because they priced it high - the cheapest it's available on Google Shopping or Amazon right now for me is £150, with a couple shops even pricing it higher than RRP!

I've just checked a bunch of retailers (Zatu, Dark Sphere, Goblin Gaming, Wayland, The Outpost, Kirton, Tritex, Firestorm, Leodis, Magic Madhouse, Hobby Workshop, Mighty Lancer) and they all seem to be sold out - it looks like the shops that offered even a slight discount and were easily discoverable online sold their stock! (The shops who have discounted it £110 are not appearing on Google, eBay or Amazon for me, which might explain why they're struggling to shift it?)

My FLGS does 25% off preorders and I'm pretty sure they had no Leviathans left.

 endlesswaltz123 wrote:
Part of the issue with battleforces are the incessant need to have them individually packaged. Only collectors - who might I add, most likely don't even open them - want the special box they come in.

GW should just embrace specific discount bundles that the discount is automatically applied on the checkout, then have a note underneath stating any orders after the initial stock run have been allocated will be on a 180 day order. Boom, problem solved, scalpers can't scalp, genuine customers for the models can get their discounted models and everyone is happy in the end... A fair amount of people buying these bundles aren't looking to build and paint immediately, they can wait up to 6 months, most likely less than that.

If GW are really that concerned, they can limit the amount that go on made to order.

And gw benefits...how?

Seeing they can just sell full price sjme sprues.

It's not like gw even needs sales to those who only buy discount boxes. They can't even meet no-discount demand...

Somebody says gw misses his purchase because discount box sold out, well gw just sells full price kits to other.

Funny how people claim gw making mistake on amount while gw raking millions in profit and literally unable to meet demand with 24/7 production if you think gw doing wrong show company you run that outperforms gw

My impression was that having newer models in this year’s boxes has also increased the interest for some folks.

 Souleater wrote:
My impression was that having newer models in this year’s boxes has also increased the interest for some folks.

That doesn't track with Marines being one of the last to sell out.

 Geifer wrote:

deano2099 wrote:
I picked up last years' Sylvaneth box last week. Got the Kruelboyz one sometime in summer. Plenty of the boxes from last year were available well into this year which is also not the objective GW are trying to hit.
The reality is they overproduced some and underproduced others last year. May well be the same this year too but the notion that these sets always sell out in an hour isn't right. The most popular ones tend to but plenty of others don't.

I'm tempted to say GW overestimates the popularity of AoS. Like they want to push the game by making stuff available in large enough numbers, but people aren't biting.

Let's not forget that GW introduced Warhammer Day the same year AoS 3rd ed was released and they sold leftover Dominion boxes for half the price, which was an unprecedented move at the time.

Whereas I doubt you'll have as easy a time finding 40k boxes so late.

Absolutely, although last year I got the Death Guard and Thousand Sons boxes fairly easily. May have been on day of launch but I certainly wasn't up at 9am refreshing and trying desperately. Again, demand probably a bit lower on those given they included the big models, but like I say, it's absolutely not the same as last year. Admittedly if you missed out last year and missed out again this year it might feel that way but in terms of discussion it's not business as usual.

GW have sold out of everything but two so I'm not sure we can say they have mis-judged demand. Individual shops/web stores having them for ages is down to that individual shop overestimating demand, not GW. Same with Leviathan.

 Kanluwen wrote:
That doesn't track with Marines being one of the last to sell out.

It does when you consider how bad that individual box is. The overall trend of having newer stuff seems to have generated far more interest in certain boxes in recent years, the SM one is just too bad to overcome the fact it's got a couple of new kits in.

tneva82 wrote:

 endlesswaltz123 wrote:
Part of the issue with battleforces are the incessant need to have them individually packaged. Only collectors - who might I add, most likely don't even open them - want the special box they come in.

GW should just embrace specific discount bundles that the discount is automatically applied on the checkout, then have a note underneath stating any orders after the initial stock run have been allocated will be on a 180 day order. Boom, problem solved, scalpers can't scalp, genuine customers for the models can get their discounted models and everyone is happy in the end... A fair amount of people buying these bundles aren't looking to build and paint immediately, they can wait up to 6 months, most likely less than that.

If GW are really that concerned, they can limit the amount that go on made to order.

And gw benefits...how?

Seeing they can just sell full price sjme sprues.

It's not like gw even needs sales to those who only buy discount boxes. They can't even meet no-discount demand...

Somebody says gw misses his purchase because discount box sold out, well gw just sells full price kits to other.

Funny how people claim gw making mistake on amount while gw raking millions in profit and literally unable to meet demand with 24/7 production if you think gw doing wrong show company you run that outperforms gw

At the very least, they don't have the faff of sorting out special packaging for the sake of it, which is a considerable bottleneck for multiple releases.

angel of death 007 wrote:

 Rolsheen wrote:
GW now what they are doing, it's simple market economics. Produce a certain number of discounted feeder boxes that sellout, customers are then forced to buy the individual items from said boxes at full price. Yes, they may lose a few customers initially but overall, they'll end up making more profit at the end of the year.

I will disagree with you here. GW doesn't know all that much of what they are doing. They are working it from an inventory perspective. But honestly producing more of the discount sets, not only gives more people an avenue to enter but also encourages those who have entered to start a new army. Most of this years holiday boxes are only like 800 points, they still make a profit on them but where they really make the profit is on people having to buy the individual kits to complete the army.. spending an extra $300-$500 dollars.

That is money they are leaving on the table, without the discount boxes, I don't think many people will go out on their own and just start a new army as easily as they would if they felt like they would if they were getting a deal.

I honestly think making them super limited is probably one of the most horrible marketing ideas possible. Only part of it that would make sense is they know they can only produce so much... then the problem is production, and if that is the problem that should be what they are addressing.

Honestly, if they set the price at the right level, people will buy the holiday boxes 2 at a time, so making more of them at a slightly lower price will probably make GW even more money... but again, they don't want to train their customer base to not buy anything all year and then spend all their money on christmas boxes (which is what I do - dropped about $2500 to get 20 of the damned things, and yes that is a bit more than half the price that should have cost me, I have a system and some connections, but I basically don't buy anything that isn't a limited release over the course of the rest of the year - I have enough backlog to keep me busy so its not like im wanting for things to work on, I'm only buying to get the best price possible).

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Souleater wrote:
My impression was that having newer models in this year’s boxes has also increased the interest for some folks.

That doesn't track with Marines being one of the last to sell out.

I think a lot of people were really put off by the bikes and buggy from the Marine box. Ultimately if you don't need those there's no discount (and they've also been done cheaply recently elsewhere), and five Jump Intercessors is a weird size choice. If they'd just put twenty jump Intercessors and, say, a Speeder or the multipart Terminators in it I suspect it would have been a lot more popular.

I certainly bought the Nid box because it have me a decent chunk of all the new models for a discount, and the only extra model is a Hive Tyrant which have a few different builds at least and are rarely discounted otherwise.

That's the weird thing about the Marine one. I totally get why it's the least popular 40k one, but it's also the one I wanted the most as it has exactly what I wanted in there: a second Jump Pack Captain, 15 Assault Intercessors (bringing me to 20), and 3 more Outriders (bringing me to 12). And yeah, the ATV, *shrug*, that's fine I guess. But everything else is exactly what I needed, which is weird.

It's a bit like last year. I wanted 30 Heavy Intercessors. They just happened to put out a box with 15. I bought two and sold the Aggressors/1 Imp Fist special character to a friend.

I honestly have started more armies just by picking up the holiday boxes. They are such a good value, aside from new edition boxes it is the one time i splurge. If i couldn't find or get atleast one of an army I was interested, I would not be inclined to start a new army, I would just spend my hobby dollars elsewhere. There are a lot of other games out there that offer decent value and are not impossible to get. The shatter point box or the new marvel crisis box. Both are fantastic and cheaper then GW. To be honestly the only thing that keeps me into 40k is the holiday boxes, new edition box sets and to some extent some of the combat patrols. If it wasn't for them I would never have started several new armies or ever owned a newer large model. I set my limit for a centerpiece model at $125 awhile back now that most are in the $170 range I would never buy them. But I do like them. Last year I got the Deathguard and Thousand sons box sets only because they had the main certerpiece model. After buying the holiday boxes I added to those armies buying squads. But I never would have done that without the holiday box.

Agreed. I just started World Eaters and Seraphon thanks to holiday boxes

Likewise, the 2-player battleboxes (which I think GW may have discontinued as its been a while), army launch boxes, killteam/warcry boxes, and combat patrols/vanguards have been what has been keeping me stocked with kits to build. Its rare for me to go out and buy an individual kit of something, I have to really want it or be actively involved in trying to get an army tabletop ready.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Agreed. I just started World Eaters and Seraphon thanks to holiday boxes

Likewise, the 2-player battleboxes (which I think GW may have discontinued as its been a while), army launch boxes, killteam/warcry boxes, and combat patrols/vanguards have been what has been keeping me stocked with kits to build. Its rare for me to go out and buy an individual kit of something, I have to really want it or be actively involved in trying to get an army tabletop ready.

Ya I have not seen the two player boxes outside the new edition release in awhile but those were good as well, though a lot less points, but were still a good deal. I ordered the World Eaters as well, i love the big centerpiece models but their price i wouldn't buy them individually. I wish someone around me played Age of sigmar as that Seraphon box looks awesome.

Two player boxes were great for two reasons:

1. They might contain something new that you want.
2. Everything else will be old kits that will flood the second-hand market, causing the prices to plummet!

Yep, but also if you collect just about every army in 40k/AoS, they were a good way of fleshing out multiple armies at once. The price point for the 2 player boxes also tended to be more competitive than battleforces or launch boxes, if a launch box or battleforce was going for $200, the 2 player boxes tended to go for $170 despite containing similar quantities of goodies.

Not sure if we're discussing GW's webstore or the wider Internet, but talk about the Marine box got me to check GW's Gernan webstore and everything but the vampire box is out of stock. I haven't really followed it this year, but it seems to me like the Marine box is popular enough when it's gone after a quarter of the pre-order period. I mean, I'm sure someone at GW is upset that it didn't sell out in five seconds, but I don't know if being the least popular 40k box is such a big deal here.

We do not even know if the SM box was the least popular box... because we do not know how many were produced ( one must assume they did produce more SM boxes than others. But again: noone knows how many).

One thing is sure: they sold out too soon to be possible christmas "presents" for "children".

(Again: we do not know If they were supposed to be)

I assume we've all considered that GW made far more Marine boxes than the others, after all, they are their best seller.

Oh yea I forgot two player boxes were even a thing, must be a while since the last one. There were a few big duds towards the end tho, I think the FLGS still has a few.

 Gimgamgoo wrote:
I assume we've all considered that GW made far more Marine boxes than the others, after all, they are their best seller.

I've heard from several places that the battleforces were sold to 3rd party retailers via the trade accounts as full sets for 40k / AOS, each set containing one of each box. To sell ten Tyranid or WE boxes they would also need to buy ten marine / ork / etc boxes.

Obviously they could still sell more marine boxes via their own website, but it implies they were produced in fairly even quantities.