Games Workshop Pricing Feedback Thread

[Llew]

Part of me hopes that increase is going to skip over the US ...

If you still have that part of you, I have some bad news for it about Santa, the Easter Bunny and the honesty of politicians.

[xxRavenxx]

Any idea when this price increase will hit?

June.


[edit]: Oh, and anything which wasnt a round number seems to have gained 30p to make it even. I'm glad they tidied up the vat increase via a price hike :P Noone likes getting change when they buy things, afterall...

[scarletsquig]

Just looked for you. (I glossed quickly over the numbers, as I see no need to pour over them, I'll get plenty of time to look when I reprice everything in the shop. Sigh.)

Its the £18ish troops which seem to be going up. The £15 ones seem to mostly be staying put.

Thanks, that's just about tolerable then. Would have been the craziest hike ever if the £15 sets were being raised to that!

[plantagenet]

I guess they think this will make other regions more competive with UK which due to the extremely low value of sterling seems for everyone outside of UK to be very cheap. Of course what this completely fails to take into account is that for there home market things still seem as expensive as always and now are getting more expensive.

I know personally in my country of residence (switzerland) the hobby is way too expensive. The collapse off sterling certainly made it sustainable with an average saving off my home country price of 40%... although if customs intercepted the package saving may only be about 20%. Its sad as I want them to do really well as I love the hobby but I seeing the constant price rises combined with decreasing value 20 soldiers to 10 soldiers 8 cavlary to 5 etc as a very real choking effect on the hobby.

[carlisimo]

Epic was no different than normal 40k. GW could have updated and expanded the range over time to maintain or grow sales.

No, there was a significant investment in new minis for the release of Epic 40,000 in ’96 or ‘97 – the best minis the Epic range has ever seen, for the most part – but it didn’t pay off. People didn’t like the new rules, but no one bought the new minis to use with the old rules, either. In the early 2000s GW tried again with Epic Armageddon. Most of the minis were rereleased (and sometimes simplified) E40k models, but the new rules were very good. It flopped even worse. It didn't even account for 1% of GW's revenues.

They didn’t market Epic Armageddon enough, but Epic 40k got a decent amount of White Dwarf space.

I got into 40k through Gorkamorka and Blood Bowl – I think selling self-contained games as advertisements for 40k/WHFB could work. (I no longer play 40k, just Epic and BFG.) I think it’s silly to actively keep them out of GW or independent stores, and I wish they’d let others create minis for them under license… but I certainly understand GW not wanting to make big investments on them.

[MalusCalibur]

So. Its time for the summer price rise. Yay!

From what I can tell:

All black library books to go up £1.

40k
£50 battleforces to go up to £60.
£4 for all "rhino based" tanks.
£3 onto each of the codex
£3 onto every boxed set of troops which was under £20 previously.
£1 to all guard tanks.
£5 to tyranid warriors (This is my personal favorite.)

Fantasy
Most battalions up £10, some up by £5. (Brets and wood elves?)
Most army books up £3
Nearly every core infantry box which was about £18 bumped up to £20.
Nearly all elite infantry - £25.

So a price rise of £3-5 across the board, it seems. Enjoy that everyone

Wait, what?
There's a 'standard' price increase as *well* as the resin switch? Wow. There's whole new levels of stupid being plumbed, there. Every time I see news like this I chuckle and think about how great Mantic and eBay are for my wargaming needs.
You keep on digging, GW.

[decker_cky]

I got into 40k through Gorkamorka and Blood Bowl – I think selling self-contained games as advertisements for 40k/WHFB could work. (I no longer play 40k, just Epic and BFG.) I think it’s silly to actively keep them out of GW or independent stores, and I wish they’d let others create minis for them under license… but I certainly understand GW not wanting to make big investments on them.

I think it's a great idea because those little side projects are how a lot of their best games developers honed their skills and stoked their creativity. Now, there's only Fantasy, 40k, WoTR and occasionally a unit or two for LoTR.

[Tymell]

Out of curiousity, I spent half an hour comparing the new prices of a score of random models from the list a few pages back to their original price:

45-40 DARK ELDAR INCUBI £23.00
Original release: November 2010, £18.00 – 28% rise in 0.5 years

41-61 ASTORATH THE GRIM £12.50
Original release: April 2010, £10.00 – 25% rise in 1 year

53-61 NJAL STORMCALLER £14.50
Original release: October 2009, £12.00 – 21% rise in 1.5 years

48-42 SPACE MARINE STERNGUARD VETERAN SQUAD £25.50
Original release: October 2008, £20.00 – 28% rise in 2.5 years

50-65 ORK PAINBOY WITH GROT ORDERLY £10.50
Original release: January 2008, £6.00 – 92% rise in 3.5 years

89-45 GORBAD IRONCLAW £30.00
Original release: May 2007, £20.00 – 50% rise in 4 years

46-63 HARLEQUIN DEATH JESTER £10.50
Original release: April 2007, £6.00 – 92% rise in 4 years

48-61 SM LIBRARIAN IN TERMINATOR ARMOUR £14.50
Original release: March 2007, £8.00 – 81% rise in 4 years

08-42 GULAHVAR THE TERROR OF ARNOR £30.00
Original release: February 2007, £18.00 – 67% rise in 4 years

86-41 LUDWIG SCHWARZHELM £22.50
Original release: January 2007, £15.00 – 50% rise in 4.5 years

46-61 ELDAR AUTARCH WITH POWER WEAPON £10.50
Original release: November 2006, £8.00 – 31% rise in 4.5 years

50-63 ORK BIG MEK £14.50
Original release: June 2006, £9.00 – 38% rise in 5 years

56-40 TAU SNIPER DRONE TEAM £23.00
Original release: April 2006, £15.00 – 53% rise in 5 years

51-63 TYRANID TYRANT GUARD £15.50
Original release: June 2005, £10.00 – 55% rise in 6 years

08-43 MORDOR TROLL CHIEFTAIN £25.50
Original release: November 2004, £15.00 – 70% rise in 6.5 years

82-40 KING LOUEN LEONCOEUR £30.00
Original release: February 2004, £20.00 – 50% rise in 7 years

83-42 ARCHAON THE EVERCHOSEN £30.00
Original release: July 2002, £18.00 – 67% rise in 9 years

08-40 THE DARK LORD SAURON £25.50
Original release: July 2002, £20.00 – 28% rise in 9 years

89-44 GOBLIN SPEAR CHUKKA £18.50
Original release: October 2000, £6.00 – 210% rise in 10.5 years

89-41 ORC WARBOSS ON WYVERN £40.00
Original release: October 2000, £18.00 – 122% rise in 10.5 years

[Korraz]

No, there was a significant investment in new minis for the release of Epic 40,000 in ’96 or ‘97 – the best minis the Epic range has ever seen, for the most part – but it didn’t pay off. People didn’t like the new rules, but no one bought the new minis to use with the old rules, either. In the early 2000s GW tried again with Epic Armageddon. Most of the minis were rereleased (and sometimes simplified) E40k models, but the new rules were very good. It flopped even worse. It didn't even account for 1% of GW's revenues.

Small Scale never ran all that well (or so it seemed), but BFG, BB, Mordheim and Necromunda can't have been all that bad, if only because of the scale.
Inquisitor was, sadly, dead at birth.



Anyway, as Avian(?) said: GW is trying to push its product into the SUPER PREMIUM range. They try to be Ferrari.
But this is a Ferrari that can only be driven if there's another guy with a Ferrari next to you.
This simply won't work out.


18 punds for a Warboss on Wyvern...this makes me cry for a lost age I never got to see.
Also 210% is helluva inflation. Poor Britain. How much is a loaf of bread over there? 100 pounds?

[VoodooJanus]

Ouch, this is the third piece of bad news from GW today... first the ban on UK retailers selling to the rest of the world, then the move to resin with a price rise... and now this, which is the worst of the three from my perspective.

Wait, what?! Why are they banning UK retailers from selling outside of the UK? That just seems like someone at corporate was too lazy to recalculate exchange rates... That must hurt for the Australian customers, I know Maelstrom was most peoples' primary supplier. Honestly, it speaks volumes about GW's price gauging when a small independent shop can sell GW's minis for cheaper EVEN WHEN IT SHIPS HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD! I wish I could see why they're increasing these prices, or rather, what that money is going towards. As it is, I can't even fathom...

I know saying 'so expensive, wtf, I quit' is getting borderline cliche, but here I am. I used to grumble about price raises, but, being a lowly college student, this legitimately prices me out of the hobby, especially when I can buy reasonably good minis for a fraction of the price. Lucky for me, Privateer Press HQ is about 12 minutes away from my house, so I'll still be able to do some painting/gaming. But I'm going to miss collecting new GW armies.

[Coasty]

Poor Britain. How much is a loaf of bread over there? 100 pounds?

About that, yes.

Looks like my focus is going to shift back onto 1/72 historicals.

[Vic]

If their case against CH goes the way it looks, I hope GW cant sit for a month, greedy gits.

[Grimtuff]

Wait, what?
There's a 'standard' price increase as *well* as the resin switch? Wow. There's whole new levels of stupid being plumbed, there. Every time I see news like this I chuckle and think about how great Mantic and eBay are for my wargaming needs.
You keep on digging, GW.

To paraphrase a certain episode of The Simpsons: "Games Workshop: our prices discriminate, because we can't."

[TheNomadicCircle]

This recent "price increase" has finally pushed me out of the hobby. I'm now awaiting the windfall of my ebay sales when I finally sell my metal miniatures for an mad amount of money. At least I still have reasonably priced Central Asian empire miniatures to keep me busy.

[Angelwing]

Wow. Just wow. Speechless.

[Max Jet]

Some of you mentioned the intention to express their protest via mail or letter.

Er... why exactly do you want to do that? With these prices, is there still a desire for you to keep on buying? Is there some spiritual need for you?

Why don't you just stay with the army you've got, play older editions or look onto princeaugust, spartan games, mantic games, reaper miniatures, privateer press or Corvus Belli Website.

[Panzer MkIV]

Time to start looking into other games it seems

Maybe Kings of War or some Historical...

Shame, I had a lot of fun over the years with Fantasy and 40k but the prices have finally reached the point that I'm unwilling to pay for it anymore and just when I've got a lot of disposible income

Way to go to price yourself out of my wallet GW: keep on digging

[Rosstifer]

Thank the lord things will still work out ridiculously cheap on Wayland for us kiwi's, or I'd be very concerned.

[Gazak Blacktoof]

The rises wont affect me much as I seem to be spending most of my money with other companies now, or buying from ebay. What is annoying is the rise on 40K metals with the switch to resin. Eldar aspect warriors are almost exclusively metal (now resin) and the jumps in price since I started buying have been pretty shocking.

I'm sure that the first aspect warriors I bought were £15 a box, not long ago, they're going up to £23 with the switch in materials. Anybody care to refresh my memory as to when the aspect warrior boxes last jumped in price?

[Havarel]

Thank the lord things will still work out ridiculously cheap on Wayland for us kiwi's, or I'd be very concerned.

You do know about the new trading terms restricting online stores (well, Maelstrom anyway sofar) to selling only to the EU right?