Games Workshop Pricing Feedback Thread

[rabblerouser]

Does anyone know how much white metal actually went up in price? I imagine the labour to cast it is probably the highest production cost. Metal hasn't gone up THAT much has it?

lol I noticed the old plastic 'zerkers are going up again....they are what 13 years old now?

Not to mention, they are ****** models. The parts are too big, the poses are awkward, some are just plain ugly. They were bad when they were new compared to the metal 'zerkers they sold as champions.

My Gosh!! The trouser tenting going on here about Hordes Warmachine on here the last few days! Its sickening!

PP is doing the same thing with hordes and warmachine. Game sizes are growing with the wrath expansion.

[ORKY ARD BOYZ]

I'm hoping GW keeps raising the prices so eventually all the people who constantly whine about it are priced out of the hobby. I'm happy GW can make a profit and keep developing the games I love. The sooner all the whiny kids ****** off to Warmachine the better...

And then there'll be very few people left to play in the stores. Yeah, that's a healthy buisness decision. I should know. I checked with gamesworkshop.

[mariogolbee]

I'm not sure how much room I have to talk, but I do have a few thoughts to share. I used to go into a gaming store in the mall over 20 years ago as a kid and buy lead miniatures, Citadel paints, and resin castle terrain. I gamed a little, but I just liked the models and painting them. I know inflation has occurred since then, but I'm pretty sure I could get a few lead figures for $2-5 a blister pack. Then came pewter and plastic.

Now I'm coming around to try and build an army or two. So why does it equal out to ~$3 per PLASTIC mini? On top of that, to get started I have to purchase 100+, AND a few others at $30-100 each? A champion costs $15? $70 for a rulebook and $40 for an army book, paints, glue, bases, sand, etc. I'm a little concerned about being able to play. That's like ~$500 just to get started. I know there are a few beginners sets out there, but I don't want Elves, Brets, Skavens, or Lizardmen. I want some Skellies.

If this just seems like a rant, I apologize. feel free to delete it if you see reason to. I'm just a little shocked right now. Most of the models I'm ordering at the moment are older models from a different old school company. If I can get lead and pewter for lees than GW plastic then I'm all in. If I wasn't as patient as I am to pick up my minis piece by piece I don't think I'd still be considering picking up this hobby.

[Ivellis]

PP is doing the same thing with hordes and warmachine. Game sizes are growing with the wrath expansion.

I'm sorry, but this is blatantly false. Unbound has nothing to do with Wrath, it was a No Quarter only thing for players who wanted to play big games and isn't part of the main game.

[New Cult King]

I'm hoping GW keeps raising the prices so eventually all the people who constantly whine about it are priced out of the hobby. I'm happy GW can make a profit and keep developing the games I love. The sooner all the whiny kids ****** off to Warmachine the better...

Aren't you a little ray of sunshine? If I'm given the option of Warhammer/40K playing against people like you, or actual, rational, reasonable people who play WM, I choose the latter without hesitation.

[paddyalexander]

I'm hoping GW keeps raising the prices so eventually all the people who constantly whine about it are priced out of the hobby. I'm happy GW can make a profit and keep developing the games I love. The sooner all the whiny kids ****** off to Warmachine the better...

As a consumer when I choose to purchase any product it has to have a certain balance between standard of quality & value for money. GW has failed to come close to acheiving that balance for me for a very long time.

Compounded with price increases that are both luaghable in their frequency & size. The precived ill treatment of their customers trough pricing their product across different international zones at odds to exchange rates & now the active punnishment of an entire set of market places for trying to purchase from & support that company without getting ripped off by that company... why the hell would anyone want to support any company, in any market, that treats its consumer base like this?

[Darnok]

actual, rational, reasonable people who play

You probably won't find most of those ranting on the internet. Irrespectible of what game they prefer, such folks usually just play the game and enjoy their time doing it instead of complaining.

[rabblerouser]

I'm sorry, but this is blatantly false. Unbound has nothing to do with Wrath, it was a No Quarter only thing for players who wanted to play big games and isn't part of the main game.

I disagree. With the introduction of battle engines, we are going to see bigger game sizes. It's not as obvious as what GW has done, but warmachine/hordes is growing in size. Rogue trader was a role playing / skirmish game. 2nd edition of 40k was bigger in size, but a character, tactical squad or two, 5 man assault squad, and a tank was considered a full army. Warmachine appears to be at this stage right now. Most warmachine armies in my area will have a caster or two, 2 jacks, a unit or two, and maybe a solo. 35pts seems to be most common. Back to 40k now - 3rd edition obviously catered towards bigger armies, and apocalypse (as cool as it is) was a cash grab. Same thing happened with fantasy. 2nd edition was a small game. 3rd edition introduced warmachines and the game grew. 4th and 5th introduced overly powerful heroes sold in expensive blisters and blocks of cannon fodder that were expensive because you needed so many. 6th and 7th were better balanced, and 8th clearly caters towards really big armies. I bet the same thing will happen with PP games. Soon every army will contain 1 warmachine and 50pts will become more common. Next time around I bet it will be 2 or 3. I just hope the core MK1/2 rules are not completely re-written as time goes on.

[Satan]

You probably won't find most of those ranting on the internet. Irrespectible of what game they prefer, such folks usually just play the game and enjoy their time doing it instead of complaining.

Complaining on the internet is for everybody. I think we used to be a smaller clique, but that was 5 years ago. Nowadays every housewife complains via facebook or comments fields in online newspapers.

[paddyalexander]

At 9-11 points for a battle engine I can comfortable fit one in at 35 points & two in at 50 points if I want. Rules wise they offer an alternative to Warjacks but because both have their strengths & weaknesses they won't be completely replacing 'jacks.

There is some truth to your statement though. Moving from Mk1 to Mk2 I was able to fit more into existing lists, usualy an extra Warjack or infantry unit. But there was talk like this before when calvary where released in Supperiority. That it would make the average game size increase in size & that every army would include them. Did not happen. We currently have the full rules from Wrath for fielding Battle Engines. I own a Gun Carrage for my Khador. Have the average size of the games I play increased. No. Am I fielding it in every game or army. No.

I will be playing the odd game of Unbound but it is not going to become the base standard of the game & isn't being marketed as such. It is a fun alternate way to play larger games of a system that got bogged down once it hit the 100 point mark.

[chilledenuff]

I shall complain with my wallet. I'll order the savage orcs i require to complete my o&g army today (from Maelstrom for that lovely discount!) and then GW won't see a penny of my hard earned wages. They've finally priced me out of thier games systems. It's a sad day for me. I've fond memories of GW games since 1986 when I first started playing. I've continued playing GW games since. The last 40k was a let down and i stopped collecting that then. 8th fantasy is great but not so much better than other (cheaper) games out there. I've got enough toys for my O&G and chaos armies to last me 3 years until 9th edition comes out. That'll be the day that I probably finish with GW products complety.

If that seems a lot of whining so be it. I'm not bitter, just disappointed. I've seen so many hikes in prices that I've finally snapped. The only way GW will find out how ludicrous thier price hikes every summer are getting is if it hurts them. Not selling toys will hurt them hence my decision.

[frozenwastes]

At 9-11 points for a battle engine I can comfortable fit one in at 35 points & two in at 50 points if I want. Rules wise they offer an alternative to Warjacks but because both have their strengths & weaknesses they won't be completely replacing 'jacks.

There are warjacks that cost more than battle engines. They certainly do not raise the size of the games.

Another sign PP isn't trying to inflate the game size is that in MkI, they had epic casters that you could only take in larger point games. In MkII, you can take them in any size game, even down to the smallest 3 model battle box type game.

One of the downsides to GW's rules is that they devalue models. I can spend $30-45 CAD on a plastic box for warhammer and it'll make up what? Likely less than 10% of the standard 3000 point game size (and I'm lucky if it gets that high-- some will be just a few percent).

In Warmachine if I spend $30-45 on a unit, it's going to feel like an important part of the game. Those models are going to *matter* on the table top. The rules give value to the models rather than devaluing them so you have to purchase more like GW's rules do.

And this is where GW's prices really hurt. When you start thinking about total cost to play a full sized game.

[Cergorach]

Someone mentioned needing 100 $3+ plastic miniatures and a couple of $70+ models, that got me thinking. I think my main issue with the last and current price rise is that I do not feel that I get my money's worth for all the 'filler' miniatures I need to play an army. I have less of a problem with an unique piece of equipment (like the new DE flyer), but the rules GW develops generally don't require one unit, they require three (or more). Someone over on another forum mentioned what it would/could take to make the current Tomb Kings competitive, six boxes of sphinx (two from each type). I really love the look of the model, would love to paint it, but six I do not look forward to. The same goes for units, I do not look forward to painting multiple units of 50 Skellie spearmen (although those are probably the simplest models to paint).

When GW comes out with Eldar plastic flyers I'll order one, the same goes for a plastic Thunderhawk, would be awesome to build and paint these. But just about anything else is out, at least new, I'll wait a while and pick up some good 2nd hand deals from folks that just quit after their army has been surpassed on the battlefield by the next new thing.

[Osbad]

Does anyone know how much white metal actually went up in price? I imagine the labour to cast it is probably the highest production cost. Metal hasn't gone up THAT much has it?

Tin, the main component of GW's white metal alloy, rose 60% in 2010.

http://agmetalminer.com/2011/01/17/t...-half-of-2011/

While the increase hasn't been so steep in the 1st quarter of 2011, it is still on the rise.

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=tin

In April 2010, tin cost $18.6k per metric tonne. In April 2011 tin cost $32.6k per metric tonne. That is a 75% rise in 12 months.

[_L_]

^ shhhh! GW has no reason to raise prices. They are evil remember?

[Cergorach]

Tin, the main component of GW's white metal alloy, rose 60% in 2010.

http://agmetalminer.com/2011/01/17/t...-half-of-2011/

While the increase hasn't been so steep in the 1st quarter of 2011, it is still on the rise.

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=tin

In April 2010, tin cost $18.6k per metric tonne. In April 2011 tin cost $32.6k per metric tonne. That is a 75% rise in 12 months.

Your looking at a to small a sample, this is for the last 5 years. As you can see prices did go up significantly the last five years, but there was a peak three years ago and then a serious drop. We had some serious price rises when we were reaching the top of the peak, but no correction after the price went back down. The last month the price has been going down from almost $15/LB to almost $13/LB, but it's always a rise and fall situation. Still, tin is at least three times more expensive then it was five years ago.

The problem with this is that GW doesn't base it's prices on what it costs to make or the material costs, they price their items according to what they can get away with. The tin price is relatively a very small component of the total miniature price at GW. Just look at similar sized miniatures from other manufacturers and the prices they ask.

[Zond]

I don't think anyone is arguing against justified price hikes. They happen all the time due to a variety of economic factors. However biannual price hikes, that when taken as a whole probably average around 10% across their entire lines, are simply beyond all reason.

Plenty of other miniature manufacturers can operate with small, justified price hikes every few years, or even longer, or even price reductions. And magical wonderful sales.

So giant price hikes this regularly seem to raise nothing but utter bewilderment, especially when no reason is given.

[_L_]

Looking at the price rises, it shows (to me anyway) that the prices GW have placed on certian products have been validated. By people buying them. £25 pounds for 10 special units, £30 pounds for large monster kits... etc.

I think certian prices are too high. so I don't buy them. Easy. If you don't like them, don't buy them, all this crying is starting to get a little thin. They can can charge whatever they like and I for one say good luck to them.

[Tymell]

I think certian prices are too high. so I don't buy them. Easy. If you don't like them, don't buy them, all this crying is starting to get a little thin. They can can charge whatever they like and I for one say good luck to them.

This point's come up before. It's true, in practical terms you can simply not buy things (indeed, I don't). Which is fine in the sense that GW shouldn't be "forced" to lower their prices or anything, it's ultimately up to them and the consumers.

But that doesn't make all their price hikes any more reasonable. Sure, they -can- do it, but they can also be criticised for it.

[_L_]

Sure they can be criticised. However, there is a difference to well founded and even critisim and constant moaning, crying and b!tching.