Games Workshop Pricing Feedback Thread

[New Cult King]

I buy from discounters. 20% off is what the price should be if GW can sell to independents at 40-45% off. I also don't use any of their stores for any purposes so I feel the extra take is just to subsidize them.

Bingo. There's a couple of really good Aussie indies that I buy from - sometimes one won't have something in stock so I'll go to the other - but I refuse to buy anything I can get from the indies from a GW. There are certain things I *have* to get from GW if I want them (shoulder pads mainly), but otherwise...

[Dr Zoidberg]

I think GW pricing is utterly silly. In a hobby of relatively cheap, multiple boxes, where people tend to buy new shiny things based on a whim, GW is actually making people have to consider what boxes to buy, AND making them even avoid some products, because of the price. It really doesn't support the hobby on the ground level: to me, the most impressive things are multiple, big armies, and cool models. Right now, the GW pricing policy doesn't support any of those.

I think that's a really good point. As it stands, GW is getting less money out of me presently than it would if its prices were lower. If they were a good 30-40% lower, I would happily buy a lot more than I do more. I've two SM armies on the go at the moment. I would love to have an Eldar, Ork, and IG army going too... But I cannot justify or afford to spend that much given the current prices.

[Mastodon]

I think that's a really good point. As it stands, GW is getting less money out of me presently than it would if its prices were lower. If they were a good 30-40% lower, I would happily buy a lot more than I do more. I've two SM armies on the go at the moment. I would love to have an Eldar, Ork, and IG army going too... But I cannot justify or afford to spend that much given the current prices.

But if prices were ultimately 40% less, surely they'd just end up getting the same amount of money out of you in the end?

[Orrinocco]

But if prices were ultimately 40% less, surely they'd just end up getting the same amount of money out of you in the end?

Speaking for myself, if I felt I was getting value out of what I was buying (which I don't currently), I may spend up to £100 a month on models from GW. At the moment I spend close to nothing, so they'd certainly get more out of me.

TO use an analogy. A few years ago I went to a Birmingham City FC match in midweek. They'd lowered the prices to £5 a ticket. THe crowd was capacity (say 20,000 for arguments sake) and they made £100,000 plus associated revenue from use of burger stalls, program sales, club shop etc. If they'd kept the prices at £15, only 5,000 people would have turned up, so they'd only have made £75,000 from tickets and less associated revenue.

Can you see from this why lower costs and higher volumes are actually a better way to do business? (caveat, only works if volumes can increase, which I believe is the case in GW whose numbers have shown a significant volume decrease over the last 5 years)

[Sleazy]

But if prices were ultimately 40% less, surely they'd just end up getting the same amount of money out of you in the end?

erm? maybe but you'd get more for your money and would feel like you had gotten some value.

I

[Andy p]

Yeah it does seem like common business sense that if you sell more at a lower price, you will make more than selling less at a higher price.

Ive always been curious about what their reasons might have been behind these massive price increases. Inflation? Supply and demand? The price of the materials going up? The price of the molds? Greed? The current economic climate? All of the above?

[Spectrar Ghost]

But if prices were ultimately 40% less, surely they'd just end up getting the same amount of money out of you in the end?

Ex: Last night I was playing LotR, using my Easterlings. Now, I was proxying Amdur and a Kataphrakt War Drum. After the game I discussed the list with my opponent and the following things were determined: I need more cav if I want to include them. I could use a spellcaster (or two); Khamul was suggested. And of course I still need to get an Amdur. For those eight cav and two foot, I'd be paying over one hundred dollars. So GW probaby won't get anything in the near to mid future for those.

Perry civil war cav costs 18GBP (about $25) for twelve plastic cav. They charge 8GBP (about $11) for three mounted union commanders (medium not specified, but probably metal, and definitely not plastic). So I'd get twice the cav and the same amount of material for characters for about $36. At that price I'd have bought them all last night.

[lbecks]

Yeah it does seem like common business sense that if you sell more at a lower price, you will make more than selling less at a higher price.

Ive always been curious about what their reasons might have been behind these massive price increases. Inflation? Supply and demand? The price of the materials going up? The price of the molds? Greed? The current economic climate? All of the above?

It's to pretty much keep the company going and profitable. They had a big dip around 06-07 after the LotR boom and needed to find ways to keep the money coming in. Turns out raising prices keeps them afloat. Is it the best long term strategy? No. Is it a full and complete business strategy? No. Has it so far worked in the very short term? Yes. Is it pandering too much to investor concerns and not consumer concerns? Yes. It'll be interesting to see what they do if The Hobbit hits like LotR did. In the future we might look back on the late 00's and early 10's and say "GW did what they had to do to make the company work and then parlayed that into smart business decisions later on" or conversely "GW did what they had to do to make the company work but didn't learn anything and it was a disastrous plan."

[Andy p]

Hmm that's one perspective, but it doesn't explain why their prices have been steadily climbing since the mid 90's. How big and long was this dip?

[lbecks]

Hmm that's one perspective, but it doesn't explain why their prices have been steadily climbing since the mid 90's. How big and long was this dip?

The mid 90's was the period of expansion after Papa Kirby purchased GW so they had to recoup his investment by expanding aggressively. When LotR launched they made a ton of money and grew even further but they also made some bad decisions like trying to flood the US with stores that didn't do much business. That was a time when the prices were relatively stable and WD was 5 dollars (not a bad price for single company hobby magazine). At one point they even reduced certain prices because they were doing well. And then after 2004 the bubble burst because you can't really rely on movie property rights to have a long lasting boom. And then post 2005 you see certain things happening with prices. They tried some combo deals and WD subscription deals but what worked was price raises. In the US WD went from 5 to 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 dollars. Archaon went from 30 dollars in metal to his current 49 dollars in FC. The 7th Edition starter set went from 45 dollars to 75+ dollars. Mines of Moria also used to be 45 dollars. WFB Elite infantry went from 25 dollars to 41 dollars. So since 2009/10 they've been making decent money.

[Commissar Vaughn]

Following on from Spectre Ghosts example:

Its customary in our dept at work for each team to have a little whipround at birthdays etc. for their team members, and today I was handed a card and £16ish. (thats a little under US$25 IIRC). I was instructed to spend it on toy soldiers/trains rather than anything boring and I was happy to comply.

I picked and ordered box of Perrys British Infantry (40 excellent figures) for £16.20 from Maelstrom (actually a little less once the moneyback etc was worked out). Now the question is, nowadays could I have even bought anything at GW for that little bit of pocket money? And would it be in anyway comparable to 40 good quality figures produced by two of the best sculptors?

I really doubt it, and thats why GW doesnt get my money these days.

Except when I run out of devlan mud!

edit: for the same price I could have had 10 Guardsmen...hmm. Ten V Forty, now how do I work out which is better?

[Andy p]

The mid 90's was the period of expansion after Papa Kirby purchased GW so they had to recoup his investment by expanding aggressively. When LotR launched they made a ton of money and grew even further but they also made some bad decisions like trying to flood the US with stores that didn't do much business. That was a time when the prices were relatively stable and WD was 5 dollars (not a bad price for single company hobby magazine). At one point they even reduced certain prices because they were doing well. And then after 2004 the bubble burst because you can't really rely on movie property rights to have a long lasting boom. And then post 2005 you see certain things happening with prices. They tried some combo deals and WD subscription deals but what worked was price raises. In the US WD went from 5 to 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 dollars. Archaon went from 30 dollars in metal to his current 49 dollars in FC. The 7th Edition starter set went from 45 dollars to 75+ dollars. Mines of Moria also used to be 45 dollars. WFB Elite infantry went from 25 dollars to 41 dollars. So since 2009/10 they've been making decent money.

Well that does make sense, still doesn't appeal to my wallet but long term effects and goals are important. Maybe I will see it better in a few years or so.

I still miss those days when I could get the white dwarf for £1.50 and most of the models were around 20 for no more than £15, sometimes a mere £12.

[lbecks]

Well that does make sense, still doesn't appeal to my wallet but long term effects and goals are important. Maybe I will see it better in a few years or so.

I still miss those days when I could get the white dwarf for £1.50 and most of the models were around 20 for no more than £15, sometimes a mere £12.

I don't like the price raises either and some of GW's poor decision making contribute to the price raises. But the next few years should prove interesting as I think there's an opportunity to straighten themselves out.

[shelfunit.]

I still miss those days when I could get the white dwarf for £1.50 and most of the models were around 20 for no more than £15, sometimes a mere £12.

I like the time where you could call up mail order and get the 6th ed Empire sprues (8 models) for £2 a sprue. Good times.

EDIT: It might have been £2.50, I think I ordered 5 sprues and that came to £12.50.

[Shimmergloom]

20% off means less and less each year and prices rise 20% or more each year, sometimes multiple times a year.

[Sgt John Keel]

I like the time where you could call up mail order and get the 6th ed Empire sprues (8 models) for £2 a sprue. Good times.

And now you can get the IoB Sea Guard for £10.50 for five. Which is more than the normal multi-part core units. It's a shame, since they are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

[Dr Zoidberg]

But if prices were ultimately 40% less, surely they'd just end up getting the same amount of money out of you in the end?

No, because I'd spend more than I usually do over the year. And I would confidently say it would be well above whatever savings I would get if the prices were 40% lower than they are now because, as somebody has already pointed out, I would feel I was getting better value for money and wouldn't tighten the purse strings as much (my wife does our budget). As it stands, I don't feel I'm getting value for money and so buy the absolute minimum that I can; for example only buying a new kit/model as I finish an existing one. If things were much cheaper, I'd happily go out and spend lots more money on kits that might not get opened for months because I'd feel that even if they sit in storage for a while, it was still a good deal.

[Little Joe]

But if prices were ultimately 40% less, surely they'd just end up getting the same amount of money out of you in the end?

Just speaking for myself here: I have a monthly budget for wargaming and spend it where I get things I want. I would want a lot of GW models, but because a core unit costs about €91,- (40 savage orcs from GW directly, €75,- elsewhere) and you need multiple core units for an army I will not. I could easily buy that unit within a month, special units are way of my price limits, but that money gets me a lot more percieved value elsewhere.

I can get better quality (miniatures and rules) or just more, of which I chose the first. Mainly because mass units from other companies are lacking in my opinion, but Avatars of War is a safe bet to get my money there. So what is it that GW offers me to give them my money?

I do like the sight of large armies with huge units, so I am interested, but I cannot reasonably pay up while able to compare. So make that 50% (a model should cost less than 1€ on that army scale) and I would spend half my money with GW, currently almost nothing.

Next somebody will mention that the kiddies make the money and the extra spending from a few old sods wont make up for it. I am sure GW did the number crunching and thinks it will work so that is their choice and I have made mine. Both parties are happy.

[wilsonian]

TBH in the last 2 years I've only ever bought one thing from a GW store and that was the other day when the 25th 40k badges were on offer. In the past I use to buy the odd item from GW but since the rise of eBay and forums like this showing you how to recover old models I've tend to bide my time in spending. Long gone are the days when I'd buy a new army in one go.

However recently I've been looking at making a forgeworld order which in turn requires some plastics from GW. I was shocked to see the price of the battle forces and what you get with them. While I think the 40K starter is good value for money (or was before they slapped an extra tenner on it). GW need to be careful as the prices they charge are scaring off alot of new starters (considering how much a PS3/360 is with several games you could only just buy an army - never mind all the paints etc that go with it)

[ihavetoomuchminis]

It's a matter of value perceived for your money, not just about money. If you perceive to be receiving more value for your money, you spend more, because you don't mind. That, and the fact that if prices were lower (i think 40% is too much, but 25-30 could be right), waaaaay more people would be entering the hobby, and waaaaay less people would be leaving it.