Why are the new army books so expensive?

[Orrinocco]

£8 more for a hardback book after 10 years of inflation sounds pretty good actually.

Have you seen the rate of inflation for books over the past 10 years? I'm sure its not been that much for what I buy from my local bookstore

[Malorian]

Have you seen the rate of inflation for books over the past 10 years? I'm sure its not been that much for what I buy from my local bookstore

Depends, are we talking about University study books?

*wallet remembers and cries*

[ColShaw]

All I know is, if the 8th Ed Orcs & Goblins book had been softcover and $22, I'd have bought it. Hardcover and $37.50? Nope. Being lukewarm on 8th Ed in the first place, I just decided to leave the Orcs on the shelf a while longer.

That is not GW's intention, I hope.

I did look through the book, and I did want it, I just couldn't justify the price.

[Grocklock]

What?


Not everyone complained. More importantly your argument apparently ignores the fact that along with "what we asked for" we also got a 30% price increase.

"Excuse me, my steak is undercooked. Could you please get me another?"
"Certainly sir"
...
"Waiter, there seems to be a problem with my bill. You charged me more for my steak."
"We had to cook it twice."
"I don't understand"
"WE GAVE YOU WHAT YOU WANTED? WTF ARE YOU MAD FOR??!!!"

Unfortunately for our case, there is no steak involved.

What are GW supposed to do they gave you a better product, and not charge you more for it, when apple broughy out the ipad 2 they increased the price did they not, but when gw does it suddenly its a problem.

The problem with the hardback books falling apasrt is due to the way you treat the books pushing the pages flat slidding lists between the pages so that when it closes it puts presure on the binding,

I was at a tordement and watched as my opponent said how bad the binding was on his book, as he then slide the small rule book between it pages and closed it to placing his elbow on it to rest his head.

[loveless]

Depends, are we talking about University study books?

*wallet remembers and cries*

Though I would probably be more likely to buy GW hardcover messes if:
1) I could buy them used for cheaper
2) I could sell them back when I was done with them

All I know is, if the 8th Ed Orcs & Goblins book had been softcover and $22, I'd have bought it. Hardcover and $37.50? Nope. Being lukewarm on 8th Ed in the first place, I just decided to leave the Orcs on the shelf a while longer.

That is not GW's intention, I hope.

I did look through the book, and I did want it, I just couldn't justify the price.

I think there's a subconscious trigger that makes you reconsider buying these things at a certain price point. For army books, it was probably the $35 mark. Seeing $41 on them now just sends all the wrong "value for money" arguments into my head. I'd rather spend the extra $6 and get a box of Vargheists, but I can't really use them without the book...ah well, I suppose I'll deal with it

[Malorian]

Though I would probably be more likely to buy GW hardcover messes if:
1) I could buy them used for cheaper
2) I could sell them back when I was done with them

eBay works for both

Although you get people like me that buy new because we're allergic to money

[Lord Dan]

What are GW supposed to do they gave you a better product, and not charge you more for it, when apple broughy out the ipad 2 they increased the price did they not, but when gw does it suddenly its a problem.

Probably a bad example, but the iPad 2 was exactly the same price as the original iPad. Apple knows that finding a price point (in this case $800) and sticking to it is the best way to retain customers, which is why they're currently the most profitable company in the world.

To your point I have two problems with GW giving us a "better" product. First of all, it's a forced sale. If GW had offered us a softcover book for a certain price, and offered the option of a hardcover at a 25% higher price I would take no issue. I do not see the value in the hardcover books that others do, mostly because as was mentioned on the last page the softcover books are already overpriced at $33. To your apple example it would be like if apple changed the cover of their iPads to a more durable material like platinum, and passed to the cost off to customers by charging significantly more (at a profit, of course).

The problem with the hardback books falling apasrt is due to the way you treat the books pushing the pages flat slidding lists between the pages so that when it closes it puts presure on the binding, I was at a tordement and watched as my opponent said how bad the binding was on his book, as he then slide the small rule book between it pages and closed it to placing his elbow on it to rest his head.

I agree that the binding on the older books was poor (my DE book is currently in a binder), however as this was a problem with their product I feel GW should have adopted some alternative binding practices to give us a better book for about the same price. Instead they raised the price of softcover books from $22 to $33 to mask the fact that the new $41 hardcovers are twice the cost of the old army books, which I do not feel is reflected in the value of the book.

[Shimmergloom]

my 8th edition BRB has its bindings falling apart too... makes me sad

So does mine. My $75 hardback rulebook, which I have barely used because I use my mini rulebook instead(bindings also falling apart big time in that one). Guess the writers for the main 8th hardcover rulebook are not living in a developed country with bills to pay.

Why? Because I take care with my books. I don't open all the wat flat, I don't press them flat, I don't stuff them full of papers and force them closed. In short, I treated my books with care and low and behold they didn't fall apart.

Malorian, come on now. I take care of all my books. I still have my 4th edition books like my O&G one that I bought in 1994 still with the bindings in tact. I don't mistreat my books at all. However starting in 7th nearly all my books have started falling apart. My dark elf, my mini 7th, my mini 8th, my hard back 8th, my 7th woc, my 7th greenskin is loose(but not falling apart), my 7th HE. People have to stop blaming the customer and start blaming the manufacturer.

If I can go nearly 20 years without my 4th edition books falling apart, then there is no excuse for books that I have hardly used to be falling apart after a few months or even weeks(my DE book fell apart almost immediately).

[Quinzy]

Everything used to cost less. Now they cost more. That's pretty much how things work. Factoring in hardback and full colour too, the price increase is expected.

Warhammer is a niche market. They don't sell that many books, and they're expensive to make and ship off.
We're not as big a market as Penguin classics, so we shouldn't expect those prices.

Just look at university books as another example. Expensive to make, hardback, select audience, and extortionately priced too. The big rule book costs less than many university books of the same size.

You're also paying for the authors' contributions, the artists' contributions, distribution, and then standard profit.

And most importantly, standard inflation has added at least £5 in ten years.
£25 pound is over £30 pound now.
[http://www.measuringworth.com/ppower...r_result=2010]

[EmperorNorton]

What are GW supposed to do they gave you a better product, and not charge you more for it, when apple broughy out the ipad 2 they increased the price did they not, but when gw does it suddenly its a problem.

What they are supposed to do, IMO, is to offer a quality that is reflective of the price.
When the books were 18€ I thought that was expensive enough to expect that pages would not fall out after looking through it twice. Yes, that has happened to me despite knowing very well how to handle books (it's kinda my job).
At the current price point the books should not only be spectacularly sturdy, they should also bring me beer and give me a massage to be truly worth it.

[EmperorNorton]

Everything used to cost less. Now they cost more. That's pretty much how things work. Factoring in hardback and full colour too, the price increase is expected.

GW is way ahead of inflation with their price increases.

Warhammer is a niche market. They don't sell that many books, and they're expensive to make and ship off.

They must sell tens of thousands of copies of their books. Many publishers have print runs that are much smaller.

We're not as big a market as Penguin classics, so we shouldn't expect those prices.

Nobody is.

[librerian_samae]

The thing I don't get and that really annoys me is a few weeks after the tombkings book came out the price jumped from £20 to £25!

Now thats just mad grr.

[Fear Ghoul]

The new hardbacks don't compare particularly favourably to their immediately previous incarnations primarily because nearly 95% of the contents are exactly the same. However the books do provide quite good value when compared to far older books from 4th/5th edition Warhammer, which were not much larger but if printed today would be substantially smaller. Similarly in 40k 2nd edition books would spend time detailing how bolters and flamers worked, while the 3rd edition equivalents were more streamlined and sold for £10 but at up to a third of the thickness of their successors. Throughout all this time I've never had problems with GW binding except when someone would try and open them fully wide like a newspaper. I do miss the printer toner they used to use though. Gave all the book a nice smell that lingers to this day.

[Malorian]

Malorian, come on now. I take care of all my books. I still have my 4th edition books like my O&G one that I bought in 1994 still with the bindings in tact. I don't mistreat my books at all. However starting in 7th nearly all my books have started falling apart. My dark elf, my mini 7th, my mini 8th, my hard back 8th, my 7th woc, my 7th greenskin is loose(but not falling apart), my 7th HE. People have to stop blaming the customer and start blaming the manufacturer.

If I can go nearly 20 years without my 4th edition books falling apart, then there is no excuse for books that I have hardly used to be falling apart after a few months or even weeks(my DE book fell apart almost immediately).

Well I may be an outlier, but it seems fairly odd that so many others are having problems when I get the books of every race for both systems and have had no problems at all.

[ColShaw]

Well I may be an outlier, but it seems fairly odd that so many others are having problems when I get the books of every race for both systems and have had no problems at all.

When 3rd Ed 40K came out, my main rulebook literally disintegrated. The glue turned into this yellow, crusty stuff, the cover sloughed off, it was just a mess.

These problems may not have happened to you, but they were genuine problems.

[TheDungen]

well i think they lose money by increasing the prices all the time back in 6th i had alkl the army books and quite a few codices. now i have yet to boy a hardback armybook. I'll prolly buy the HE one when its released and maybee the chaos one, but i might wait and se eif i can pick that one up second hand. Actually i get most of my GW stuff second hand these days, and thats costing GW sales. (though one of the reasons is that there a 7€ postage to where i live)

[Andy p]

It gots da carbowd and culurs!!!

[Petey]

It gots da carbowd and culurs!!!

Quoted for truth.

When the books were soft back and 25-30 dollars, I bought all of them. At 40 a book I only buy the armies I play. Sorry, I don't want hardcover. And though it is beautiful color, I don't get any more out of that than I did the really great BnW art of 6th ed.

[The Low King]

£5!!! god damn you GW!!!!! a whole £5!!!!! you theiving mongrels!!! i could get an ENTIRE extra model for that (with a bit extra), hear that, ONE ENTIRE MODEL!!!! My dwarf army, containing 100+ metal models, would be a whole FIVE MODELS bigger if those damn books hadnt been hardcover......

Yeah....really guys?

[Lord Dan]

£5!!! god damn you GW!!!!! a whole £5!!!!! you theiving mongrels!!! i could get an ENTIRE extra model for that (with a bit extra), hear that, ONE ENTIRE MODEL!!!! My dwarf army, containing 100+ metal models, would be a whole FIVE MODELS bigger if those damn books hadnt been hardcover......

Yeah....really guys?

You're comparing the price difference between the more recent, absurdly overpriced softcover rulebooks at $33, not with where there were at just before the hardcover switchover.

For contrast, imagine if GW increased the price of their 10-man plastic core sets by 25% to $33. Next, as they redo each kit, they just re-release the sprue (while making the plastic more durable with slightly more bitz) for an additional $8. Is there additional value there? I'd argue no. Sure, it's only $8 more than what you were paying "before", however if what you were paying before was already too much then the new price increase would just be infuriating.