Gimme them sales

[blongbling]

yup I know, trade price is cost price for the retailer. We used to work on about a 30% margin to the sales company when I was there IIRC, on trade sales

[blongbling]

2: management all get struck by lightening and are replaced by rational businessmen.

Why is it rational to do a sale? As a rational businessman I would never discount my product if I think I can get full price for it, more work less profit.

[Erazmus_M_Wattle]

Clothes shops do sales because they regularly change their stock to newer more fashionable items. Then they have excess stock. So the sell it at a discount to clear warehouse and store space.

GW do not have this problem. Well they do sometimes. For instance the change over of rules editions. These days though recyclables get recycled and the rest goes to the crusher.

[Grimtuff]

GW do not have this problem. Well they do sometimes. For instance the change over of rules editions. These days though recyclables get recycled and the rest goes to the crusher.

Last time they did it was in the changeover between 5th and 6th ed. WHFB in around 2000. Got loads of stuff there, same goes for the 2nd to 3rd ed. 40k changeover. Lets just say I started this wargaming lark at a very good time.

[semper_fi]

The only way you will ever see a GW sale is in a pre-200 issue WD or below. Those will both make you wish you found GW earlier and that you could build a time machine. Under current management there will never be a sale of any kind, ever, and there is no point even dreaming there will be.

Those where the times!!! armydeals in combination with WD subs (i still have the upcomming 15 years of WD subscription hahaha) but for real WD and sales..... Its about the same chance of seeing a real life dino or ufo

[Kijamon]

What do GW do when someone accidently puts a foot through a box, they notice a box is all smashed when they open up the delivery or some other damage that doesn't damage the product, just the container?

Sell it to someone any way or do they sell it from Warhammer World for a discount? I've noticed a few Nottingham based ebayers sell stock that is perfect, just unboxed and it's not just breaking up battleforces, terrain, non battleforce units and finecast pops up on there sometimes.

The McCowans factory near me used to throw away all the confectionary that had even a dodgy mistake on the label so my mates used to jump the wall and raid the skips for freebies. Good times.

[Chaos and Evil]

What do GW do when someone accidently puts a foot through a box, they notice a box is all smashed when they open up the delivery or some other damage that doesn't damage the product, just the container?

They do a process called a "known loss" and the stock is automatically replaced in the next delivery.
As to the product itself, generally one of the staffers will keep it or paint it up as a store display model.

I've noticed a few Nottingham based ebayers sell stock that is perfect, just unboxed and it's not just breaking up battleforces, terrain, non battleforce units and finecast pops up on there sometimes.

Probably staffers buying models on their staff discount, then selling it on eBay.

[ColShaw]

Why is it rational to do a sale? As a rational businessman I would never discount my product if I think I can get full price for it, more work less profit.

To create interest for a new product. To get new players into the game, or to get established players to start a new army. Because rhythm in sales can create more excitement than leaving things the same, or, say, increasing the price every summer.

Since this hobby depends, among other things, on starting new armies, offering some sort of discount for mass-purchasing makes good sense, too.

[ChrisMurray]

What do GW do when someone accidently puts a foot through a box, they notice a box is all smashed when they open up the delivery or some other damage that doesn't damage the product, just the container?

Sell it to someone any way or do they sell it from Warhammer World for a discount? I've noticed a few Nottingham based ebayers sell stock that is perfect, just unboxed and it's not just breaking up battleforces, terrain, non battleforce units and finecast pops up on there sometimes.

The McCowans factory near me used to throw away all the confectionary that had even a dodgy mistake on the label so my mates used to jump the wall and raid the skips for freebies. Good times.

GW most likely take back the damaged product and send out a replacement with the next order. Once at GW it would depend on what the fault is. If it's just the box\packaging then they will just re-package it. If not I would imagine it either gets destroyed or if it's true they melt down plastics to make new ones then they would do this. (This is all a guess I don't work for GW)

As an example of a different industry, I work in the greeting cards industry and any damages are reported (at any time even once they've been on display) and the company will credit us on the next bill. The damaged stock is then either sent back to their head office where they throw it in the rubbish or they ask us to throw it away. Even on seasonal products such as christmas cards they have told me it costs them more to repackage\store\make ready for sale the cards than it does just to make them from scratch again. I can imagine that as a manufacturer, GW most likely are of the same opinion with their products (especially packaging).

[blongbling]

To create interest for a new product. To get new players into the game, or to get established players to start a new army. Because rhythm in sales can create more excitement than leaving things the same, or, say, increasing the price every summer.

Since this hobby depends, among other things, on starting new armies, offering some sort of discount for mass-purchasing makes good sense, too.

Yeah but reducing the price of your products is only one way to entice/create desire in people and it isn't even a great one. Offering discount on your products can, and GW believe this, devalues your product as you feel it isn't worth the price you are charging.

[shelfunit.]

Yeah but reducing the price of your products is only one way to entice/create desire in people and it isn't even a great one. Offering discount on your products can, and GW believe this, devalues your product as you feel it isn't worth the price you are charging.

Well, an increasing number of people do feel that GW products are not worth the price they are charging, hence the boom in discount sellers and the static nature of GW financials despite their ever increasing prices...

[ColShaw]

Yeah but reducing the price of your products is only one way to entice/create desire in people and it isn't even a great one. Offering discount on your products can, and GW believe this, devalues your product as you feel it isn't worth the price you are charging.

So, all the retailers who have Black Friday sales are bad at business? Hmm.

[Ebon]

There will only be three occassions that would cause GW to put out a sale in my opinion:

1: the company goes bankrupt and auctions everything off anyways.

2: management all get struck by lightening and are replaced by rational businessmen.

3: Armegeddon

I'm at the point of actually hoping for 1 in the hopes that someone sane would pick up the IP.

[theunwantedbeing]

You have battleforce box sets that tend to offer some level of discount on the products in them.
Usually they won't be exactly what you want of course but it's a discount of sorts.

Plenty of other places sell GW stuff in sales anyway, GW sells to them so why sale off the store stuff as well?

[Scammel]

GW have indeed had sales under the current management, albeit very obscure ones. Messrs Grabbit and Skarper, purveyors of rare and unusual goods, featured at a couple of Gamesdays around 2 years back, where you could buy both OOP literature and also get 'mystery boxes' containing 4 blisters of an unknown nature for a tenner. Some of said blisters were worth more than the box.

[shelfunit.]

GW have indeed had sales under the current management, albeit very obscure ones. Messrs Grabbit and Skarper, purveyors of rare and unusual goods, featured at a couple of Gamesdays around 2 years back, where you could buy both OOP literature and also get 'mystery boxes' containing 4 blisters of an unknown nature for a tenner. Some of said blisters were worth more than the box.

So in order to get the potential benefit you have to pay £30, and then hope you are near the front of the mad rush. I suppose the second part of that sentence sounds like a sale.

[Scammel]

and then hope you are near the front of the mad rush.

I don't remember there ever being one. On both occasions I attended I just sauntered up to the place half-way through the day and there were still loads left.

[Mastodon]

So, all the retailers who have Black Friday sales are bad at business? Hmm.

No, they just tend to have a lot of seasonal stock that they want to get rid of.

For those businesses sales make excellent sense. They can either keep it and sell a few of them at full price, or sell most at half price and get the most return.

For a company like GW who sell the same things every year, theres no point to it.

[blongbling]

So, all the retailers who have Black Friday sales are bad at business? Hmm.

That's not what I said, but actually I wonder what percentage decrease in revenue retailers see in the run up to sales periods as people stop buying and also the effect on GM as a result of slashing the prices. An increase of sales by 100% but reducing your margin by 50% means you stand still......

[blongbling]

GW have indeed had sales under the current management, albeit very obscure ones. Messrs Grabbit and Skarper, purveyors of rare and unusual goods, featured at a couple of Gamesdays around 2 years back, where you could buy both OOP literature and also get 'mystery boxes' containing 4 blisters of an unknown nature for a tenner. Some of said blisters were worth more than the box.

yeah they might have had a retail value of more than the cost but as far as GW was concerned it was old tat that they wanted to get rid of