# games workshop prices



## heretical by nature (Sep 22, 2009)

hi ive been having this discussion with my mates about warhammer prices and if you think their fair or whether its justified.


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

define fair.

the fact is they are a company, weather their prices are "fair" depends on which side you look at, or how you look at it.

the models fill upon a few roles.

1. modelers, who take modeling as a hobby, they may buy the models cuz they like them.

2. artists, who play the game for the art value in painting these models the way you want and enjoy it.

3. people who enjoy this kind of game, in which the models are essencial in playing, atleast at the store. this could also be a section of competitive people, who enjoy stratgey in a competitive level, for tournaments.

as such, these models will sell weather you think they are "fair" or not. 

though the idea of this thread would be do we think its fair or not. I think their prices are abit hefty, but seeing as how most of us play at stores for free, and dont continueously buy, it gets to a point where these stores need something to keep their rent, to keep themselves from going bankrupt, hence the high prices.

do you buy a model every time you enter a GW? no.

I personally go to my local GW a few times a week when I really want to play, I pay nothing to play there, to use the space of the store that they pay for every month for my own personal use, with the expensive models I have payed for basically helping to cover that cost in the past. 

so the prices of the models VS their value would truly come out to a formula similar to this:

Model cost = Material cost + worker cost + store upkeep + models that dont get sold over long periods of time.

the GW I go to when Im in, makes maybe 100-200 dollars a day on average, they probably pay about 1500 for the space they need to rent at minimum. and with their 3 employees, working about 30 hours a week even at minimum wadge here in canada thats 240 per person a week, so 720 a week to the employees alone.

so one a month, given they have a good sales that month, lets say its a 31 day month, making about 100 a day on average, thats 6200 dollars in that month. if 720 is the amount the employee's take in 1 week, then they make about 102.86 a day multiply that by 31 you get is 3188.66 dollars a month. leaving 3011 dollars for rent and expenses. take the minimum rent I mentioned earlier of 1500, and you have 1688.66 dollars left over a month, now they still have electricity which probably costs them atleast 500 so now they are at 1188.66 of profit over the month to go back to the main office, in which probably 300 of that goes to materials, and another 300 goes to employees who make the models. leaing about 588.66 dollars a month as a full net gain to the company, with a GOOD month.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

From a strictly business standpoint, you can look at it like this:

Most of GW's business comes from their own stores. However, Games Workshop is a trade reseller of their subsidiary companies, most notably of which is Citadel. Citadel miniatures have to be manufactured, packaged, and shipped, and licensing fees have to be paid to the holders of the intellectual property. 

The standard retail practice is to mark up product 100% of its cost to the company.
Citadel factories are found in fun places like Thailand, Shanghai, and Emperor knows where else. So, GW is paying those fun international shipping fees to get things to their stores. It's still cheaper than manufacturing their product in the UK or US, I'm sure; otherwise they'd do that-- but the point remains, international shipping costs a pretty penny.

However, I happen to be aware that Games Workshop sells their stuff at about a 200% markup.

So the $22.50 you spend on a box of ten plastic miniatures probably cost about $5.75 to produce, ship, and pay royalties to all the people that went into producing the miniatures at the design stages-- sculptors, artists, etc. Basically, what's happening is Games Workshop "buys" product from Citadel at $11.25 per unit, and resell it at $22.50. What's essentially happening is the company is allocating money to its subsidiary, but if Citadel wasn't a Games Workshop subsidiary company, then GW would be buying its product from the manufacturer, and reselling it. It works differently with external accounts (read: FLGS) but all internal stuff works more or less like that in any given company.

The big exception is where Games Workshop marks specific products up based on their effectiveness in-game. A box of Terminators, for example, costs the same amount to produce as a box of Empire State Troops. The former retails for $49.99, and the latter for $21.25. Games Workshop does that partially to recoup the cost of all the free shipping they do, since they know people will buy those high ticket items, and partially to ensure that the fewer numbers of those given products they sell still turn a profit overall. Most people buy one or two boxes of Terminators at the very most, for example, but an Empire player in WHFB will need ten to fifteen boxes of Empire State Troops to build a good Empire army for common points values.

So, given standard business practices, Games Workshop's prices are fair. They're not marking their stuff up 1000% or anything like that. However, you do get into the question of what product is ultimately worth-- these are plastic spacemen, after all. You can eat for a week (not well, mind you-- it's super unhealthy, but you can do it) for the price of a box of Space Marines.


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

I believe Games Workshop's prices are completely fair and to be honest I would find them cheap - if I were a UK resident.

I live far up in Northern Norway, 1,395 kilometres (that's a 21 hour drive for you metrically "ignorant" :grin: ) from my nearest GW store. I have 2 options when it comes to buying Games Workshop/ Citadel products.

1) I go to my nearest Toy Store, that for some reason carries GW. However,the proprietor (bless her) doesn't have the largest selection in the world, just the normal core unit boxes - except my armies (Tau, Tyranids, Dark Eldar) - but she is willing to order whatever the players here wish. And this is great indeed - if you can stand the sometimes up to 1 month wait to get it.

2) I order from Games Workshop's website. They have a Norwegian website. It's in Norwegian. The prices are in Norwegian Kroner (NOK). HOWEVER, they fail to mention anywhere on their site that the packages are coming from England ANYWAY, and not the GW store in Oslo, or a warehouse in Norway, for example. So the package arrives fast - 1 or maybe 2 weeks. Everything's going great seemingly; you unwrap the miniatures/paint/flock/whatever and get painting etc.

Then 1 week later you get a bill from the customs office for 25% VAT on your order.

WHAT??!?

Let me tell you something; Many MANY retailers in Norway who were previously carrying GW products are now cutting off their partnerships with GW. The past year, GW has become increasingly hostile towards all competitors, including for SOME RETARDED REASON Wizards of the Coast.

For those of you who don't know who Wizards of the Coast are, they are the makers of Magic: The Gathering and the people who have the license for Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, Pokémon TCG and several other successful brands of hobby.

Although this company is not a direct competitor to GW, GW has issued statements - especially to webshops - that if they carry products from both companies; they must have a main focus on GW products to keep their contracts with GW. This means they'd have to advertise, stock and sell more than 150% over any Wizards of the Coast products in GW products.

As a result, many are cutting their links to GW, and soon there will be just option 2 available to me. And when that happens, I am taking my money's spent on miniatures back in court, because the customs aren't mentioned on GW's website, and since it is completely in Norwegian with Norwegian prices, there is no reason to logically think that there would be customs.

So don't think you are getting any short end of any stick - in fact, I am currently grasping on to a particular 1,2 cm long stick made from armed uranium with poo on the end.


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## Xtr4M1nty (Sep 27, 2009)

Meh, expensive.

Who cares? Its a HOBBY not a PROFFESION so it aint all that bad.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

heretical by nature said:


> hi ive been having this discussion with my mates about warhammer prices and if you think their fair or whether its justified.


buy from places like gifts for geeks then the prices become more bearable, still not saying there fair or justified when compared to other companies who can produce equal quality of much lower prices, but at least your Wallet doesn't explode.


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## Abomination (Jul 6, 2008)

The prices are fine, GW is cool.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Abomination said:


> The prices are fine, GW is cool.


£20 for a tactical squad is fine and cool?

these young pups


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## KhainiteAssassin (Mar 18, 2009)

I blame a thing called the econamy, in which prices of everything have to raise so people can live, when the prices just rose because the people who are making the money from said raise need it to get what they want since their price went up. its life.


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## OddJob (Nov 1, 2007)

The hobby is expensive. Very expensive. For the longest time I justified purchases by comparing what I was doing to other hobies- golf, driving etc.

Now that I've been independantly wealthy for some time I realise that the product is massively overpriced. Lumps of moulded plastic with a realitively small amount of RnD behind them.

An aspect of this is vanity pricing I feel- GW justifying themselves as the ferrari of miniatures by charging ferrari prices.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still addicted and I still get my plastic fix. But it is considerably less than it used to be, mostly due to cost.


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## morfangdakka (Dec 31, 2006)

Well everything was cheaper than it is now. I don't think they are overpriced at all. You also need to consider that it is a hobbyand any hobby that you are really serious about is going to cost you money lots of money.

You also have to consider GW and other LGS are business and businesses are trying to make money. 
I am in the process of opening up a hobby store so I am looking at the hobby as a way to make money. So the pricing is fine with me that the more I can charge the more profit I can make and keep my store going once I get it open.


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## Holmstrom (Dec 3, 2008)

Certainly we would all love to pay less for the thing in question we enjoy. I'm sure a couple things _should_ be cheaper, but it is at a level where I don't care too much to complain. The only thing I think definitively should be much cheaper is the core rulebook. Mainly because my friend 'lost' mine. >=[

The thing is just about as expensive as a text book...and you can't even bludgeon anyone to death as easily as a text book. What a rip-off.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Holmstrom said:


> Mainly because my friend 'lost' mine. >=[


it will be cheaper for you, they lost it they pays for it, if not they ain't a friend


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## The Odd One (Sep 15, 2009)

For me yes, but that's probably because of the credit crunch. I have to get a 3 hour bus ride to get to my GW, so I spend most of my money when I get my monthly visit. However, I have not bought a box or anything GW related for 5 months.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

only the purchaser can decide if the price is "fair" or justified, GW isnt forcing anyone into buying anything they sell,if you want to talk about "fair" then wait till your paying for things like gas,electric and insurance....But anyway the hobby is a pass time and costs exactly what your willing to spend on it ... no more and no less.

One of the biggest reasons people seem to spend more than they "want" on the hobby is because they get sucked in to the "must buy new release" syndrome,the number of players i have seen who swap armies every time something new comes along is crazy, they fork out for 1500 points of the latest army (like 1500 points is an army anyway? tis but a skirmish force) only to drop it when something new comes along and do exactly the same over and over. Not to mention people who claim its too expensive yet have thousands of points of models still in boxes and blisters not even glued together.

finally i think an old yorkshire saying "get your monies worth" springs to mind,buy it,read it,paint it, build it, play with it,convert it. If you paid £25 for those great swords get your monies worth by using them at any given opportunity.


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

bitsandkits said:


> they get sucked in to the "must buy new release" syndrome,the number of players i have seen who swap armies every time something new comes along is crazy, they fork out for 1500 points of the latest army (like 1500 points is an army anyway? tis but a skirmish force)


Aye. I recently rounded 10K points worth of Tau, and I must say; the bigger the battle the better. There is nothing like a 15,000 points army with an ally. One of my fondest memories was a 6 player bonanza involving Orks, Necron and Chaos on one side and Tau & Imperial Guard on the other. And Apocalypse wasn't even out yet! 8 large tables locked together with 30,000 points between all the players is a sight that every 40K player should see at least once.

I have the syndrome though. But since maybe 2004 I've been quelling it super hard, focusing on Tau almost alone, except for a couple of Fexes for my Nids. And the syndrome is bad. Because I hate Orks and even I wanted to get the Black Reach boxed set when it came out.

Wait.. Why didn't I buy the BR box...? *skulks away*


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## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

MetalHandkerchief said:


> I believe Games Workshop's prices are completely fair and to be honest I would find them cheap - if I were a UK resident.
> 
> 
> Then 1 week later you get a bill from the customs office for 25% VAT on your order.


Get the Customs officers interested in playing 40k.

Another thread about prices, typical. There are two options, well three actually.

1) Think damm the expense, pay GW's prices and enjoy your gaming.

2) Go for one of the cheaper online companies that sell GW products.

3) Buy the cheaper products (or the ones you don't want to wait for) from GW and get the more expensive ones from the cheaper online companies.

As other people have said, GW is a business with the costs of doing business to consider. Take my newly-opened local store in Wigan. They've been making less in a day than the Tesco petrol station where I work makes in an hour, and I'm willing to bet that even the more established stores aren't making great amounts of money in a day. Therefore when it comes to choosing where to buy stuff it's going through my mind that if I don't buy stuff from the store it might go out of business.

Now some people will ignore this argument, scoffing at someone who's so happy to have a GW within easy distance that he's willing to pay through the nose (which isn't entirely wrong). However businesses on the whole will always raise prices when they can. Tesco's certainly have, so too have Sky and a donkeyload of other companies (notably the train firms) so it's hardly fair not to expect GW to behave in the exact same way.


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## Major Strombardt (Feb 22, 2009)

Our store went out of business...a few years back (Dumfries) so I know what it means to lose a local store.

But the prices are fair and the products brilliant.

Long may the situation continue!


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

I dont find GW things horribly overpriced _as a general_, ofcourse there are some models that seem very expensive for what you get, like Empire Greatswords...

I view it like this:
Take all the time you can use the models into account(naturally this means that if you just buy and stockpile you wont get any value out of them) and youll see that this hobby aint specially expensive after all. If you use, and paint, your models they will prove 100s of hours of time-distractions, for which the price aint noticeable:biggrin:


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

> I view it like this:
> Take all the time you can use the models into account(naturally this means that if you just buy and stockpile you wont get any value out of them) and youll see that this hobby aint specially expensive after all. If you use, and paint, your models they will prove 100s of hours of time-distractions, for which the price aint noticeable


Agree completely with this. 

Though £17 is a lot for 5 plastic men (especially as I very rarely get a chance to play), i try to get the most out of my models by spending plenty of time on the aspects i enjoy most.


- few hours assembling, choosing poses and slapping on wargear which the codex says i'm not allowed but looks cool

- Few more hours doing a little bit of conversion work

- about 600 hours painting, despite my mediocre end product

- few more hours basing, taking pics to put on WIP log, adding transfers etc etc

I think as long as you focus on the parts of the hobby you enjoy, the cost vs hours of enjoyment is pretty reasonable - especially for those of us who take forever to paint things.


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## heretical by nature (Sep 22, 2009)

just for the record im not complaining about the prices i am just interested in other peoples points of few on the prices, personally i think that they are fine as, like many people have said money vs time/enjoyment and overall happyness is definatly fair and just as well as having the more powerful models marked up so u dont see the likes hundreds of armoured companies and land raiders in everbodies army
thanks for the feedback


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