# Games Workshop Prices.



## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

Something that has always bothered me.

If i go to GW or their website, and say...want to buy a box set of Tau Fire Warriors, it costs me £18.

Now, sites such as 'Gifts for Geeks' or 'Wargames Empires', can sell me the same product for around £13.

why is this so? Surely, GW should make sure they are the Cheapest retail of their own product?

ALSO

i dont know if any of you check the official GW website, but on June the 1st, GW are planning to up the prices on various products, both metal and plastic.

If a Boxed set of a troop choice, aka, 10 marines or 12 fire warriors, hits £20, i dont know if GW will survive much longer. I know its been around for a while, and has seen events such as 'the winter of discontent', but i dont know if it will survive this recession, as its going to take at least a decade to revive the economy...

your thoughts?


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

they'll always survive, cus people are too dumb to look for alternative sources or want to "support GW", if people actually grew a brain then yes they would die, heck do you think my guard force will come direct from GW?, hell no, I'll use other sources


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## Wiccus (Jun 2, 2008)

Stella Cadente said:


> they'll always survive, cus people are too dumb to look for alternative sources or want to "support GW", if people actually grew a brain then yes they would die, heck do you think my guard force will come direct from GW?, hell no, I'll use other sources


So people are dumb for not wanting a game they love to cease to be? I don't really understand that.

I believe that GW will stay around for a good long time before dying (if they ever do). Die hard fans like myself and my friends will continue pumping money into GW because we love the models and we love the game too much to give it up. I got in the game when a squad box of 10 men was about $25 and now I still buy squad boxes of 10 men despite the $10 increase.

And I see new players starting armies all the time. The video games that are based on GW games in recent years have been giving them a lot of publicity and have been increasing their business a lot. I heard from someone that something like 4 or 5 new GW stores would be opening in the Seattle area in the next year or two. That is evidence enough to me that GW will not die anytime soon.


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## Lord of Rebirth (Jun 7, 2008)

I believe other online sites are allowed to purchase large numbers of kits at a significant discount and sell cheaper than the GW prices just so to get higher sales. I can imagine if you could get box sets at close to half price due to buying them by the hundreds then you resold at 10-30% off GW prices you could probably get a reasonably large volume of sales to more than pay all your overhead and make you a tidy profit.

It's as simple as selling product as less of a profit to increase sales and in this sort of situation there is the potential to make a vastly larger profit by numbers than by profit margin. Thinkg if you sell item X for $20 and it costs you $13 including your overhead you make $7 per unit sale which is nice if you could make 1,000 unit sales per month but imagine you can sell item X for $15 and instead make 10,000 unit sales per month. Simple math says instead of profiting $7,000 a month you make $20,000 in a month.


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## JokerGod (Jan 21, 2009)

Orochi said:


> Something that has always bothered me.
> 
> If i go to GW or their website, and say...want to buy a box set of Tau Fire Warriors, it costs me £18.
> 
> ...


First off, all prices rise over time. It happens to everything from TVs, Rent, Gas and food. Its just how it works. 

If you look at the plastic GW used back in the early 90s and the plastic they use now, you would shit your self over how better the quality of it is. 

GW sells a LOT cheaper to Independent retailers, why? Because its a lot cheaper and easyer for GW to sell the stuff cheaper to them then to try and sell it only from them. It creates a place for people to play and still gives GW the low profit margin they need.


Stella, if it is stupid to spend money on a game you enjoy and can spend untold hours playing with no further investment and will continue to grow and change, then you can call me stupid. I play video games, they come 40-50$ a pop, I spend 30-40 hours playing the game and then it sits on a shelf and never moves, I spend 100-200$ on a WH army and I get years of enjoyment out of it. and never have to spend another cent on the game to play if I don't want to.

The day GW gos under is the day the gaming community loses a leader in table top gaming and an icon for the future gamers.


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## davespil (Apr 28, 2008)

I was looking at some tank models of real world tanks from other companies thinking I'd ge some cheap ones and convert them but when I saw the prices I went right back to GW models. Granted I think the real world stuff looks much better then sci-fi GW stuff and the model kits themselves are of very good quaility; they are also very expensive. So its not like GW is just making their stuff unreasonably priced. When you buy a tank you buy a piece of a game you can use after you put it together and paint it. I just wish there was a game system that used real world vehicles and troops in real world armies...


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## Blue Liger (Apr 25, 2008)

Davespil, there is and it's more expensive smaller scale men and the players are very uptight as they expect it to be all painted to proper uniforn standards if not they usually don't play you or just suff you out of the game. WH40K is actually one of the most friendly and welcoming game systems in the world as I know even Warmachine there is little to no respect for new gamers - you start and your expected to know and so players will thrash you as in the rule book it's main rule is to win not to have fun.


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## JokerGod (Jan 21, 2009)

Blue Liger said:


> Davespil, there is and it's more expensive smaller scale men and the players are very uptight as they expect it to be all painted to proper uniforn standards if not they usually don't play you or just suff you out of the game. WH40K is actually one of the most friendly and welcoming game systems in the world as I know even Warmachine there is little to no respect for new gamers - you start and your expected to know and so players will thrash you as in the rule book it's main rule is to win not to have fun.


Page 5. Play like you have a pair.

Worst rule ever put in to a game. I know the local shop is always flooded with the yelling and arguing of the WM players, all day.


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## Arcane (Feb 17, 2009)

Also I have been told that WM does not welcome conversions very much and completely disallows non WM models or GS models. On the other hand, it annoys me when a CSM players wants to play SM, so he just uses his old CM models and plays both... IMO it's more fair to everyone to fess up and get the right models in the long term, unless of course you are just trying something out for a couple games with a proxie. 

As for prices, dealers get a discount because of the volume they sell. GW can sell to them for less because they buy so many of them. That is how all business's work. Most manufacturers will drop their prices 10 even 20 percent because of the large volume. After that, it is up to the individual business to set the mark up on price. 

I am sure GW would sell really cheap to if you were to buy 1000 units from them, but at 20-40 dollars a piece, do you really have 40,000 grand to spend on Warhammer because you want a good rate on each model?


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## Abomination (Jul 6, 2008)

The prices are expensive, but life's a bitch. Just have to suck it up. I personally don't mind as I like to support GW and know I'm getting good value.


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## Taggerung (Jun 5, 2008)

Wiccus said:


> So people are dumb for not wanting a game they love to cease to be? I don't really understand that.
> 
> I believe that GW will stay around for a good long time before dying (if they ever do). Die hard fans like myself and my friends will continue pumping money into GW because we love the models and we love the game too much to give it up. I got in the game when a squad box of 10 men was about $25 and now I still buy squad boxes of 10 men despite the $10 increase.
> 
> And I see new players starting armies all the time. The video games that are based on GW games in recent years have been giving them a lot of publicity and have been increasing their business a lot. I heard from someone that something like 4 or 5 new GW stores would be opening in the Seattle area in the next year or two. That is evidence enough to me that GW will not die anytime soon.


Hey Wiccus, did you play in the last campaign that was hosted by Jason at Eagles(since you list B'ham as your town, and I think I recognize you) lol


If so, what army did you play?


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

davespil said:


> I was looking at some tank models of real world tanks from other companies thinking I'd ge some cheap ones and convert them but when I saw the prices I went right back to GW models.


you must be looking in some bad places, not even Tamiya are as expensive as GW


Arcane said:


> Also I have been told that WM does not welcome conversions very much and completely disallows non WM models or GS models.


that depends on your gaming group, not the rules or the company


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## Wiccus (Jun 2, 2008)

Taggerung said:


> Hey Wiccus, did you play in the last campaign that was hosted by Jason at Eagles(since you list B'ham as your town, and I think I recognize you) lol
> 
> 
> If so, what army did you play?


I most certainly did. I ran my Daemons. Looking forward to the campaign in a couple weeks gonna use my guard. Gonna have to be "stupid" and buy some of the new kits coming out.


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## slaaneshy (Feb 20, 2008)

This shit is like crack to me...I will buy it whatever the price!!!!


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## Talos (Aug 4, 2008)

When you look at the other model ranges such as Warmachine, Hell dorablo , hordes etc the GW prices really arnt to bad.
For example a Hell Dorablo model which is just smaller than a Daemon Prince but more detailed costs £17 and the GW DP costs £17.60.
I find the main problem comes with the amount of models you need. With GW you need alot more models than any other wargame I have played.
I get over the cost by never buying GW paints or parts and using Ebay alot.
I got all the stuff I need for my Traitor guard for £130 which to me does not seem like alot at all but I guess to younger members it might. But as jokergod said I will be using this army alot more than the 3 video games I brought which nearly add up to the same price.
Stella what are these other sources do you mean different model ranges or using ebay and stores like gifts for geeks. Because the later will still give money to GW and if its the fromer the problem with that is some people can only play in GW stores so would not be aloud.


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## Kobrakai (Jul 25, 2008)

GW prices were always a problem, even when I was but a dot and asking parents to buy me models they frowned on the prices, and I started 11 years ago.

Everythings more expensive now, it's just the way modern life is. But if you can find ways of getting cheaper kits, or making your kits go further (For eg: Buying a devastator box and a combat box to make 8 complete heavy weapon marines, or getting bits from other players and making up squads from spares) You just gotta do it to help stretch the money further.

When you've been playing hobbies a long time you tend to find stockpiles of spares, recently I was able to make a 15 marines from my bits boxes, I just needed to get a few extra legs and some arms from a trade with a friend. I definitely like that about GW, they give you extra bits and bobs, and they do go far, you just gotta have a bit of intuition.


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## dtq (Feb 19, 2009)

Kobrakai said:


> GW prices were always a problem, even when I was but a dot and asking parents to buy me models they frowned on the prices, and I started 11 years ago.
> 
> Everythings more expensive now, it's just the way modern life is. But if you can find ways of getting cheaper kits, or making your kits go further (For eg: Buying a devastator box and a combat box to make 8 complete heavy weapon marines, or getting bits from other players and making up squads from spares) You just gotta do it to help stretch the money further.
> 
> When you've been playing hobbies a long time you tend to find stockpiles of spares, recently I was able to make a 15 marines from my bits boxes, I just needed to get a few extra legs and some arms from a trade with a friend. I definitely like that about GW, they give you extra bits and bobs, and they do go far, you just gotta have a bit of intuition.


You cant beat a good bits box  I got one of those chaos terminator lord boxes recently and between that box set and spare bits from other kits I put together a chaos terminator sorcerer a chaos terminator lord and the bulk of my "Leman Russ Primarch" model. Im also prepping a small adeptus mechanicus squad using helmets with augmetics from various sprues, the adeptus chest plate from vehicle sprues and the adeptus mechanics shoulder plates from th same sprue, will probably use the GW Iron hands as a and then add all the bits Ive been storing up. Ive also got a themed "heresy" era set of bits Im slowly putting together using the "plain" chests beaky helmets modded chaos bolters with ammo chains instead of magazines and none knee padded legs.

I also brought a devestator set and split the weapons between my loyalists and chaos to make up a plastic chaos havocs set as well as add heavy bolters to my loyalists cheap


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

I didnt make this to be flamed myself,

I made it to have a discussion, not for people to get snappy at me


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## Pandorav3 (Jan 30, 2009)

Im gonna hold off judgement till I actually see how much the prices are. If I start seeing 10 men for $45, then yes Im gonna get ticked, but if its a $3-$5 increase, i dont think i will complain too much, sure there will be plenty of griping, but peaple will keep playing.


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## solkan (Apr 24, 2008)

First, dear original poster, may I suggest turning down the 'snippy' setting on your Internet reading voice? I am certain that any criticisms which are being posted are criticisms of your ideas, and not of you.

Second, what kind of ludicrous situation would it be if Games Workshop, the manufacturer of the product, didn't sell its own products at manufacturer's suggested retail price? Not only would that defeat the entire purpose of having a manufacturer's suggested retail price, but it would undermine all of its distributors and retailers.


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

GW is what's called a "vertically integrated" company, meaning they are capable of handling every or almost every aspect of their product. I've discussed this with a few people who study the economic "sciences" and they explained to me how it is actually cheaper for such a company to sell their product in bulk to other suppliers than to actually sell it directly to consumers. 

Also, it's to punish us capitalist pig dogs for having money.


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## Talos (Aug 4, 2008)

I have not been on the GW site for a long time as if I am going to buy online I will use a different site but somethings just seem to be way to much.
I mean 1 chaos terminator is nearly £10 for just one man sized metal model, I really wish I could go back into time for when I first started playing with the money I have now and just buy a load of models.
Also the Night lords pack seems a bit much £14 for 10 heads, 10 shoulder pads plus a sword.
Sorry I know we all complain about the prices it just sort of shocked me.


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## Thursdayisgod (Apr 1, 2009)

Ok, as an economics major I feel obligated to mention something here:

1) U.K. prices are significantly cheaper than U.S., you guys have way less regulations on price floors for the product than we do in the U.S. I have actually been turning a pretty nice profit by buying from a variety of U.K. retailers and selling the product to U.S. consumers.

2) As a previous poster mentioned, it is cheaper for GW to sell wholesale than it is to sell individually. It's diseconomies of scale.

3) Games Workshop has a synthetic monopoly over their market, the barriers to entry are incredibly high, I have never heard of "Gifts for Geeks" and I'm sure you've never heard of "Buy for Less Online" (the retailer I prefer). But we both know that GW workshop sells; and therefore, those who lack knowledge buy from GW. Their strong advertising always allows them to dictate price.

4) Lastly, all the RSP (recommended selling price) is the same as GW price, though it cannot be enforced obviously because of oligopoly laws.

It's absurd to think GW will go out of business because you choose to buy from a someone who buys from them. When you buy from Gifts for Geeks, where do you think the get their product?


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## beeny13 (Mar 30, 2008)

what i always wonder is whether buying online will lessen the store area. competing with low overhead online retailers would make it hard for gw to pay the overhead on a storefront. or at least i wonder if the impulse buys and purchases that become competitive without individual shipping can possibly account for a store's overhead.

the main reason i wonder this is because i love the game, but can't afford anywhere near retail. so i buy most of my stuff second hand through ebay. while i believe this helps keep the second hand market prices up, thereby keeping first hand prices high. 

i just wonder if enough people shopped like me would i still have a battle bunker to play at?


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## skulls_baby (Apr 28, 2009)

I've always believed that the money Games Workshop makes from direct sales to the public is what keeps the shops open and staffed as these shops rarely turn over huge amounts of profit yet they still keep them going. The money from independent retailers is what gives them the funds to keep updating their products, keeps the shareholders happy, and makes them a profitable company, I'm sure its a bit more complicated than this but that's how I've always seen it. Without the independents Games Workshop would have gone under a long time ago IMHO.

As for me, I'll stop splashing out on more models when GW stops making such a beautiful range.


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## SWQ2541 (Jun 1, 2009)

*This price increase thing*

I have never been interested in these forum things until now.I have been collecting GW stuff for a number of years and have a large number of figures for various armies sitting in the loft .I packed it in a couple of years ago because I got fed up of them bringing out yet another version of the rules with minor changes which did not seem to make much sense.
I got back into it because they were producing nice miniatures and the backround for both fantasy and 40K is excellent.The group I play with convinced me to give GW another try.
The point of this is that I was planning to expand all my armies with new minis and had contemplated starting a couple of new ones.
I looked at the prices and consider them too high from GW. I will not pay £60 for a baneblade or a Stompa .The quality of the kits is not better than any number of "historical" kits which are half the price.I recently picked up a Tiger one from Dragon which is about the same size at 1/35th and included individual track links, photo etch parts and metal accesories and it was half the price of a baneblade. Take a box of ten plastic GW figures for £12. Now look at Perry plastics or the new Napoleonics from Victrix which can supply up to 60 figures for £18.
Bottom line. I will use online or shops to pay what I am prepared to pay.If I think a figure is worth the money I will buy it from a shop. I am happy to pay a fair price . GW do not charge what I consider to be a fair price.New Valkyrie .Nice kit but £35????. I got mine for £27. If It was a choice between paying £35 or not having it I would still have the money in my account .If I cannot get a fair price I wont pay it. Oh yeah tell me how GW can justify going from 20 Imp guard for £18 to putting them in 10s at £12. Nothing anyone can say will convince me that is right or fair.
I will still buy GW stuff I expect but nowhere near as much as I planned to .Most of the people I know are saying the same .In the end GW lose out.
Sorry this has turned into a rant but this latest price thing has finally galvanised me into wanting to say something.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

SWQ2541 said:


> Oh yeah tell me how GW can justify going from 20 Imp guard for £18 to putting them in 10s at £12. Nothing anyone can say will convince me that is right or fair.


it is fair when you compare it to 10 *Plastic* greatswords for *£25*, when 10 metal ones only cost £24
:shok:


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

To be honest I don't object to prices of the new stuff comming out too much although I buy a lot less than I used to even with online discounts but the thing that really grips me is when they rise prices of really old and outdated models. 
When Mephiston came out he was about £5 and pretty much one of the better sculpts available as most models of the time were static and dull then but know he looks his age and costs twice as much if not more. The cost to produce old models hasn't risen that much but to keep prices in line with newer better sculpts all the old models rise.
That said even I won't shell out for the new greatswords (thats not a price rise its a liberty)


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## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

The tools used in the creation of plastic greatswords cost alot more than any other tools used in previous plastic models.


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## Inquisitor Varrius (Jul 3, 2008)

The tools cost more? That may be true but GW still has _really_ high prices. I picked the new Valkyrie up for $35 (canadian) at this store in Waterloo. It's close to $140 at GW... does that seem like a big difference to anyone else?


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## Shadow Hawk (Apr 26, 2009)

$140 Canadian dollars!? 
Thats a lot, around £78GBP. One valkyrie here costs £35 in GW. I would want at least 2 and a squad for that price!


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## Inquisitor Varrius (Jul 3, 2008)

That's why I went discount. Maybe Canada just has crappy pricing, but they think we're too polite to complain. I stopped buying GW a while ago, when they randomly jacked up the pricing. You can find most squads for $20 at that store, as opposed to the $55 GW asks.


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

effigy22 said:


> The tools used in the creation of plastic greatswords cost alot more than any other tools used in previous plastic models.


then why change tools?, and its a bit of a waste changing tools if GW ain't gonna sell any because people ain't stupid enough to buy them.

changing tools is just not a good enough reason to charge so much for there models, its an extremely weak excuse to use on people


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## asianavatar (Aug 20, 2007)

> I picked the new Valkyrie up for $35 (canadian) at this store in Waterloo. It's close to $140 at GW... does that seem like a big difference to anyone else?


What store in Waterloo is that, cause I am buying everything from them from now on cause you got a huge deal on that. Do you price all GW stuff at 50% off. 
At GW the valk is $70 not $140, still $35 is a good deal. Wanna buy one for me :grin:


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## Shadow Hawk (Apr 26, 2009)

asianavatar said:


> At GW the valk is $70 not $140


Ahh phew.... I thought he must have got it wrong. $140 Canadian dollars for a valkyrie is by far too much.


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## Inquisitor Varrius (Jul 3, 2008)

Sorry, you're right. I was looking at advance order + shipping from Hong Kong or something. In answer to Asianavatar, store is called J&J's, it's near university of Laurier. Bear in mind that's a sale price, but still; I was happy.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

effigy22 said:


> The tools used in the creation of plastic greatswords cost alot more than any other tools used in previous plastic models.


Can you explain to us how this works then ?and which "tools" you are refering to ?


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

bitsandkits said:


> Can you explain to us how this works then ?and which "tools" you are refering to ?


perhaps they were made from solid titanium and the molds were pure gold, and only pure virgins touched anything involved in the process


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## chromedog (Oct 31, 2007)

Stella Cadente said:


> perhaps they were made from solid titanium and the molds were pure gold, and only pure virgins touched anything involved in the process



Not titanium. Unobtanium. Harder to find and smelt (smelt it? You dealt it )

and how would only gamers touching it have an effect on the price?


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Stella Cadente said:


> perhaps they were made from solid titanium and the molds were pure gold, and only pure virgins touched anything involved in the process


i was lead to believe that was the current process :biggrin:


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## asianavatar (Aug 20, 2007)

> store is called J&J's, it's near university of Laurier. Bear in mind that's a sale price, but still; I was happy


Oh that store, I used to go there when I went to school in Waterloo. Next time there is a sale like that let me know. Checked their site and most things were about 20% to 25% off which is decent.

I think the tools that are being talked about are the molds. Plastic requires metal molds, these are expensive to make compared to rubber molds. Since the Valkryie is a vehicle and probably won't sell as many as say a rhino they are priced slightly higher to make up the cost of the molds. Or at least that is how its suppose to work. It may just be that the molds are made of something amazing and expensive like wonderflounium.


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## LordWaffles (Jan 15, 2008)

JokerGod said:


> First off, all prices rise over time. It happens to everything from TVs, Rent, Gas and food. Its just how it works.
> 
> If you look at the plastic GW used back in the early 90s and the plastic they use now, you would shit your self over how better the quality of it is.
> 
> GW sells a LOT cheaper to Independent retailers, why? Because its a lot cheaper and easyer for GW to sell the stuff cheaper to them then to try and sell it only from them. It creates a place for people to play and still gives GW the low profit margin they need.


So you're saying the company could sell them cheaper without a loss in profit to minor establishments they're trying to snuff out in the first place willingly?




JokerGod said:


> Stella, if it is stupid to spend money on a game you enjoy and can spend untold hours playing with no further investment and will continue to grow and change, then you can call me stupid. I play video games, they come 40-50$ a pop, I spend 30-40 hours playing the game and then it sits on a shelf and never moves, I spend 100-200$ on a WH army and I get years of enjoyment out of it. and never have to spend another cent on the game to play if I don't want to.


Herfaderf nobody pays for games anymore. The market for them is so washed out that pirating forces game companies to actually make a game well-thought out and encourages them to make all games have online settings that are monitored and updated frequently.

As for WH, you do have to update to remain competitive, or even legal. In example, the "naughty marines". Sure you can play everything bad and lose all the time, but not everyone finds that fun.



JokerGod said:


> The day GW goes under is the day the gaming community loses a leader in table top gaming and an icon for the future gamers.


Also it'd let privateer press have a monopoly on skirmish games. Which would be god awful as that company overprices as is.

And if GW had a molding factory with nothing but twenty something female virgins smelting things out of gundanium, I'd be leading a crack team in to rescue them. Getting through the complex would be very simple, we'd just lash the bulkiest models in existance(dragon ogres) to the front of a volvo and tank shock and ram our way to victory.
Plus those bitches can model, do you think they did the possessed sprues?


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