"Increased Miniature Sales Due to Recession?" Topic

It seems I am hearing that miniature and game companies are selling more now than they did before the recession really hit late last year. IIRC GZG mentioned this recently. Just curious if this is true and what other factors might be at play, such as strong dollar and discount sales? Will it continue as the recession drags on?

Personally, I've bought a lot more stuff lately because the dollar is strong again. I'd been holding off on a number of purchases from the UK, and finally pulled the trigger in the last three months.

The strong dollar is why all my money has been going overseas as well. US manufacturers have to have some really good sales on to beat those deals, especially when GZG, Briagde, and 15mmUK run 15% off sales on top of it, even with shipping on my orders being $20 USD I have still made out better with UK mail order.

So is the UK seeing better sales due to us Yanks than domestic US manufacturers?

I bought a lot from the UK due to the strong dollar, but I am also spending int he US when possible. Part of the issue is a good selection of 15mm stuff from US companies, but as that improves, I expect I will spend more here at home. I still really like Old Crow, QRF and GZG, but for minis, Rebel is starting to give them a run for the money. Vehicles are still much stronger from the UK companies.

Jeff

My painting service business is also up since the start of the recession. From what I have heard, this is true for other services.

Spend 100 dollars on dinner what do you get? one night out and a brown lump in the toilet the next day. Spend 100 dollars on your hobby , what do you get ? Couple three weeks of painting , an army to game with and a display for the shelf. The Hobby gives people something lasting to do while the economy works back to being productive .

Why save money when it could lose value or earn a paltry .25% interest? I figure it's my civic duty to keep a few hobby stores going.

Spend 100 dollars on your hobby , what do you get ? Couple three weeks of painting

Three weeks?? It takes me more like 3 YEARS to paint $100 USD worth of miniatures! And I own over $1,000.00 USD worth of miniatures so you can guess what my painted:unpainted ratio looks like….

Though my own hobby spending is way down, I noticed that the ebay stuff that I sold before and after X-mas seemded to be selling better than any time in the last 2-3 years.

My painting service is up but my store sales have fallen so bad that I will probably be closing the shop within a few months.
pigmentedminiatures.com

Well I have spent a LOT more with UK manufacturers in the last 3 months than before.

Firstly this is down to the weak pound, with the pound at 1.4 rather than 2.1 thats already a 33% discount.

Secondly due to a number of special deals offered by various UK manufacturers, like Renegade for example.

However a large part of that expenditure comes from money that I would have previously spent on EBay, the above two factors have dramatically shifted the balance in favor of buying direct or new.

Another big part of the money comes from spending my next several months "budget" in advance to take advantage of these deals. In the last few weeks the amount I am spending has started to slow again and could dry up this month. For example the money that went to Renegade is from my budget that would have gone to WG in a few months time when they release there ECW plastics.

The recession is certainly making me very nervous, I am tending to spend in spurts, then sit tight for a while and see how things go.

Whilst my job is safe and we are even hiring new staff at the moment, you never know if a car crash is only just around the corner. Previous company track record, history, profits, public assurances by management are all no gaurantee at the moment.

This recession hasn't reached bottom yet, unemployment is rising, profits falling, expenditure declining, things are for sure going to get worse before they get better. There is always a ground zero and it takes time for the effects to ripple out to the edges and if you haven't felt the effects yet it maybe be like a sunami that just hasn't reached you yet. Until the world economy stabilises I don't see how anyone can feel like its really time to make hay, it's not $100 USD on dinner or the hobby, it's $100 USD on dinner, hobby or stuff it under the mattress 'cos next week I might be unemployed.

There have been recessions in the UK, US, Europe and Asia before of course, the difference this time is that it is everywhere at once, there isn't some bright spot to take up the slack, and also the solution of every gov't has been the same (frighteningly so), to pour billions into finance and cars, which is a bit like a guy who just lost all his money on roulette and his answer is to just go to the ATM, double up and pray, it might work but if it doesn't the will really hit the fan for all of us.

So it may look like increased spending on the industry but maybe it's not really so clear cut and I think the industry would be unwise to bank on this continuing or that what happened in previous recesson will be a pattern for this time.

Of course its somewhat different if you are single and young than if you are older with family and I don't assume everyone is like me, so as ever YMMV.

I found the last 3 months of 2008 dire, followed by a record breaking January and slightly below average February. So far March has been poor. So I would say that things are erratic.