"Games Workshop Spit In Their Customers Face Again" Topic

So, whilst visiting my local Games Workshop to chat with the staff, I am informed of a new plastic box set of Orc Boys. Now for years they have been 19 models for £18, or there abouts, but with the upcoming release this will be changing.

Being handed a "new" box priced at £18.00 GBP I am guided to the model count inside . . . 10! That is nearly half the models for exactly the same price!!! What the hell? Why in an army designed towards hordes of models are they the same price as armies targeted at small elite troops?

I for one think this is such an insult, in a month where already my local GW has decided to also close all open gaming claiming that it is being looked in to as a country wide decision for 4th company or smaller shops.

In short; not impressed yet again.

""In short; not impressed yet again.""

And yet you keep buying from them.

"Why in an army designed towards hordes of models are they the same price as armies targeted at small elite troops? "

I bet the amount of plastic, and the amount of design work are similar for any similarly sized infantry troop. Why should and 'elite' cost more than a 'horde' type?

I don't. I go in to talk to my old house mate who's a staff member. I also used to work for them and left because I didn't agree with their direction.

There are also still box sets of 20 for that price range, and the models aren't even being re-sculpted just repackaged at a new, higher price.

"Why…"

To make more money. This is a standard tactic done by many mfrs. I think they all learn it in some business class at the university. Anyways, they're hiding a 0.86 price hike per fig. Inflation, supply and demand, availability of resources etc.

While 1.80 GBP, or 2.88 USD, is a lot of money per figure, GW has always been VERY expensive compared to other mfrs. This is not new news. They get away with this because customers will pay it.

"I bet the amount of plastic, and the amount of design work are similar for any similarly sized infantry troop. Why should and 'elite' cost more than a 'horde' type?"

Why after years of the box being the same has it now halved in size but kept the price cost then? And GW have priced "elite" units higher than regular ones before. Space Marines are £22.00 GBP for 10 whilst Chaos Marines are cheaper for the same number of models.

Indeed. GW will charge what the market will bear. Don't like it? Don't buy it. There are plenty of other great games out there you could be playing, rather than obsessing on how GW treats their customers…

Damon.

@ adub74 Yeah I understand that GW are always more expensive, I just can't believe their audacity at this move. It's such an insult to the customers.

"aren't even being re-sculpted"

Doesn't matter. Doritos will take a few chips out of their bags to save a couple of cents every couple of years. When there bags become too light, they'll market the new improved larger (more expensive) bag. And that new bag holds the same number of chips as the original bags did a few years before. All to hide the price increase. And not once will Doritos change anything about their chip.

Business as usual gentlemen, nothing to see here.

Some companies hollow out the bottom of their jars (like peanut butter) so that they sell less for the same price (sure you can look at the number of oz on the jar, but most people don't notice). There's always a hue and cry over GW pulling something like this on a hobby good, but much less said when food manufacturers do the exact same thing, and sneak in secret price hikes. Which is more important to argue about?

Damon.

@ Garand
I do play other stuff, just felt obligated to make the unsuspecting aware of this new idiocy.

@adub74
They had already increased the price of the box set that is my point. The models have followed inflation etc but now are just being hiked up for the sake of it. For a company based on customer service and hobby awareness they're pretty contradictory.

I wasn't arguing to start with, I was just pointing out what has been done in what seems to be an unnecessary action.

This is why I stopped playing GW games in the late nineties, and why I stopped buying GW products entirely soon after. Don't stress about it, give your gaming dollars to other companies that don't rip you off (as much)… Most folks on TMP seem to understand this, even the fans of purist capitalism. Luckily there ARE lots of other options out there.

Don't like it, don't buy it. They ain't going to listen to you whining. One would have to be mortifyingly stupid, rather than simply 'unsuspecting', to not notice the price tag.

If GW thinks it can sell basic troops for that much (I find that questionable but don't pretend to be an expert), then it will put that price on it.

Anyone would think they were responsible for distributing food to Africa…

Leigh

I don't understand why people stand for it – but they do.

I have friends who are always moaning about how expensive soccer is, how the clubs don't care about them (the fans) any more etc etc.

And I say the same to them as I'll say to anyone who moans about GW – if you feel they are ripping you off, give up on it.

Soccer club, GW, whatever – they are a business. As long as you keep handing cash over to them then they are not going to think "oh, we're doing something wrong" simply because they aren't. They put the price up, the product sells just as well, they make bigger profits. That is a good thing for a business.

If the customer is unhappy about it then they should stop going into the shop and asking "please empty my wallet, give me less than before, and leave me resentful".

You may love GW – but don't delude yourself that they love you back.

I don't love them, as I've said I just wanted to put it out there on what is about to be done without it having been advertised in any way.

All the people saying this isn't news or "don't buy." Well you don't have to read or post to this thread.

This is information worth having, particularly to people who might be thinking about starting an Orc & Goblin army. GW certainly aren't going to promote it so it's good that someone is passing it on.

Oh and people don't complain about food, because the prices are lower to begin with and food companies rarely halve the size of the product at a single stroke.

Soccer club, GW, whatever

You clearly don't support a football club in the UK it's akin to religon it's not something you just walk away from. It's in your blood, bred in through generations of male genes.

GW on the other hand I have walked away from like many others. Well thats not entirely true I just play the old editions of GW games I loved in my youth and scour ebay for those old citadel miniatures I collected back then and still love now.

As long as there are still stockists carrying the older Orcs and Goblins, you could always buy those.

As long as there are still stockists carrying the older Orcs and Goblins, you could always buy those.

Very true or the evil that is ebay tons of GW dumped on there everyday as GWs last lot of spotty teenage customers dump gaming for girls and beer. The good thing about GW sales technique is that the older (yet perfectly usable) stuff is off loaded by their customer base looking to own the next latest new shiny coming out of GW HQ. For the less bothered there are bargains to be had a plenty.

Mooby666 – I was talking in more general terms, as it was already very clear from your previous posts that you no longer like GW you just go in there to hang out. Sorry that wasn't clear in my post.

I think the thread has opened out a bit from your initial post and people are talking in more general terms and not just about you in particular.

You clearly don't support a football club in the UK

Ah well, I did once, then the scales were lifted from my eyes – once I realised it wasn't about the game but was really mainly about selling trainers, coca-cola and disgusting lager I lost interest.

And walked away from it.

All the people saying this isn't news or "don't buy." Well you don't have to read or post to this thread.

Fair enough as far as it goes – but the thread wasn't entitled "GW price hike", it was far more emotive than that and so, not unreasonably, people on the discussion group chose to, err, discuss it.

Which, personally, I also think is "fair enough".

Even though they are pricey, they have a store within a couple miles of my home, so I will always shop there on occasion for paint, brushes, flock and the like.

On the weekends, there is always a crowd of boys filling the tables. I used to pity them for playing a game system that will constantly change the rules & figure styles to get you to buy new ones, and will not let you play on their tables unless you're using the latest edition. But I'm over that now, and just appreciate them spreading and sustaining the hobby while giving me a chance to pick up whatever I need in a hurry.

Another thought that maybe someone here can answer… It's true that most companies would never increase prices so dramatically as 666 reports. However, plastic figures are oil based products, and oil prices have started to spike dramatically again. Of course, when the prices are lowered, you usually would not see much if any decrease in the price of an oil based product, but you'd at least expect the price to hold steady even in the face of other inflationary pressures. So, what percentage of the sales price is directly attributable to the increase in oil prices, which also impact the transportation of the product?

I also wonder what price elasticity their miniatures have? I.e., what is the optimum price set point to maximize their profits by getting more per sale but not driving away too many customers? What sort of marketing research would they do to determine that?

Sweet Lord, people, why are (some of) you carrying on?

While I despise GW I think they will do what most businesses do – sell at the maximum price they think they can get. So far, they seem (unfortunately) to be doing well enough.

Buy different figures. Play different rules. Or accept their methods.

Gracias,

Glenn

Wow… shocking. ;-)

and the models aren't even being re-sculpted just repackaged at a new, higher price.

I haven't seen the new box in question, so cannot comment about the models, but there is no way they could repackage those old orc sprues in boxes of ten, since there are four orcs per sprue.

GW is about business, that's all. Even FW has crazy pricing 'cos they know they'll sell those things. The bright side is that other companies are making (sometimes even better) minis at lower prices (like Mantic) and that sooner or later GW players will realize how bad the GW games they play are and they will "house rule" them or just change system and minis to play something better. Both ways they'll start changing rules and then minis for Mantic, TAG, Victrix, Perry or Warlord Games, for example.
But I agree that GW is even callous regarding fans (who at least are the people keeping their business running). Frankly I'd never think of 'em doing what Perry did postponing a price rise because of a mistake when posting it in their front page…

It's called the free market.

The problem with GW is that they think they are selling prestige goods, where there's a kind of bragging right in the price you paid. With prestige goods, the higher the price, the more product they move (sounds stupid, but look at Rolex watches and diamonds).

What their marketers haven't figured out yet is that no toys actually *are* prestige goods. They also seem to have ignored that their marketing plan is fueling the secondary market, reducing the number of products sold.

Wonder why their stock took a dive?

"and the models aren't even being re-sculpted just repackaged at a new, higher price."

That new box artwork costs big money, you know…. ;-)

You can make 11 out of the newer boxes. Came out quite a while ago, really.

Just a quick thing the box is £15.50 GBP for "This boxed set contains 10 multi-part plastic Ork Boyz, and includes options for sluggas, choppas, shootas, heavy weapons and stikk bombz."

Now i dont know how different this is from the old 19 Ork Boyz box, but considering some of the models were sold on there own, stick bomberz for example. It would seem that they had changed something.

Ahem, I think that he is referring to the WHFB Orc Boyz set, not to the 40K Ork Boyz set. Namely, this kit:

link

"It's called the free market."

And the free market has always been a very bad idea.

And the free market has always been a very bad idea.

I am not sure that government regulated prices for 28mm plastic miniatures would work particularly well in practice.

Another thought that maybe someone here can answer… It's true that most companies would never increase prices so dramatically as 666 reports. However, plastic figures are oil based products, and oil prices have started to spike dramatically again. Of course, when the prices are lowered, you usually would not see much if any decrease in the price of an oil based product, but you'd at least expect the price to hold steady even in the face of other inflationary pressures. So, what percentage of the sales price is directly attributable to the increase in oil prices, which also impact the transportation of the product?

The plastic used in producing a sprue of models costs about 10p. Doubling the cost of this should not result in a doubling of the price a customer pays.

They will continue to push the envelope until their pricing model is no longer sustainable. In the old days they could get away with it because their sculpting was of a much higher standard. Today, however (as stated earlier) there is a lot more quality competition out there and every price move (especially for generic figures such as Orcs) only moves customers to consider their competitors. It is up to the competitors (Mantic, Black Tree, Wargames Foundry) to read these moves and be ready when those customers come browsing.

The difference between Luck and Failure is preparation.

Wargames Factory – 24 plastic Orcs for $20 USD (£12.56)

Wargames Factory – 24 plastic Orcs for $20.00 USD USD (£12.56)

True, but they ain't nice – nice idea, badly executed. Not saying GW's are brilliant either mind you. Someone needs to do decent orcs. Fingers crossed on Mantic, but I think they are going to be GW-esque :-(

Oh yes, GW prices are a joke.

I've been planning to start an Orc Army for Warhammer for a while, but to be honest, 18 quid for 10 figures does seem too steep to me.

Mantic seem to be providing figures with lots of options at a resonable cost – let hope their Orcs follow thier Undead.

I'm happy to pay up to a quid per plastic figure – that seems reasonable – GW charging £1.80 GBP is too rich for me…

Furgie