"GW's Vampire Counts Black Coach Price..WTH???" Topic

Okay maybe someone can help me out and explain this…

I'm not a big GW person…far from it. I like some of their terrain but I don't play their games, etc…I liked their old Citadel stuff when you could get medieval peasants/civilians, etc…

About 5-7 years ago, I picked up the Vampire Counts Black Coach kit. $29.99 USD. I never built it….it's been sitting still sealed in my cabinet o' models to be built "one day".

The other day I was cruising the GW site looking at the Gardens of Morr and came across the vampire counts stuff…and lo and behold there was the same black coach model….but now for sale at $56.00 USD!!!!

Wow..

Almost a 100% price increase!

Why?

Yes I know that people are going to give me the "It's GW" type of answer, and that's really not what I am looking for. I'm looking for a more rationale reason.

To be honest, if I was out to get it today and saw it for almost sixty bucks, I would say "Thanks, I'll pass"…

So discussions?

Thanks!

Was it metal or Finecrap? When GW switched to Finecrap resin last year the prices jumped up . Im glad I bought mine a few years ago too.

The coach is $90 USD AUD in Australia.
Since the Aussie dollar is currently worth more than the US dollar, I think you have little to complain about.

Rational?

GW?

Maybe if you lived in Mars or something. GW stopped making sense long ago, amazed people still play their money eater

Chuck05, I think it's the metal version….

The Coach was released at $29.99 USD in about 1999 or 2000, if I remember correctly. It was at least available in 2001 for that price. If you look at the inflation from that time to now the $29.99 USD price should be more like $40.00 USD straight up. So that accounts for some of the increase in price.

So from that it is only a 50% price increase. Some of this has to come from it being in finecast resin which I'd imagine might cost more than the metal. Now initially the finecast stuff was pretty terrible, or at least the stuff I bought was. Having vowed never to buy any more I've been surprised by the more recent stuff I've seen from customers. The quality has improved markedly over the stuff I got for myself and it does hold the detail better than metal. For stuff like the black coach, other bigger figures or anything on a flight stand I would much prefer finecast over metal these days actually.

So maybe that could account for some of the price increase.

My guess is that when you bought it it was probably either at an old price or at the tail end of a cycle of price increases.

That and GW wants to make more money per unit sold as we all do. Most people would certainly be unhappy to be at the same job 10 years later making the same amount of money.

Pictors…thanks for the answer….That seemed more likely…

That and GW wants to make more money per unit sold as we all do. Most people would certainly be unhappy to be at the same job 10 years later making the same amount of money.

Considering that the production costs were probaly paid for a decade ago and whatever they make on them now is just gravy I think they way ahead of the game. Draculas Coach from Old Glory/Westwind makes a nice alternative.

My financal investment strategist recommends I buy GW figures as they seem to hold their commodity value better than what I'm doing now. Could I write them off on my taxes as a hobby expense as well?

Another vote for Old Glory's Dracula's Coach model.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Blue Moon has a number of nice looking coaches for considerably less. I'd go that route.

"Considering that the production costs were probaly paid for a decade ago and whatever they make on them now is just gravy I think they way ahead of the game."

My college education was paid for a decade ago. If I were to use it to make money I wouldn't necessarily think the work I was doing as gravy. They might be way ahead of the game on it but if I were them I'd still want to get paid to make it. Also there are probably new production costs for the finecast mold.

It all sounds a lot more sensibly priced if you take into account all those starving stockholders, IP lawyers, accountants, marketing people, executives, all that R&D that went into Finecast, those Tolkien licenses etc …

You might want to check also for the effect of UK versus US currency fluctuations, which might have affected issue to one direction or another. Keep in mind that for GW the UK pound is the primary currency they use for setting the prices.

Checking the UK, currently the black coach (in "finecast" resin) retails for £36.00 GBP When that set was first released in summer 1999 (in metal), it was priced at £20.00 GBP

Thus, in 13.5 years there has been a price increase of "only" 80% combined with the change of the material from metal to resin.

I'm actually looking at anything GW I buy as an investment. Just leave it in the packaging and sell it a couple years from when you buy it for a nice tidy profit…

Better than the stock market in most cases… :)

Careful Neal. That's what the Dutch thought about tulips.

If you look at the UK inflation it would be 27.60 quid now. Making it only a 42% increase.

Gas 1999 = 1.17
Gas 2012 = 3.30

Comic books 1986 = $.75 USD
Comic books 2012 = $2.99 USD

When has GW ever had to justify price increases? They charge what the current market will bear. New GW gamers are GW gamers because they are willing to pay the current prices, or figured they can buy a lot of their basic army cheaper second hand, making the luxury pieces like the coach more affordable over all.

BTW take a look at 1:35 armor models or model railroading for some real sticker shock. One decent HO passenger car will run you $40 USD-$50--and think how many you need?

Not that I would buy the GW coach…

BTW take a look at 1:35 armor models or model railroading for some real sticker shock.

I just picked up a plastic 1/35 model of a Firefly 1c Hybrid. I got it on sale for a very good price of $29.99 USD…retails for $59.99 USD. I remember a time when a kit like this could be bought for between $40 USD and $45. USD I thought the Tamiya Char B1 Bis was very expensive at $65 USD, but I have been seeing kits released for $85 USD, in plastic no less! And we're not talking about gigantic kits here either, just 1/35 tanks (the kit in question was a Sherman from Tasca). I also remember getting Fruil cast metal workable tracks for this scale for $35 USD, I noticed they now retail for $60 USD a set! Yes, it's getting expensive…

Damon.

Oddly the model railroad kits I was looking at yesterday was from a company called Wills Finecast. Can GW sue them for using the name since the 60s?

For comparison, GW also still sells the same plastic box of 20 zombies they did back in 1999. For that the price has gone up from £12.00 GBP to £20.50 GBP or approximately 71% in the same time that black coach went up by 80%.

Here's another interesting comparison. The GW escape from Goblin Town set costs £75.00 GBP The Lego set of basically the same thing is about £85.00 GBP! Considering that Lego must be selling more of their set by an order of magnitude it doesn't seem so bad (and you get a lot more figures in the GW box).

Hang Lego by their own gallows set!

Of course that value of the 12 quid has also gone up to 16.56 in the same time.

My college education was paid for a decade ago. If I were to use it to make money I wouldn't necessarily think the work I was doing as gravy.

And if your degree program was already paid off several times over, would you still feel the same? My undergraduate degree paid itself off a fairly long time ago; my present (pending) MS will potentially pay for itself in spades in a few short years if everything proceeds according to plan (Hah!).

They might be way ahead of the game on it but if I were them I'd still want to get paid to make it.

Absolutely. "The laborer earns his wage." But as a *consumer,* do you really want to be charged $435 USD for a hammer, $1,000 USD for a toilet seat, just because the hammer for example has been labeled a "Multi-Directional Impact Generator?"

Also there are probably new production costs for the finecast mold.

Guess Bandai didn't get the memo about that idea of charging full-on 2012 new product prices for products made a decade or more previously:

hlj.com/product/BAN11655

hlj.com/product/BAN11623

hlj.com/product/BAN11673

Games Sweatshop charges what they do because their target audience is each new crop of 12-year-olds who have (1) not yet discovered that girls are *interesting* (2) and therefore you spend money on a girl if you want to take her out on a date, and (3) have parents whom the 12-year-olds can besiege for the money for the latest Warhamster $99.99 USD model kit/rule book supplement/must-have-to-play-with-the-cool-GW-kids-or-your-army-will-LOSE!-figure(s).

Games Sweatshop's target market is not those of us who are over 30 (whom they derisively refer to as "beardies"), but *kids* who are not at all likely to even suspect that there's anything beyond the "Games Sweatshop Hobby(tm)" as an alternative (or have the motivation to look for alternatives). The company charges whatever they believe their specifically-targeted market demographic can get said market demographic's *parents* to pay for.

This is a corporate(ist) business model pure and simple, a toy company with the mentality of a Mattel or such that is cynically obsessed solely and absolutely with the bottom line, not the consumer. If they could sell the public a sugar-coated rabbit pellet and call it "all natural good-for-you candy" IMHO they would not hesitate.

Caveat emptor.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net