"US Gamers Seem More Cost Conscious, Any Reason?" Topic

i can't help noticing that U.S. based gamers seem particularly cost aware. There are regular posts here about things like the price of figures, the cost of rule sets and so on, as well as a much greater emphasis on 15mm figures then you see in Europe.

I'd always had the impression that salaries were higher and property cheaper across the pond than here. If so, I can't really work out why higher prices seem to be accepted without discussion in Europe, but seem to be a major bone of contention in the US. Can anyone shed any light on this? Is there some big cultural difference I've not spotted that makes this so?

Is your impression based on actual evidence, or anecdotical stories?

I'm a European (of the continental sort, i.e. non-UK) wargamer, and I know of wargamers for whom money is not really an issue, and ones who scrounge on every cent. And yes, many gamers complain all the time about things being too costly, but that doesn't mean one doesn't buy stuff ;-)

Anyway, if your impression would geenralize, one of the underlying reasons might be that on average, European houses are smaller than American ones, hence no luxurious basement that can house 10'x20' tables, hence less need for thousands of figures, hence less complaining about the cost per figure?

Dear Bob

NAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

Only the cheap ones complain. Some gamers are horribly cheap. These are the guys who constantly grouse about the price of figures and say "theyw will build an army when the price comes down." Literal translation- I'll mooch off your and complain like a stuck pig…"

You're only hearing the grousers. Yesterday after Cold Wars Convention we went over to Bob Liebl who has the spitting image of What Phil talks about. Not quite 10' by 20;' but close. We gamers here in America have learned you can't have a table over 6' wide.

Most gamers in the US buy buy buy, as I did. Not rules though, I haven't bought a set of rules in 20 years. Not worth the money, especially the 100/100 sets (over 100 pages over $100 USD).

But conventioneers at the latest Cold Wars were spending freely.

It's entirely anecdotal, but based on a lot of threads here. There's one today asking how to get a cheap Saga Army. Saga armies ARE cheap, it's what, thirty, forty figures? The cost for a whole army is less than a meal in a decent restaurant. I have never heard anyone in the UK with a similar complaint. Anyway, he was advised to get a 15mm army. What? If he goes to a tournament with a 15mm army can that work? Everyone else will surely have 28mm armies.

About a month ago I started checking out the locations of the people asking such questions, they all came from the U.S. Hence my question. I wasn't sure if imports doubled he cost of figures,nor similar.

With a lot of figures being imports from the UK, I imagine that might push it up.

I've supervised in customer care jobs and people will try to argue about anything that costs money.

"You realize this feature is half the cost of any competitor on the market?"
"Yeah, but I want to be compensated for the inconvenience of having to call you"
"The inconvenience of having to call to ask if you can get it any cheaper?"
"Yes"

As far as pricing and games, I live by the 50 dollar rule. For me, what I play and what I write, 50 dollars should always be a good buy in that will let me play a reasonable, meaningful battle on the table.

Yes, they are cheaper. There may be several reasons for it.
1. Americans in General shop as cheaply as they can. So maybe they get it from their parents. One economic course in consumer spending used to attribute it to the surviving the Depression attitude of our elders. My wife before her cancer was in the clothing store business and later Fabric business. It was the same experience as the gaming industry. We used to refer to a certain type of shopper as a 'half price Vulture'. You never saw them unless you were having a deep price discount sale. As a result Manufacturers began to change the formula for pricing. It went from doubling the cost which was a standard for decade to tripleing the cost which allowed a slight profit even after doing a 1/2 price sale. Soon the formula changed again in the 1990s to quadrupling the cost price. For the gaming industry the manufacturer maintained a 40% off discount and occasionally a 50% discount with some imports running only a 33 or 25% discount.

2. Many Americans have been on a more limited income per se. College Students, military, retired with all having restricted income levels. A brief period of good paying position would be the time frame for a higher level of buying.

3. There is a priority of spending on hobbies. Americans tend to have multiple hobbies to spend money on with the focus on spending shifting between them. Almost universally men have a sports interest whether football, baseball, NASCAR, hunting/fishing, re-enacting or gun collecting. In a lot of cases these are higher or at least some money is spent on clothing. Like football there would be lots of money spent on clothes, going to games, beer etc. So when it comes to gaming, we merchants have to be happy with left over funds.

Well, we here fought a war over the price of tea once. Turned out rather well for us too! :-)

Perhaps its just ingrained into our greedy, capitalistic, nature.
But seriously, that last recession really hit us hard, and folks are finding less and less bucks for fun and games. Putting food on the table isnt as easy as it was awhile ago. And we just arnt used to that.

Keep in mind that with the exchange rate Americans pay roughly 50% more than you do per figure and then many British companies charge to ship anywhere from 25%-50%. That does add to the cost.

Assuming what you say is true then just glancing at P&P costs and exchange rates would have to be a major factor particularly in 28mm.

Christopher

Shipping is one(if ordered from overseas)
I to try and order from Europe, because of shipping from the states)

But people from other western countries do have seem to have more disposable income. There does seem be less saving up, and less budgeting for miniatures in western europe, ozzy and kiwiland.

Could it be that there are more TMP'ers in the US, overall? This would drive up the numbers easily, even if the percentages were the same. Cheers!

Probably, TMP has a higher % of US members than any other nation.

Also, I suppose, squeaky wheel syndrome. Questions on prices are always going to be 'where can I get this for less.' Can't say I've ever seen a thread about 'wow, this was too reasonably priced, can I pay more?!"

That's just the nature of anything that's sold for money.

No matter the price of an item, someone will think it's too much and someone else would have paid twice that :)