"Time To Stop Buying" Topic

As the title states. In this time of economic uncertainty (no work, no pay) I promised my wife I will not be buying any more miniatures.

There was a few orders I planned to do this coming week, but it is far more prudent to not spend.

To all the makers and sellers of miniatures, I apologize in advance. I'm sure I am not the only one. Hang in there. Things should return to more normal times after the mass panic ends and people realize this virus isn't going to be any worse than the regular flu season. Quite probably far less.

However, when everything is shut down and borders closed, who knows, for sure, what is going to happen with produce and trade?

Hopefully not much, but preparedness is warranted.

Like you my income is about to stop. This means essential spending only and that doesn't include wargames stuff. I've not bought anything since about last September/October anyway so it's no great change.

I can see your point.
Trouble is, most figure manufacturers are very small businesses, and are likely to go out of business if sales dry up. I'm wondering about the future of the hobby.
We've seen this before, times where people clearly have to focus their disposable income on things they need, rather than things they want. Hobby spend is the first to go, as you say, hard to justify.
Perhaps with self isolation in mind, it's time to paint the stuff you have in the cupboard, those great idea unstarted projects. My motto is keep calm and paint soldiers.
Personally, I will still support my favourite small businesses, as I want to see them still in existence once this mad world comes to its senses.
Most of all, look after yourselves, your loved ones, your friends, and your neighbours

I disagree that it is time to stop buying. These are certainly uncertain times, but many are not suffering immediately or will at all economically. Everyone must make their own evaluation and draw their own conclusions as to what is best for them, but suggestion that we all go in any one direction is I believe I'll advised. Game companies are generally small operations and as such are rarely blessed with a wealth of reserve capital. The same should be said of your local game store, support them as best you can at these times.

Spend if you can.

Well, if income is down or uncertain, cutting the entertainment budget is certainly sensible. But the overall situation--restaurants shut down, mass gatherings closed or postponed--seems to me to be made for painting castings.

Spend if you can.

Yes indeed- I personally plan to continue to spend as much as I can afford to spend, in order to support businesses and painters. In fact, I will try to spend more than usual.

Of course times aren't buoyant economically but I would hope things may well bounce back by September-October.

In this country, the government's stimulus package, the generous Sick Leave entitlements &, at worst, the less generous unemployment benefits should take the edge off economic hardship for many.

What we need to consider is Fitzovich & BRB's point: if we don't support our industry it may go under. I think if we can, we should spend. I'll try to do my small bit with the same number of orders (mostly to British companies) as usual.

wmyers:

Face toward Nottingham (The Mecca of Lead) and chant three "Hail Featherstones" and we will give you special dispensation.

Cheers, Tumbleweed

Is a hobby, if buying something means your family will suffer do not buy. If you can spend without causing distress to family then do so.

Obviously your own personal financial situation determines this. I have just put £50.00 GBP out today to a variety of small companies.

ISTR that hobby spending is fairly durable in tough times, because people want to spend money on things that make them happy & distract them from what is going on. May not be the best time to start a new army, but buying a few packs to round out an existing army? Probably not a bad decision…

Damon.

One gamer's problems usually end up being another gamer's opportunity. I'm already seeing many gamers dumping board games and miniatures on other venues, so if you have money you'll be able to pick up games, miniatures, etc., at pretty good prices.

No right or wrong. Personal choice dependening on ability.

With spring and small (pre-kindergarten) children I have not only other things to think of and quite possibly 5.5 months off work (educational institutions have been closed "indefinitely") and juxtaposed with history (who thought in 1929 what the next decade would bring); its best to pause and be prudent.

Wait and see.

And work on the veritable mountain of lead and shelves of plastic filled boxes. As it is I can't see getting through what I have in my lifetime let alone time to play with it.

Hopefully the panic passes quickly. All the government spending has to be repaid at some point and that could well cause secondary effects most aren't even thinking of yet. Couple that with the clear real-estate bubble Canada has developed from foreign investors (a great many coincidentally are bought up from China), the fact of the great amount (who are of working age) in North America are literally one paycheque away from being unable to pay their life's necessities, vastly increased debt levels, etc and I believe it would be rather irresponsible to spend at this time.

(And hopefully be able to make up for it in the near future!)

Do as you can. If you can't, you can't. Real life takes precedence over toy soldiers, especially if you are not sure what your financial situation will be.

If you can spend I think you should consider the plight of small businesses especially restaurants and entertainers.

Backed some online painters on Patreon so no new stuff but still contributing.

Spent a decent amount at Cold Wars so I have done my part.

Let's not make this crisis worse by turning it into a self fulfilling prophecy. In the States people are irrationally buying up more toilet paper then they need, leaving grocery store shelves empty. We live in an interconnected world with a global marketplace. Individually, most of us are just a drop in the bucket, but collectively all those drops become an ocean. We could inadvertently destroy civilization by overreacting and drastically changing our behavior more than it is prudent. Of course take proper precaution to protect yourself and family, and still live your lives. We are all in this together.

My goal this year was already to curb buying. We're planning on buying (or starting to look) for a house later this year and the less unpainted lead I have to admit to moving the better. I am only buying for projects I am currently working on and even that is limited.

Personally I'm very seriously considering selling off part of my collection. I may get out of 40K entirely (though I may still keep my Eldar, just in case…).

Damon.

Actually sent an order to LegionsVIHire for some CinC minis and ordered a bunch of paints from Megahobby!

This too shall pass – stay the course.

Ordered some extra paint and brushes today. Seems like I'll have unusual amounts of painting time in the near future so it would seem perverse to stop.

I am not buying much but that is not for economic reasons – I have one of the lucky recession-proof jobs but I also have a mountain of unpainted minis

I did a very bad thing last night….

I late-night shopped and spent $200 USD at Forgeworld on a project I haven't worked on in over a year. I figured I'm not going to be going out on weekends and I may have 2 weeks off forced "vacation " depending on how things go so….

I do wish I could help the small businesses out more. I wish them luck.

I have no money left to spend on wargaming. Spent it all on bog paper…

My job isn't under threat and I'll continue to purchase.

If someone has to sell their miniatures at second hand prices to get through then I'd say they were already in dire financial straits.

I had planned on not spending much in 2020 because of the mountain of unfinished projects I already have, but in light of what's going on I am in fact going to make some purchases. I'm lucky enough to have a business that is fairly recession proof so I guess it's time to help some of the smaller businesses in the hobby

I'm fortunate that my spending habits will not need to change – I will do what I can to support my FLGS and my favorite suppliers online.

Australian Dollar is in the toilet.

Though I haven't made any purchases in quite a while, I'm going to have to put off even thinking about it, until better times and sanity prevail.

Rate against the USD was .61 overnight.

I'm not even game to look at where we stand against the Pound at the moment…

Stay safe, one and all.

+1 USAFpilot

I work for a large national retail chain and the craziness is epidemic; if the gubmint sends a $1,000 USD check, I think a good part of that will end up in minis.

NZD to AUD is at parity for first time in decades. Looks like Elite Miniatures Australia will be getting my orders.

I stand in the toilet paper aisle and all I can think is "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."

Then I think, how can I game this and what miniatures do I need!

Made a purchase just yesterday.

The panic is buying more supplies that you need and clearing of shelves. The overall event is not a "panic" its just many people haven't woken up to that yet.

I am not really pleased to see this kind of subject on TMP. It feeds into the hysteria that we see in the news. This is a serious moment for sure but how we respond is the critical issue. Prudent self care, respectful distancing from others and perspective and proportionality is the key.

I had declared a moratorium on mini buying until Salute. Now Salute has been pushed to next year. Dispensation? Marcus, TMP is exactly where this conversation topic belongs. A discussion between people, rather than blow-hards on the radio or talking heads on TV, allows us to calm each other and reason things out, and to see other viewpoints. I think we all are affected by this situation in different ways, but I also believe we all appreciate that others may be seriously negatively impacted. "Spend what you can" means just that. If what you can spend right now is zero, then that's what you spend. I am very glad to have this community. I'm distance working, can't do many of the things I would like (while completely understanding why) and TMP gives me contact and a sense of normalcy. Peace.

I pretty much stopped buying things a couple of years ago (and I have gone so far as to give away all of my 1/300 scale and a vast portion of my 15mm unpainted minis) when a "back of a postcard" computation indicated that I would need to live well into my second century to get the then-current lead mountain finished!

If the crisis passes quickly there'll be people trying to offload mountains of hoarded toilet paper, which will make cheap bulk material for constructing papier mache mountains.

"… there'll be people trying to offload mountains of hoarded toilet paper…"

:-D

I stopped at my local gaming store yesterday and they thankfully reported they have been very busy!

People staying in and kids off school have help provide the impetus for people to buy games.

Hopefully it works the same for all miniatures makers and sellers!

You know, it wasn't like this starting out, but I'd have to say over the past 30 years I've had more trouble with incomplete lines, unresponsive manufacturers and incompatible scales than I've had with finding money for figures. It limits my sympathy. I am not under a moral obligation to start playing 32mm zombie games because someone has started an incomplete line.

I'm going to go paint some H&R figures--which I can't buy more of, naturally. If any of you people making holy noises about buying even more figures I won't have time to paint really want me to buy more lead, tell me where I can match my West End Games Imperial Storm Troopers or my Heritage "John Carter of Mars" range. (Paroom Station kinda worked. 32mm figures will not--which I'm pretty sure is the point of 32mm.)

I'd like to match my West End Games Star Wars too (and right handed, at that).

Yuppers, I'd have to agree about the 32mm figures.

While they do have lots of details to paint, they take up a lot of space.

My wargaming purchases went to the wonderful world of reenacting. Now, with those events canceled for the foreseeable time I am working on the lead pile. Put some Perry figs together, finish my Wild West town, etc. Unlike many people I have to work at the office until further notice. Trucking keeps the country going.

Best guess I can make is that I have something over 5,000 unpainted microscale castings in the house. The good news is that it was about 6,000 when I got back from Cold Wars. If I stay locked down long enough…

On the contrary, I am preparing to launch more new products this year. When Hobby pauses for a while, people's purchasing power is even higher.

By the way, I am in China and I will resume production in early April