When did GW minis get so freaking expensive!?!?!

[SerialKiller]

Haven't played the TT for about 6 years and this game made me go back and look at the GW website. While browsing I ended up in the online shop and all I can say is HOLY ****! When did these things get so expensive! I remember when army LEADER blister packs where $10, now they are $35+. Hot damn, I am sitting on a goldmine I think in my old minis!

[Civik]

LOL, after a price raise this year from GW, they are forcing most of their US customers to stop buying and look to other game systems. Personally, I like Sci-Fi so that just means I won't be purchasing any more models from them. I have more than enough for my own needs from when prices were reasonable.

Whoever is in charge of pricing around here is literally killing the hobby because people are passing over it in favor of warmachine and other such gaming systems that are less wallet busting.

[Tegadil]

GW has a thing about raising the prices constantly. So the people who want to spend a reasonable amount of money turn to EBay. Eventually GW will take a hint and lower their prices (although I can't recall a single instance in which they have done that).

[panfist]

Forgive me for using this word, but I can't resist... GW minis are hella expensive. I honestly don't understand how they can get away with it. It really bothers me because they don't hide the fact at all that they're raking in as much money as they possibly can. It's $7.00 for a blister with two regular troops, and $10.00 for a blister with ONE commander in it. Not to mention the blisters on the shelf next to other games with THREE models in a pack for $5.00!

[CommisarJagnsi]

In the States, I believe a sizeable problem is the tarrif barrier between UK and US. Or am I just making this up in my head?

[lax3788]

I was looking into 40k back in 2001, but i was in 7th or so grade, and i couldn't afford it. Love the game but uggg its expensive. I would like to play it durring college (paint minies while drunk :beer: ) But i must first find a place to get cheap minies... WHERE IS THAT!

/edit - terrifs for cars are basicly nil, minatures taht the US has no compitition with =/= rise in prices

[SerialKiller]

In the States, I believe a sizeable problem is the tarrif barrier between UK and US. Or am I just making this up in my head?

I wouldn't think that the minis market requires tariffs but who knows, the US gov. does some pretty werid financial things sometimes.

DOUBLE POST

Even on EBAY I think I prices are kinda high. Don't get me wrong though, GW has some BAD ASS sculptures for most of their designs. I think they make some of the best minis compared to other companies, but that is just my opinion

[Dalveldrin]

Yeah it's great, but I stopped buying a while back myself. When I heard that most of the new stuff was gonna be plastic instead of metal I thought it might go down... but it didn't... it went up! Not to mention you gotta get paint and what not.

[Jorghan]

And when I used to get 5 figures in a blister, I now get 2...

I don't think it's more expensive in the US. $7 for a normal blister is about the same as you have to pay here in Europe. I think the reasoning behind that you have to pay $10 for a blister with a single commander while you get two troops for $7 is that you are paying for the artwork, and a lot more work went into that commander than the troops.

But how they can survive with these prices I have no idea. Or, more like it, how can all those kids convice their parents to buy this stuff for them (I'm talking 10 year olds here). It seems like all those kids are lifeblood of GW, atleast here. Dang, if I had kids I wouldn't afford stuff like this and I would have to hide all my stuff to avoid them from ruining the family economy.

[Random Person]

well they did lower void stalker prices to 30$ from 35$.

[Lord Anubis]

back when i played Warhammer (must have been in the last millenium), blister packs were about $10-$18 bucks (aussie/singapore dollars). I thought that was expensive. Together with my brother, we spent more or less around $1500 on Warhammer. That must be worth like tripple now ^^

(gotta love having pretty much every possible race (1st and 2gen warhammer tho) with codex at your disposal- around 2000pts avg for every army)

[Warcrier]

GW actually depends on the newer younger customers for profit, they have reports that say that once a customer becomes a veteran they statistically stop buying modles as much... Us veterans have our armies already, and we wont change em til we feel like it, personally Ive gone thruough 3 armies in the last two years and now im staring my 4th 40k army... Started with eldar, then I took a break for school, then I came back and built space marines in order to transition into a Grey Kinght Army, played the pure GK list for a year about, then built my Iron hands on the basis of my old space marines for an RTT, and now (bout 6 months later) Im starting to collect my nids, plaus about a month ago i bought and painted a WHFB Chaos army for the events of the summer, So thats 3 armies in the last 6 months, and as soon as i finish my nids ill be starting my new eldar, cuz I cant wait til the new edition is official

[kaksoipiste]

The prices have always gone up but when I last looked in GW near me about 3-4 years ago Abaddon was £9... and the other day he was still £9. GW have by far the nicest looking models around and that justifies the price partly. The thing that really annoys me is the paints.

The old container paints held 17.5ml of paint. The new ones hold something like 13ml but cost 75p more. That really bugs me.

[Cailet]

Get paint from other modelling shops. Airfix stuff is far cheaper and at least as good. I still get models from GW but I cheapass them (Bretton knights for black knights stuff like that.) I'm gonna start a USF just because I want Eldar but need cheap models.

[Random Person]

And the BFG boxedset is 50$ here and it is 40Pounds.

[lax3788]

Umm, are there diff companies that make "gw moddles" for a cheaper price. Ebay isn't that cheep compaired to the store.

I know they need to make a proffit, but all they do is cast plastic (not expensive at all).

Wonder if i should whiddle*sp* my army :)

[TS_ahriman]

http://www.golden-throne.com/issue78.htm

I think that this sums it up pretty well.

[Civik]

Would you say the same about microsoft?

GW may have what are some of the better models out there, but other shops are catching up and still have lower prices.

[Tegadil]

In comparison to the GW store, EBay is helluva lot cheaper. And buying Citadel models off of EBay has the nice advantage of being tournament legal, unlike Reaper and other companies.

[orkdom]

i usually just buy em off ebay, or some discount shop online or elsewhere. keeps things w/in the budget. and if you dont mind them not bein allowed to take pictures of your models if you go to gamesday or something then buyin from other model designers isnt a bad idea. i got a nice dwarven army for WHFB and all the models come from a diff. game.

[element7]

The old container paints held 17.5ml of paint. The new ones hold something like 13ml but cost 75p more. That really bugs me.

Vallejo is the way to go, nicer paint, bigger bottles. Very similar to the old stuff. It's also significantly cheaper at £1.40 a pot).

[lax3788]

I have some of my minies (from begin of 3rd edition) but my rule book and BA codex got trhone out

If i were to replace those, what would the cost be ?

:banghead: :boohoo: :sadpanda: :err: :rolleyes: :flame: :steam: :dyn: :damnu: :jaw: :cranky:

[hummers214]

depends
on the GW site, about $50 for the new rulebook and $10 for the BA codex :argh: :fight:
but those prices can be considerably slashed on ebay ( :beer: )
4 ex:i ALMOST got a SM, BA, DA, and dark eldar codex for just $15

[Cailet]

BA costs a fiver in the UK these days. The new rulebook costs the same as the last one did.

[Civik]

This is true, the rulebooks are actually pretty decent for all the colored pages and whatnot. (thank god)

However, new miniatures I will not buy. ;) Not because I'm a vet and have been playing for about 3 years, but because it's just too damn expensive for me to expand on what I currently have.

[GreyWolf]

when i was at my GW store i was waiting in line to buy something, the person in front of me was pretty highup in the GW company, she literally had thousands of dollars worth of store credit that she was using on her 6 year old son

[TS_ahriman]

I wish I was 6 again...with a parent that would actually spend money on me....*sigh*.

[GreyWolf]

yeah, the last time my parents spent money on me, they got me a pencil... :weep:


... :fencing: .....i only put that on there cause its cool

[Imperial marine]

BA costs a fiver in the UK these days. The new rulebook costs the same as the last one did.
i got mine £1 cheaper from dentons where i am warhammer is cheap in oxford

[Spectrel]

yea I'd have to agree that prices are high, but the hobby in general is alot less expensive than others if you think about it. How much time do you sepn on your avergae unit? 2-4 hours probably is a safe guess. depending on your army its pretty cheap SM for exampl will cost you about 40$ for a tac squad- so for me about 40 hours of occupation (not including actual play time). going to a movie would cost me a better part of a 20$ bill and only keep me busy for under two hours or so. Sure there is the cost of paint etc. but nothing can replace the satisfaction of having a well painted army on the battlefield, many of you must agree as you are still playing/collecting armies. ANd hey wihtout all the eaxtra $ GW would have less incentive to provide us with new rulebooks and models etc..

[Dante]

whenever at the stores...i just tell the kids (really loudly so their parent's can hear) its a good hobby because its like drugs...you cant live without them, and they suck out your money! but you aren't actually doing any drugs...so its like one of those commercials...

You scan me...and see a drugie...well i dont have any money becuase i am spending it all in little plastic lumps.

Warhammer...my *anti*drug...

[Captain Zog]

If things like warmachine get more popular and start to contend with GW (it could happen), prices will lower for a bit, until they buy the company

[Hadrian]

One could claim its simple inflation, and the models have gotten better from back in the day, but I can tell you that I haven't bought a new Games Workshop mini in the last two, maybe three years. They just aren't worth it. I can play with almost all of my old figs, those that I bought when the hobby was only kind of expensive, heh. I see figs all the time that they put out that I'd like to have by virtue of the sculpting alone, but I leave them alone, the price isn't worth it. Add to the fact that the game itself has gone downhill since third edition, and I can see how the stock on shelves doesn't sell as fast as it used to. There will always be the young kids with mom and dad's wallet to buy them miniatures, and you can tell that's the crowd GW is going after. It knows that those of us who have played for a while don't need any new miniatures, and if we even considered buying a new army, it would be something that didn't need too many figures.

I was in the local game store the other day, it's in the same shopping center as the bar that has $2 drafts on Wednesdays, and I asked one of the employees I know from way back in the day if he'd tried this game yet. I told him it had rekindled all the love I had for the 40K universe that had been ground into the dirt by the tabletop game and Games Workshop's absurd pricing.

There are many games that offer similar quality (or better in some cases depending on whether or not you like GW's "heroic" 28mm as opposed to more realistically proportioned 28mm models) miniatures for far cheaper, and several companies, like Black Tree Designs that make minis suitable for Warhammer Fantasy at sometimes up to half the price. A lot of this is why GW moved to the policy of all models have to be theirs, WYSIWYG etc. Back in the day, they didn't care, but for them to stay in business now, there has to be some kind of "looming threat" to keep people buying their stuff. People don't buy GW miniatures because they are the best looking or best value, they buy them so they could possibly use them in some kind of GW sanctioned event.

Myself, I play sparingly at best. I recently got into Devil Dog Design's Dogs of War, a contemporary combat game with more realistic rules and accurately scaled weapon ranges and damage models. Plus, after a ~$60 investment, I have more than enough figs to play (both sides) for just about ever unless I decide to buy more for variation (ie different "armies").