GW announce price rise for paints and Start collecting sets

[RexHavoc]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/01/04/a-quick-heads-up/?fbclid=IwAR1mI1LILQLISTrrgbK5xOPeDhnBxhltMBWtd0HDLPDZQeuh4bm4Vz8uslo#utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=WHTV&utm_content=WHTVHeadsupJan4
 

Just been announced on the community that both paints and start collecting sets are getting a price rise from the 4th Feb. The paints is only 20pence (or local equivalent) but no mention on the new cost of the start collecting.

[Overread]

20p isn't a huge amount ,but it adds up considering how much paints are to start with and that you'll probably pick up quite a few. I'll have to remember this as I'd set aside Feb for painting and getting my paint stocks ready so I'll have to leap in quick.

The Start Collecting set price rises sound odd though, considering that the flat £50 was a nice even floor for armies that made it easy to start any army. Granted some have more in than others so we might be seeing GW adjusting for that. Whatever the reason its a shame, still got 2 months (well 1 full month and a few days of Feb) to grab what you can before the prices rise. 

 

 

All that said - THANK YOU to GW! No I'm serious, in the past price rises just appeared without warning (or our warning was stores announcing it at random which led to loads of confusion). A formal heads up from GW is a further sign of the changing times from them whereas once they would have been a surprise rise. 

[Ragnar Alpaca]

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. The paint pots are already way too expensive. The start collecting sets I guess we will see how much they change, but I don’t like it either. They can slowly increase the prices of everything making it harder for people to buy the things they want. I might jut fully switch to Vallejo paints now honestly.

[ManlyMuppet88]

Prices rise all the time, nothing surprising at all. What I find interesting is that GW has announced it. Not something I expected of them, or something I can recall happening before.

[Gaz Taylor]

Mildly annoying but its how they stay in business and it's nice to see them letting us know about it. 

+++ Mod Hat On +++

Just to remind people, we do not want any price rants.

Also to remind people, it only says Some of the Start Collecting Sets will be having a price increase.

[Overread]

Just now, Gaz Taylor said:

Just to remind people, we do not want any price rants.

Awww.....

*puts away the pitch forks, the burning brands, the banners, the posters and the hot chocolate*

[Alexonian]

its a 5 or 10£ increase on the start collecting boxes, confirmed by gw on facebook

[RexHavoc]

Yeah, it's not a huge rise on the paints. I probably won't even notice by the time I need to buy more (I buy in huge bulk every few years) but it will make them a lot more than vallejo and I use both anyway this could be the point where I'm pushed more towards them for all the basic colours (I love most of GW paints but there are a fair few that I use as I like them but there is no real noticeable change between the two brands) At most this will just push me not to go to GW to work on models any more (not that I do that very often, but have done it a couple of times in the past year) but other changes nothing for me. It will be annoying for the more expensive paints (edge paints and the new golds are already €0.30 more than other paints and this will push them well past €4 each) but again, thankfully I have a huge, huge bulk supply of most of the ones I use.
It's only washes that will really put a dent in my wallet.

I'm not impressed with the start collecting rise. €65 is that prefect amount where I can pick one up and not feel I've spent too much. I know they are great value already but I've brought a few on the grounds they are good value over buying individual kits. (Picking up the extra stuff for a few quid is too hard to turn down) A £10 raise could raise the price close to €80 with GW pricing structure. Thankfully there is only one more I 'need' and one or two I would have liked.
I do hope that this might mean we see some new ones, especially with the higher costed models. Some of the Allies boxes from last year were pushing €80, like DoK so we might see that return as a start collecting DoK set, which would be pretty cool.

Thankfully, having gone mad with releases this past year by the time I'm due to buy any more projects, my own money will have gone up and this will have been the current price for a good long while so I should hardly notice.

The cynic in me sees that GW have announced this, not to be more open to the community but rather to get people to go out and binge on paints and start collectings on the quietest month of the year. I think this would have been the case has they announced this in march for April. Good way to boost those numbers just before the end of the financial year. They are a business, so I don't blame them one bit, but I do dislike they are doing the 'youtube family' thing, making people feel we are all part of their community/family, when in reality, we are the community and they are a service provider. But that's a rant for another day!

[Lucio]

Thought for the Start Collecting, we now know that they have a discount between 20% and 40%

So, with a range of prices being an option, they can now offer SC sets for the newer ranges where the models are more expensive and therefore didn't fit neatly into the discount range

[Zakara]

Im not happy abount start collecting box price increase.  It just means it will be harder to draw new people to to the hobby. 
65Euros was kinda on the line. On some boxes its understandable with huge models in it like Fyreslayers or Searphon.
But if this makes them do more start collecting boxes ( Dok and Idoneth ) that might be good. but still depends on the price. 
I would really love to see some older models in start collecting boxes but this is very unlikely i bet, unless the battletomes come out. 

On the paint price increase - it looks like Gw is in the position that they can afford to increasetheir prices on paints.
I like their paints and i use them mostly, but as RexHavoc pointed out only the washes will hurt. 
Again this will hurt the newcommers and they might look for paint elswhere. 

 

[Turgol]

Paints are an area were competition gives good leverage to customers. Not worried about it: I will stick woth GW where no substitutes are handed and keep cherry picking according to price on the rest.

 

Start collecting is puzzling. Guess they were taking too much of production to be optimally profitable for GW. Good thing I have most of what I needed.

[Overread]

That said don't forget GW is pushing Killteam hard for 40K as the new cheap entry point into the game. I figure once we get more Battletomes out we'll see GW release a new Skirmish book for AoS in the same approach. Right now the skirmish WD update is for existing fans, but should help promote it so that when GW launches new skirmish there's already interest and games from current gamers and thus an ample population to recruit new gamers. 

[Uveron]

Its not a Huge Surprise the Start Collecting box's were crazy deals, and for them to stablise the price on them 2 months before Britexit, makes sense. This year with the potential issues that the closed border could bring could be a very unsteady time for the company. I am expecting both a slow down in new models, and small price jumps like this.  

[Gaz Taylor]

52 minutes ago, Overread said:

Awww.....

*puts away the pitch forks, the burning brands, the banners, the posters and the hot chocolate*

Keep the Hot Chocolate out  

11 minutes ago, Zakara said:

On the paint price increase - it looks like Gw is in the position that they can afford to increasetheir prices on paints.
I like their paints and i use them mostly, but as RexHavoc pointed out only the washes will hurt. 
Again this will hurt the newcommers and they might look for paint elswhere. 

Not sure I agree with that. I think majority of Newcomers won't even notice or care about price increases to the paint. Also with the Warhammer TV painting guides and the ease of using the GW paint range, I think most people will stick with it. 

 

2 minutes ago, Overread said:

That said don't forget GW is pushing Killteam hard for 40K as the new cheap entry point into the game. I figure once we get more Battletomes out we'll see GW release a new Skirmish book for AoS in the same approach. Right now the skirmish WD update is for existing fans, but should help promote it so that when GW launches new skirmish there's already interest and games from current gamers and thus an ample population to recruit new gamers. 

I think this is what will be marketed towards new players and we will see more sets like Killteam or the smaller starting sets for the main game. 

 

17 minutes ago, Lucio said:

Thought for the Start Collecting, we now know that they have a discount between 20% and 40%

So, with a range of prices being an option, they can now offer SC sets for the newer ranges where the models are more expensive and therefore didn't fit neatly into the discount range

This is possibly one of the reasons why they are doing it. I think having the start collecting sets between £50 and £60 means from a consumer point of view we get to see a lot more variety in the sets. 

[AaronWilson]

I'm easy, 20p increase isn't the end of the world.

[Charles]

This is a fair increase inflation is a real thing for businesses to worry about. 

I really wouldn’t consider buying paints from anyone who isn’t GW, no matter how much cheaper they are. The money GW makes on paints can be reinvested in the hobby I love, paints from a 3rd party don’t do anything for the hobby at large.

[Kramer]

I bought 14 pots of paint in the whole year, kept track this year, so for me its nog a bunch. Buying paints directly from GW was always a hassle. You always pay imports charges, long delivery times etc. (live in the Netherlands for reference). Here we just had a small rise in foodstuff due to changes in taxes. Can easily imagine something like that increasing the cost of production of paints. But it's a shame they don't tell what the reason is. 

Regarding the SC boxes. I was looking at the Ironjaws one for a Skirmish warband. And I saw this: 

Kind of says it all... it's not a viable way to sell some armies. In total it would be €138. So will see. 

Just out of curiosity, if the Ironjawz stays the same but is increased to a 40% discount it would be €83. Still incredible value. But indeed a much higher starting point. 

[Infeston]

2 hours ago, Kramer said:

I bought 14 pots of paint in the whole year, kept track this year, so for me its nog a bunch. Buying paints directly from GW was always a hassle. You always pay imports charges, long delivery times etc. (live in the Netherlands for reference). Here we just had a small rise in foodstuff due to changes in taxes. Can easily imagine something like that increasing the cost of production of paints. But it's a shame they don't tell what the reason is. 

Regarding the SC boxes. I was looking at the Ironjaws one for a Skirmish warband. And I saw this: 

Kind of says it all... it's not a viable way to sell some armies. In total it would be €138. So will see. 

Just out of curiosity, if the Ironjawz stays the same but is increased to a 40% discount it would be €83. Still incredible value. But indeed a much higher starting point. 

But I have to add that I think that the Gore-Gruntas are overpriced rather than the Start Collecting! Box  underpriced. I mean 67€ for just three models is very much. 

I think I wouldn't buy Gore-Gruntas for 67€. 

[AGPO]

I'm fine with this tbh. The old battalion boxes were only £50 back in 6th edition for a similar number of minis. Inflation is always going to be a thing.\

My only worry is that GW will use it's old model to calculate the euro price increase. Lots of people here buy online from the UK because with modern exchange rates and third party discount retailers it's much, much cheaper. I want to support my local store but it's getting to be a ridiculous difference. 42€ as opposed to 65€ is a 35% discount. 

[Euphanism]

You guys obviously they are just raising the price of the Greenzkinz box to match it's incredible value. /s

 

In all seriousness, I hope this means we'll get some SC boxes that are a little more varied.Heck, make one or two that are complete battalions, even.

[Infeston]

5 minutes ago, AGPO said:

I'm fine with this tbh. The old battalion boxes were only £50 back in 6th edition for a similar number of minis. Inflation is always going to be a thing.\

My only worry is that GW will use it's old model to calculate the euro price increase. Lots of people here buy online from the UK because with modern exchange rates and third party discount retailers it's much, much cheaper. I want to support my local store but it's getting to be a ridiculous difference. 42€ as opposed to 65€ is a 35% discount. 

Jeah I know what you mean. As a german or as an European I often try to calculate the prices based £ and try to compare the percentual increaze to € and often wonder why the price is higher than what I would have thought.

[RuneBrush]

Very cool that we're being given a month's notice before the change!  Can see why people might be a bit frustrated - nobody wants to pay more after all!  But overall can't really complain too much.

For non-UK fellow hobbyists, I believe that GW have their own static exchange rate in place so that they're not constantly modifying prices.  Sadly I think this was calculated quite a few years back when the UK £ was much stronger than it currently is which means you get a bit of a rough deal.

[AGPO]

4 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

Very cool that we're being given a month's notice before the change!  Can see why people might be a bit frustrated - nobody wants to pay more after all!  But overall can't really complain too much.

For non-UK fellow hobbyists, I believe that GW have their own static exchange rate in place so that they're not constantly modifying prices.  Sadly I think this was calculated quite a few years back when the UK £ was much stronger than it currently is which means you get a bit of a rough deal.

Yup that's exactly the problem, their model hasn't been relevant for a while. It's not a problem for me since I don't play in stores and I pass through London regularly, so I can drop in on Darksphere. However I know a lot of FLGS are suffering from many of their players shopping online due to the discrepancy. Many prefer to shop locally but the difference is simply too big. It's hitting independent stores, which are the cradle of the hobby over here, hard so I hope GW re-examines their model soon.

[Kramer]

36 minutes ago, Infeston said:

But I have to add that I think that the Gore-Gruntas are overpriced rather than the Start Collecting! Box  underpriced. I mean 67€ for just three models is very much. 

I think I wouldn't buy Gore-Gruntas for 67€. 

Abso-Fing- lutely!  makes the SC even more important. Because you’ll want some + ard boys anyway. Although I mostly want some brutes for skirmish I decided just now 😂

[Infeston]

Damn! I never tried ordering GW products from UK retailers and let them ship to me in germany. I looked at the prices and even with tracked shipping costs of 8 Euro I still pay less than I would pay if I bought them here in germany.  Never realized how much more I pay when I buy product from GW or german retailers directly.

It is true. If I buy it in germany I pay 65 Euro for a Start Collecting box, but if I buy the box somewhere else I pay 55 Euro + shipping costs. 

I have not much experience with shipping products from the UK to germany, but does anyone know how long it takes for products to arrive? I have never tried this before. But for such a huge discount I think I might try this.