GW announce price rise for paints and Start collecting sets

[SirPergrin]

Even though these changes don't affect me a lot in the short term, i don't like the consequences of such desicions, especially with the more expensive SC sets. 

I believe that the success of "new" GW is measured at how open and inviting is to new players first and foremost, with great, non intimidating rule sets such as AoS and Kill Team. This is how myself and many others from my community entered wargaming recently. This, of course, would not be possible in many cases, if there weren't the fantastic deals of the new box sets like Soul Wars and most importantly the awesome start collecting sets of both AoS and 40k.

Now, these price hikes may not be unreasonable in some cases like the Seraphon SC set and some others, and they still provide a fantastic value all things considered, especially if you can order from a retailer who offers 20% discount.

But to me, this signifies a trend that if goes unchecked, it might spiral into a self fulfilling prophecy of a niche company who caters to a small specific audience. And because of that, they think that they need to be very conservative and keep focusing on their most loyal customers who will buy the product anyway.

I know that the prices go upwards and this is not something new, it is happening for decades now with gw products. But it is different to have an expensive kit for an army a hobbyist or a collector or an avid gamer will buy sometime down the road, and entirely different for someone wanting to enter the hobby for the first time.

These sets are the perfect gateway to a most fantastic hobby and i dearly hope they so remain. I don't understand how this will happen with 70 or 80 euro sets but i really hope i am wrong on this one. 

[SirPug]

19 hours ago, Gaz Taylor said:

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.

Cmon man i already had my torch  lighted up and i wast going to start foaming from my mouth and scream.

Well maby next time.....

[Sleboda]

21 hours ago, Ragnar Alpaca said:

The paint pots are already way too expensive.

I don't mind the price currently as they are good paints, but if they are going up, I'd really like a pot redesign where you don't get rings in the lid that shorten the life of the contents.

[Sleboda]

15 hours ago, HollowHills said:

Some of the recent releases have been horribly priced as well, such as chainrasps

Namarti Thralls: 10/$50

Arkanauts: 10/$45

Blood Warriors: 10/$62

Harridans: 10/$45

Chainrasps: 10/$40

 

Not really seeing the issue, tbh.

[Kramer]

10 hours ago, SirPergrin said:

I know that the prices go upwards and this is not something new, it is happening for decades now with gw products

Depends on you point of reference to be honest. I used to buy my regiments 20 for 3 metal models and needing 20 of them.  Still miss my liver that I needed to sell for a unit of hammerers. Compared to that it’s not all bad  

[Overread]

Oh true point, I remember when hormagaunts were 3 in a blisterpack. Granted at the same time armies in those days were much smaller. You'd not be putting 100 models down per side when they were all metal. 

[Kramer]

23 minutes ago, Overread said:

Oh true point, I remember when hormagaunts were 3 in a blisterpack. Granted at the same time armies in those days were much smaller. You'd not be putting 100 models down per side when they were all metal. 

Yes you were! Well very close, not all metal granted, but my dwarf army collection consisted of at least 20 metal thunderers, 20 metal longbeards, 20 metal hammerers, 20 metal Slayers, 20 metal Slayer pirates + I was building up to 20 metal miners but never made it to 20. Not to mention all the heroes, war machines and other special models that were metal. Plus all the plastic warriors, and that Dwarfs were not a horde army (but don't know how bad the 'metalness' of horde armies were). And I never min maxed for gaming purposes because otherwise I would probably have needed more metal elites. 

[Overread]

Aye but that was fantasy which was nuts  Though yeah It would be interesting to compare the actual price of a full 2K army back then to a 2K army today! 

[Kirjava13]

😕

Even the existing price point of €65 is a not-inconsiderable outlay. If (when) that goes up I can't see myself buying any SC boxes in my local GW anymore- as already pointed out, the saving on buying them from a UK third party store like Element or Wayland is just too high. I try to support my local store but money is money and it's already an expensive hobby.

[Clan's Cynic]

Looks like I'll be swapping to Vallejo for everything but certain technicals then. Dropper bottles always made life easier anyway.

Just seems like GW is cashing in on that 'good will' they've been garnering on account of making memes and having a Facebook page. As this thread attests to, some good ol' PR spin and people will not only defend it, but thank you for it. 

[Nin Win]

I'm already a dropper-bottle only guy, so the paint increase is a non-issue for me.

The start collecting is a bit weird.  They're priced at a point just below where a lot of the super popular premium board games are priced and I could see an extra 5-20% in price pushing them out of the "starter" or "introductory" product type range and into the full game type range.  I know people who get in eventually go on to buy multiples of the price of start collecting, but you've got to get them started.

Personally I won't be affected much.  I've already got my 2K+ of Stormcast and Beasts of Chaos.  Beasts of Chaos happened because I got so many deals on used models during the time when they were neglected by GW before news of their battletome came out (as my friend did with grots).  The Stormcast are half the first starter plus a few things, half Soul Wars and a few things.  I was originally going to build an army for each grand alliance, but I ended up making two 40k armies instead of Destruction and Death.

One thing I really like is how they are making a series of starter/battle sets with two armies.  I've found loads of people split those and they end up giving you about the equivalent of a start collecting for even a bit less.  If Wrath and Rapture is anything to go by, the new Flesheater Courts/Skaven box (Carrion Empire) should continue this trend.

I'm also finding that with my gaming group being a lower list power level group, things like the Shadespire/Nightvault warbands are interesting purchases.  As are the easy to build kits in general.  Used miniatures plus splitting starter sets plus little sets here and there is enough for me.  I bought a Mechanicus Start Collecting for 40k, but then bolstered them with half a Forge Bane.
 

[Aegisgrimm]

Watch Fyreslayers SC get a price hike, gouging that army with prices yet again.

[zedatkinszed]

For anyone who wants cheaper paints there is a paint comparison chart by somebody called Redgrimm on Github:

https://redgrimm.github.io/paint-conversion/index.html

It only deals with the bigger brands (eg Citadel, Vallejo, P3 & Army Painter) and there are a few colours missing from the chart (i.e P3 Eldrich) but it’s a good place to start. These are the best known brands but there are others out there (eg Warcolours) and new ones are popping up all the time, Vince Venturella did a great review of Creature Caster paint.

If you really know what you want you can get equivalent colours in better ranges cheaper. Same with spray paint if you REALLY want to you can use the appropriate mass market primers (Halfords, Rustoleum, Krylon etc etc) or if you shell for an airbrush you can use Vallejo airbrush PU primer which is the best value primer IMHO.

GW's shades, glazes and technical paints are great but you get better value and higher quality metalcs elsewhere (Vallejo metal colour) but their other paints in my experience generally interchangeable with Vallejo and P3.

 

[RuneBrush]

19 minutes ago, zedatkinszed said:

For anyone who wants cheaper paints there is a paint comparison chart by somebody called Redgrimm on Github:

https://redgrimm.github.io/paint-conversion/index.html

It only deals with the bigger brands (eg Citadel, Vallejo, P3 & Army Painter) and there are a few colours missing from the chart (i.e P3 Eldrich) but it’s a good place to start. These are the best known brands but there are others out there (eg Warcolours) and new ones are popping up all the time, Vince Venturella did a great review of Creature Caster paint.

If you really know what you want you can get equivalent colours in better ranges cheaper. Same with spray paint if you REALLY want to you can use the appropriate mass market primers (Halfords, Rustoleum, Krylon etc etc) or if you shell for an airbrush you can use Vallejo airbrush PU primer which is the best value primer IMHO.

GW's shades, glazes and technical paints are great but you get better value and higher quality metalcs elsewhere (Vallejo metal colour) but their other paints in my experience generally interchangeable with Vallejo and P3.

I'd take that conversion chart with a little bit of caution - Stormvermin Fur and Baneblade brown are nothing like Vallejo Kharki (and certainly Kharki can't be the equivalent of both!)...  It also doesn't take into account the paint type - base paints are a different consistency to most other brands.

Ultimately though, Paint, Brushes and Palettes are one of those items that is very much down to personal choice as a painter.  Citadel paints are probably one of the most accessible brands out there as most towns will have a stockist (even if it's only a small selection).

[Minis by Night]

3 hours ago, zedatkinszed said:

For anyone who wants cheaper paints there is a paint comparison chart by somebody called Redgrimm on Github:

https://redgrimm.github.io/paint-conversion/index.html

Oh! People are still using that?

That's my chart, I made that about a year ago. It does come with MANY notes and caveats, some having to do with light physics, mathematics and technology, but the number one problem is that there's just no concrete information about the paint themselves. It's not like GW, Vallejo et al. give us some Pantone equivalent. So I mostly had to rely on whatever hexadecimal color they used online to promote their paints online, which are sometimes completely off.

Still, it's a nice starting point and it gives rough approximations if you're not too picky about the exact color you want. As RuneBrush said, take it with a grain of salt.

[zedatkinszed]

22 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

Ultimately though, Paint, Brushes and Palettes are one of those items that is very much down to personal choice as a painter.  Citadel paints are probably one of the most accessible brands out there as most towns will have a stockist (even if it's only a small selection).

Absolutely. I have a huge GW collection of paints and I'll still be buying some but nobody should feel locked in. If they want equivalents they can have them.

But I totally agree paint is very personal, but I regret not experimenting with other brands earlier than I did.

19 hours ago, Minis by Night said:

That's my chart, I made that about a year ago. It does come with MANY notes and caveats, some having to do with light physics, mathematics and technology, but the number one problem is that there's just no concrete information about the paint themselves. It's not like GW, Vallejo et al. give us some Pantone equivalent. So I mostly had to rely on whatever hexadecimal color they used online to promote their paints online, which are sometimes completely off.

Still, it's a nice starting point and it gives rough approximations if you're not too picky about the exact color you want. As RuneBrush said, take it with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the resource man! It's helped me a lot over the last few months

[Sleboda]

On 1/4/2019 at 5:05 PM, SirPergrin said:

I know that the prices go upwards and this is not something new, it is happening for decades now with <deleted> products.

Prices go up. On everything.

Milk. Comic books. Cars. Glitter.

Yep, even paints and models.

The shocker to me is that these are the only things they are increasing this time around.

[Minis by Night]

They don't actually, not with GW. I heard that they have some sort of internal rule where they can't, ever, change the price of a box, unless they rebox the kit. That's part of the reason why some kits have price that are totally insane (like the Blood Knights), why old kits price never drop, and why they never have a sale. A price hike for GW, although not pleasant for sure, might indicate that they have finally decide to do away with that (kinda bizarre) rule, and they might now have a bit more freedom when it comes to pricing. It might not be all bad.

[Blightzkrieg]

If they repriced Vulkites and Witch Aelves I'll die from an odd mish mash of glee and shock.

But I can't help but see this as just a flex.

[Yoshiya]

Id be fine with the paint increases if it weren't for the fact they already have a ridiculous markup here in Japan.

To put in to context at current exchange rates they should cost around 350yen. They actually cost 550yen. In other words were already paying the increased price!

I wouldnt be surprised if for the sake of round numbers it goes to 600yen which would be a pound increase of about 35p.

I know they need to have exchange rates and shipping costs etc but I really think they're just pricing themselves out of the market. People already come in and just borrow the store paints here rather than buy their own and I can only see that increasing.

PS If anyone knows any good alternative paint brands in Japan id love to know about them. Vallejo is pretty hard to get hold of here.

[Mosquito onthe TenthFloor]

10 hours ago, Yoshiya said:

 

PS If anyone knows any good alternative paint brands in Japan id love to know about them. Vallejo is pretty hard to get hold of here.

Tamiya? Theres loads in the shops when I've been in Japan. Never tried it, personally, but a pot could be worth a test?

[Sleboda]

13 hours ago, Minis by Night said:

They don't actually, not with GW. I heard that they have some sort of internal rule where they can't, ever, change the price of a box, unless they rebox the kit. 

I thought I replied to this, but I guess not.

If you are new to GW, there's some history you may not be aware of. Used to be they had an annual price review where nearly all items increased in price.

There is no rule, internal or otherwise, preventing price increases.

That's why it's actually pleasant to see only these items going up rather than 90% of the range.

This price increase is not bad at all.

[chord]

Personally I think the SC sets going up will occur slightly before the updated battletomes come out.  This way as people want to start one of armies, it will be more profitable for GW. 

[Jetengine]

On 1/5/2019 at 1:49 PM, Clan's Cynic said:

Looks like I'll be swapping to Vallejo for everything but certain technicals then. Dropper bottles always made life easier anyway.

Just seems like GW is cashing in on that 'good will' they've been garnering on account of making memes and having a Facebook page. As this thread attests to, some good ol' PR spin and people will not only defend it, but thank you for it. 

....or you could accept that inflation and Brexit are a thing and not be bitter ?

[HammerOfSigmar]

Well, one of my friend working in plastic toys factory told me that the cost to make the models after you have the mould(which is very very expensive) is really really cheap, something like less than 5% of the starter kit's current price. Hence, I am curious, under such circustance, shouldn't gw lower their price to sell more product to make more profit?