How have Gw price rises affected your purchasing habits?

[Rodiger]

So before we start, this isn't a post about complaining or justifying price rises, merely how they have affected you. 

I had thought of making a post at the turn of the year asking for peoples total yearly spend on gw products. I had quite an expensive year where I spent well over 1000 pounds. This made me feel like I had some sort of addiction, and I wanted to see how this averaged out with other people. It was an accumulation of various factors why I spent so much, such as, a lot of releases I wanted, and being more cash flush than usual as well as other things. This year I have spent a lot less, largely due to there being not many releases that really took my interest, but since the price rise a lot of things that I would have bought on a whim I've started questioning and deciding not to buy, in fact I haven't bought anything since the price rise, and there has been some things I had been considering buying, I've been mainly exclaiming in shock about the price of certain releases. Btw I don't have access to an online discount retailer so I pay full GW prices.

An example of this was the release of beastgrave. When nightvault was released, I bought the core set the scenery then on a whim a card box and the card sleeves. Before hand I was positive I wasn't going to buy beastgrave, then I got caught up in the hype, I put beastgrave, the scenery, sleeves and some dice into the basket, calculated the price with the full intention of buying it, my eyes popped out, I compared it to the similar nightvault purchase from last year and decided no. (The single release of a warband too is also off putting as not only do I have the price increase there are postage costs that have to be paid twice now.) 

Another would be the lord of change. I was considering getting another then saw the price increase and just flat out decided no.

I have occasionally bought the army boxes, the last being tooth and claw which was a great saving, but I've noticed in the most recent ones that the price rise has made them eye watering in price, despite whatever saving was in them, I have taken gambles on them before because I thought they were a good deal and it might be fun to start another army, but now they have moved into the no category even if I could use the models. 

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, before I was prepared to take a gamble or impulse buy something, then maybe add something extra like cards or whatever. But now it has all just been pushed over whatever my own limit of being what reasonable and an auto buy is, to being, think, decide it's too expensive then skip. So even though before the price rise I would end up spending more, as I would chuck something else in, now the initial cost has just put me off buying it at all. So in short compared to last year the price rise has me spending a lot less, in fact nothing.

I just wonder how this has affected other peoples buying habits, are you buying more things, less, the same? Are you just saving extra for that box set or are you just skipping it entirely?

[Infernalslayer]

It has definitely affected my purchasing habits. I used to buy any Start Collecting or Dual Army box that i thought was cool, even if i didn't have an army(or planned to start a full one) for one of the factions.

For instance, i have a small Legions of Nagash army for friendly games and was planning to get the Feast of Bones dual box to add the extra two Morghasts and the new Necropolis Stalkers to it, because i like the models. I would do head swaps to the Ogors with Ork heads and gift them to my brother as a themed mini force alternative to his greenskinz.  That was the plan if the Feast of Bones set kept the price of previous sets like Carrion Empire, Looncurse etc.

I opted out of getting it for that reason, and didn't buy additional Great Unclean Ones or Bloodthirsters either, as the total increase in my hobby spendings becomes more prevalent, the more products you buy.

Same thing with beastgrave as well, like you pointed out in your post. I hadn't ventured into the precious Underworlds sets, but was planning to do so with beastgrave, as the warscrolls for AoS seem to be better this season and would be able to use the Warbands in both games. Then i noticed everything was more expensive that the year prior and decided to skip that too.

It is mostly second hand models for me at the moment. My direct sealed product purchases are now more thought out, and usually only if i really really like the new product.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Infernalslayer

[HollowHills]

Yes 100%. The sad thing is it has encouraged me to purchase less from my local store (which only offers a 10% discount) and buy more from the big online shops. 

The fact that the UK economy is ****** but they have significantly increased prices across the board is pretty ******. 

It seems to be like since they've got a bigger part of the market share again they've taken the chance to boost prices. 

[EccentricCircle]

I pretty much don't buy things when they release, but wait a while to see what ends up in start collecting and battleforces sets. However as the price of those goes up, that is proving to be less useful a source of discounts. I had been considering getting another FEC battleforce to build a zombie dragon, but shelved that idea when the price went up. It didn't even go up very much in that case, but I decided I had better things to focus on.

I think I need to not get a new army next year, just focus on adding the odd set to ones I'm already using. That's not just down to the price rise though. Its just generally a very expensive hobby.

[Brakh]

I had a plan to do list based on three bloodthirsters. But after recent prices adjustments I am no longer interested in that. If the trend will continue I sadly predict that some of GW loyal customers may head towards recasters. I stopped to invest in paper battletomes as well. Im a displeased with fact that these rather costly books within month of their release may become somewhat outdated.

[zedatkinszed]

I buy from Firestorm games in Wales and have my orders shipped. Even with postage and shipping I regularly save 30euro on an avergae spend of 50. (That's a 50ish euro cost in Firestorm with shipping, for what would cost me 80ish to pick up in my local GW shop). Until Brexit this is fine but when that happens it's gonna cut my spending to a quarter of what it is currently. GW's EU prices are killing their own EU shops right now.

Edited October 26, 2019 by zedatkinszed

[Battlefury]

The price hike made me totally passive right now.

Background is, that since the AoS release / beginning I have build up a Khorne army and spent a lot of money into that.
Problem now is, that this army can not perform any good in my local meta, but I can just not afford to buy into another army, that would fit my playstyle. Even before the price hike it was not easy for me to buy stuff, since I had to sort put other models and sell those on ebay & stuff like that, to just have the money to buy units for my army.
Since the recent Blades of Khorne book came out, it changed the meta a little and I wanted to get into the triple / quattro Blood Thirster combo to make by army work at least now. But within that price politics it is not longer possible for me. i can not sell enough to even buy one more Blood Thirster, and I would need 2, maybe 3 of them, since I do only have one right now.

So frankly, the price hike kind of destroyed the managable site of the hobby for me, wich is to buy units I would need to even have a chance to play a solid game.
I mean, I was lucky to see, that the army still is worth nothing in my local meta, but that shall not be the point.

Even now I can not afford to build up a new army, but there would be options. The hobby itself feels a little like "For rich kidds only, where mommy & daddy pay all the stuff to shut up the annoying kid." now.

I really dislike that.
The logic behind it, from an economical standpoint, is labeling GW as poor business people. Prices should be lower, since more and more people are in the hobby and would be drawn into the hobby, but greed controls the business before Brexit right now.

So for me the hobby is like playing with stuff that can just not win in the actual meta, since I can not afford to buy the stuff, that's good.

[VBS]

I can't clearly remember the last NIB GW models I bought... a box of corsairs a few years back? I do get the odd paint or book from time to time from a lfgs with -15% (no point in going to official stores).

The price conversion to Euros always made me uncomfortable, more so when currency exchange has been massively favoring the company for the last 3,5 years (and 75% of their sales are overseas...). Having money to spend is not a reason to get ripped-off, so I could say their prices do have an effect as I currently don't plan to buy more GW products, unless they release a totally awesome model that would make me forget the price tag (which didn't happen in a looooong time). Also, seeing how other miniature companies or second hand sales offer better options, the decision is quickly made.

[schwabbele]

GBP to eur conversion is kinda strange when GW does it , so I only order in UK , however I buy all supplies and the occasional „I might use that“ mini box in my flgs. 

Local GW only for GW exclusives. 

[Rodiger]

It seems people have been cancelling bigger purchases, I wonder are you still buying smaller things like a single unit box? This has all just got me thinking about spending patterns.

I have no idea what the average yearly customer spend is, like the mode not the median or the mean. So out of their total consumer base do the most amount of people spend under £150 a year and this is where they make most of their profit? A price rise across the board would not be so much for these people as it is only a couple of pounds on something they occasionally buy, and the people who spend more than this already spend so much more than the majority that if they don’t buy as much it won’t be noticed. Or is it that customers spend much more than this and they are gambling that they will continue to spend more? Do they just discount the people who spend over £1000 pounds a year as being so far down the rabbit hole that they will just buy anything?

This is a micro sample, but it appears people are spending less, is the price rise pushing people into the under £150 or £100 a year bracket. If this is where they make most of their money does it matter, or has it been a bad gamble and profits will down. All of this is guess work on my behalf, I have zero data to work with, I am interested if anyone knows though.

For myself with smaller purchases it has put me off a bit, I have been thinking about buying another Bloodbowl team, there is no rush, I am not playing it right now, but I would have just bought it and put in on my shelf to get to later, but the increase and including postage has just pushed it over the edge of being reasonable for me, and it can wait until I actually need it, if I ever do.

[Overread]

One thing I notice is that whilst some are priced out of the hobby; many are saying more along the lines that they are no longer buying "at launch" or that they are "working on completing their backlog." 

 

Both of those to me suggest that GW isn't actually pricing people out, but more that people are waking up and adjusting their buying habbits to suit their actual hobby pace. Not adding to boxes and boxes (and in some cases whole rooms) of unbuilt models. Or simply realising that models don't devalue and typically do last years on the shelf so instead of buying now, they build and play and buy later. 

Price rises I think affect those groups in speeding up the change, but don't actually induce the behaviour on their own. 

[JackStreicher]

I haven‘t bought the new 40K set I won‘t get the new marine snipers, infiltrators or the Impulsor, I won’t preorder the new Ossiarch set and I am not interested that much in buying Ossiarch later on since they‘re too expensive now for my tastes.

 

 Pretty much a complete buying stop. Though I have the money for the minis they don’t feel like being worth a gold nugget per box while you can expect bad points balance and the ever-spinning power-spiral. And this goes for 40K and AoS.

 They‚ve  successfully priced me out / reached the breaking point.

Edited October 27, 2019 by JackStreicher

[Vasshpit]

Most of my purchases are Ebay and only if I find good deals. So the increase hasn't affected me that much. 

I have friends who are interested but prices are turning them off so GW is definitely losing out there. 

It's very cool to see models are able to be used across multiple gaming formats through the likes of Warcry/AoS and 40k/Killteam. This definitely gets you more mileage out of them. 

But definitely the prices on some things is too much for me. Examples being the greater daemons. 

I'm also not doing the family thing so I can only imagine the cut to those people's gaming budgets. 

A small suggestion from this consumer would be to start giving all these single, one time purchase, heros a couple different weapon loud out options on sprues. 

Lets use the Ironjawz Megaboss as an example. This bad mamajama comes with one gigantic axe option (which has only -1 rend and the weapon itself is larger than most heroes 😄 but that's a different topic). Now if he came with, lets say, a sword and board option as well, now we have two role options and this extra little bit of plastic just turned a one time purchase into a two, possibly three time purchase. 

[Overread]

@JackStreicher aye but how much do you own already? Mature gamers are more likely to have pausing periods naturally without price rises. Either getting tired of building and buying etc... or wanting change etc...

 

You talk about the new marines and the new ossiarchs; yet those are both very new things and one is a totally new army. Though for what its worth the Ossiarchs appear to be no more expensive than anything else in AoS at present. 

[JackStreicher]

35 minutes ago, Overread said:

@JackStreicher aye but how much do you own already? Mature gamers are more likely to have pausing periods naturally without price rises. Either getting tired of building and buying etc... or wanting change etc...

 

You talk about the new marines and the new ossiarchs; yet those are both very new things and one is a totally new army. Though for what its worth the Ossiarchs appear to be no more expensive than anything else in AoS at present. 

AoS prices have been pretty steep from the beginning (90-110€ per big model), 45€ for 10 witch selves etc. and they also  increased the prices (Start collecting for example).

 

I have a lot of different armies, I recently sold of my bretonnians and Wanderers to make some space and I would love to reinforce my Death range =}

I am in the middle of building up a raven guard force, which I stopped due to the lack of quality of the supplement (there is NOTHING sneaky about how they play, no synergies with phobos whatsoever, and „infiltrating“ on the open field in front of the enemy is no I filtration it‘s a frontal assault), and The absurd, greed prices GW charges for the above mentioned kits and the upgrade kit (which has only TWO beaky helmets but a hell lot of ugly pseudo-emo heads, WTF?). The annoying dragged out release also eradicated my patience.

As for my Drukhari: The box is just too expensive plus there are only 6 models in there that I really want (Incubi and Drazhar)

for Ossiarchs: after seeing the alternative paint schemes I was pretty much sold on them. But then again, they‘re just slightly better skeleton warriors and I won‘t pay 50-60$ for 10 mortek  guards or 80$ for an „okay“ catapult 🤷🏼‍♂️ Don‘t get me wrong: I want them, yet looking at the prices makes me go: „Well I don‘t want them THAT badly, so I‘ll skip“.

it‘s the same with Warcry: I‘d buy a Warband for 25€ (like the underworld warbands) but I will not pay 40€ for 5-10 models.

 

summarized: I have a lot, I always did, but there are still projects I‘d l like to tackle. Yet I won‘t since the price-benefit ratio is too off.  (Which is a mix of too high prices and shabby rules - which includes point costs, battlefield roles and the power spiral). Impulse purchases are off the table since it‘s too expensive for something I don‘t necessarily need (it does not seem reasonable).

And then again I think about the product which is rules+Models+Support and Updates and have to think: If they want to charge prices of a super-premium-allround-perfect product but fail to deliver said product then I won‘t pay their prices, it‘s no longer reasonable.

Edited October 27, 2019 by JackStreicher
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[TheWilddog]

It really hasn't really impacted me too much at all.  This is my chosen hobby and the aesthetics of the models and my collection preferences drive my purchases much more than price variations. I picked up the new Beastgrave Ghoul box because ghouls are one of my first loves. I will pass on the new bone boys not because of the price but because the models do not appeal to me.  On the 40k side I have had an Eldar army for 10 years so the new box Craftworld stuff has been a long time coming for me.  I have held off on the Primaris stuff merely because I am waiting for the inevitable Blood Angels release. When they drop I will cross the Primaris Rubicon.  So for me, the driving force is still just my taste and collections. 

[Mayple]

I used to consider a lot of extra boxes for converting materials. Stocking up on the bits and kits that I felt might come in handy in future projects. While most of the boxes (usually older stuff) haven't increased much, most of the new ones have to the point I can't justify doing that anymore Nowadays I make do with what I have, which has put a fair few projects (like Kurnos Valentian into Grey Seer on Screaming bell) on a permanent hold unless I suddently win the lottery

 

I've also started getting corrupted by chaos into more actively considering (but not yet buying) totally legal 100% gw products for stuff I only want to use for narrative games, reserving the more expensive purchases solely for competitive usage. I guess that's how it starts. 

[christophe]

I do mini armies, 1 or 2 years after the release, when boxes arrive. Never bought in a GW store again and never will I buy an army book from them.

[Souleater]

I have stopped impulse buys for a couple of reasons but that applies to all the game manufacturers I am interested in.

One reason is that prices have gone up, but another is that I have finally learned to weigh impulse buys against things I know are coming down the pipeline.  To be blunt, I was addicted to buying new armies or stuff for ones i already owned.

The biggest reason, as @Overread alludes to is that I am a 'mature gamer' with a pile of stuff still in boxes, or built and played with a couple of times.  

I decided that it was pretty daft to keep buying stuff just to throw on the pile. Further, I only play once a week so why do I need that many armies, or so many models for each one?

I am fortunate that cost didn't feel like an issue  but having decided to cut down to just three AoS armies (and finally bite the bullet and sell off my old Warmahordes stuff) I put over £1200 of sales through eBay in under six weeks...

Whether that was ten models or a thousand what is the point of me having that much money tied up doing nothing? I get a buzz out of buying it, or tracking down OOP box sets via the internet, sure  but...I am not getting anything from the models themselves.

I feel that those bad spending habits have been on me, not GW.  I am trying to shape my behaviour to be better....and yet I still ended up grabbing the Ogor Dice and Warscrolls because I probably...might...be interested in starting Ogors down the line. Clearly the FOMO is real.

Yet I tell myself that I didn't order two boxes of FOB on a whim. Because while one set of Ogors is going to a fellow gamer the other set will go in The Pile of Wasted Opportunity as it shall henceforth be known.

The OBR side was a good deal on models I know I am going to buy (I already decided that OBR are going to be one of my three armies) so it kinda makes sense to pick them up now.  Barring the three or four thousand points of SCE i have yet to paint. Ugh.

OTOH I have a couple of hundred quid of shiny new M3E stuff still mainly in boxes...it's a surprisingly small pile for the cost. Now, it's true that I don't need the number of models for a Malifaux faction as an AoS army but those boxes aren't cheap either - they're just *less expansive*.

And those models are just sitting on a shelf. Again, wasted money. 

OTOOH...I bought The Outer Worlds for PS4...at £45 that's roughly four or five times the cost of computer games when I first got into WHFB.

Prices have gone up in those thirty plus years. 

Things have got more expensive and to an extent this has curbed my impulse buys.  However, the biggest factor for me is to try to break the Pile of Wasted Opportunity Geek Macismo BS mentality. 

"Yeah, my pile of shame is huge." is actually a form of bragging. Don't tell the wife, etc.

I dunno.

 

[Galas]

Since the made the Start Collecting sets more expensive I stopped buying those, and nearly everybody I know did the same.

 

They said new kits were gonna be more expensive because they would avoid any general price rises. But then a couple of months ago they did a general price increase after the SC! price increase. They lost a TON of the good faith they had recovered the previous two years with that move. And in the past two months they are going again in the Kirby Era path. 

 

The difference is that this time people knows where it leads. So they are stopping now instead of waiting for things to get better, because they won't.

[Rodiger]

1 hour ago, Overread said:

"working on completing their backlog."

It is certainly making me do this! 

[Bufkin]

It has had same effect as every other time they have done this... nothing changed.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Bufkin

[Ointagru]

22 minutes ago, Galas said:

They said new kits were gonna be more expensive because they would avoid any general price rises.

When and where did that say that?

[EccentricCircle]

Actually thinking about it the bigger change has come from the latest batch of models being discontinued. I wasn't too impressed by that, and it has kind of swung me back towards buying more second hand stuff. I've probably spent a similar amount as before, but a smaller proportion has gone to GW directly, with far more being to second hand sellers, ebay etc.

I already try to get things from either my local games store, or the triple helix webstore, so its probably not that noticeable a shift. However I'll be getting less from them too, while trying to track down older models on ebay etc.

[TheCovenLord]

I had already limited my spending on new units to 3rd party LGS stores offering 20%+ discounts. Now I believe I will only ever buy more miniatures second hand/ebay/exchange groups. But even ebay is bordering on ridiculous resale prices often being around the price of a brand new box even if they are already built and painted! 

 

The pricing is wild for how popular the game is.