demonherald
New member
either wy you look at that how much do you reckon the giant or the mumak would have cost in metal??? not to mention the upcoming super heavy\'s Dragon and More..
No GW blisters in stores...
- Thread starter hashmallum
- Start date
either wy you look at that how much do you reckon the giant or the mumak would have cost in metal??? not to mention the upcoming super heavy\'s Dragon and More..
The giant would probably cost about the same as it does now, it just wouldn\'t be as big or have any options. The Mumak wouldn\'t have happened at all.
That\'s the thing with plastic that a lot of people don\'t seem to get, GW aren\'t making more in plastic because it is a cheep alternative, they are doing it because of the options that it opens up for them. Kits can be bigger and more adventurous (I don\'t think that they\'d be working on a main range Baneblade if they hadn\'t improved their plastic technology somehow!) and packed with alternative parts and options (very important to the army builder, which lets not forget is their core audience).
So plastic kits won\'t give you a cheap alternative to metal, they\'ll give you some really good big models or varied squads.
That\'s the thing with plastic that a lot of people don\'t seem to get, GW aren\'t making more in plastic because it is a cheep alternative, they are doing it because of the options that it opens up for them. Kits can be bigger and more adventurous (I don\'t think that they\'d be working on a main range Baneblade if they hadn\'t improved their plastic technology somehow!) and packed with alternative parts and options (very important to the army builder, which lets not forget is their core audience).
So plastic kits won\'t give you a cheap alternative to metal, they\'ll give you some really good big models or varied squads.
Aye. At GD winners\' day, we got to see some previews of their new plastic stuff and their new techniques (including ome new computer technology and red goo - very exciting!), and all I\'ll say is that later in 2007, they will be making something in plastic that it will revolutionise the whole miniature world.
AinuLainour
New member
Originally posted by Bill
Aye. At GD winners\' day, we got to see some previews of their new plastic stuff and their new techniques (including ome new computer technology and red goo - very exciting!), and all I\'ll say is that later in 2007, they will be making something in plastic that it will revolutionise the whole miniature world.
Something in plastic that will revolutionize the miniature world??!! ??? :drool:
Bill, do tell.
james sequeira
New member
Baneblade and i think the red stuff appeared in WD when the lustria campain was on.
The problem with that theory is that is not the explanation they gave to us Rouge Trader types. They told us specifically it was to cut the prices on the mini\'s so that more people could get into the hobby.
When they started going to plastics we were very upset about it and complained, and GW said this would bring the price down on the figs, so we capitulated.
If you look now the Plastic Space Marine Dreadnought costs more than the metal one ever did. As does the Landspeeder, and the bikes.
You\'re looking at it from the Modeler/Painter Perspective. I the Wargamer Perspective.
To us older Wargamers the prices on the plastic models are ridiculously inflated, especially when we used to buy the metal ones cheaper, and were promised cheaper minis.
That, coupled with cutting support for a lot of their older, popular games (Space Hulk, Necromunda, etc.), business decisions regarding Local Gaming Stores, etc. etc. has disenfranchised a lot of us older customers who were previously extremely loyal to GW from day one.
Would I like to see them fail? No.
I would, however, like to see them taken down a notch and return to the business of putting out incredible games with decent profit, rather than decent games for incredible profit.
I don\'t pay top dollar for only decent.
AinuLainour
New member
In the US, they dropped the battalion price about $10-$20.
First off, I\'ll post some quick background.
I worked for GW Retail in the past, nearly 2 years. I\'m friends with a lot of staff and management (Head of Retail Canada has been at my house for Bloodbown matches, for example). I don\'t agree with a lot of what they\'re doing (continued LoTR investment tops the list) but generally I think they know what they\'re doing. The company\'s not going to disappear overnight.
When I worked there, managing stock was a nightmare because of blisters. They rip. They break open when dropped. They are more easily stolen than boxes. Inventory is a huge pain in the ass. And, perhaps most importantly from an economic standpoint, a large portion of them will never, ever, sell.
You can date a blister pack really easily once you know the subtle/not so subtle changes in the graphics on the package. Some of the blisters in GW West Edmonton Mall in the last couple years were still 5th edition Fantasy / 2nd Edition 40k. That\'s like 1998-2000.
Would you want to pay higher rent so you can accomodate models that don\'t sell even after 8 years on your shelf? I don\'t think so!
I don\'t even want to know how much money is wasted every time GW re-releases a new version of a model. There must be tons of blister packs throughout the chain that end up selling for next to nothing in store auctions, sold to staff at ridiculous discount, or are otherwise disposed of.
This probably won\'t be such a big deal when they thin down the blister packs in shops, and stick to boxes supplemented by the odd mail order.
Final rant: Since when has mail order deterred most modellers from buying product? It\'s not really any different from buying stuff online, and a ton of manufacturers make their entirety of their sales online.
I worked for GW Retail in the past, nearly 2 years. I\'m friends with a lot of staff and management (Head of Retail Canada has been at my house for Bloodbown matches, for example). I don\'t agree with a lot of what they\'re doing (continued LoTR investment tops the list) but generally I think they know what they\'re doing. The company\'s not going to disappear overnight.
When I worked there, managing stock was a nightmare because of blisters. They rip. They break open when dropped. They are more easily stolen than boxes. Inventory is a huge pain in the ass. And, perhaps most importantly from an economic standpoint, a large portion of them will never, ever, sell.
You can date a blister pack really easily once you know the subtle/not so subtle changes in the graphics on the package. Some of the blisters in GW West Edmonton Mall in the last couple years were still 5th edition Fantasy / 2nd Edition 40k. That\'s like 1998-2000.
Would you want to pay higher rent so you can accomodate models that don\'t sell even after 8 years on your shelf? I don\'t think so!
I don\'t even want to know how much money is wasted every time GW re-releases a new version of a model. There must be tons of blister packs throughout the chain that end up selling for next to nothing in store auctions, sold to staff at ridiculous discount, or are otherwise disposed of.
This probably won\'t be such a big deal when they thin down the blister packs in shops, and stick to boxes supplemented by the odd mail order.
Final rant: Since when has mail order deterred most modellers from buying product? It\'s not really any different from buying stuff online, and a ton of manufacturers make their entirety of their sales online.
DrEvilmonki
Active member
The problem with that statement (and it\'s been made before) is that they aren\'t actually making huge profits (again as has been pointed out in a number of threads).
I would also like to see what increase in comparitive valuehas been seen over the past 15 years. Can anyone tell me how much the very first box of plastic space marines cost when it was first out (although I got a few boxes I can\'t remember that far back).
I remember paying around $9.99 for my first \"beaky\" marines, you could get 3 rhinos for under $20.00.
One thing to factor in though is that point costs in the game has been lowered, Rouge Trader, 1st edition, your armies were much smaller.
There also was no force chart arrangement, ie. you have to have two tactical squads before you could get a fast attack squad, etc.
DrEvilmonki
Active member
How many beakies were there? I know it was more than 10, was it 16?
Dammekkos2
New member
Their rediculously small profits may be due to their unreasonable pricing structure. Since the relentless and aggressive increases bacame common practice I have considerably reduced my GW spending (which is very much worse from a business perspective than spending the same but getting less product).
I want to say, 15 or 16.
While they aren\'t making huge profits now, that also could be due to failing to keep the older customers (with the most amount of freed up cash) happy.
In my area is a small gaming community, I knew around thirty people into Warhammer 40K from Rouge Trader days.
None of them are into it now moving on to other games. I dare say this is not just a local phenomenon.
Do I hate them? Not at all. To me it is merely a cost vs. fun equation.
With current prices the cost outweighs the fun, even though I have far more free cash than I did as a teenager.
So for me, as a wargamer, it\'s merely a matter of two options from GW.
- Up the fun factor
or
- Lower the costs
As a painter/modeler if I really like the sculpt, the price is generally a small factor.
So I will buy idividual models, but I will not buy squads and the such which are the real meat and potatoes of their profit.
DrEvilmonki
Active member
Thats not likely. Reducing their price may (or indeed may not) increase their sales but unless the increase is substantial businesses who reduce prices usually make less profit rather than more. After all their costs remain basically the same, if anything they will rise slighty if their volumes do go up since there will be increased shipping and storage costs.
If anything the decline in sale GW has had over the past two years (after 14 years of continued growth) should not cause any undue worry to those who want them to succeed (or happiness to those who don\'t).
I will await this financial years results with interest.
generulpoleaxe
New member
it was thirty six for £9.99. (god i\'m old)
one of there big expenses could be sorted by using the epos system.
as an item is sold the system registers it and puts it on order.
the manager can over ride the order before it is sent off and adjust it as is neccesary. no need for stock rooms full of stuff not being sold.
they produce far more items than what they need, and this hurts any business.
it\'s money tied up, producing no profit.
one of there big expenses could be sorted by using the epos system.
as an item is sold the system registers it and puts it on order.
the manager can over ride the order before it is sent off and adjust it as is neccesary. no need for stock rooms full of stuff not being sold.
they produce far more items than what they need, and this hurts any business.
it\'s money tied up, producing no profit.
I really do think aquiring Lord of the Rings is going to bite them in the ass though.
Sure the sales and interest was there when the movies were out, but I doubt interests will continue to be held.
While the books are pretty good, they have never been able to keep multiple mini manufacturers producing the minis of the characters afloat.
DrEvilmonki
Active member
DrEvilmonki
Active member
Yeah that\'s an interesting one. I would imagine they will have a fixed term contract for the license with a minimum output per year. I wonder if they have their financials seperated for the different games on the shareholder site (I would look but I\'m not THAT interested! lol )
Evil Dave, I’m looking at it from a former employee perspective and most definitely all around wargamer perspective (with 16 years of addiction under my belt).
If they didn’t explain it that way at first to independent accounts then they screwed up. The last three years that I was with the company it’s exactly what they were saying. I was told off on almost my first day for bringing up the plastic should be cheaper thing.
And inflation in prices, well that’s something that happens isn’t it? Yes they are expensive, but so is a DVD, and that costs about 0.001p to produce. Yeah, there are other things involved outside of production, but the same is true with miniatures.
The Lord of The Rings profits bought GW a new, large and up to date office building in Lenton, an absolutely massive factory with the latest picking technology also in Lenton, expansion in their US head office and some sort of factory in China. It can\'t bite them in the ass because they have already benefited so much from it!
What it did was, for three years, create a huge peak in sales that could obviously not continue. If you look at sales for the first year after the LoTR bubble burst they are pretty much where they would have been had LoTR not happened and they had just continued their slow but regular rise.
This hurts the shares, and because certain numptys at GW didn\'t put enough thought into it, means that a lot of staff (who had been employed when things were sweet) had to be made redundant to lower operating costs again. It’s a shame that some people sacked were workers, and that people like Priestly, Merit and co whose job is to look like miserable motherbitches are still about!
Yes, LoTR probably won’t remain a main range for too much longer, but I bet if you ask the main moneymen at GW if they would do it again, having given them a completely effective truth serum, they would say ‘Hell yeah!”
If they didn’t explain it that way at first to independent accounts then they screwed up. The last three years that I was with the company it’s exactly what they were saying. I was told off on almost my first day for bringing up the plastic should be cheaper thing.
And inflation in prices, well that’s something that happens isn’t it? Yes they are expensive, but so is a DVD, and that costs about 0.001p to produce. Yeah, there are other things involved outside of production, but the same is true with miniatures.
The Lord of The Rings profits bought GW a new, large and up to date office building in Lenton, an absolutely massive factory with the latest picking technology also in Lenton, expansion in their US head office and some sort of factory in China. It can\'t bite them in the ass because they have already benefited so much from it!
What it did was, for three years, create a huge peak in sales that could obviously not continue. If you look at sales for the first year after the LoTR bubble burst they are pretty much where they would have been had LoTR not happened and they had just continued their slow but regular rise.
This hurts the shares, and because certain numptys at GW didn\'t put enough thought into it, means that a lot of staff (who had been employed when things were sweet) had to be made redundant to lower operating costs again. It’s a shame that some people sacked were workers, and that people like Priestly, Merit and co whose job is to look like miserable motherbitches are still about!
Yes, LoTR probably won’t remain a main range for too much longer, but I bet if you ask the main moneymen at GW if they would do it again, having given them a completely effective truth serum, they would say ‘Hell yeah!”
I\'m not disputing what you were told. However, it makes one wonder, that if the whole poseability and individuality concept was their plan from the get go, then why did they switch from multipart \"beakies\" to the three part plastic marines, the two part Orks, and the two part Eldar in second edition, it seems like that was a major step backwards. The older, cheaper models where far more poseable/individual than those.
Why were the first Dreads in plastic exactly the same as the Dreads in metal, the first Plastic Dreads came with almost none of the stuff in the sprues you see today, yet they cost the same as the metal ones did, as did the first plastic bikes and the first plastic landspeeders? They were no more unique or more poseable than the metals were.
If you may recall, the only way to get individuality then was to buy the metal marines, with plastic arms and shoulders.
The plastics were very static, yet cost close to the same.
