Thursday, June 17, 2010

$74.00 for a rulebook?? Huh??

Well well ... 74 bucks for a rulebook? 123 for the "gamers" edition?? GW is going off the deep end on their pricing. For the first time since I've been playing GW games I'm going to take a pass on a new rulebook release for either 40K or WHFB. I shall be waiting for the boxed set ... and if that is overpriced (I doubt it ... I assume it will be a nice loss leader as usual so I'll probably be in for a few honestly) I'll skip it too and just make a photocopy of a friends or something along those lines. Evil I know ... but I'm just done with outrageous pricing. I don't care if the book is 1000 pages and finely bound in acid free archival quality paper ... that price is entirely unjustified. The cost of printing on the book can't be more than $25.00 and I'd be surprised if it was even that high. 

I am very much looking for more competition in the mini game marketplace. GW has risen its prices to the point that now for sure there should be plenty of room. At those price points ... even a rube like me could compete ... if only I had some capital. But so many others are already jumping in ... like I've been harping over the past few months ... Viva La Revolution!! To Mantic and to Wargame Factory Plastics!! 

8 comments:

Mike Howell said...

You will pay what they demand and you will THANK them for the privilege of doing so!

Hmmm, if more expensive rulebooks mean fewer buyers then eventually any new edition will cost $10M, will only have one buyer, and will cover their revenue for the year. It's so obvious now!

Da Masta Cheef said...

Ya know the first thing i thought of when looking online @ the $123 for the Gamer's Edition rule book was 'Fancy book, I wonder how long before it's binding fails, like on my SM codex?'

My SM codex is spiral bound btw, was WAAAAY cheaper than buying a new one. As for WHFB, I haven't played in over a year & I'm NOT going to pay that much for an update. So I'll sell that army.

GW extorting its customers = FAIL!

Will said...

Hehe typical GW thinking-prices are always higher, ever higher. Im glad that my spending into that evil company had gone from easily about 100 a month to the hundred or so I barely spent last year. Dont worry about the binding cause the book is only worth anything as long as the edition is current, which prob will only be a few years at best. Indeed- viva la revolution- play more 4e :)

Aaron E. Steele said...

I stopped buying GW stuff two years ago. I've got 10 years worth of painting and gaming ahead of me, just from the stuff I already have.

GW, see you in 2020.

The Lord of Excess said...

Ya really its the same for me too ... I have so much stuff I'm largely insulated from what they do.

Anonymous said...

You think your prices are a bit steep over in America. $74 US converts to around $85-90 Australian, yet to buy the book from my local GW would have cost me $124 Australian for the normal book, and $200 for the special edition. The mark up over here is massive compared to the UK and US price points (I think its to hedge against currency fluctuations or something).

I ended up getting mine from the UK which with the current exchange rate came out much much cheaper.

The Lord of Excess said...

Good point :) Indeed it could be worse for us in the USA. The worst thing here as for foreign currency exchange rate bs .. is trying to get Forgeworld or black library (I mean the posters and limited ed stuff ... the regular books are in all the book stores and on amazon.com) and any other non-GW minis from Europe. With the little companies its understandable ... but with GW ... why they don't have a US forgeworld option is beyond me ... its really frustrating ... so much so that I generally don't pay attention to FW stuff anymore really.
I find myself more and more looking to other companies ... it does seem like its easier for small companies to produce minis and bitz at a decent price. Also the little guys are catching on that they can ride GW's coat tails all the way to the bank. I say bravo to that too ... if GW can't or won't produce things their customers want at reasonable prices ... I'm glad to finally see others doing it! On the Australia note ... you guys seem to be getting more and more companies producing minis that compliment the GW range too. We don't seem to have many in the US really ... they seem mostly to be coming out of Europe still. Wargame Factory Plastics is our dark horse I guess.

Anonymous said...

Yeah FW is massively exensive here too, and even accounting for currency conversion, I am still put off by the prices.

The little companies out there are d
doing some fantastic work in filling the niches left by GW - heres hoping GW don't go all legal on them in an attempt to curb the move to smaller, independent mini producers.