Comments on: Flames of War price increase coming

By: DamianR

DamianR — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:18:38 +0000

General Hobbs, don’t confuse BF with GDub.
How many editions of 40K & WHFB have there been since FOW came out?
BF are up to just one.

How many price rises have GDub made over the same time?
This is the second price rise for FOW product since they released their own game, 6 years ago.
They’re also keeping their books and box sets at the same price, so boxes are now cheaper than blisters.

GDub isn’t exactly making a mint these days either.
http://investor.games-workshop.com/latest_results/Results2008/Interims/default.aspx
Half a million quid profit over the latest half year results, and a 2.9 million quid loss in 2007…

By: Zac

Zac — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:11:48 +0000

You are wrong.

And your evidence to this effect is where? Don’t make comments like this unless you are backing them up with direct evidence and even in that case don’t be so brusque.

Greed, pure and simple.

Please read our Comment Code of Conduct.

By: evernevermore (John)

evernevermore (John) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:18:12 +0000

Provide me with proof I am wrong and I will happily admit it.

I work with purchasing so I get to watch these prices for a living now. All the small companies are getting squeezed by the prices of the materials they work in, its one of the reasons new companies like Warlord games doing plastic from the start.

By: briguy

briguy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:10:58 +0000

General Hobbs: I think you may want to be careful to try and differentiate the size of the companies you’re speaking of. If you want to talk about GW etc., I have no idea where you’re getting these numbers from, so I can’t say if think you’re right or wrong.

But if you’re speaking of a smaller company eg. Hasslefree etc., then I think you are way off the mark calling their price increases greed. From the comments those guys make, it looks like they are making only razor thin margins (witness the recent shutdown of Olley’s Armies.)

I think you should be careful to differentiate which companies you speak of.

By: General Hobbs

General Hobbs — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:52:54 +0000

You are wrong. GW makes a profit selling at 50%. And their sales are booming, so the weak economy excuse doesn’t cut it.

Greed, pure and simple.

By: evernevermore (John)

evernevermore (John) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:32:37 +0000

When you sell to employees you make no profit on the deal, its purely a means of keeping your employees happy. Because happy employees get more done and screw you over less. For discounts to minis look at GW starter boxes. They are priced to be a loss to the company because each player they hook more then makes up for the cost of the box, even for the fantastic new 40k box due out this fall.

If you want to look into the reason for increases in cost for minis look at the commodities market for tin and the other components of pewter, look at the price of oil since it impacts both plastics and shipping costs, look at the cost of start up for getting a mold made and cast.

Oh and dont forget economic issues, all the gamers in the US are getting hit by price increases for overseas games, not because of gouging simply because the dollar is weak.

By: General Hobbs

General Hobbs — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:48:22 +0000

oops correction…..50% to its employees and still make a profit.

By: General Hobbs

General Hobbs — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:47:55 +0000

GW can sell its models at 50% off to its customers and still make a profit. The margin on miniatures is huge. The cost of materials is miniscule to the overall cost of manufacturing. The only reason for a price increase is to gouge the customers out of more money. They know that most people will be sheep and pay the extra cost.

By: evernevermore (John)

evernevermore (John) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:51:42 +0000

Welcome to the joys of commodities - if only it was simple greed. Because it costs more to produce the miniatures the price of the minis goes up, because the company making them would like to afford to stay open.

By: General Hobbs

General Hobbs — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:32:29 +0000

All price increases are due to greed, pure and simple. Isn’t Flames of War run by the old GW guys who said they weren’t charging enough for GW product, after something like a 25% increase? As a long time player of FoW I’m insulted by this increase. I shouldn’t have to pay 10% more to line their pockets. They should lower prices so I can buy more and new players can afford to play.

By: Stu

Stu — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:38:20 +0000

As an aside the NZ$ is currently around a 15 year HIGH against the US$. Personally (being a New Zealander) I suspect this says more about the US economy than anything else.

By: penn42

penn42 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:35:58 +0000

The other reason is the value of the New Zealand Dollar to the Dollar, Pound and Euro. The US Market is their #1 market, #2 is Germany and #3 is England (I may have those two reversed.) Their currency takes a beating like the dollar over round Europe. When I typed this the NZD was 1.99 to the Euro, and 2.52 to the GBP. Yikes. Add shipping using NZDs, bad times.They also have to buy metal using NZD, again ouch. Just a thought.

By: Heresiarch

Heresiarch — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:58:21 +0000

In this case the price increase may very well be related to shipping costs rather than casting costs. The price of shipping a container from China to North America has gone from about $3000 US to over $7000 US in the last year.

If oil hits around $150/barrel that cost may rise to over $10,000.

Suddenly overseas production isn’t looking quite as appealing. Doubly so when shipping bottlenecks are worked into it due to lack of hulls. Late and expensive could become bywords for overseas production.

By: phoenixman

phoenixman — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:26:05 +0000

they will still be better value than GW, who once again aer raising prices on everything, most recently Gamesday UK tickets from £25 to £30.

By: Morf

Morf — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:52:41 +0000

Probably if you are casting in Indonesia, you do it because it’s cheaper. Even with the transport costs added.