How to improve aus prices?

[Myu]

I haven't bought anything from GW since the trade embargo hit and looking at the online store just now the prices are even more insane then before - $62 for a tacticle squad, $110 for a landraider, $37 for a space marine commander, $41 for a Crisis suit etc...

I mean, come on, there can't possibly be a justification for that.I know people love to talk about molds costs, inflation, taxes and high aussie wages, but you know what? We had those factors before as well, but I don't see how in a few years ago the prices could be jacked up $12-25 dollars for plastic models. If (and I don't believe it is) GW genuinely needs to charge these prices, then they need to find a way to reduce costs.

Otherwise slash the prices. I tried not to think to hard about paying $85 for a land raider before, but this...

[TheBitzBarn]

You have forgot the cost of Oil went up over the period of 2006-2011 form 20-30 dollars a barrel to 80-90 dollars a barrel that to me seems like a bigger factor for the price increase. The embargo only effects stores in the EU not the US or Canada.

Us here at the Bitz Barn send packages and boxes down under 3 to 4 times a week. Check us out at www.bitzbarn.com

[Myu]

I didn't know about the oil, but I tried getting stuff from the us store before and it wouldn't let me which is part of why I'm so grumpy.

Had a look again just now, It's quiet amazing the us price differences - between 1/3 and 2/3 of the aus price. I might try placing an order again, see what happens.

Also, I would use online stores to buy cheap online store stuff, but my friend lost hundreds of dollars that way to phonies so I'm not inclined to try myself.

Edit:
Although it looks like I can buy from US, but not at the US prices, look at this:

1 Tactical Squad:
Merchandise Total: $40.98
Standard Shipping: $44.00
Value Added Tax(Included in)Merchandise: $3.73 Shipping: $4.00
Order Total:
$84.98

2 Tactical Squad:
Merchandise Total: $81.96
Standard Shipping: $132.00
Value Added Tax(Included in) Merchandise: $7.45 Shipping: $12.00
Order Total:
$213.96

[TheBitzBarn]

Well if you attempt to order form them they will shut you down but there are lots of good online stores hell we have been in business for 3 years.

The reason things are cheap in US is also because we have the manufacturing plant here in the US.

You have to Factor in Transportation cost

[Myu]

Maybe the solution then is to have a plant in Australia? Would be a massive investment I imagine, but sales would sure pick up if they could cut product prices by saving on everything that goes into international transportation.

[chromedog]

Can't really see them doing that.
Pretty much no-one else manufactures stuff here anymore.

It's not cost-effective to make Aus the production centre for APac. Not when they can do it in Asia for less.

IF they want to lower their Aus overheads, then GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WESTFIELD MALLS (something they have started doing - but many stores are tied into a 5 year lease). Those rents are crippling, and the extra charges Westfield levy against the non-big4 stores aren't helping either. They can't pay staff any less (retail awards specify pay rates) than they do.

Their store business model has turned around and bit them on the arse, here. It is not sustainable.

[pauljc]

Simply put, having been in a relationship with someone who worked for a cargo shipping company, I can tell you that the largest factor for why AUS and NZ prices are so ludicrously high, is transportation costs. When I moved from Holland to Finland, it cost over €1000 to send a palette with my meagre personal effects. Now imagine how much it must cost to send a few ship containers full of GW products over seas to Australia.

I've worked at GW myself, and for sure they are one of the weirdest companies on the planet, and yes, we do pay a premium for those fabulous models (Nike, Reebok, Ferrari, etc), but they're not intionally trying to rip you off. It's not like the board sits down once a week and goes, "mm.. I know how to make more money! Let's fleece the crap out of Australia, because we hate them!".
That's just bad business. GW probably doesn't want to charge you folks 3 or 4 times the price us Europeans pay. They are well aware of the pain. They probably just don't have any choice.

If they ever open a manufacturing plant in AUS or NZ, expect things to change dramatically.

I feel for you guys, though. I just think GW gets an unnecessary amount of stick for something they probably can't quite control.

[Mauglum.]

Hi folks.
Lets look at events in the order they happened...

GW plc did NOT adjust for currency exchange rates to lower prices for Australia and Canada.

Internet retailers offered GW products at UK price + realistic shipping charge to Austraila and Canada.

Therfore ALOT of GW customers bought from these retailers for massive savings on GW store prices in Australia and Canada.

Sales in expencive B&M stores in Canada and Australia plummeted.

EVERY OTHER BUISNESS would simply realise thier mistake and adjust local prices to compete with internet re-selleres.

NOT GW plc.
They threw the teddy bear out of the pram ....

Called thier major business customers ,( internet resellers like Wayland Games, The Warstore etc,) 'freeloaders'.
Banned them from selling to Austraila and Canada. and uppped the shipping costs from GW UK and GW America to make it more expencive than buying in country in Australia and Canada.

If other companies can offer FREE shipping around the world , or reasonable shipping costs .

GW plc IS just sticking it to Australians and Canadians.

Look at the shipping costs from other companies like, AoW, Mantic, PP, etc.
And compare them to GW plc shipping costs....:mad:

[Lane]

So shipping a plastic kit from the US to the UK, or a finecast model from UK to the US, keeps the prices average. However shipping a plastic kit from US to Canada doubles the price and to AU triples it?

[TheBitzBarn]

Called thier major business customers ,( internet resellers like Wayland Games, The Warstore etc,) 'freeloaders'.
Banned them from selling to Austraila and Canada. and uppped the shipping costs from GW UK and GW America to make it more expencive than buying in country in Australia and Canada.



You actually have that all wrong. They only banned EU webstores form selling South of the Equator. They did not up the shipping cost they just will not ship to you.

Australia's issue is shipping and transportation cost how many times do people have to say that an people in the logistic business will tell you shipping to OZ is incredible expensive. To ship a 4 lbs box to OZ is 36.00 dollars and UP 4lbs is not a lot of GW so you can see why shipping a ton is expensive how do you recover your cost spread the cost across your product line.

This is simple business 101

[Bigred]

My submission to this pickle is to build a land-bridge connecting Australia to North America (and our delicious pricing structure). Problem solved.

It worked for Alexander...

[Slug]

To be honest shipping is not a major factor, I was looking at getting the mega paint set a while back, even using fed ex it would have cost less to buy it in the UK then here in Aus. Plus, when you ship a whole pallet of boxes you massively offset the cost of that pallet as for each box the shipping might only come to a few dollars even at a thousand a pallet.
In the end whilst I certainly don't think they should particularly adjust for exchange rate changes unless they look to be permanent the pricing here is a bit over the top at any other time as well.

[Wildeybeast]

Maybe the solution then is to have a plant in Australia? Would be a massive investment I imagine, but sales would sure pick up if they could cut product prices by saving on everything that goes into international transportation.

Population of UK approx 63 million (and that plant serves Europe and ROW as well)
Population of USA approx 310 million
Population of Australia approx 23 million

You really think they are going to build a manufacturing plant in OZ? Even if every single teenage boy down there started playing, I still doubt it would be finiancially viable.

[flatdice]

Abit off topic but the fact they dont manufacture in Australia is some thing we all have known but when i was looking at some GW plastic box kits for the new dark eldar a few weeks ago i noticed someting strange a 'made in Australia' sticker on it. i was just wondering if any one else has seen this sticker or can make sense of it ?

I regards to the prices of Aus model i always assumed they had two main reasons. The smaller size of the aus market relative to the US and EU. The other factor being the fact that nothing ever goes down in price here in Aus.

[chromedog]

The box only has to be made here to qualify for that sticker, btw.

[pauljc]

And, right now, GW is even offering free shipping for orders over 50 Oz bucks!

[Arch_Bishop]

Abit off topic but the fact they dont manufacture in Australia is some thing we all have known but when i was looking at some GW plastic box kits for the new dark eldar a few weeks ago i noticed someting strange a 'made in Australia' sticker on it. i was just wondering if any one else has seen this sticker or can make sense of it ?.

Contents aren't made here.

I noticed it when Dreadfleet dropped, and asked around then.

As another poster noted, only the box has to be made here...

On the topic of pricing, the best you can do in Australia right now is 20% off Aus rrp.

Otherwise, let's see what Wayland's whole "Tabletop Nation" initiative brings....

[Myu]

"And, right now, GW is even offering free shipping for orders over 50 Oz bucks!"

Hm... sounds intriguing, that would make almost their entire catalog (almost include independent characters :P) free shipping.

Edit:

@Bigred
"My submission to this pickle is to build a land-bridge connecting Australia to North America (and our delicious pricing structure). Problem solved.

It worked for Alexander..."

:P I agree.


The question I now have is, if some people say "Them shipping costs are terrible!" and others point out things which seem to get around this cost, who do I believe?

[eldargal]

Actually I did hear rumours that GW were thinking about siting a factory in Australia to service Asia and Oceania, seems a bit unlikely but you never know. It would certainly be safer putting it in Australia than China, in terms of IP protection.

[flatdice]

that would be a amazing if they did have a GW factory in Aus, i would hope it would drive down the price and make faster turn around of stock

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

Ok take a look at this then:
Landraider $110 Aus.
but i can buy a Landraider Achilles for $96 from UK, tell me how that works then?

It's cheaper to buy a part resin landraider from the UK than it is to walk into GW Melbourne and buy one from them, if i buy it direct online from Sydney they charge me postage ontop of that $110.
I'm better off buying forgeworld LR's than anything from GW Australia.

Hey Myu, which state you in?

[helvexis]

well i can buy a fw leman russ executioner for $30au less than a gw one ... ok so that doesnt involve shipping. Though its unlikely to cost 30 dollars. But i had a friend buy a death korp of krieg army for 150 less than it would of cost him from gw that included shipping

but the worst one i have seen is vampire count blood knights: $165au which is $164us and 106pound can anyone tell me what the current overseas price is?

A land bridge would be awesome :) the biggest most epic roadtrip ever and think of the awesome hotels/backpackers along the way

[thecactusman17]

well i can buy a fw leman russ executioner for $30au less than a gw one ... ok so that doesnt involve shipping. Though its unlikely to cost 30 dollars. But i had a friend buy a death korp of krieg army for 150 less than it would of cost him from gw that included shipping

but the worst one i have seen is vampire count blood knights: $165au which is $164us and 106pound can anyone tell me what the current overseas price is?

A land bridge would be awesome :) the biggest most epic roadtrip ever and think of the awesome hotels/backpackers along the way

Vampire Counts Blood Knights are the exception, I think you are only getting about doubled relative to the USA. Unit is ridiculously overcosted, no two ways about it.

[Myu]

@Sister Rosette Soulknyt

I'm in WA. I would get stuff from FW, but I'm trying to avoid that due to resin dust. There are many things I would LOVE to get, but I want to avoid their resin stuff.

[daboarder]

You actually have that all wrong. They only banned EU webstores form selling South of the Equator. They did not up the shipping cost they just will not ship to you.


as someone whose not from australia, how the hell would you know? He's actually right they abolished the low priced shipping for items to australia, you no longer have the option to wait longer with cheaper.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

@Sister Rosette Soulknyt

I'm in WA. I would get stuff from FW, but I'm trying to avoid that due to resin dust. There are many things I would LOVE to get, but I want to avoid their resin stuff.
There's something of a misconception that their resin dust is toxic (some resins are, modern forgeworld ones aren't), the only risks associated with it are those of inhaling dust/powders - it's as dangerous as inhaling regular dust.

[daboarder]

There's something of a misconception that their resin dust is toxic (some resins are, modern forgeworld ones aren't), the only risks associated with it are those of inhaling dust/powders - it's as dangerous as inhaling regular dust.

Not entirely true, resin has a tendency to shear in sizes that just happen to match those in your lungs giving you cancer in the same way as the crystalline silica in cement does. dust you find in a house tends to be either much larger and is therefore not a problem or so small that it is exhaled just as fast as it is inhaled.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Not entirely true, resin has a tendency to shear in sizes that just happen to match those in your lungs giving you cancer in the same way as the crystalline silica in cement does. dust you find in a house tends to be either much larger and is therefore not a problem or so small that it is exhaled just as fast as it is inhaled.Which types of resin have that quality, though? Resin is a very broad category. From what I've heard (and what FW advertises), their blend is pretty cancer-free. (Same goes for Finecast.) Seems reasonable, that a company whose demographic oft includes the young would try and avoid carcinogens, think of the headlines :P

[Myu]

@TheBitzBarn

One thing, why would you say I'm wrong about massive shipping prices when I coppied and pasted the info the GW website? The info was correct as possible at the time of posting, it may be a minute or so off :P but that's about it.

[w7west]

Well, the good news is that Australia is one of the most beautiful countries on this planet and if you can't afford a new space marine squad you can always just go chill with kangaroos and koala bears in your back yard. If I grew up in Aus I would be like wtf is warhammer lets go get drunk and ride my kangaroo

[flatdice]

Well, the good news is that Australia is one of the most beautiful countries on this planet and if you can't afford a new space marine squad you can always just go chill with kangaroos and koala bears in your back yard. If I grew up in Aus I would be like wtf is warhammer lets go get drunk and ride my kangaroo

Ah unfortunately as a some one who lives in Australia i can tell you right now riding kangaroos has never been possible,we have all dreamed it having jumping kangaroo light Calvary but alas no.

Jokes aside another thing i have noticed about the GW stores is that whenever i go in to maybe have a browse of by some thing, i often get refereed to order off the website to my house ( which ends with me comaping with Ebay).

I would hate to think that the stores are just for sucking in little kids to buy space marines.

[Myu]

@Flatdice

"Ah unfortunately as a some one who lives in Australia i can tell you right now riding kangaroos has never been possible,we have all dreamed it having jumping kangaroo light Calvary but alas no."

Haha true that, it's crazy what people from other countries believe about Aus. The only thing that's true is there's less pollution and worse GW prices :P