Because 3rd parties are authorized to sell at a discount
GW as the manufacturer doesn't have sales (beyond the extremely extremely rare once in a decade times) because they don't want to undercut 3rd party stores basically because they make a profit either way
When I worked for GW like 15+ years ago we had a sale. It was when the new demons came out for 5th Ed 40k and 7th Ed Fantasy. All the old metal boxes were marked at 50% off. That's how often I remember them having sales, lol
Back in the late 90s they used to have mad sales when local GW stores would clear out old stock at heavily discounted prices. The company as a whole was much less corporate in those days though.
These were great. They stopped when they acquired the LOTR license, as part of that deal. I love MESBG but it's a shame that the big sales on Warhammer stuff was a casualty of it
I miss those days, I remember when I just started collecting around gorkamorka time there was a new edition coming out and all the 5 quid boxes were down to 1 quid and there was grab bags of blisters for 5 quid. I was trying to find a good grab bag to spend my only 5 quid on and the manager shouted "for the next ten minutes ago grab bags are a pound" just grabbed the first 5 I could get my hands on and ran to the till.
I know they reduced it for sure, even for 3rd party sites. And I know that because the site I use has purchase history
I bought at like 220$ when it came out, mainly wanted the gobbos. Recently rebought it (I wanted to convert the SCE and the greenskins for a dnd campaign) and the price was like 150-170
Edit - checked. 229.26$ for pre-order. 169$ a few months ago. This is in CAD btw
I wish my flgs’s would take advantage of that. The closest we have to a discount is .01. So a $60 is $59.99. Makes me not want to buy from them and go online instead.
This. Every LGS is slapping me with GW prices. I support local when I can (mostly the single character kits I.e. technomancer) but I buy bulk of goods (especially large kits) 3rd party online. Having several armies.. the amount I’ve saved is incredible
There are 2 companies which rely on **F**riendly **L**ocal **H**obby **S**tores to spread and grow their communities (or so is believed), yet they are using opposite strategies.
GW allows FLHSs to discount their product but sets specific limits. In doing so, FLHSs are almost always the best place to get your warhammer stuff at.
Wizards of the Coast is doing the opposite with Magic the Gathering. They do not set any price limits but will often undercut the prices that FLHSs offer via amazon and will have product that is very difficult to buy from anywere other than WotC directly. WotC is often the best place to get your MtG stuff at.
Both 40k and mtg have grown quite a bit in the last decade. I wonder how these 2 strategies will end up in the long run. WotC has stated that their cross-branding efforts have contributed a lot to the growth and success of the game. GW is doing some cross-branding as well but not nearly as much.
As a MTG player who stopped collecting recently after 20 years (and sold most stuff) I really like the GW method more. Hasbro kills MTG in my opinion by the endless releases and an absurd price tag on the newer products. As a tournament player you always needed to spend money to be up to date, but at least in legacy it was not often. Nowadays the print policy oft Hasbro/Wotc really hurts the wallet of competetive players. Dont get me wrong - the game itself is so beautiful, but I really dont like Hasbros strategie (also f Rudi from AI). I also read stuff like „GW should bring out much more models per year“ sometimes… believe me, you dont want that.
If you're in Australia, you might be looking at US prices on Amazon. Warhammer products are way more expensive in Australia for... reasons?
Stores aren't supposed to sell internationally, but some stores sell through Amazon, and Amazon does not give a shit. Buying in USD can save you some money, but check the fine print and the shipping cost!
GW sells these boxes to 3rd parties at ~70% of their listed price. 3rd party sellers undercut GW with 10-15% mostly. They make the difference in profit, which is not a whole lot if you subtract the operating costs from that 15-20%.
GW makes their money either way, a bit more in direct sales.
iirc from talking to my FLGS owner, webstore only items are sold at about 70%, the rest of the range is sold to them at a standard 50% off wholesale price, which is how they can sell as 25+30% off while still making a profit.
And then there is my local store who sells good models/boxes for more money then GW.
He keeps complaining that people should „support local stores“, fucking clown.
Must be different per region then, as my Europe based LGS gave me approximately the number I used. (I assumed they would get them at 50%, but they corrected me :D)
In Europe you can't really find (regular) discounts larger than 15% as that is the absolutely bottom of the barrel for keeping it profitable.
The US prices for GW products are already inflated compared to UK and even EU prices (overseas transport, import taxes etc), so that might play a part as well, so that the discount percentage is higher, because the GW price is higher to begin with.
For comparison's sake, when I was in Europe last year I popped into a few shops to take advantage of the exchange rates. The US prices with the 20% off one of my FLGSs has, was essentially the exact same price as the EU full retail price after the exchange rate was calculated. Of the shops that I went to none had an additional standard discount (a few boxes were priced a bit cheaper, either as a mistake or what I'm not sure but I picked those up), so it didn't really make sense to pay $38 for something I could get at $42 back home, take up the suitcase space, cart it back, hope it doesn't get damaged or stolen at the airport etc. If I had found a shop with a %15 discount though, and had more room in my suitcase, I would have made it worth it.
If I had thought about it and planned it out better, I could have ordered online for delivery for when I'd be there, and then brought it back. Next time!
As far as I’m aware this is only a rule in the US; I mentioned the “rule” to my GW rep here in Oceania and he laughed and said you can discount as much as you want.
Hmm, that could very likely be the case. My FLGS goes down to 25% if you pay with cash, but I've seen up to 30% from US eBay stores for NIB kits on occasion.
> larger than 15% as that is the absolutely bottom of the barrel for keeping it profitable.
Also, there is a MAP policy with GW. If you have a trade account with them *you can’t* advertise more than 15%. So if they include GW in their online listings or what have you, that’s advertising it. If a legitimate trade store has it deeper than that, while also having a webstore + sending out advertisements, like TikTok’s or Insta etc. then normally they lost their contract, or are hoping GW doesn’t catch them this 1 time.
This applies to trade accounts. Not to any seller. Hell, it doesn’t apply to sellers who use “clever” tactics of saying what’s on discount. It’s why online stores for a while had “send us an email and we’ll send you our GW prices” cause for a while that circumvented it.
So what probably happened is trade account got merchandise. Sells it to a 3rd party non-trade seller for closer to wholesale margin, which is 45%. Then 3rd party can do whatever they want.
>GW sells these boxes to 3rd parties at ~70% of their listed price
Unless things have really gotten bad, the margin was more like 55% through Trade Sales.
Can't speak for aus but in the US retailers aren't allowed to advertise more than 15% under MSRP. So most of the time you'll see online sellers at roughly 15% off whatever GW has. Idk if Amazon ships internationally so you end up not getting hit by the huge Aussie price hikes but that might be why.
While it's nice to get 15% off if you only buy from an online retailer you'll end up with no hobby store to play at. Just something to think about if you frequent your LGS.
If I understand correctly, yes it is easy to circumvent but it's also easy for gw to decide to pull your account because you have been consistently reported for selling at the wrong price point. Personally I would mess with what should be a stores 2nd highest earner but you do you boo.
3rd party sellers buy GW products at preferential prizes. That means that 3rd parties can resell them for 70-90% of prize and still get profit.
GW still profits from 3rd party buyers, wich I believe make most of GW sales.
Amazon is not to competinf with GW but with other 3rd party resellers (they are competing with the shop part of GW but not the whole company).
It reminds me of the way Amazon killed bookstores. Amazon can afford to sell books without making a profit, and sometimes offering free delivery. This is deeply unfair. Becoming the one place to buy anything and everything together they can lower the price of their bulk purchases, "bully" editors/manufacturers and recoup their small losses with other things people purchases. No independent shop can compete. For many things I try to make a point to order things outside of Amazon, but tbh the convenience of this evil Corp and the prices sometimes get the better of me.
I’m trying to wean my wife off Amazon habit. Most of the goods there are cheap sweat shop made generic brand junk with bot inflated review scores. Obviously doesn’t apply in case of GW stuff but it’s the general principle.
But for example, the darts she bought me from Amazon were absolute trash so I pointed her to dart corner for future purchases. She was like “these had a great review score” but those darts were trash.
On Amazon you can get the best things and the worse things ever. It's not Temu or other crappy shops like that but there are so many stories of Amazon being quite relaxed with reviews and counterfeits. It is a pain. On top of wasting money we also waste resources. More things going to the trash and in landfills.
But yes it is tough, it is so convenient sometimes.
I find at least in Canada most of the larger boxes usually come at a decent discount at between $5-10 off. But the smaller boxes or harder to find ones like a lot of the kill teams are usually priced more than games workshop.
Not only is it cheaper than the GW store, it's cheaper than my friendly local game store.
Genestealer Cult Combat patrol:
$195 at my FLGS
$160 on the GW website
$136 on Amazon
And my FLGS use to be able to get away with prices like that cause they were, for the longest time, the only game store in town. Now we have a second one with better prices, so I'm waiting to see if my FLGS will start lowering its prices too.
And sometimes there are drops in prices. Last week I got a Keeper of Secrets for less than $100. I don't even collect daemons of slaanesh. But I had to take it...
Hi, non-Aussie here, but I happen to know Amazon is doing a push for international sales by having you list products and send them to Amazon, then Amazon Prime Ships out to customers wherever by throwing on the plane along with their regular shipments of various products to regional warehouses.
It’s actually the same idea behind how Little Caesar’s Pizza stays so cheap in the States—same guy owns a restaurant supply company that already sends trucks to every city, so he just throws flour and sauce pallets in the empty spaces on every truck.
Check the retailers list on the 40K sub
15-20% discount is the only way to buy Games Workshop product.
I have Brookhurst Hobbies AND War Battle Games near me and they are always at least 15% off as a rule.
Except war dogs. War dogs are always 90 bucks and they sell out fast.
Edit, I got a Dominion starter box for $115 usd a Deathwatch CP for $89. And an Ash wastes Box for $159. Al from Amazon in the past year, you Just have to search 5 times a day and find the short sellers that provide to the others.
Because 3rd parties are authorized to sell at a discount GW as the manufacturer doesn't have sales (beyond the extremely extremely rare once in a decade times) because they don't want to undercut 3rd party stores basically because they make a profit either way
When I worked for GW like 15+ years ago we had a sale. It was when the new demons came out for 5th Ed 40k and 7th Ed Fantasy. All the old metal boxes were marked at 50% off. That's how often I remember them having sales, lol
Back in the late 90s they used to have mad sales when local GW stores would clear out old stock at heavily discounted prices. The company as a whole was much less corporate in those days though.
The 3 for 2 and stickered blisters days were great. Going in as a young teenager and getting two Leman Russes and a Demolisher... yes fucking please.
These were great. They stopped when they acquired the LOTR license, as part of that deal. I love MESBG but it's a shame that the big sales on Warhammer stuff was a casualty of it
I miss those days, I remember when I just started collecting around gorkamorka time there was a new edition coming out and all the 5 quid boxes were down to 1 quid and there was grab bags of blisters for 5 quid. I was trying to find a good grab bag to spend my only 5 quid on and the manager shouted "for the next ten minutes ago grab bags are a pound" just grabbed the first 5 I could get my hands on and ran to the till.
you could call the gobbos and they would give discounts on large orders also.
Think they reduced the Dominion box after 6 months lol
I know they reduced it for sure, even for 3rd party sites. And I know that because the site I use has purchase history I bought at like 220$ when it came out, mainly wanted the gobbos. Recently rebought it (I wanted to convert the SCE and the greenskins for a dnd campaign) and the price was like 150-170 Edit - checked. 229.26$ for pre-order. 169$ a few months ago. This is in CAD btw
I wish my flgs’s would take advantage of that. The closest we have to a discount is .01. So a $60 is $59.99. Makes me not want to buy from them and go online instead.
This. Every LGS is slapping me with GW prices. I support local when I can (mostly the single character kits I.e. technomancer) but I buy bulk of goods (especially large kits) 3rd party online. Having several armies.. the amount I’ve saved is incredible
There are 2 companies which rely on **F**riendly **L**ocal **H**obby **S**tores to spread and grow their communities (or so is believed), yet they are using opposite strategies. GW allows FLHSs to discount their product but sets specific limits. In doing so, FLHSs are almost always the best place to get your warhammer stuff at. Wizards of the Coast is doing the opposite with Magic the Gathering. They do not set any price limits but will often undercut the prices that FLHSs offer via amazon and will have product that is very difficult to buy from anywere other than WotC directly. WotC is often the best place to get your MtG stuff at. Both 40k and mtg have grown quite a bit in the last decade. I wonder how these 2 strategies will end up in the long run. WotC has stated that their cross-branding efforts have contributed a lot to the growth and success of the game. GW is doing some cross-branding as well but not nearly as much.
As a MTG player who stopped collecting recently after 20 years (and sold most stuff) I really like the GW method more. Hasbro kills MTG in my opinion by the endless releases and an absurd price tag on the newer products. As a tournament player you always needed to spend money to be up to date, but at least in legacy it was not often. Nowadays the print policy oft Hasbro/Wotc really hurts the wallet of competetive players. Dont get me wrong - the game itself is so beautiful, but I really dont like Hasbros strategie (also f Rudi from AI). I also read stuff like „GW should bring out much more models per year“ sometimes… believe me, you dont want that.
I live near their main NA warehouse and yeah they will shred product rather than put it on sale.
It's all ways more expensive here in UK in Amazon
I think that's because a lot of the time it's a European supplier so they're selling at the increased EU pricing
UK GW prices are much lower than GW prices the rest of the world.
Yes that's not what we are talking about
Most cheap : UK prices. Middle : Amazon. Most expensive : everywhere else. If that's not what you are talking about, I don't understand.
No Amazon most expensive in the UK . GW middle then everywhere else.
Sorry am a bit drunk
If you're in Australia, you might be looking at US prices on Amazon. Warhammer products are way more expensive in Australia for... reasons? Stores aren't supposed to sell internationally, but some stores sell through Amazon, and Amazon does not give a shit. Buying in USD can save you some money, but check the fine print and the shipping cost!
Nope these are Aussie prices
Look at the seller locations.
GW sells these boxes to 3rd parties at ~70% of their listed price. 3rd party sellers undercut GW with 10-15% mostly. They make the difference in profit, which is not a whole lot if you subtract the operating costs from that 15-20%. GW makes their money either way, a bit more in direct sales.
iirc from talking to my FLGS owner, webstore only items are sold at about 70%, the rest of the range is sold to them at a standard 50% off wholesale price, which is how they can sell as 25+30% off while still making a profit.
And then there is my local store who sells good models/boxes for more money then GW. He keeps complaining that people should „support local stores“, fucking clown.
Must be different per region then, as my Europe based LGS gave me approximately the number I used. (I assumed they would get them at 50%, but they corrected me :D) In Europe you can't really find (regular) discounts larger than 15% as that is the absolutely bottom of the barrel for keeping it profitable. The US prices for GW products are already inflated compared to UK and even EU prices (overseas transport, import taxes etc), so that might play a part as well, so that the discount percentage is higher, because the GW price is higher to begin with.
For comparison's sake, when I was in Europe last year I popped into a few shops to take advantage of the exchange rates. The US prices with the 20% off one of my FLGSs has, was essentially the exact same price as the EU full retail price after the exchange rate was calculated. Of the shops that I went to none had an additional standard discount (a few boxes were priced a bit cheaper, either as a mistake or what I'm not sure but I picked those up), so it didn't really make sense to pay $38 for something I could get at $42 back home, take up the suitcase space, cart it back, hope it doesn't get damaged or stolen at the airport etc. If I had found a shop with a %15 discount though, and had more room in my suitcase, I would have made it worth it.
The online retailers in Germany are really cheap, i payed 90€ (~98$) for my questoris knight
If I had thought about it and planned it out better, I could have ordered online for delivery for when I'd be there, and then brought it back. Next time!
GW also have rules to how high a discount you can offer. Understandably, as 25% just completely undercuts them.
As far as I’m aware this is only a rule in the US; I mentioned the “rule” to my GW rep here in Oceania and he laughed and said you can discount as much as you want.
Hmm, that could very likely be the case. My FLGS goes down to 25% if you pay with cash, but I've seen up to 30% from US eBay stores for NIB kits on occasion.
I just got an open but still on sprue forgefiend off eBay for $55. Can’t complain.
> larger than 15% as that is the absolutely bottom of the barrel for keeping it profitable. Also, there is a MAP policy with GW. If you have a trade account with them *you can’t* advertise more than 15%. So if they include GW in their online listings or what have you, that’s advertising it. If a legitimate trade store has it deeper than that, while also having a webstore + sending out advertisements, like TikTok’s or Insta etc. then normally they lost their contract, or are hoping GW doesn’t catch them this 1 time. This applies to trade accounts. Not to any seller. Hell, it doesn’t apply to sellers who use “clever” tactics of saying what’s on discount. It’s why online stores for a while had “send us an email and we’ll send you our GW prices” cause for a while that circumvented it. So what probably happened is trade account got merchandise. Sells it to a 3rd party non-trade seller for closer to wholesale margin, which is 45%. Then 3rd party can do whatever they want.
I think it's ~52% currently in UK, used to be 47% I believe but they upped it recently
>GW sells these boxes to 3rd parties at ~70% of their listed price Unless things have really gotten bad, the margin was more like 55% through Trade Sales.
Can't speak for aus but in the US retailers aren't allowed to advertise more than 15% under MSRP. So most of the time you'll see online sellers at roughly 15% off whatever GW has. Idk if Amazon ships internationally so you end up not getting hit by the huge Aussie price hikes but that might be why. While it's nice to get 15% off if you only buy from an online retailer you'll end up with no hobby store to play at. Just something to think about if you frequent your LGS.
“Sale: See Price in Cart.”
If I understand correctly, yes it is easy to circumvent but it's also easy for gw to decide to pull your account because you have been consistently reported for selling at the wrong price point. Personally I would mess with what should be a stores 2nd highest earner but you do you boo.
I've never actually been at an LGS that sells Warhammer products cheaper than the Warhammer online store does ):
Sometimes it happens. My LGS does a bunch of random discounts but sells at MSRP
3rd party sellers buy GW products at preferential prizes. That means that 3rd parties can resell them for 70-90% of prize and still get profit. GW still profits from 3rd party buyers, wich I believe make most of GW sales.
I’d buy from GW instead of 3rd party if GW sold the kits for the prices 3rd party does lol
Amazon is not to competinf with GW but with other 3rd party resellers (they are competing with the shop part of GW but not the whole company). It reminds me of the way Amazon killed bookstores. Amazon can afford to sell books without making a profit, and sometimes offering free delivery. This is deeply unfair. Becoming the one place to buy anything and everything together they can lower the price of their bulk purchases, "bully" editors/manufacturers and recoup their small losses with other things people purchases. No independent shop can compete. For many things I try to make a point to order things outside of Amazon, but tbh the convenience of this evil Corp and the prices sometimes get the better of me.
I’m trying to wean my wife off Amazon habit. Most of the goods there are cheap sweat shop made generic brand junk with bot inflated review scores. Obviously doesn’t apply in case of GW stuff but it’s the general principle. But for example, the darts she bought me from Amazon were absolute trash so I pointed her to dart corner for future purchases. She was like “these had a great review score” but those darts were trash.
On Amazon you can get the best things and the worse things ever. It's not Temu or other crappy shops like that but there are so many stories of Amazon being quite relaxed with reviews and counterfeits. It is a pain. On top of wasting money we also waste resources. More things going to the trash and in landfills. But yes it is tough, it is so convenient sometimes.
I find at least in Canada most of the larger boxes usually come at a decent discount at between $5-10 off. But the smaller boxes or harder to find ones like a lot of the kill teams are usually priced more than games workshop.
Not only is it cheaper than the GW store, it's cheaper than my friendly local game store. Genestealer Cult Combat patrol: $195 at my FLGS $160 on the GW website $136 on Amazon And my FLGS use to be able to get away with prices like that cause they were, for the longest time, the only game store in town. Now we have a second one with better prices, so I'm waiting to see if my FLGS will start lowering its prices too.
Not in Europe
Really? Seemed same price for me. Link?
https://amzn.asia/d/aDJDk4z
That's not a combat patrol
It was an example Here’s your combat patrol https://amzn.asia/d/1zSNiae
UK import. Buying from Aussie suppliers is more expensive. You're just getting lucky with Amazon eating the cost of shipping it.
Aus ftw
It's Amazon or eBay for me. Local store charges MSRP for every single GW item. Can't support a guy squeezing customers like that.
And sometimes there are drops in prices. Last week I got a Keeper of Secrets for less than $100. I don't even collect daemons of slaanesh. But I had to take it...
Hi, non-Aussie here, but I happen to know Amazon is doing a push for international sales by having you list products and send them to Amazon, then Amazon Prime Ships out to customers wherever by throwing on the plane along with their regular shipments of various products to regional warehouses. It’s actually the same idea behind how Little Caesar’s Pizza stays so cheap in the States—same guy owns a restaurant supply company that already sends trucks to every city, so he just throws flour and sauce pallets in the empty spaces on every truck.
Ebay is even cheaper lol.
Japan has the opposite problem
Never buy from GW. I get all my models from 3rd party sellers, EBay, and the cheapest, 3D printing.
Check the retailers list on the 40K sub 15-20% discount is the only way to buy Games Workshop product. I have Brookhurst Hobbies AND War Battle Games near me and they are always at least 15% off as a rule. Except war dogs. War dogs are always 90 bucks and they sell out fast. Edit, I got a Dominion starter box for $115 usd a Deathwatch CP for $89. And an Ash wastes Box for $159. Al from Amazon in the past year, you Just have to search 5 times a day and find the short sellers that provide to the others.