I got into Games Workshop games via Heroquest and Space Crusade, then Advanced Heroquest and then into Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition, Warhammer 40000 2nd Edition, Necromunda, and Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay (and others). For me the initial progression was from simpler games to more complex, more varied (and variable) games, with a greater range of miniatures that were getting more and more realistic and better in detail. Then, over a period of a few years, Games Workshop essentially ditched ‘all’ (a lot of) the variability (in game play and army terms) along with the complexity and all the complex games and replaced a few (though not all) of those games with simpler versions. It was a big shift. I’d say it was a bigger shift than the more recent revisions (to Age of Sigmar even) in terms of the type of game play and the type of games and the range of games that were on offer. At the same time, in the 1980s and 1990s, for a lot of people Games Workshop was all they knew in terms of miniature gaming. (Lest we forget there was no internet and no mobile phones.) On the one hand i think that different people playing Games Workshop games were perhaps willing to compromise a lot more on their (i think perhaps very different ideas of an) ideal Games Workshop because there weren’t other options (that they were aware of). On the other hand, when that shift came and there wasn’t another option for those people, those people tended to either continue playing the older editions of the games, or simply stop gaming altogether, and occasionally look back in at Games Workshop in the hope that things had changed and that Games Workshop games had become more to their liking. What ‘more to their liking’ was and is was and is different for any one group of those people and also changed over time for some of those people, but Games Workshop still hold the keys: the IP and so on, and so the hope remains.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s even, Games Workshop games and worlds were still a part of a wider cultural movement from which they borrowed. (I referring to Punk, Metal, 2000AD, Starship Troopers, Alien, etc., etc., all of which were more or less contemporaries.)

I’m not convinced that Games Workshop needed to up the number of miniatures necessary to play a game to sell more miniatures. I suspect that if more miniatures were sold after Games Workshop did that then it is probably coincidence. (Have Games Workshop ever sold less miniatures than they did the year before?) When i and others i knew bought miniatures for the any of the Games Workshop games it was to facilitate more scenarios or a more varied range of troop choice for our armies or more armies to choose from, and once we had more miniatures we could, and we did, play bigger games, regardless of how long they took.

As to the prices on eBay, i think that there are a good number of sellers that are simply happy to sit on some stock and wait until someone is willing to pay the high price they are asking for. When i was looking to buy a whole bunch of 1980s and 1990s Games Workshop games a few years ago it took me perhaps a year to get everything i wanted in good condition and for a low or reasonable price. During that time the majority, or a large minority of the search results at any one time were going for a high or very high price, but these highly priced items tended to be there for a long time, and the very highly priced items were often still for sale a good year later (and may still be there) even though they were rare. The lower or more reasonably priced items went more quickly. Overall i suspect that the vast majority of 1980s and 1990s Games Workshop games are reasonably priced, which is to say about the price that they originally sold for + inflation, or less, but that because these sold quickly they get seen less.