Interesting debate.

Just to throw something else into the mix, GW’s pricing strategy seems to be largely focused on a specific demographic – boys of around school age. At that age, they’re really not focused on the “true value” of things, more on the “I want now”, “I want because my friends have”, “I want because its trending and cool” mindset.

Plus, the majority young men are very susceptible to what Carl Yung classed as the “hero archetype”, the need to transcend childhood and make the jump into noble manhood – hard to do in real life and widely accepted as a driving factor in why so many young men get addicted to games.Boys will gladly save their pocket money, bug their parents, ask for birthday or Xmas presents, etc to get their hands on GW kit. Parents, being parents, tend not to focus on worth when little Jonnie wants something – we see this clearly when it comes to other things, like XBox/Playstation consoles, computer games and other expensive kit which parents shell out a fortune for.
In that respect, GW are being very clever because they have tapped into a major market trend that will always exist.

When we get a bit older, get turfed out into the big bad world and start earning for ourselves and don’t rely on parents for our needs any more, we start to develop a sense of what things are truly worth and, usually, have to operate each month on a certain budget. It seems to be at this point the hobby wanes for a lot of people, although you also need to factor in other things like getting a job, starting a family, buying a house, etc which are obviously going to impact on the amount of leisure time and money people have. And Interestingly, I’ve noticed that this seems to be the point as well where people start to build a resentment of GW and love turns to hate.

Bottom line for me is that I still enjoy 40K and its spin-offs after many years. I’m long past the boyhood stage now but there’s still part of the big kid there that will never go away.
If I see something which I like and I can afford it, I’ll buy it.
If I see something which I think is ridiculously priced, I won’t.
If I see something which I really want even though its expensive, I’ll either save for it or look for alternatives – e.g. I’ve picked up some great stuff on Etsy in the past which, although not a high quality as the GW equivalent, is still good enough and at the end of the day when its painted and on the table top is practically unnoticeable.