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Everything was better back in the day! Even the clickbait!

Home Forums News, Rumours & General Discussion Everything was better back in the day! Even the clickbait!

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This topic contains 52 replies, has 17 voices, and was last updated by  sundancer 3 years, 3 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 53 total)
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  • #1672182

    avernos
    Keymaster
    34041xp

    he’s not talking about the cost for third party things, but the inflated cost of trying to buy old GW stock whether second hand or new in box

    #1672184

    rastamann
    Participant
    2735xp

    @warzan let’s posse it up!!! 😀

    #1672185

    rastamann
    Participant
    2735xp

    Yes, @avernos, I understand, but that’s largely irrelevant for someone getting into those games nowadays

    #1672187

    avernos
    Keymaster
    34041xp

    But it’s the question he’s asking. If I asked why are dogs of war models so expensive on eBay the reply you can buy 28mm Italian wars models from steel fist doesn’t answer the question. Indeed, the very fact you can buy in cheaply via other companies should mean the market for the originals would be depressed but we see the opposite.

    #1672188

    sundancer
    43074xp
    Cult of Games Member

    @rastamann I didn’t say it’s hard to get into the old games. I simply threw the question why the second hand market on the original minis and games is so bloated in price. I know that there are various ways to get a similar fix for it.

    #1672189

    rastamann
    Participant
    2735xp

    Sure, but the fact that the prices are overinflated in Ebay doesn’t mean people buy them. It means there’s a bunch of people marking up the price – this is particularly true of epic, for instance. I don’t really see people trying to go to Ebay for the models if they can get them 3d printed, so the prices may be jacked up, but very few people are actually buying. I also think most ganger models in necromunda saw a price decrease as the new plastic gangs were released (though I may be wrong in this regard).

    In the case of Warhammer Fantasy oldhammer, the issue is a different one, as they are viewed as collectors’ items and thus apparently merit the pricing.

    #1672191

    torros
    23820xp
    Cult of Games Member

    Ah right

     

    I guess it’s supply and demand and scarcity value . I presume a lot of the purchases ended up in collections that were kept and will never be sold or purchased and thrown in the bin when there was no longer any interest in wargaming

    #1672192

    zorg
    18814xp
    Cult of Games Member

    Lol the BOWs are back in town.

    #1672213

    @warzan I think he sold the Talisman stuff to buy a new drum kit or items to add to his current drum kit……So fair play to him lol

    He was struggling during lockdowns last year not having any gig work as a session drummer. So if he’s sold it all I don’t mind.

    #1672234

    horus500
    11505xp
    Cult of Games Member

    I think part of the reason that Ebay minis from years ago are so high is that there’s a bit of a retro revival for a number of GW games. Warhammer 4-8th ed is big in Oz again to the point where (when we aren’t in lock-down) there are tournaments being organised and a number of podcasts have sprung up. That’s resulted in a demand for old minis.

    If I was prepared to part with my Dogs of War (which I’m not) I’d be rich!

     

    #1672237

    I’ve sold old minis in the past to fund new projects.  I recently painted the Citadel ninjas for Test of Honor.

    #1672241

    totsuzenheni
    Participant
    5651xp

    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.

    #1672253

    I remember a few years back you could buy LotR Battles stuff really cheap. In fact you could buy unopened blisters for next to nothing and take them back to the GW store to exchange. I know one of my friends bought a few sealed boxes of plastics for virtually nothing, then he took them back to the store and exchanged them for 40k stuff.  Now LotR stuff is quite pricey on EBay.

    I think it goes in waves, depending on how popular it is. There have been times where old GW games were really cheap. I can remember seeing Hero quest on EBay for around a tenner, now an old copy of the game will go for a small fortune.

    #1672259

    crazyredcoat
    Participant
    13642xp

    The ‘old games are more complex’ is the main point here. People who grew up with those games have a certain nostalgia towards them and they enjoyed the complexity and nuance, but to be perfectly honest, no one of my generation has time for that. The games market changed to meet the new markets and almost always does. The ideas of these games might appeal to me, but I would never have the time, or energy, to play something that is too complex. I actually like the idea of a game I don’t have to think about too much, because for me actually being in a social context and just doing something with friends is far more valuable and, to be honest, the bit that’s hard to fit into a schedule. Things weren’t ‘better’, they were just different, really. And the prices going up and up are very simple; they know that the people that want these things badly enough are now older, usually have more disposable income, and are willing to pay inflated prices. There will be the argument of a shortage of product, which is true, but really if someone is willing to pay that then someone will charge that. I’d be willing to bet that there is a stark generational gap between those who want the ‘old school’ complexity back and those who are happy with how most games are now. That being said…a bit of balance in these newer games would be nice…

    #1672273

    totsuzenheni
    Participant
    5651xp

    I’m not convinced there is that much of a generational gap. It seems to me that there are plenty of people that used to play and enjoy those more complex Games Workshop games that have happily moved on to less complex and quicker games (from Games Workshop and/or elsewhere), albeit after a hiatus, because they too have less time and energy. It seems to me that most people are worse off in terms of ‘spare’ time than they were 30 years ago. At the same time there are those that have the time, or are still prepared to dedicate what little time they have to longer more complex games, and i’ve seen a few instances of people (that weren’t around in the 1980s and 1990s) moving in the other direction from ‘modern’, less complex games to older more complex games (and i’ve also seen a few such people starting to collect the older Games Workshop miniatures). It seems to me that that group of people that play (or would like to play) those more complex games is as small a minority of people now as it was then, but that now there is a whole range of games that aren’t as simplistic as Monopoly or Cluedo and that appeal to a larger minority that want to play games (a bit) whilst they socialise and as a way of socialising. I suspect the transition from long games after which people might socialise, to socialising by and whilst playing games is in part because the larger market became the latter, but also in part because there are a large proportion of people that might have been (or actually were) willing and able to play those more complex games (even if only to socialise) if (or when) they had more time, but that now they don’t and that changes the dynamic.

    I think it’s also worth considering if many people have less space now as well as less time. It seems to me that in the 1980s and 1990s people were more likely to have the space at home to play large games without turning their entire home into a gaming table, whereas now people with an equivalent income or equivalent job or career simply don’t have that kind of space.

    Of course, although i have access to the internet like everyone else, my experience was, peculiar to the place where i lived and so on.

    Also, on the high eBay prices, i don’t think there needs to be many people willing to pay £300 (or whatever) for each and every rare HeroQuest supplement in order for it to be worth someone’s while to put them up for sale at such a high price, there only need to be enough within the time that the seller is willing to store it. ‘Enough’ might be 10 people over 3 years. 10 (people) x 4 (rare supplements of HeroQuest) = 40 products on eBay at £300 (or whatever) every time someone searches for ‘HeroQuest’.

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