GW: Why do they do it?

[holly 12044xp 4]

So I don’t know if this is a rant or genuinely asking for insight.

I’ve been really excited for the soulblight gravelords. Yesterday morning, I hopped on the OTT store at about 10:30 (after I’d done some other jobs) – Fell bats already out of stock. I then couldn’t get the big winged vampire Lauka Vai to add to cart either. Sorry guys 🙁

so I then hopped over to the main GW site – Dice already sold out, warscroll cards already gone, Dynasty of Monsters novel already gone 🙁

back to OTT site and have placed an order for Dynasty of Monsters – but I understand that sometimes independent stores don’t get the stock they ask for – so that’s not guaranteed.

I know that 2 of the things (bats, Lauka Vai) aren’t limited and will appear again eventually, but at present the Crimson Court vampire warband has been out of stock on GWs own site for a month now – so can’t hold my breath.

why do they go to the effort of even saying that stuff is up for “pre-order” if you can’t even get it. With chores and kids, we can’t guarantee we’ll be at our computers at 10am on the dot.

it’s deeply unfair and incredibly frustrating 🙁

[sundancer 42973xp 12]

Why do they do it? Because for some reason FOMO drives people crazy and makes them buy shit they wouldn’t buy if they would take a minute or two to think about it. But since they all have been trained to expect things to not be available after day 1 they all go in with the mantra “to have is better then to want”.

It has been some time now that a company would bring something new to the table and you could be sure that that thing would be available consistently for the next weeks and months.

I can’t blame smaller or medium sized companies if they underestimate the sales of their products or want to go the safe route by limiting the first production run but bigger boys like G’Wullu do have the data and know rather exactly how much they will sell off. And they are taking full advantage of it.

ONLY WHILE SUPPLY LASTS!

The only way to get out of that is to either a) lock in an order the minute things are announced or b) simply don’t care about it and let others be the buying wankers.

For my part: I  out in my pre orders for SW:L and that’s it.

[nighthaunter666 3309xp 4]

Because GW are behind on their release schedule, maybe they are doing a small print run which they know will sell straight away and then moving on to the next thing, rather than taking time to print more for shelf stock (which will take up space and won’t pay for itself straight away).

[holly 12044xp 2]

Thanks both, I try to avoid the fomo thing as much as possible, but in this case the aesthetic of the faction holds strong appeal for me, and in terms of the novel – it’s vampire fiction which I enjoy, by a very good Black Library author. So odd that a Black Library should be printed in such numbers it’s sold out after 30 minutes.

[crazyredcoatParticipant 13642xp 3]

I think there is also a big market for scalpers with the FOMO as well. Honestly, as much as I love GW’s minis and universes they have a business cadre that cares only for the money coming in and out. Big box sets are bought up immediately and then sold for a huge mark-up on things like ebay (a mark up even from GW’s prices…). My brother is also really looking forward to the Vamps that are coming, but he’s well aware of the ‘get what you want quickly before someone else does’ problem means that he focuses on things he knows will stick around in the long run. Personally I feel bad for the day-to-day operators at GW because I imagine most of them got into it from their hobby and now take the flak for a bunch of suits looking at the bottom line…

[limburger 21704xp 4]

Why ?
Because they can

Because no one stops them

Because it is legal

It sucks … and every single company would do the same thing if they had the marketing dominance that GW has.
Heck, I’d argue that the supply issues for Starwars Legion would have been solved if FFG/AMG wanted to do so.
Especially with pre-orders it should be a piece of cake to supply everything, because that is kind of what pre-orders were supposed to be : an early order so demand and supply could be perfectly matched

Instead we get no assurance or guarantee that the pre order will be full filled at all.
To make matters worse … there is no law that prevents this and even if there was then the current circumstances would be the answer these companies would give because it is impossible to provide proof positive that they deliberately made life difficult for consumers.

I’ve practically given up on Starwars Legion as a result …
The only reason I haven’t given up on GW is because it may be the only system I can find opponents for. I kind of doubt that non GW games have as big a community outside of our niche (and if they are out there … they are tricky to find).

Remember :

Companies are not your friends!
The people that we as consumers get to deal with may be as passionate about your hobby as you are, but the company itself only sees you as a wallet on legs.

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

It’s getting to the stage now (especially with their “boxed games” (or what used to be specialist games)), where is a gamble if you take the plunge into one of these GW systems that you’ll be able to obtain expansions/minis when they come out (nevermind 6 month down the road).

Basically you have to be buying the game day 1 and be logged on at 10am on a Saturday for a pre-order every single time GW do a release if you suffer from that “collector gene”.

GW don’t care about customer satisfaction, if they produce items short of demand that’s fine (other than missed opportunity for further profits). Its seems what they are scared stiff off is having stuff left on the warehouse shelves the day after release (as it seems they don’t like to hold much stock when it comes to non 40K/AoS “line items”, and even then they still don’t produce enough stock for things like the cards/dice and rulebooks for the 40K/AoS games).

So get used to it, I doubt GW are going to change. If you want the ability to buy as many as you want and WHEN you want, then you’ll have to go look elsewhere than GW products (perhaps Historicals might be tangent to go on?).

The independant retailer also suffers from this short stock, as I know many have been hit with “merchant card fees” to repay pre-orders (as they don’t know how many they are getting until it arrives on the doorstep half the time).

Perhaps it would be an idea for the hobby news sites to just stop covering GW products until GW are weaned away from this FOMO/Limited/”We underestimated demand for the past 5 years” shenanigans until GW change their ways. I doubt this would ever happen (as GW news triggers so many views), but GW are “top dog” in this hobby and they can (and do) behave exactly how they feel like doing (and we still throw money at them) 🙁

[pagan8thParticipant 10863xp 2]

Latest Preorder on GW site has Radukar the Wolf and his henchmen from Cursed City for sale as a boxed set. Already carving the boardgame into pieces for sale.

 

Only available from GW website directly.

[limburger 21704xp 2]

GW barely hold stock for their main line 40k and AoS factions …

Half the stuff for most factions is ‘web only’.

It is obvious that the boxed games are just a thing they do to fill their pockets with easy cash at minimal effort.
They’re like Google and MS : you can’t trust them to support anything they do outside of their core products.

The one advantage that GW has is that their setting / style is so unique you can’t find alternates that can work with anything they do (and that is before you consider the lack of standard scale definitions within this industry).

[yes … I know there’s a few, but unless you are on websites / communities like OTT you won’t hear about them … and you certainly won’t hear it from the GW ad magazines … ]
GW is excellent at ensuring people get locked into their bubble.
And until we can find a way to pop that bubble and show newbies that there is more diverse stuff out there this sillyness continues.

It’s a damned shame we can’t punish them for being a monopoly … because technically they do have competitors.

[wurzzelParticipant 2734xp 0]

@pagan8th surely selling the characters from cursed city seperstel is a good thing?

[holly 12044xp 0]

@pagan8th where have you seen that? I can’t find anything about it

ah yes, Sunday previews.

[pagan8thParticipant 10863xp 0]

@wurzzel I would have preferred them to support the game instead of abandoning it day 1 and pretending it never happened.

[wurzzelParticipant 2734xp 0]

@pagan8th have they abandoned the game though? Just because they’ve released some of the characters seperately as they tie in with the new Army Book doesn’t mean they won’t continue to support Cursed city

Also my memory is a little hazy but weren’t the previous 2 AoS Warhammer quests just one shot boxes

 

 

[jamescutts 6924xp 3]

Everyone else has summed up the why so well I dont think theres much point adding to that.

As for what to do about it don’t buy their products is the approach I’ve taken.

The only exception I make is the LoTR minatures, thankfully most of the releases are limited time not quantity and have been reissues of the classic sculpts I missed out on as a kid. I might make a exception for the Gaunts Ghosts as I do enjoy those novels if it isnt some limited stock pre-order, if not im not that desperate.

Its sad but I’ve lost interest in their games, they killed WHFB, 40K for me is a mess of a game, and while I do like their minature sculpting for the most part GW them selves have killed off my intrest, be it the rules to not releasing new minis for the army’s I did have an intrest in.

There’s a huge range of fantastic smaller minature companies out there producing some great stuff, Yes some of their kits are not as refined or detailed but I dont feel I’ve lost any enjoyment from a figure not being the best minature made.

I could reel off all of the alternatives out their but theres hundreds to explore and discover or featured on XLBS.

 

 

 

[holly 12044xp 1]

@jamescutts – totally agree with your points. I’ve definitely explored and got into more miniature ranges since I’ve been a BoW member.

I think that’s the key differential – GW have the resources to make their range more readily available but choose not to. It’s easier to get models from the “little guys” than the global company with a high street presence!

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