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GW North American Retailer Policy
#1
Saw some discussion on Twitter last night surrounding an update to the GW online sales policy for North America: http://theshellcase.co.uk/2013/03/19/gw-...es-policy/

Most of the current chatter seems to surround specific clauses prohibiting retailers in the US and Canada from selling GW products online, but such a restriction has already been in force in the US for the last 10 years judging from the policy itself: http://www.squaretablegaming.com/wp-cont...POLICY.pdf

There looks to be some suggestion that this has been the motivation for this somewhat cryptic post from Wayland Games: https://www.facebook.com/WaylandGamesLtd...2420582556
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#2
tbh wayland games are a bit annoying how they feel hard done by all the time, and repeatedly tell everyone how they are hard done by GW, not very professional imo.

I know GW are very hard nosed business type people, but surely it's their product and they can sell it how they want, even if they might be shooting themselves in the foot and putting people off them. Wayland makes money selling GW's product and complains about the fact that GW won't let them earn more money - am I missing something?
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#3
Was going to post this myself last night, though at the minute i am failing to see what Wayland are upset about. As far as i am aware it only effects America and from what i have seen on Dakka most companies in America are planning on ignoring this anyway.
Unless there is something else going on behind the scenes trying to restrict sales in the UK in a similar way? (i have seen nothing to suggest this though)
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#4
Sounds a bit like Wayland would like to position themselves as the darlings/saviour of wargame retail.

I do wonder if GW could implement a similar online policy in Europe, or whether some pesky EU trade legislation would get in their way?
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#5
If they did restrict online sales i would be massively disappointed and would mean i would probably stop buying anything new. The prices of the kits are just about bearable with 20-30% off that you get with the online retailers!
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#6
I have an idea that GW sell to retail stores at 50% of the rrp. So that allows companies like Wayland, Total Wargamer, Firestorm, Element and the like a huge margin to offer a discount. Particularly if you factor in the vastly reduced overheads in a primarily online business. I'm sure Simon has told me that GW policy is that a retailer must have a store front, but if etail is you focus, keeping that store away from High Street rents, helps.

If GW effectively forced online sales through themselves, yes I can see it becoming an even more expensive hobby. But long term if sales suffered, maybe prices would freeze for longer, or even drop. If your £30 kit cost you £27, and Wayland bought it for £15, GW see £15. Cut Wayland out, GW can sell it to you for £25, you pay less, they see more. Possibility yes, likely who knows?
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#7
I swear i am going mad, but is that Gaz making a point in defense of GW?!?!?! Tongue
I can see where you are coming from but i can't see them doing it. I think the recent death from the skies Expansion was to test the water and see if people would buy something if it was direct only (which was £20 for 72 page book) and it sold out Straight away despite internet uproar about it being direct only. The second printing also sold out almost straight away as well.
The dream for them would be for them alone to sell GW kits to you as they will obviously see 100% of the profits rather than splitting it with Wayland etc in whatever percentage split it would be.
While i would have no issue with this is if it meant that we would see GW selling stuff at a reduced rate, i don't think they would. They have been doing Internet bundles online recently that save you the massive amount of £0.00 (Example - Stormraven Domination Force (a Stormraven Gunship, a Dreadnought and a Tactical Squad) £ 101.00
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalo...od1960005a ), which for me kind of defeats the point of a bundle.
They could very easily undercut the online retailers prices if they wished, which would make a fair few people switch to ordering direct from them.
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#8
I'm not defending them at all. But there is potential for this to work out well. I doubt it would but you never know. Ultimately power lies with the public. If no one who shops online, uses GW, then they would be forced to change their policies. However that is unlikely, and as long as they have shareholders to impress, the general public can fob off.

As for one click bundles, they are exactly that. All they have ever stated is that it is one of everything from a new wave, they never stated its one of everything at a discount.
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#9
I know they have never claimed the one click bundles contained a discount, it just seems pointless to me.(Like this one- http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalo...od1960009a contains 2 Heldrakes, to save you pressing add more than once Dodgy
They used to do some very good bundle/army deals, but looks to be a thing of the past.
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#10
I gw price drop... never!

They're just wanting to protect there products and take a higher cut, the best way to achieve this is through direct sales only (like Gaz said), I buy from ebay 90% of the time anyway (you've all seen my rainbow armies lol).

Trader to trader deals mean you usually take a cut on the price while direct to customer you can charge as much as you like.




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