Black Library fiction The End and the Death - Volume III

[Doghouse]

Saw this on reddit, seems to be trying to rub it in people's faces.

 

 

 

[phandaal]

Really feel for people trying to complete a multi-decade book collection only to be met by this nonsense.

 

Total negligence and disregard for their customers.

[Matcap86]

34 minutes ago, Doghouse said:

Saw this on reddit, seems to be trying to rub it in people's faces.

 

 

 

 

Yeah that's the same dude I posted about earlier laughing at other people's misery.

[betrayer41]

Well this sucks. Was in the queue for an hour got in the site with about z20 min til proper was adding helmets to my cart and it kicked me out back to the queue  this sucks 

[Blindhamster]

Frankly speaking though, the issue is that people then willingly lap up the scalper prices, it’s the same problem as with stuff like limited edition clothing and trainers. FOMO wins out and people buy for the inflated prices. 
 

if people refused to pay the inflated prices then scalpers wouldn’t bother. When mugs will go so high above the actual value, of course people recognise it as an opportunity to make money themselves.

 

not saying GW didn’t make a mess of things, they totally did, but there’s also only so many restrictions they can put in place and they’re hardly the only online retailer that has these kinds of issues. 
 

Warhammer players have a rep for spending dumb amounts of money on things and the non Warhammer players saw an opportunity. Now unless we stop playing the game*, it will just continue. 

*the game of going to eBay etc for the inflated price stuff

[quasistellar]

11 minutes ago, betrayer41 said:

Well this sucks. Was in the queue for an hour got in the site with about z20 min til proper was adding helmets to my cart and it kicked me out back to the queue  this sucks 

 

I just got on the US site and just got kicked out. Now 50 minute queue. Welp the dream is dead lol

 

I'm not sure how a legitimate customer can buy any of these. Not only are competing with scalpers, you have to guess on when to log into the queue so that when you're let in, it's the 1 minute window that the books are actually available.

Edited January 13 by quasistellar

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

My estimated queue wait has been 15 minutes the past..25minutes, lovely

 

I can't believe Im saying this, I miss when it was all on black library's website and all I had to do was stay up till 3-4am for that 10am british time release

Edited January 13 by Mechanicus Tech-Support

[darkhorse0607]

Just decided to get on and try and get one. I've been in the 32 minutes -> 40 minutes ->36 minutes ->32 minutes -> 40-minute cycle for about 20 minutes now. I just am here still out of morbid curiosity to see how long it takes to get in

 

edit, am I the only one who thinks having the "shop the store with confidence" below the broken queue is the perfect irony

 

 

Edited January 13 by darkhorse0607

[Ultramarine]

Spent 2 1/2 hours in the queue this morning. 
Of course it was sold out when I got in, so no chance of getting the book in Germany either. 

 

Now I was lucky and was able to order it via the US store and then have to have it sent to Germany via Shipito.

Which means I'll probably end up paying double the price, but still cheaper than Ebay.

 

Pathetic of GW to not get their website and queue working, and at the prices they are charging.

I would have forgiven the GW of the 2000s for that, but not today's company. A kick in the face for all true collectors.

 

All I need now is the limited edition of Echoes of Eternity...

[fudblinker]

My queue time just keeps going up and up. So sick of this crap. It would be nice if the queue didn’t start until the release time so that everyone had an equal shot. Or anyone in queue before the release time gets put in random order at release time. Not ideal but at least there would be a more fair shot than this garbage. Even though I knew full well it would be like this it still gets me so upset. But hey according to their half-year report they are super happy with this horrendous web store that cost £10.8 million.

Edited January 13 by fudblinker

[Guiltysparc]

Got in the US site, no limited editions left.  

[betrayer41]

lol I got on 3 hours early, had a 40 min wait time…..took an hour and 45 min and I got on. It kicked me out while I was clicking on angron. Got back in queue waited 30 min with about 20-25 min to go until preorder I was browsing the AL range and adding some shoulder pads to my cart and it kicked me out again. I’ve now been on a 30 min queue for 45 min…..lol what if I just want to order shoulder pads now 

[SkimaskMohawk]

13 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

Frankly speaking though, the issue is that people then willingly lap up the scalper prices, it’s the same problem as with stuff like limited edition clothing and trainers. FOMO wins out and people buy for the inflated prices. 

 

Well the real issue in this case is that gw make such a low volume of limited edition volumes to drive fomo. When they had higher print runs they wouldn't sell out and there was no market for scalping. They didn't like carrying stock, as dead inventory is a huge issue businesses, so they dropped the production runs and let fomo clear them out (now that there's an actual risk of missing out).

 

Like, it's really obvious that GW is not a customer friendly company for a number of reasons. Extreme margin, seasonal update models, short edition lifespan, taking orders that they can't fulfill and holding the money for weeks before cancelling, low-notice reveals to prevent customer planning, no real controls in place to prevent botting on popular releases, etc...

 

They just want to receive as much money possible for each release. Full stop. Their business model is the issue.

[307kg]

I had my spot in the US queue timed perfectly..... entered the store at 12:57 EST, and by the time I added it to my cart and navigated to the "buy now" page @ 12:59 it had already sold out.... That went crazy fast...

[Guest Triszin]

whelp.

 

had 3 queues up.

 

I sat ina queue that said 7 minutes for 40 minutes. it finally let me in at 1:03 and its gone.

 

sigh.

 

might as well sell the partial collection now.

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

heh I would have been timed perfectly at 9:55 if the queue time was accurate XD

[Blindhamster]

7 minutes ago, SkimaskMohawk said:

 

Well the real issue in this case is that gw make such a low volume of limited edition volumes to drive fomo. When they had higher print runs they wouldn't sell out and there was no market for scalping. They didn't like carrying stock, as dead inventory is a huge issue businesses, so they dropped the production runs and let fomo clear them out (now that there's an actual risk of missing out).

 

Like, it's really obvious that GW is not a customer friendly company for a number of reasons. Extreme margin, seasonal update models, short edition lifespan, taking orders that they can't fulfill and holding the money for weeks before cancelling, low-notice reveals to prevent customer planning, no real controls in place to prevent botting on popular releases, etc...

 

They just want to receive as much money possible for each release. Full stop. Their business model is the issue.

 

limited runs is pretty standard practice across a lot of industries these days, and anywhere such things exist there are scalpers, so in a way yes the existence of limited runs is the issue. But it doesn't change the fact that people willingly paying the dumb ebay and other prices is what perpetuates the issue of scalpers. If people wouldn't pay more than the retail price until years later, scalpers wouldnt exist in this way - because most of the business model for these people is based on quick returns. You buy in bulk for limited runs that you know you can sell for 100%+ profit.

[Lord Marshal]

45 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

Frankly speaking though, the issue is that people then willingly lap up the scalper prices, it’s the same problem as with stuff like limited edition clothing and trainers. FOMO wins out and people buy for the inflated prices.

 

It wasn't that many years ago they had to beg people on WarCom to buy the various BL Collector's Editions which had been gathering dust for years, including GG: The Warmaster.

 

By contrast, GG: The Vincula Insurgency CE went in seconds like every other since 2021. I think that might go some way to explaining why they're not suddenly producing a few thousand more of these collector's editions, because they're worried a sudden excess of stock will kill the FOMO and they go back to stock gathering dust. 

 

I know Warhammer grew a great deal in popularity since the Lockdowns, but there's definitely been a huge shift in scalper activity and desire to get hold of these things, and I doubt it could entirely be driven by newcomers suddenly buying up expensive (even for books) collector's editions. If people are willing to fork over these absurdly inflated prices, there's no reason for them NOT to try and get a copy. 

 

Edited January 13 by Lord Marshal

[Vazzy]

I have a confirmation email so I think I’m good. But what I did isn’t feasible for most people. I used my girlfriend and had 10+ windows open across 5!devices. And I still only timed it right to get in on 1. 
 

just insane 

[darkhorse0607]

I've been "under a minute" in the queue for going on 10 minutes now.

 

As Dan Abnett has said numerous times over the course of PT 1 and 2.

 

The clocks have run out. And time doesn't matter.

 

This is the most thematic queuing system I've ever been a part of. Thank you GW

[Matcap86]

12 minutes ago, Vazzy said:

I have a confirmation email so I think I’m good. But what I did isn’t feasible for most people. I used my girlfriend and had 10+ windows open across 5!devices. And I still only timed it right to get in on 1. 
 

just insane 

 

Still a lottery win it seems. I did something comparable; was ready to go 3 quarters of an hour beforehand. First queue ended over an hour after it sold out. My wife was lovely enough to try in a WH store where we know the manager. Was ready to go on the dot, added the book to cart and got bounced while selecting store to deliver to.

[Doghouse]

30 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

Frankly speaking though, the issue is that people then willingly lap up the scalper prices, it’s the same problem as with stuff like limited edition clothing and trainers. FOMO wins out and people buy for the inflated prices. 
 

if people refused to pay the inflated prices then scalpers wouldn’t bother. When mugs will go so high above the actual value, of course people recognise it as an opportunity to make money themselves.

 

not saying GW didn’t make a mess of things, they totally did, but there’s also only so many restrictions they can put in place and they’re hardly the only online retailer that has these kinds of issues. 
 

Warhammer players have a rep for spending dumb amounts of money on things and the non Warhammer players saw an opportunity. Now unless we stop playing the game*, it will just continue. 

*the game of going to eBay etc for the inflated price stuff

 

I think the problem is more to do with limited editions/runs. If it was a Kill Team or army box set then I'd agree, the issue is that when you get a genuine limited run never to be made again item it's either miss out or go to a scalper who is rigging the system in their favour. People who want to complete their collection like in this instance or really want a particular item don't really have any choice than to go to a scalper when something is created in such limited numbers.

 

I 100% agree it'd be great if people didn't go to scalpers and boycotted them completely but it'll never happen because they hold all the product and have GW hyping it up for them effectively acting as their private marketing company.

 

From what I have seen though through my own research into message boards, word of mouth and discord it's not outsiders to the hobby that are scalping the most, it's small groups of collectors/hobbyists who know the value and demand that an item will generate and are organising together. It's a bit like addicts sourcing product for other addicts and knowing exactly what will satisfy that craving and how much they can mark it up and people will still realistically pay. From the hearsay I have witnessed today I've seen talk of people potentially making 4-12k in profits on this. It seems something in the ordering system was definitely exploited.

 

I think the more credible route would be to not buy limited editions from GW at all so it's hurting GW's wallet and scalpers waste money but again that won't happen because of the nature of the hobby.

 

I miss the old simpler kinder days mate. 

[nodnol88]

I’d love to be a fly on the wall during the next board meeting when someone asks the guy/girl that signed off £10 million for their website what they got for their money. 
 

It’s so bad day to day, but you can’t even use its facility to handle big releases as a way to explain why the investment was worth it. Maybe the old one was full of vulnerabilities but I seriously don’t see what the new site offers AT ALL. 

[Guest Triszin]

9 minutes ago, Doghouse said:

 

I think the problem is more to do with limited editions/runs. If it was a Kill Team or army box set then I'd agree, the issue is that when you get a genuine limited run never to be made again item it's either miss out or go to a scalper who is rigging the system in their favour. People who want to complete their collection like in this instance or really want a particular item don't really have any choice than to go to a scalper when something is created in such limited numbers.

 

I 100% agree it'd be great if people didn't go to scalpers and boycotted them completely but it'll never happen because they hold all the product and have GW hyping it up for them effectively acting as their private marketing company.

 

From what I have seen though through my own research into message boards, word of mouth and discord it's not outsiders to the hobby that are scalping the most, it's small groups of collectors/hobbyists who know the value and demand that an item will generate and are organising together. It's a bit like addicts sourcing product for other addicts and knowing exactly what will satisfy that craving and how much they can mark it up and people will still realistically pay. From the hearsay I have witnessed today I've seen talk of people potentially making 4-12k in profits on this. It seems something in the ordering system was definitely exploited.

 

I think the more credible route would be to not buy limited editions from GW at all so it's hurting GW's wallet and scalpers waste money but again that won't happen because of the nature of the hobby.

 

I miss the old simpler kinder days mate. 

ya, im leaning towards passing on all LE's going forward.

 

Even when i get a le order in (war of the fang le) GW over ships it and cancels my order.

 

the experience is miserable, and frankly a blackspot and issue that is growing.

 

 

we are having issues now.

 

 

imagine if Amazons cavil 40k show is a hit.

The issues will be exponentially worse.

Edited January 13 by Triszin

[Rain]

1 hour ago, Blindhamster said:

Frankly speaking though, the issue is that people then willingly lap up the scalper prices, it’s the same problem as with stuff like limited edition clothing and trainers. FOMO wins out and people buy for the inflated prices. 
 

if people refused to pay the inflated prices then scalpers wouldn’t bother. When mugs will go so high above the actual value, of course people recognise it as an opportunity to make money themselves.

 

not saying GW didn’t make a mess of things, they totally did, but there’s also only so many restrictions they can put in place and they’re hardly the only online retailer that has these kinds of issues. 
 

Warhammer players have a rep for spending dumb amounts of money on things and the non Warhammer players saw an opportunity. Now unless we stop playing the game*, it will just continue. 

*the game of going to eBay etc for the inflated price stuff

The craziest part is that it is substantively the exact same product as can be purchased for much less money with much less hassle. It’s a book. You can buy it in a digital format for $15 or whatever it is. Same text, same story, etc. I can understand paying money for a first edition of Moby Dick or something, as that would be a historical relic, but this is artificial scarcity of licensed fiction created by a faceless modern corporation.

 

I’m a car enthusiast, and there is a lot of special edition chasing, but at least most car special editions come with something unique about them, even if the extra cost is usually exorbitant for what you get. All of the clout chasing has ballooned the real world prices of desirable trim cars that aren’t even numbered SE’s. A Corvette Z06 is like 170k after markups and nonsense because they have all been bought up by Instagram clout chasers and scalpers. It’s absolute insanity, but at least a Z06 has a unique engine.

Edited January 13 by Rain