Tell us on what occasion you have been priced out by GW

[Beef]

I quit playing around 5th edition and re started at the end of 9th and bought the rule book and codex SM and SW, then a week later 10th rolled on so i bought the rulebook and then when the new SW came i bought that.  i haven't been outpriced but outimed now, with work and kids etc.  i am now making an effort to actually play the game after spending so much money on models.  3 games so far in 10th, big change from 5th edition.  Where the hell did Initiative go.   Thats a rant for another day

[Halandaar]

On 11/6/2025 at 12:58 PM, Lathe Biosas said:

So, I built a WarCry force and painted them up. Gladitorium Fighters. Cheap and easy. Too bad no one plays. 

 

I think there's a lot of stigma still about the AoS setting among 40k players which is a real shame as imo Warcry is GWs best system, and you'd think with the low cost of entry (arguably even lower than Kill Team as you can use pretty much any infantry models from any faction you have lying around), more people would be willing to try it. Suppose the fact it looks like GW is mothballing it doesn't help.

[Halandaar]

On the subject of being priced out, I've said previously that rules churn is the main barrier for me but today's lack of stock for Dead Silence highlights another issue I have. As much as Warhammer is an expensive hobby I am prepared to indulge in, I still want the best value for money from my hobby and that means I almost always seek out bundles.

 

I have a Space Wolves force and a small T'au force and I was prepared to buy two boxes today, but not being able to get them due to really restricted stock means it's full price teams, or nothing, and for me that normally means nothing. The exact same thing happened with Crux Terminatus a couple of weeks back: wanted to buy one, but couldn't due to stock. I was prepared to spend nearly £300 across these two releases and instead I've spent nothing, and GW is sorely mistaken if they think I'm going to pay the ~£100 extra to get the same stuff later on.

[Felix Antipodes]

Hopefully the new factory currently being built will sort out GW’s supply issue.  “Out of Stock” Issues are rapidly challenging pricing as a major turn off for those engaged in the hobby if this thread is representative of the current mindset.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Priced out as in I have a hard time justifying spending the amount they want for what they give us, so I rarely buy anything.

 

we can afford a handful of purchases per year plus paint/glue, it just doesn’t seem worth it.

[Zoatibix]

I've bought less and less over the last couple of years for several reasons.

The main reason is the cost to value ratio is dropping while my disposable income is getting squeezed more and more.   For example, one of my main armies is GSC which is a very expensive horde army.  

Combat patrol magazine would help but it's tiresome competing against scalpers.

 

I realized that I had a couple of grand's worth of BNIB stuff kicking around that I'd never get built before I shuffle off this mortal coil (I'm now mid-fifties) But then eye-watering vet bills for my cats took all and still had me selling off as much as I could before hitting eBay's new 'cap'.  Spare cash that I would have used to snap up and salt away still goes on paying off the credit card bill.

 

I've been put off AoS by a combination of my armies getting sent to legends and disliking the gamified way the rules work.  Yes, I know it's a game. It's a me thing.

GW reducing the ease of cross-system play has irked me a fair bit e.g. it was fairly easy to make a double-patron chaos Deamons army that could drop into any game but they seem to have shut that down a bit.  I will probably look into that again at some point.

Realizing that I haven't managed to finish painting an army since 5th edition because I keep changing schemes (halfway through then stripping my progress) Example would be my GSC which I've stripped and restarted three times now...and they've ended up back in the original scheme.  Plus not actually going out to play each week have both 

 

 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I also want to say discount boxes. $250+ for a box of little plastic toys is just hard for me to justify 

[Kommisar_K]

The Crux Terminatus box. I only want the Assault Terminators, more for fun than anything else. Yeah they'll cost more individually. Yeah I could sell the rest, maybe even go Kin mode and get profit. But someone else can use the big box ya know? And now we've got separate releases. So Im getting that. For a single kit that's a net positive right? If they handled this stuff better maybe, maybe I would've been tempted by the big box. GW needs to fix their stock issues.

[lhg033]

I have been priced out by the Christmas battelforces. To me they are not worth £155RRP/£124 at discount either for armies I already have or for starting something new.

Very little at GW is worth £100+ for me other than maybe starter boxes and even then I am weight that up.

I would have spung for the Crux box 'just' as I have a bit of an obsession with termiantors and this would have rounded out my current projects well. As it is I will now only buy 1, maybe 2, assault terminator boxes and probably the ancient though no rush for any and I may just grab some of the bits from a reseller later to convert standard bodies if that will be possible.

[Orange Knight]

I went out for a few drinks with some friends over the last weekend.

 

One night cost me over £100. It's funny how that suddenly makes the new Battleforces look like a bargain.

[Arikel]

40k is pretty, but boy does it add up quickly these days. I recently picked up some historicals for the first time, as there are plastics now for the time periods I’m interested in that are of comparable quality to GW. The outlay for 2 rulesets  and 4 fully playable armies set me back around 500 cad, including taxes, shipping and import fees from the UK.

 

For the price of the krieg box and tax I could get some 3d terrain for my friend to print a full battlefield for us and either significantly expand my existing forces or get a few more factions to play with. It’s appears the krieg box might not even hit 500 points without extras, from what I understand, which kinda of sucks. I want to continue warhammer but it’s mostly going to be painting what I got from this point, maybe see if I can find a few more rhinos and old school bikers to fill out my company.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

The big boxes generally only seem to make sense if you actually want everything that’s in them.

 

the constant inclusion of intercessors just really cuts into the actual savings of the boxes since that means your paying a reduced price for a unit you don’t even want.

 

something I’ve noticed, locally no stores buy and sell used models or bits.

[Sky Potato]

On 11/17/2025 at 2:36 PM, Orange Knight said:

I went out for a few drinks with some friends over the last weekend.

 

One night cost me over £100. It's funny how that suddenly makes the new Battleforces look like a bargain.

Only £100 on a night out? Amateur… 

 

When a weekly shop costs £150, or dinners for 2 at a pretty mid high street chain is £100 - a once a year Christmas box at £150 really does last a lot longer. The issue is, it’s never just a once a year box. 

 

The issue is having the disposable income to be able to drop £150 on the Christmas battleforces, or the Crux Terminatus box, or the new Heresy box, or the new fellblade, or the Krieg army box, or or or.

 

I’m scared to add up how much plastic I’ve bought this year.

 

Edit - I now regret adding up how much I’ve spent online just at one retailer this year 

Edited November 18 by Sky Potato
Adding to post

[Kenzaburo]

The recent increases in cost of living across the western world, for me personally in Germany, have caused me to be a loooot more conservative with my spending. Regular stuff has just gotten too expensive, with my (quite alright) income not rising equally. Rent, food and overall groceries, my car, vacation - all that is pricing me out as much as GW by increasing their prices to ridiculous levels. Single characters for 30+ Euros, now almost 40 Euros, is just crazy. When I was at university I felt that my meagre resources as a student limited my spending. Ironically the prices have risen so much, that now, in my mid-40s GW stuff still seems to me as expensive, since it's vying for a spot among all my adult life costs. 

 

Hence when I buy I buy stuff from eBay, used on sprue and such. Or stuff that's been in the Hachette magazines. And very rarely I buy from an online retailer offering 20% off. Straight from GW is something I haven't done in at least 3 years, aside from a White Dwarf or a pot of paint. 

[Valkia the Bloody]

Even in the past, as a student, I have bought used models on Ebay & Co. online. Yes, this may be a bit basic and the army will miss a lot of the newer / flashier models, but overall, it will be fine if you are looking for some models to paint and to play some friendly games. 

I really like our local Warhammer shop, and on occasion, I will buy paints and a few models there, but to be honest, even now, with a full-time job, it still is an expensive hobby (plus, I have more than one hobby!). I currently work on a Tyranid army, which I basically got for half price on Ebay. The army consists mainly of the current plastics that were in the Leviathan box (right now, you can get a Winged Tyranid Prime for 7 Euro and a Psychophage for 14 Euro). I very much like the new Tyranid models, and these days, I mainly paint, so this is not really an issue. 

With the current price-of-living issues, it is very important to set up a hobby budget and look for cheap models online first.

However, a couple of years ago, I did a pilgrimage to Warhammer World and I budgeted so I could get my hands on some of the awesome Forgeworld Night Lord models. Yes, it was expensive, but this was a rare treat and it is not as if I would do something like this on a regular basis. 

[Pacific81]

On 11/17/2025 at 2:36 PM, Orange Knight said:

I went out for a few drinks with some friends over the last weekend.

 

One night cost me over £100. It's funny how that suddenly makes the new Battleforces look like a bargain.

 

This raises a very interesting point I think now that everything is relatively more expensive. Certainly in terms of luxury goods, and most have less money left in the pot after they have paid for their rent, their utilities etc.

 

You often see arguments defendinh £70 video games, "thats the inflation since the £40 games twenty years ago". But, I think it perhaps highlights struggling economies, at least in the West; yes that might be true (and same with £100 battleforces) but I don't have the spare money to spend like I did twenty years ago! And so it seems much worse.

[Doghouse]

I think the problem for a lot of people is that they impulse buy stuff and it sits in it's box for months or is never touched which is what reduces the value for money. The trick is to get off the product treadmill then evaluate whether you are getting the bang for your buck.

 

I personally think it's easier to justify the cost if you are painting, building or playing on a regular basis rather than having it sat gathering dust.

 

Right now I am working on building everything I currently have and putting together a 4th edition army.

 

I think the normalization of the pile of shame though has become a detriment to the hobby in this regard to value.

[Ahzek451]

19 minutes ago, Doghouse said:

I think the normalization of the pile of shame though has become a detriment to the hobby in this regard to value.

Made worse by a FOMO driven strategy. And in many instances, a delayed one. I'm referring to numerous instances where new units are initially released in a special, limited, "early" boxset only a select few are capable of getting their hands on. While those that couldn't have to wait months to nab them when the normal individual boxes finally come out, assuming folks don't have to wait due to stock issues as these models are often "out of stock". People want the latest and greatest, driving up demand. And worsening those piles of shame. 

[Lathe Biosas]

After losing 99% of my 40k stuff in a move, I've become a lot more selective in my purchasing. 

 

I'm working on a kill team and trying to get back into 40k (thinking Salamanders or  Dragonspears).

 

But I have written a list, checked prices through various sources, checked availability of certain models and worked on how I am going to pay for and build the units I want.

 

But I'm doing it in playable chunks.

 

Everything that's in the 500 point army is in the 1000 point army, the 1500 point army and so on.

 

But I've had to factor in all spending right from the beginning.

 

For instance, I know I want a chunk of Infernus Marines. They are all push fit, so I know I can't use the shoulderpads I want, so I'm going to have to use 3rd party emblems to stick on. I've had to incorporate the price of those into the army.

 

This way there is no pile of shame and I'm using what I buy.

[phandaal]

4 hours ago, Pacific81 said:

 

This raises a very interesting point I think now that everything is relatively more expensive. Certainly in terms of luxury goods, and most have less money left in the pot after they have paid for their rent, their utilities etc.

 

You often see arguments defendinh £70 video games, "thats the inflation since the £40 games twenty years ago". But, I think it perhaps highlights struggling economies, at least in the West; yes that might be true (and same with £100 battleforces) but I don't have the spare money to spend like I did twenty years ago! And so it seems much worse.

 

There is also the fact that as people get older, we tend to come to the understanding that "disposable" does not mean "must all be spent, always." Sometimes we do boring things like saving for the future, or saving up to put deposits on a home or vehicle etc.

 

Just because we have more money available to spend, it does not mean we always feel the same way about spending it as we did when we were young.

[Scribe]

On 11/18/2025 at 9:45 AM, Sky Potato said:

Edit - I now regret adding up how much I’ve spent online just at one retailer this year

 

Real pain is taking that value, and working out its value after a year of investment. 

[Alby the Slayer]

First time in years I went to an official GW store (I went to warhammer world this year but didn't buy models) and I didn't know it was the anniversary for that store.

 

I bought the birthday store model and it was 32.50 €, which for a single genestealer with a cool base is insane.

The abnormally hyped clerk tried to sold me on buy more stuff to have a cup for dice rolling or a mat but again, to have those "amazing" gift you had to spend insane amount of money. It was bad.

 

I am only interested in converting, painting and collecting so the price of the single model, be a character or not, are starting to get me choose a lot what to buy.

 

I love characters to paint so I hate them for the disgusting prices they put on these models.

[Domhnall]

I've not really been priced out as yet, more that I'm more selective in my purchases. Although I've been collecting/painting for years, I've only gotten started playing again recently so everything I buy is in reponse to something I need (and then starting a tyranid army from scratch!). I have mostly been buying on ebay or other 2nd hand shops just now, but I'm not averse to buying new if it's needed. However the one thing I'm not buying is the big boxes, even if they are 'better value' if you can get them, I just don't have £100+ to drop in one go (as if I'm going to save my pennies up to do it either!). 

 

Saying that, it's not as if any of the other games out there are much, if at all, cheaper! So it's not just GW that can be offputtingly expensive. 

Since starting at my game club I've gotten started with Marvel: Crisis Protocol, whose official figures are anywhere between £30-£60 (RRP) for two figures and a bit terrain (in some cases £60+ for 1 big 'un). You might need less to get started, but that's still a heck of a chunk of change per figure. 
Additionally, my game club is considering dipping into Infinity as a couple folks already play it, and again, RRP prices are ridiculous per figure. So much so they can make 40k somewhat reasonable. Still going to consider it, but by jove it's going to cost me 

[Gattopardo]

I've not been priced out as such. There are things I still buy. But if prices were lower, I'd buy more.

 

As I don't paint everything I buy, it's arguable that the current (often preposterous) pricing is actually to my benefit, overall.

 

Realistically, for as long as GW Is constrained by its production rather than demand, prices will continue to be high, sometimes shockingly so.

 

If they ever manage to build more production capacity, this may change.

[Dark Shepherd]

On 11/19/2025 at 8:38 PM, Doghouse said:

I think the problem for a lot of people is that they impulse buy stuff and it sits in it's box for months or is never touched which is what reduces the value for money. The trick is to get off the product treadmill then evaluate whether you are getting the bang for your buck.

 

I personally think it's easier to justify the cost if you are painting, building or playing on a regular basis rather than having it sat gathering dust.

 

Right now I am working on building everything I currently have and putting together a 4th edition army.

 

I think the normalization of the pile of shame though has become a detriment to the hobby in this regard to value.

This is why Im drifting into non 40k and non GW models for painting projects, my blood bowl team, warhammer plus minis will be around for a while

 

Plus the farm animal set I bought wont be squatted any time soon

 

Personally am enjoying a separation of painting for fun and painting to play