September 2026 - Price Rises

[Varyn]

“Something something…I can’t believe prices are increasing…..”

 

“something something… I’m going to stop buying GW kits….”

 

“something something… running/manufacturing costs are rising, everything goes up in price, UK inflation is 2.6%”

 

I think I covered the key points. It’s a luxury product produced by a company which is doing very well. Prices will inevitably rise.

I started putting most of my hobby budget into GW shares 2 years ago. The last 12 months has been great!

 

 

 

[FarFromSam]

Yeah... well...  someone's going to pay it.   Good for GW.  

Edited August 19 by FarFromSam

[Osteoclast]

4 hours ago, Varyn said:

“Something something…I can’t believe prices are increasing…..”

 

“something something… I’m going to stop buying GW kits….”

 

“something something… running/manufacturing costs are rising, everything goes up in price, UK inflation is 2.6%”

 

I think I covered the key points. It’s a luxury product produced by a company which is doing very well. Prices will inevitably rise.

I started putting most of my hobby budget into GW shares 2 years ago. The last 12 months has been great!

 

The idea is to get to the point where GW dividends pay for the hobby.

[phoenix01]

I'd say I'd stop buying GW products thanks to the upcoming price increase, but I really haven't bought anything since the start of 10th edition. The Armageddon Space Marine half was given to me and I got some paint for my Battletech stuff, but that's it. I keep re-reading old books and watching what Valrak puts out and what's on here, but I can't say my finger is on the pulse of the game in any way.

[Karhedron]

8 hours ago, Osteoclast said:

The idea is to get to the point where GW dividends pay for the hobby.

 

Going slightly off-topic but that is an interesting idea. GW shares are on track to pay out a dividend of around £5 for this FY so if your hobby budget is £50 per month, you would need 120 shares. Current price is £186.61 per share so you would need about £224,000 up front to provide a stable hobby income. If you had that kind of lump sum, you would probably be better off buying a small house and renting it out as the rental income would be at least 10 times higher than the dividend.

[Kenzaburo]

Well, you'd actually need a time machine to travel back to sometime around 2015 or 2016, when I bought my shares for 7,xx Euro and then get back to now and profit. 120 shares were pretty much affordable then.

 

Before anyone asks: I didn't buy 120 shares, more like a single digit amount, but bloody hell, I never expected to see those shares rise to what they are now. 

[Mendi Warrior]

Forget the promise of cheap stuff and discounting, for in the grim darkness of the far future there are only price increases. ... Only an eternity of carnage and slaughter of our wallets, and the laughter of thirsting shareholders.

[Mogger351]

I saw a wonderful summary on Reddit that was simply "it is not getting more expensive, you are getting paid less relatively" which was an interesting stance.

[Hfran Morkai]

Interestingly I've been looking at the pay for new employees at my place recently.

 

When I joined in 2009 the entry level pay was £6.05 and hour. I worked for 11 months and left for a month, coming back to £5.50 an hour as the company had introduced an 18-21 pay band (this has since been removed).

 

A new starter today gets £12.81 an hour, which feels generous (especially as they now get perks that were previously only for Managers too) but maybe it's the 'frog in pan of water' thing where I've not noticed my costs going up as much because it's been done incrementally along with the wages.

[Mogger351]

3 hours ago, Hfran Morkai said:

Interestingly I've been looking at the pay for new employees at my place recently.

 

When I joined in 2009 the entry level pay was £6.05 and hour. I worked for 11 months and left for a month, coming back to £5.50 an hour as the company had introduced an 18-21 pay band (this has since been removed).

 

A new starter today gets £12.81 an hour, which feels generous (especially as they now get perks that were previously only for Managers too) but maybe it's the 'frog in pan of water' thing where I've not noticed my costs going up as much because it's been done incrementally along with the wages.

Just following inflation that £6.05 is now £10.53. So that is slight ahead at £12.81.

 

I think the issues are further up. The government has done well over the last decade dragging up min wage. Having worked in IT through that sort of period I think there have been 5 years where I got no pay increase at all due to "hard times" (with record profits).

 

Often the increases were in the 2-3% range when they did happen, lagging just behind inflation usually.

 

Personally I am much better off due to promotions and side steps, but for context my salary total is now ~18% a year lower than if it had gone up with inflation since 2020.

[Domhnall]

16 hours ago, Hfran Morkai said:

Interestingly I've been looking at the pay for new employees at my place recently.

 

When I joined in 2009 the entry level pay was £6.05 and hour. I worked for 11 months and left for a month, coming back to £5.50 an hour as the company had introduced an 18-21 pay band (this has since been removed).

 

A new starter today gets £12.81 an hour, which feels generous (especially as they now get perks that were previously only for Managers too) but maybe it's the 'frog in pan of water' thing where I've not noticed my costs going up as much because it's been done incrementally along with the wages.

 

I started on about £2.50/hour back in 1998 

Back in the wistful days when a box of 10 tacticals was £20, I'd have had to work 8 hours to buy a box. 
A box of 10 intercessors (assualts, as normal ones off GW website) is now £40, so even at the Scottish 18-20 min wage of £10.85, that'd only take 4 hours to buy a box. 

Of course that's just basic wage to box comparison that's not taking anything else into consideration (like how that £10.85 doesn't go quite as far as it used to). Which I think is the simplest way to do it, if not exactly the more accurate.

Edited August 20 by Domhnall

[Varyn]

22 hours ago, Mogger351 said:

Just following inflation that £6.05 is now £10.53. So that is slight ahead at £12.81.

 

I think the issues are further up. The government has done well over the last decade dragging up min wage. Having worked in IT through that sort of period I think there have been 5 years where I got no pay increase at all due to "hard times" (with record profits).

 

Often the increases were in the 2-3% range when they did happen, lagging just behind inflation usually.

 

Personally I am much better off due to promotions and side steps, but for context my salary total is now ~18% a year lower than if it had gone up with inflation since 2020.

Don’t forget the stealth tax/fiscal drag: UK tax bands have been frozen for 5 years and are expected to be frozen for 5 more. 
 

UK earners ought to be earning more tax free income than £12570!

[Firedrake Cordova]

It's best to stay away from the political side of things here.  

[Lathe Biosas]

Sometimes the memes are right...

[Dark Shepherd]

Im still bitter over the price increases from precedented/peaceful times 

[W.A.Rorie]

=][= STAY ON TOPIC =][=

 

=][= THAT MEANS NO POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS =][=

 

=][= FINAL WARNING =][=

[Xenith]

3-4% inflationary increase that tracks at or lower than UK actual inflation. 

 

Do I like it? No. 

Did I expect it? Yes.

Could it be worse? Much.

 

This is only a problem because inflation outstrips wage increases.

Edited Friday at 04:31 PM by Xenith

[Doghouse]

For me, regardless of inflation and all the other financial considerations, it ultimately comes down to instinct. I look at the price and ask myself, “Is it worth it?” That reaction is usually what decides whether I buy a kit.

 

If you have been in the hobby long enough, the incremental increases eventually reach a point where the answer becomes, “Nah, I’m good.”

 

I really wanted to start an Eldar army, but after seeing some of the current prices, I decided that I already had a ton of Marines and would simply stick with them. The same happened with Orks. When the new range appeared, I thought they would make a great opposing army for my 4th edition Marines, but I reached the same conclusion. At current prices, it simply was not worth the investment for me.

 

I could wax lyrical about remembering when three Rhinos cost a tenner, or when three quid bought two Terminators and a complimentary dose of lead poisoning, but that is largely irrelevant beyond demonstrating my age and experience.

 

We can freely discuss stocks, shares, investment, manufacturing costs and profit margins, (although I personally find it terribly sad that the hobby has reached that point) ultimately I think it comes down to where each person draws the line and says, “That is too rich for my blood.”

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

24 minutes ago, Doghouse said:

I could wax lyrical about remembering when three Rhinos cost a tenner

You can buy 3 Rhinos for £9.75, although you might find they've shrunk in the wash.  (sorry )

[Waaagh?]

I've already seen a deluge of clickbait articles and videos along the line of THIS WILL BE THE END OF GW!!! 

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Hmm. Trying to find it, but I believe someone mentioned that since 2022/23, can't remember which, that GW's prices have risen roughly 20-25%. If that is true, that's a pretty steep rise. I understand that both materials cost and production costs (primarily energy costs) have risen, but I don't think either have risen that high.

[darkhorse0607]

57 minutes ago, Lord_Ikka said:

Hmm. Trying to find it, but I believe someone mentioned that since 2022/23, can't remember which, that GW's prices have risen roughly 20-25%. If that is true, that's a pretty steep rise. I understand that both materials cost and production costs (primarily energy costs) have risen, but I don't think either have risen that high.

 

I could see it. If you figure an average of ~4% per year of announced price increases, that would put you at 16%ish from 2022, then the shadow price increases/reboxing (like the Baneblade for example that just got reboxed and lost a sprue and went up in price), I think you could hit at least 20% pretty easily. 

 

Kind of bananas when you type that out loud though, 20-25% in a few years is a fair chunk. I'm not doomering GW, I think they'll be fine for a while, but I do wonder what the customer lost to new customer ratio is if that continues on the same trajectory through 2030 when you're talking +40-50% price increases since 2022

[Lord_Ikka]

9 minutes ago, darkhorse0607 said:

Kind of bananas when you type that out loud though, 20-25% in a few years is a fair chunk. I'm not doomering GW, I think they'll be fine for a while, but I do wonder what the customer lost to new customer ratio is if that continues on the same trajectory through 2030 when you're talking +40-50% price increases since 2022

Agreed. The rising price point is just one of the issues I have heard of from many people about why they don't play 40k anymore or won't start. 

 

One of the major issues I can see cropping up for GW in the next few years is their insistence on sticking with physical rulebooks/codices and apparent lack of institutional knowledge/desire to work with digital media. I don't really see another miniature game company being so stubborn about not offering full digital rules (free, paid-for, or subscription)- even games with the same historical age of 40k like Battletech offer pdf versions of their rulebooks. GW seems to have decided that they will only offer physical books. It's really baffling to me that this is a hill they seem to want to die on. At least they have sort of priced the codices better in 11th, but I don't think that that is a real saving grace.

[LittlePlasticHomies]

According to a CNBC article from about a year ago, virtually all consumer prices have risen 25%~ since 2020. 
 

I don’t like this any more than the next guy but I really think the only difference is that a gallon of milk doesn’t announce its price increases.

[Doghouse]

This genuinely sums up GW marketing reading about price increases complaints for me right now: