GW locking down bits stores

[jul]

SO GW decided unilaterally to enforce its trade terms with their retailers.

As June 15th, any retailers that have an account with GW or with a GW authorized distributors will not be allowed to open products bought on their GW account to sell parts/sprues.

Good news or bad news?

For me, it was just a matter of time before GW put the lock down on that, it was too much money not getting into GW pockets. I secretly hope that GW will reopen its bits service but i do not see that happen has the cost/benefit ratio is not that good (bits service it a time consuming process). Also GW'd rather you buy a full box that just the single bit.

Can GW really enforce that? with big bits name, yes. a couple of online stores will have to shut down their service. With people on ebay: GW is barely able to manage the recast issue over there, so not a chance they can handle that at any significant scale. Of course some big names over ebay will see their GW accounts closed but small individuals will be able to go through that.

The other bad news is that prices for desirable bits will increase (remember those cyclone launcher at 10$+ or DE blasters getting 20% of box price...).

i see a good news for members here as trades might increase following that lock down.

Anyway i'm guessing that June 15th might also be the announcement of the annual price increase as well

J

[kturock]

They'll be able to enforce it the same way they're able to enforce the discount policy.
If they catch you, they have the right to not sell to you. It's already been decided in a US court case.
Now, if the seller changes the online store's name, say Kturock Hobby Shoppe brick & mortar store becomes Kt's Bits Place Online; and the latter doesn't have a GW account or account with 1 of the authorized wholesalers; GW can't stop selling to it.

We just discussed this the other night. 1 of the local players has an online store. He used to sell GW stuff and during a slump, he discounted everything to get rid of it. He got a C&D from GW. He told them to piss off, and sold out his stock. Needless to say, he no longer sells GW either.

[jason1977]

one can only hope that there are some indy stores out there with some smart lawyer pals who can work around this grot droppings.

if not


there is always Bartertown

[jul]

one of the issue of the new trade terms is that you don't have to have an account with GW to be bind by them, distributors now will have the responsibility to verify their clients don't sell bits, otherwise GW could potentially close their account...

ah big bad GW trying to get more of our pocket money since they changed to white metal....

[kturock]

Umm did you read my post? The lawyers tried. The court ruled that GW can write whatever it wants in it's contracts.

If they say, your store must be painted pink or we don't sell to you; guess what color your store must be to sell GW products.

There are workarounds. You can sell under another name online. You can sell online but the customer must email or call you to order and not have an online shopping cart.

[jul]

this is one is quite nice too:

C. POLICY REGARDING DOMESTIC SALES ONLY
North American Retailers are only authorized to resell GAMES WORKSHOP products domestically in their respective countries of origin. Accordingly, United States Retailers are prohibited from exporting GAMES WORKSHOP products for purposes resale to Consumers located outside of the United States. Similarly, Canadian Retailers are prohibited from exporting GAMES WORKSHOP products for purposes resale to Consumers located outside of Canada. Foreign sales of GAMES WORKSHOP products by Retailers can be disruptive to GAMES WORKSHOP’S vertical distribution networks in other countries.

Sorry fellow aussies, and canucks that will now have to pay their own country overpriced products. Mostly for canadians people were the exchange rate is 1 for 1, GW products sold in Canada come from Memphis and they are still 20% higher than US prices...

Also, the new Broadside Tau will be 50$ a pup....

J

[strigoi]

Hey

Just to let you know as ive worked for GW and pretty high up from sales to accountant, troll and manager. Let me tell you the reason why GW wont sell bits as they did many years ago.
When a customer buys a random head of an empire knight, GW had to cast an entire sprue, not just the head si the rest sat idle on a warehouse shelf.
Now this problem became so big that GW had to hire another warehouse as there was so much dead stock, i didnt beleive it till i got to the premises and saw a hugd amount of random crap.

So GW have adopted items that come on there on sprue and will sell well according to there sales figures. It sounds a bit mad but i understood this.

As for shutting stores off from selling bits i again understand but think its an ass move by GW. Saying that there are many ways around this but dont want to encourage sneeky tactics online.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[jason1977]

*sniff**sniff*

i think its time we all drop a letter to GW. Perhaps a petition online. Crap. Obama answered the one about the Death Star.

Jason

[jul]

no petition will change their mind. They really want to lock down the online part of independent retailers.
Did you notice that since 6th ed is out, a certain amount of product was only available through GW website? Most of them if not all went sold out. that means they do not really need online retailers.
They do need brick and mortar stores to promote their products on the arm of independent retailers though.

J

[HarlequinZero]

I'm with jul on this one. Because, honestly, bits sales aren't going to hurt FLGS sales I don't think. It's just meant to bite into the online market where the retailers already bring in such a ridiculous amount of stock that they can afford to cut stuff up. I mean, I've never seen an FLGS that sells bits. Do they exist? Actually, that's not entirely true. I HAVE seen a store that would break up battle forces and battalions.

[Garlicson2]

One thing that bothers me is about the Dark Vengance boxes. GW made a new policy that they cannot breakdown their products by piece mealing or turning them into bits, but yet they still haven't released a 10 man squad of Cultisit, the Hellbrute, or the Chosens. How in the unholy Papa of Nurgle are they suppose to sell those without the DV box set!? In most cases, alot of people will come here or on Feebay and purchase those units from those Basement Dwellers (No offense to anyone by the way) that manages to get their hand on GW's items and sell them cheap as possible, so they can make profit from it.

I don't know if this will be the case, but the way I see it, I think this is going to be 2001 all over again, where GW haves to deal with the "Freeloaders" again. Again, a thought of mine, so it may not be the case.

-Johnny

[jul]

actually, GW do not need to release 10 man squads of cultists as you either have to buy another DV box or those 5 man packs with no leaders, no special weapons. The point is tomake you buy the DV box, again and again.

What GW wants right now is a full control over what is sold online. Also for insurance issue, stuff that people buy peice meal online doesn't have any warning or disclaimers on it, which also can be a problem, even more in the US where people tends to be unable to fix problems without a lawyer or a therapist (no insult intended), but GW, as a company needs to able to control that.

I'm not defending GW in any way, i'm just saying that as a company, those decisions make perfect sense.

i'm sad that, again, independent retailers with a real store will be colateral damage once more.
I don't think GW stores have been a place to play since the late 90's, starting early 2000's GW stores focused on the promotion part of the business, once clients were hooked, they could find another store to play, more friendly and more suitable for games.

Also remember that for years the direct competition for GW has always been other hobbies like movies, reading...etc.. with their dominant position and time in business, the impact of other gaming companies is limited. The dawn of war series brought way more people into GW gaming that players that left GW for WM

J

[oaflord]

this is one is quite nice too:

C. POLICY REGARDING DOMESTIC SALES ONLY
North American Retailers are only authorized to resell GAMES WORKSHOP products domestically in their respective countries of origin. Accordingly, United States Retailers are prohibited from exporting GAMES WORKSHOP products for purposes resale to Consumers located outside of the United States. Similarly, Canadian Retailers are prohibited from exporting GAMES WORKSHOP products for purposes resale to Consumers located outside of Canada. Foreign sales of GAMES WORKSHOP products by Retailers can be disruptive to GAMES WORKSHOP’S vertical distribution networks in other countries.

Sorry fellow aussies, and canucks that will now have to pay their own country overpriced products. Mostly for canadians people were the exchange rate is 1 for 1, GW products sold in Canada come from Memphis and they are still 20% higher than US prices...

Also, the new Broadside Tau will be 50$ a pup....

J

Jul, if this is section "C", where is the rest of this information, do you have a link??

oAF

[oaflord]

Never mind... Found it.

oAF

[imp522]

LOL, glad I don't really do much with them these day's.