So here we are again. Another GW limited release weekend and once again a vast hoard of genuine hobbyists out in the cold or faced with the prospect of dealing with scalpers. I am of course talking about the ‘Piety and Pain’ box and the Ravenor Returned limited edition book. In the interest of full disclosure I wasn’t interested in any of these as I have a hardback version of Ravenor Returned and have never been interested in either the Sisters of Battle or the Dark Eldar. I did however take a quick look on ebay after seeing the outrage, rancor in the online groups and also in the chat in the afternoon reveal.
As an aside I have to question the wisdom of doing a reveal on the day of a hyped release. Felt that Adam and Eddie got hung out to dry there (and I think they saw from the chat that people were not happy based on how they moved on) despite the best efforts of the excellent moderators.
Anyway back to ebay. By the evening Ravenor was being listed for £100.00 whilst the box set (or bits of it) were going way over book. Once again the scalpers had won and yet again GW seem unable or unwilling to learn from this. Every release is the same going back as far as I can remember.
Part of me gets the GW view. Forcing fear of missing out drives sales and ensures you don’t end up sitting on a load of boxes in the depot; yet some boxes are dead certain bankers. Indomitus, sisters, dark eldar were all going to be popular. The price and new edition made Indomitus a ridiculously good value whilst sisters and dark eldar are old ranges with a vocal following in sore need of an upgrade. Making these such a limited commodity just makes no sense when you could make them limited run (like indomitus became) and still make a huge profit and beat the scalpers in the process.
So the question is why do GW seem unwilling to learn? Well so long as people keep buying into the hype there will be no incentive for them to change. They have a monopoly on the game and such things seldom favor the consumer; and until something forces them to change their practices then we’ll continue to live in a scalper’s paradise.
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