Hello all. I haven’t posted in awhile, but we saw something while playing in a local tournament that really caught my eye. Now this isn’t the usual game strategy or model related post, but instead a rant about the ever increasing cost of GW materials.
While we all know the pains of the recent increases on numerous kits and exorbitant cost of finecast models, these are not what caught my eye. It was instead the price of basing sand. Ringing in at $8.25 for what is supposed to be no less that 120 grams, it just struck me as ridiculous. I happen to work in the materials industry and that is some out of this world pricing. Now I know this isn’t the core of GW’s business, but let me run you through how bad this pricing is. At 453 grams per pound and 2000 pounds per ton you would get 7550 basing sand units out of a ton of sand. While this may seem like overkill, it is necessary for comparison purposes. For the sake of argument, let’s say that the packaging costs $0.25 cents per unit leaving $8.00 per unit for the “product”. This would yield $60,400 for the single ton of sand they filled the packages with. Here’s the scary part, that ton of sand cost them approximately $30, giving them a 2000% margin on the sand.
I know transportation costs etc. (Made in China btw) were omitted from this, but really if its still half that then it’s too d@#m high. I know everyone is probably resourceful and goes to the park to get sand like Big D, but I hear many people discuss that the cost of 40k is one of the largest barriers of entry and its these kind of items that really show it. What do you think? Is GW’s pricing holding their sales volumes down?
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Myself, I really only get the snow from them. I’ve started getting cast bits and I use ballast that I pick up from Hobby Lobby, half the price for about double the amount of ballast. And yes, I also go to the park for larger stones (there’s too much good shale nearby).
I know for me, I originally played 12 years ago and the prices by comparison were a little daunting. Where once I would get 20 Skeletons for $20, I can now get 16 for $34? As someone who recently re entered the hobby I can say the price was definitely the biggest barrier for entry.
There are a lot of good places to get sand and sand like substances. I like to use stuff like chinchilla sand for basing as it is a fine sand rather than the more coarse GW stuff.
Their prices on hobby supplies are just stupid, as the alternatives are as good or better, works just as well, and aren’t the strength of the company.
Personally, I buy as little as possible from actual GW shops. I own one of their paintbrushes, and enough of their paints and glues to sit down in there and do some hobby-craft if I’m in the mood, but everything else is sourced on the cheap and I live with having to do it at home.
As for sand and flock… I own GW tubs for them… haven’t actually bought any in about six years though…