Well, I don't see why people pay this much miney for such things. Wait until the PS3 has been out for some time and it'll drop in price as will its games after a certain amount of time. With those things, they depreciate. Not to say that everything isn't overpriced, I agree more than anybody on that...
Expensive hobby? I recently stareted karting and.............
second hand Go kart chassis - £600 ($1150 US [roughly])
Rotax 125 Max engine - £1500 ($2900 US)
Vega SL6 slicks per meeting - £30 per corner £115 for a set ($220)
Vega W2 Wets per rainy meeting- £35 per corner, £125 set ($240)
Spare sprcokets - £10-15 ea ($18-27)
112 link racing grade chains - £17.50 ea ($32)
Racing gear, helmet suit gloves etc - £350 ($690)
Trailer to take kart to track - £500 ($980)
Tow bar to pull said trailer - £200 fitted ($395)
All necessary tools for maitaining kart and trailer - £500 ($980)
Jetting for carburhettor(spelling?) - £50 ($95)
Alfano timing system and steering wheel - £300 ($590)
Oils, coolants, lubricants, - £50 ($98)
and repairs, reapairs and more repairs £££££££ ($$$$$$$$)
Now, THAT is a lot of warhammer!
Cheap and Expensive are fairly meaningless words, since they're entirely dependent on what they're being compared to and the disposable income that a person has available.
As already mentioned, there are far more expensive hobbies out there than Warhammer. The problem isn't so much that Warhammer is expensive (however you want to define it) but rather that people outside the hobby find it difficult to comprehend how so much enjoyment can be derived from little toy soldiers, hence the relative cost is hard for them to understand.
I have a friend who says Warhammer helped his son enormously with his mathematical abilities. Apparently he used to avoid maths like the plague until he discovered he needed it for working out army lists. Now he can crunch numbers with the best of them
I find it strange what people accept and don't. I see people blowing 50-100 dollars on alcohol a week; that's socially fine and accepted it seems, but a painting/gaming hobby is not. Going out to the movies is the cost of a regiment. If you get more enjoyment out of warhammer than doing other things, go for it. I've probably spent close to 1000 now, and don't regret it.
...how much I spend on clothing, shoes and make up. All of which works in his favour as it makes me prettier for him n_n
Luckily my FOB doesn't wear make-up, so that's a big savings. She bought a bunch for a wedding, and I was stunned at how much it cost. Where do hookers find the money?
...Where do hookers find the money?
Umm... are you sure you want an answer to that?? 
I always assumed the money went to crack/cocaine. Now I'm not too sure.
Personally, I look at cost in terms of price/hours of use. My hordes of chaos book cost twelve quid but was used virtually every other day until it became unofficial. the £2.50 I spend on a pint (admitedly a very nice one) is gone in the time it takes me to savour the refreshing taste of real ale. Not long. I still use my first wood elf army bought over a decade ago. A waste of money? I think not. Compare that to a £50 video game which after you've taken three obsessive days to complete it loses all appeal. I'd rather buy a battle force that'll have me gaming for the next few years
Games Workshop is significantly ahead of the price curve compared to most other manufacturers. A 28mm character model from most boutique miniature manufacturers will cost you about £4 - try getting a metal Warhammer figure for that any more. In addition, their boxed sets have had their prices increased way above the rate of inflation over the last decade or so. When the multi-part plastic Space Marines came out they were £10. Now they're £18.
However, one thing to remember is that GW are subsidising their stores with their high prices. Essentially, if you buy a Warhammer army, you know that you can live anywhere in the country - almost anywhere in the world in fact - and be close enough to a GW store to be able to find an opponent and have a game. The same can't be said of most other miniature manufacturers and I'm sure we've all heard stories of someone wanting to start playing Warmachine or Confrontation, but being unable to find anyone nearby who plays it.
So there's arguments for the high prices but, make no mistake, they are high, even by industry standards.
Its all relative when i started playing wargames it was 8p for a 25mm minifig!However with the prices of everything else now warhammer works out very cheap
Although a 25mm figure for say napoleonics may cost £1 i need(yes i said need) 1000's of them so a warhammer army at £300 is competative from this point of view.We can spend £600 on my daughters birthday without blinking an eye
GW is like a kind of welfare state subsidising Brick & Mortar stores and huge numbers of staff around the world, which in the age of the internet they arguably do not need.
When you buy miniatures you're subsidising that system rather than simply buying a figure. I'm not sure what percentage of the cost of a miniature is actually the cost of the figure and what percentage is subsidising their stores and staff. It would be very interesting to know.
which in the age of the internet they arguably do not need.
But I think if you were a young teenager just getting into the hobby, with no established gaming group, and no idea how to get one, you'd appreciate the presence of a local GW store. As I said, if you buy a GW army, chances are you will definitely have a place within easy commuting distance to actually use it without having to make a whole new group of friends.
I don't like paying £18 for ten models (what am I saying? I just don't pay £18 for ten models...) but the business model does make a certain amount of sense in this context.
But I think if you were a young teenager just getting into the hobby, with no established gaming group, and no idea how to get one, you'd appreciate the presence of a local GW store.
I'm curious - is that a common problem overseas?
Here most major cities have at least one wargaming club, and most have more than one. Indeed, the idea here of having to rely on stores to organise games would seem rather bizarre.
Most kids getting into the hobby here would either ask at one of their local gaming stores and be told about the local gaming clubs, then simply go along and check them out, or they'd google it and discover the local clubs for themselves.
Is that not the case overseas? Do folks overseas use their gaming stores as De Facto wargaming clubs?
I'm not exactly sure where you are, Wallacer - the members map says New Zealand though, so let's go with that.
What you might want to bear in mind is that, in the UK at least, when people think of miniature wargaming, they think of Games Workshop. Ironically, because it's a visibly supported hobby in the high street, the FLGS is virtually unknown. Most people starting the hobby here would just go to a GW store and, at least when starting out, play games there, since that's the whole point. A good number of stores have gaming rooms, gaming nights, etc. etc. I have no idea if it's the same in NZ.
I know, for example, that one of the first things I'll do when my fiancée and move to a new town is go to the GW store there (and there will be one - they're everywhere, which is precisely my point) and, if I have the time and inclination, fine a gaming group by making friends by playing there.
The idea is that, wherever you go, you know there's a place you can play a game. At least in the UK, if you have an army of GW figures, you will never be in a situation where you can't find an opponent. That's their dream anyway, I guess, and why we pay through the nose for their figures.
Except that it does kind of mean that those countries with little or no GW footprint in terms of B&M are in effect subsidising those countries (like the UK) which do have a large GW B&M footprint.
In NZ people don't necessarily automatically think of GW when they think of wargaming, but in most clubs one of the GW games will still be the dominant wargame being played (typically WH or 40k).
Which makes me wonder if the B&M footprint that we pay through the nose for (and in my country don't get much benefit from) is really necessary.
The idea is that, wherever you go, you know there's a place you can play a game. At least in the UK, if you have an army of GW figures, you will never be in a situation where you can't find an opponent. That's their dream anyway, I guess, and why we pay through the nose for their figures.
That is pretty much how it is in NZ, except that the place you find an opponent is in one of the numerous wargaming clubs, rather than in an actual store. Which is what makes me wonder if GW really need those stores.
Of course, I may just be miffed that I don't actually have access to one of those stores
but how often does the quality of the model match GW models
I'll take the majority of non-GW models over GW equivalents, personally. GW are a little bit obsessed with their own "house style" (skullz everywhere!) and some of their ranges don't hold up if you have any experience of the wider industry. The new Vampire Counts are almost universally awful, but an improvement over the last generation of VC models, which were horrific (in all the wrong ways). The best GW stuff is the older ranges (i.e. Chaos Dwarfs).
I dont think the inflation is out of whack either,
8 pounds more after 10 years is pretty good... how much was food and fuel and drinks 10 years ago?
Well they haven't increased 80% in cost - fuel isn't a fair comparison either, since that's also risen way above inflation and is the textbook example of an limited resource. Try looking at comparable luxury goods, like CDs or video games: they're still roughly in the same ballpark when it comes to price that they were ten years ago.
http://www.stephane.info/show.php?code=gw_rants
I find those to be a pretty sustained critique of GW, for anyone interested.
I dropped out of the hobby for a while a few years ago, mainly because I was being charged more for a game with less options. Particularly annoying for me was the strict limitations on monsters, the cutting down on army lists and generally making the game more prescriptive. I preferred the old mix and match approach.
I miss being able to take a goblin hero on a cockatrice, I miss the really broad army lists (forest goblins were more than a colour scheme!) and I miss fly-high and the attendant dogfighting.
When I lived in manchester, I had 4 GW stores within 10 miles. When I moved to leeds this was cut to 2. I then moved to Notts, there was 2 there too but one of them was warhammer world. Now I live in kent and there is 3 GW stores within 15 miles!!
I think compared to what it used to be, it's definately more expensive, but so are most things. I don't know about other games, but GW is still cheaper than a lot of other hobbies, with greater longevity and more support than most and a much broader community that is easily accessible. As I mentioned before, I had a choice of 4 GW's to go along to and met 4 groups of friends quite regularly. I now do go karting, there is a limited number of tracks to go to, and the only time I meet up with fellow enthusiasts is at a race meeting.
Tommy is bang on the money, it is more expensive but a the end of the day, you get what you pay for, you buy into one of the most rewarding and involving hobby you can get.
it is more expensive but a the end of the day, you get what you pay for
Actually, that's not what I was saying at all. I do think it's too expensive, and I think it's way ahead of the price curve for the industry - pretty much the only thing I'll buy is the regiment boxed sets, which are pretty decent value (but even then I get them a few quid cheaper on ebay). What I was saying though is that I get why they're more expensive - it's not just management greed; they have stores and staff to pay for, instead of being one guy sculpting in a shed.