cmorse 1141 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 (edited) On 2/14/2021 at 2:27 AM, WhiteWulfe said: Yknow, if they'd just bring back the bits catalogue that would provide people a "legit" way of acquiring such parts... Not that I buy much if anything GW lately, and hearing about such practices tends to discourage almost as much as some of the player base (and staff at GW stores) does... A GW bits catalog for parts off plastic sprues would never happen even if it were a company other than GW. The cost of cutting and sorting the bits would be more than the entire sprue. Edited February 16 by cmorse Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SotF 484 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 10 minutes ago, TheAuldGrump said: Kirby damned near killed that company. I was shocked at how fast Rountree was able to turn it around. Still curious as to what the new version of WHFB might look like. *EDIT* Would a fleeing Brent work - The Auld Grump Unfortunately not, part of the reason that I wanted the particular one was that the head looks strangely like someone I know and still occasionally play D&D with (or at least did before COVID issues) 10 minutes ago, TheAuldGrump said: Kirby damned near killed that company. I was shocked at how fast Rountree was able to turn it around. Still curious as to what the new version of WHFB might look like. *EDIT* Would a fleeing Brent work - The Auld Grump Unfortunately not, part of the reason that I wanted the particular one was that the head looks strangely like someone I know and still occasionally play D&D with (or at least did before COVID issues) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteWulfe 42121 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 1 hour ago, cmorse said: A GW bits catalog for parts off plastic sprues would never happen even if it were a company other than GW. The cost of cutting and sorting the bits would be more than the entire sprue. There's always the mod sprues idea. They have done such in the past, where it's a common theme, and has one or two sprues worth of items in there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Glitterwolf 207710 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 On 2/15/2021 at 6:06 AM, SotF said: The ones actually hit head on by it weren't the major ones though...they weren't getting the lawsuits along with C&D's, and started pulling back after the smaller ones who were more of buy a kit for a few specific ones and sell the rest or buy a starter for one of the factions minis and sell the others and extra books. It also hit right as GW was pulling the trigger with the shift to Age of Sigmar where they purged a lot out of the store overnight...and it also meant that the 3 minis that I wanted (one from a bits seller) never popped up. I'd wanted the Empire Duelists set (Mainly for the two pistol wielding figure), but the one I'd wanted was the fleeing peasant from the Giant Kit. The kits recently came back, but I keep looking for someone selling just the peasant. If you have access to a 3D printer. On thingiverse there are several free versions of that running peasant/variations of it. Search for peasant. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cmorse 1141 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 14 hours ago, WhiteWulfe said: There's always the mod sprues idea. They have done such in the past, where it's a common theme, and has one or two sprues worth of items in there. The Forge World stuff? I think they still do that, but it's not really the same as just selling bits. A set of arms and heads that match up to a box of plastics while costing more than the box of plastics it goes with doesn't exactly fill the need of someone wanting 2 extra arms holding a certain plasma gun. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WhiteWulfe 42121 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 7 hours ago, cmorse said: The Forge World stuff? I think they still do that, but it's not really the same as just selling bits. A set of arms and heads that match up to a box of plastics while costing more than the box of plastics it goes with doesn't exactly fill the need of someone wanting 2 extra arms holding a certain plasma gun. No, stuff that Games Workshop themselves sold. Like the old Space Wolves mod packs you used to be able to buy back in the day. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cmorse 1141 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 5 hours ago, WhiteWulfe said: No, stuff that Games Workshop themselves sold. Like the old Space Wolves mod packs you used to be able to buy back in the day. Forge World is Games Workshop themselves. I'm not sure what the old mod packs looked like, but I imagine what they sell through Forge World is the closest thing to a modern equivalent. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TGP 76242 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 On 2/16/2021 at 12:11 AM, cmorse said: A GW bits catalog for parts off plastic sprues would never happen even if it were a company other than GW. The cost of cutting and sorting the bits would be more than the entire sprue. Not saying you are wrong but support the idea with something / anything? Bits sellers were able to do exactly that, and did so profitably ?? ...but the originating firm could not have done it..? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Inarah 43796 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 Bits sellers are on their own time, doing that work during the evenings or weekends after school or their real job. They are motivated by extra cash. Reaper used to sell bits, but does not any more because it is an unproductive use of employee time. It can take 1 employee an hour or more (especially if something has to be cast to order) to chase down parts. By comparison it takes much less time to fill an order with packaged blisters. A bits picker could fill 1-2 orders per hour, while a packer putting blisters in a box can do ten orders an hour. It's not cost effective for the company. It can actually cost more in wages to fill a bits order than the bits cost, causing a loss in revenue. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cmorse 1141 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 Adding to what Inarah said, Reaper was doing it with metal castings. That means every part of the mold that wasn't desirable as a bits purchase could just get melted down and recast. In the case of plastic sprues the less desirable parts go in the trash. A couple more examples in recent years. Asmodee no longer offers replacement parts to board games citing the labor cost of organising the parts. Miniature Market has just announced an end to sell Magic singles, again citing the labor cost of opening and sorting packs of cards. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
haldir 46026 Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 3 hours ago, cmorse said: Adding to what Inarah said, Reaper was doing it with metal castings. That means every part of the mold that wasn't desirable as a bits purchase could just get melted down and recast. In the case of plastic sprues the less desirable parts go in the trash. A couple more examples in recent years. Asmodee no longer offers replacement parts to board games citing the labor cost of organising the parts. Miniature Market has just announced an end to sell Magic singles, again citing the labor cost of opening and sorting packs of cards. Which to be honest is kinda baffling, as most people I know these days, pick up singles vs pack opening (after initial box purchasing). Single sales are always in demand at my FLGS & the card shop in town. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Great Khan Artist 2029 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 The Sentry Box in Calgary used to open boxes and sell sprues. GW did not approve. The staff claims this is why the sprues are not just of horses or men, but mixed so they couldn't do this anymore. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cmorse 1141 Posted February 17 Report Share Posted February 17 (edited) 1 hour ago, haldir said: Which to be honest is kinda baffling, as most people I know these days, pick up singles vs pack opening (after initial box purchasing). Single sales are always in demand at my FLGS & the card shop in town. Here's what they have to say on the subject "We are removing MTG singles from our website for two reasons. First, board games and miniatures are more profitable. The profitability on MTG singles has gone way down over the past 24 months. Second, MTG singles is a giant labor drain. We are having a hard time hiring enough workers and when it takes an insane amount of labor to pull, pack and buy singles it just isn't worth it. I could use those employees in a much more profitable way somewhere else in the company." I think it's noteworthy that they said 24 months. That means this isn't strictly a covid thing. Edited February 17 by cmorse 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
izzylobo 3101 Posted February 18 Report Share Posted February 18 2 hours ago, haldir said: Which to be honest is kinda baffling, as most people I know these days, pick up singles vs pack opening (after initial box purchasing). Single sales are always in demand at my FLGS & the card shop in town. Given the number of other sources for singles out there - including stores that specialize in the MtG singles market - my guess is that for a high-volume, low-overhead retailer like Miniature Market, the costs of shucking singles are just too prohibitive (and it's a non-trivial process - even if not buying collections, just going pack-to-sleeve, you have a lot of people-hours involved. And given the massive pivot in recent months (not just COVID related) to the online card game environment (more Arena than MTGO, at this point), I can certainly see the market as a whole starting to contract, even as prices go upwards in some formats. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brianuk 4636 Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 The Mortal Realms magazine is being launched in France so there should be a chance to get OPs Haldir's original bit/sprue. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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