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[Gotthammer]

First, really appreciate the thoughtful response. This is the kind of dialogue that is important to have on these forums, IMO.

Thanks, I don't think the crazy rhetoric does anyone any favours.

I have to think the public vs. private nature of these companies makes a difference. I don't know for certain, but it's possible that, due to their size (significantly smaller) there is flexibility with their pricing.

Yes, while it certainly would be harder for GW to change their pricing, being a (comparatively) huge multi-national, the exchange rate they're working on (assuming a direct exchange, not taking into account tarrifs etc) is quite literally from last century.
Aside from a spike in October 2008 at the height of the GFC, the Pound has been declining against the dollar at a steady rate since 2007. This has meant an average rate of around $2.30 to the pound, which is about what we're paying now. But it hasn't been above that since December 08, I think two and a half years is enough time to do at least some adjustment.

I'm not even advocating parity here - a 20% drop in prices would take a lot of pressure off and restore some sense of fairness to it.

I actually had heavy participation in a thread about this very subject. The problem lies in the difference in the size of the game; its a trickier proposition to build a "play out of the box" starter for 40k than it is for Privateer's games. The GW starter boxes would also have a much greater impact on other GW product sales than it does for Privateer.

It is comparing apples and oranges a bit (or rockmellons and watermellons perhaps) and there are a lot more factors than are relevant to the discussion here. But from a purely financial standpoint, if someone with little to no miniature/gaming experience wants to start a game and the options are $50 or $150 one is immediately more attractive. As was discussed in Skragger's thread on the subject, balancing them with the current bigger game oriented ruleset is much harder too.

I will admit bias in this as I started mini painting when my brother and I were each given a set of Rafm AD&D minis ([URL="http://www.frothersunite.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13803&sid=3752c696e5506d752af21599 3e9bd659"]best pic I could find[/URL]) and one of the nine-pot citadel paint sets. The boxes came with stats and background for each of the minis, some maps and part of the adventure (so you needed to buy all the boxes to get the whole thing!). Now, at the time I was around seven, so it was somewhat incomprehensible, but I could understand the groups, their story and the quest and being weird managed to figure out roughly how AD&D worked without loking at the rulebook...
I could also paint seven dudes and be proud of finishing them in a reasonable time (still got them too!).

With that in mind, when I look at the WM starter box I see something very similar - a starter into the hobby, not just the game - while Black Reach is more a starter into 40k than miniature painting, collecting and gaming (there's next to no background in the box!). It just seems so much to lay on a new player at once to me, but again, it's possibly just personal preference.
Now, I haven't seen inside the PP kits, and they probably don't have much in the way of background, but if the minis are cool enough when has that ever stopped anyone (I had around seventy or so Zoids before I knew of any official story)?

This is intersting to me: do you suppose as many international customers would order from Wayland/Maelstrom/etc if they didn't offer free shipping?

I doubt it, but it is hard to say. The one thing about local indie suppliers is they almost invariably have terrible webstores - hard to navigate, hard to tell what is and isn't in stock (and when it will be again) and odd selections of what you want. With that in mind the lazy (or nightworkers like me who can't really get to stores much) may still shop overseas to get what they want at once rather than piecemeal.
Maybe it's just been my bad luck, but the indie wargaming stores (as opposed to nerd stores that sell wargames) have all been rather dire places to deal with.

[Freefall945]

I had heard some time ago they were setting up a manufacturing facility in Australia, and there was much rejoicing. It was at that point that all of the arm flapping and wailing associated with the GFC began, and such a noble expansion became a laughably risky prospect. Better to clutch their gilt treasure to their chests and hiss angrilly at even the most well meaning passer by than scatter it around them in the hope of attracting friends, then starving for lack of wealth. I must imagine their products are freighted here.

I must also imagine the vessel they are freighted here in is a jet black barge with twisting spires jutting skyward from its spine, each emblazoned with the livery and embossed likeness of a different imperial saint who perished in some seaborn conflict. Upon its prow is a bust of the noble Dominica - it is her radiant likeness which parks the demon-fog which guards this cursed island and allows the precious cargo to be delivered without tampering by unnatural aggressors.

When it is docked, anchored by the few remaining magnetic calipers still functional and rope braided from lion hair where these are insufficient, a silver gangplank descends, its ribs and bolts rubbed into smooth lumps from innumerable feet. In the highest spire, a bell sounds twice, and then stops. At the third tone, much later, the ship will depart into the mists again.

From the plank now come teams of shuffling, hunched men, backs irreparably curved by their burdensome toil. Their skin is tattooed with slip-shod blessings and rites as though the author no long believed they really protected. Their gate is slow and unsteady, calloused feet pawing at the deck before them before each step. They are blind, it seems - but it is more sinister still. The scars around their hollow sockets cry of surgical intrusion - they are not just blind, but blinded for this holy task.

The work takes six hours to unload thirteen crates of aquila stamped cargo at their crippled, but blessed pace. The dock workers stand at a fearful distance, allowing the shambling seamen to take the thirteen crates of freshly minted golden dolleridoos in their place, before retracting slowly in their ghastly procession into the ship like a fat serpent withdrawing its tongue.

The bell tolls a third time. The ship is gone. The crates remain.

Blessed is the Emperor who provideth such things by his righteous conveyance. All glory and wealth to him.

[Gir]

Where do the models sold down under come from? Are they manfactured out there? Or are they, as I suspect, manufactured in the UK and then shipped out there? If so then it is perfectly reasonable that Ozzie customers pay more as GW will have to pay export tax to get them out of the EU, substantial shipping costs to fly/ship them halfway across the world and then import tax to get them into Oz. Which probably explains why I don't pay the same as you when the models are made a half hour drive away from me.

Not sure out EU export tax, but AU import tax is 10% (GST) + 0% tariff. Actual shipping costs a negligible (As stated earlier/another thread, a car is only $3k to ship). Hell, Maelstrom can not only afford to ship to Australia for free, but offers a 10% discount as well.

Your arguments seem logical, until you actually look at them in depth.