Author Topic: Goodbye to the old  (Read 1357 times)

RuleBritannia

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Goodbye to the old
« on: December 29, 2019, 04:03:49 pm »
Warcradle is closing down its classics range shortly, leaving only their designs.  https://community.warcradle.com/topic/22186-warcradle-classics/?do=findComment&comment=370484

Covertwalrus

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2020, 04:22:21 pm »

 Hmmm. . . . Who was it who said that slling off the most desirable items like the KS League Of Crimson stuff for GBP1.00 each could be a precursor to an announcement that the line was being closed down, "Sicne it isn't making enough money"?  ;D


 Still, pretty predictable. But I note it's contingent on the release of 3.0 - Wonder if that means Firestorm Armada and Planetfall players wil get a longer period of grace?

Rich1231

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2020, 04:32:03 pm »
Nope, no conspiracy that was just a pricing error on a spreadsheet.


RuleBritannia

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2020, 04:21:28 am »
So warcradle's incompetence led to them losing money therefore the range is unprofitable?  That doesn't sound great for the longevity of the range if that is the vision going foward.

Rich1231

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2020, 06:21:01 am »
Danny, you can't help yourself can you.

Covertwalrus

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2020, 11:52:44 pm »
Quote
Danny, you can't help yourself can you.

Well. I did come here to say RuleBritannia's comment was very poorly worded, and could be interpreted as rudeness.

Then this above came from the supposedly professional head of a million-pound sterling operation. I expect remarks based on personality to come from underlings in large companies ( As the whole "Anyone who dislikes our direction of product line must have severe mental issues" style remarks, which I know have come from Wayland/Warcradle staff ), neverthless the top management is expected to perform to a higher standard surely. Rich1231, did they not teach you the old adage at school " Play the ball, not the man/player"? Especially when you may well  consider that person to be some doolalay stig? One wonders if you went to one of those dreadful Incomprehensives instead of a decent place :D

 However, that behaviour aside, I find it very odd you shoudl be so flippant about such a grevious pricing error; Suppose that had happened on your Age of Sigmar listing online- Would you still be so sanguine about it? Even if the Warcradle Classic line isn't a huge seller, you've lost some large amount of money on the deal - For one trivial example, the Kingdom of Britannia Peregrine dive bombers, one of the items that went up in that infamous GBP1.00 lot, would probably have fetched about the price of a Merlin each ( GBP 2.80). Now, I didn't take a screen shot of the catalog at that point, but if memory serves me well, there were about 12 units available of this item; So, if my maths is correct, instead of receiving GBP 33.60 ( Yes, I know that's not all profit, what with VAT, etc - bear with me ) the total loss of the sellout ( And they DID sell out, did they not? ) was 33.60 minus 12.00 or GBP 21.60.
 Maybe that's a mere bagatelle of loss for a company the size of Wayland, however, it has been my experience that the larger the company, the more closely they look at even the smallest losses. So, you'll forgive me if I find your statement a bit rum from that point of view.

 And from another point of view - How would such an error even occur in what is constantly being described as "The leading mail order games company in Europe"? My own business requires that all client reports are checked twice - Manually on written sheets, and again on the computer when being transcribed - before being passed on to clients. Errors are caught at those stages and corrected. And should a major error occur after all that, well . . . A written warning would be pretty much automatic for the person responsible. Not a flippant "Oh Dear how sad never mind" approach as seems to be here.
  In either event, the system there looks to be lacking in the level of quailty control and quality assurance that the plethora of excellent reviews on the web would suggest.

 As to the popularity or otherwise of the Warcradle Classics, there are some other issues I woudl raise, while I have your ear, Rich1231. I'll preamble them with recorded facts then ask each -

 1. The releases of each wave of reissued models was announced all over the web in 2018, and with much fanfare. However, this was true only until November 2018 with Wave VIII, after which the only way to find what was newly up was to go to the store itself; At that point, there were about 170 Dystopian Wars products*. There are currently some 353 products "available to order" - Not all of which are in stock - on the website now, meaning fractionally under half the items produced and available were advertised publically. ( I won;t count the ones that have been removed or have sold out, I have no accurate figures). QUESTION ONE; Why stop advertising when new items were still coming on line to be sold? One could say "Good money after bad" but one can counter with "Recoup losses with a small effort" since web advertising is a relatively minor cost.

 2. The majority of the GBP1.00 miniatures were highly sought-after items in the main - Mostly Kickstarter items; The Peregrine as mentioned, the last Covenent of Antarctica items including the Menedalus repair vessel ( Which I know a person paid the equivalent of GBP151.00 for not two weeks earlier on eBay, and that was not a high price according to WorthPoint.com ), and a slew of rare items like two of the larger Republic Of Egypt vessels, having which makes the still-available escorts finally worth purchasing. Beofre the Facebook fan pages were purged saved from negativity, the pricing of the Classics was much discussed - Both which items had gone down in price compared to Sp*rt*n and which increased;  There's an old joke about the divorced wife who sells her ex-husband's car for a ridiculously small cost, because the money is going to him; It's practically a legend. So QUESTION TWO; From an outside standpoint, and bearing in mind the earlier details can be found on the web about the value of these models, would an unbiased observer not question whether something odd is happening?

 That's all I have to say on the matter for the nonce.

*And while with the launch of New Improved DW 3.0 certainly justifies dumping the older models if such be the intention, will the Firestorm:Aramada classics get the same treatment at the same time, despite the fact that your announcement recently suggests it could be several years before replacement miniatures and new rules see the light for that?

 
« Last Edit: January 08, 2020, 01:58:33 am by Covertwalrus »

Rich1231

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2020, 05:33:00 am »
It really was just an error. Part of the calculation we used for classics pricing had not been used for a couple of batches.  It really isn't some conspiracy to reduce the value of products or Hur them in any way. It happens so often then that something we have given a clear response to is then twisted by a small group to their agenda.

Also your remarks about my comments.  Every remark I or one of my staff make is met with derision and hostility from a small group and it is a distraction. We havnt purged Facebook and such remarks are such a daft reaction to having members of groups to behave. We don't delete negative opinions despite what you imply.   In any case this is my last post here.

RuleBritannia

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2020, 03:32:03 pm »
I mean I find it very hard to believe that since critical but ultimately positive early comments have been removed and offers of help rejected, and critics called mentally ill.  Its just a very odd thing that there is no desire to carry on the legacy of Spartan which would have been so helpful, even if it was more of a Ravening Hordes kind of thing, along with not deliberately and proactively changing scale of a game to make cross pollination impossible.  Its just such a weird thing to do to people who were early on so keen to get involved and make a success of 3.0. 

The other thing is a weird passivity on warcradle's part especially in describing things.  For example Rich himself has described the problem for classics sales as the long time gap between the fall of Spartan and the release of the Classics range as if it was some naturally occurring thing and not his responsibility as the boss of a multi million pound company responsible. 

Sebenko

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Re: Goodbye to the old
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2020, 04:13:29 pm »
We don't delete negative opinions despite what you imply.

Pull the other one mate.