Getting a full set is unreasonable

[Holy Bovine]

Welcome to the rip-off. By selling these as "collectable" WotC gets folks to fork over a whole lot more money than they would if they could buy the ones they want. In the near future, Reaper will begin selling prepainted minis, NON-collectable. See what you are buying. If it does well, then it will prove WotC was wrong (or lying) when they said that it couldn't be done...

Since Wotc is holding that gun to everyone's head forcing them to buy their product. Damn those evil bastards! :fist:

 

[Meloncov]

I was wondering if WotC explained why the price of boosters went up from 9.99 to 14.99. I will say at $9.99 it was a good deal, I think about $1.25 a figure...but now there at almost $2.00 a figure(that ain't so hot for random minis in my book). Just wondering if there was ever an explanation given for the increase, and will they be going up anymore?

Same reason why the 3.0 PHB started at $20 and increased to $30. They started the line with low prices, hoping to attract people at the cost of their immediate profit margins. Now that they have developed their market, they've increased the prices as much as the market will bear.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Part of the problem is that a lot of people feel they need to collect the whole set -- why bother? Having all 60 figures is rarely necessary for your games.

Ditto.

Most of the time I just want the monsters. I've got hundreds, if not thousands of miniatures to represent characters.

 

[Imaro]

Since Wotc is holding that gun to everyone's head forcing them to buy their product. Damn those evil bastards! :fist:

Why is it that criticism of business practices, one may not like, is always met with this answer? So you should just take whatever anyone gives you and not have a right to voice dissatisfaction as a consumer? The problem with this reasoning is, until Reaper and Rackham make there's available, thiis is a market where there isn't a viable alternative. Now when non-random's are finally released, and people still make the same complaints, then I can understand it.

D&D is a very mini-centric game, and until the companies mentioned above, release their products most gamers don't have a viable alternative. Yeah you can play without minis, but I wonder how much harder it makes the game for new people just starting? Personally I was willing to accept the randomness...but the five dollar increase has really pushed me away...it use to be 24 minis for the price of a book(I could deal with that), but 16 for the price of a hardcover (and they're random) is kinda pushing it for me. I haven't bought any DDM since Reaper made their announcement, I'm willing to give their product a chance to develop and grow...just like DDM did, before making my final decision on where my future minis will come from. I have enough skeletons, orcs, etc. but I will purchase a few of these because I want to give this product a chance...the minotaur, ogre and troll are no brainers, since I don't have any of them.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Trying to get full sets by just buying cases is virtually hopeless. If you're lucky, you'll get a full set after three cases (or even two if you get a perfect distribution). But it is just as possible that you buy 5 cases and still miss some rares.

There's several ways to go about this: You either buy 2-3 cases and get the missing rares on the secondary market (or by trading), or you just go to ebay and get a full set. You can get a set of 60 (one of each) or one with extra commons and uncommons. For night below, I just got a deal with 1 of each Rare, 3 of each Uncommon and 8 of each Common (just like two cases with perfect distribution).

Still, for the cost of a case of minis, I could buy a bunch of gaming books that I would actually use. Out of a case like that, I would likely have about a dozen minis I would actually use, and then I would need to keep up with it by buying into the next set to get minis to go with them.

If you only need a few minis, cases aren't for you. Get those minis you want. Ebay provides. And Reaper's new line was also mentioned here.

When I have a spare $16 I'd rather buying a couple metal minis and a paint bottle or two.

That's fine if you have the talent as well as the time.

I enjoy painting minis occasionally, and they look passable, but I don't have the time to paint dozens of them, and I don't really want to paint that many.

I was wondering if WotC explained why the price of boosters went up from 9.99 to 14.99.

Probably along the lines of "we want more money".

Note that you can usually get them for less than that. In fact, if you buy by the case, you can get current minis for significantly less than the original price. Iconusa, for example, sells night below packs for $9.49. And if you buy 36 boosters, each will cost $8.49. And that isn't necessarily the best deal out there, just the first U.S. shop I remembered.

 

[Particle_Man]

The problem with this reasoning is, until Reaper and Rackham make there's available, thiis is a market where there isn't a viable alternative.

Of course there is. If you don't have the mind flayer miniature, you use the "Evil Human Wizard" miniature and say it's a mind flayer.

 

[Imaro]

Of course there is. If you don't have the mind flayer miniature, you use the "Evil Human Wizard" miniature and say it's a mind flayer.

You still bought a mini though. And yeah, with DDM's random model(as well as the pricing of Mind Flayers on the secondary market) this is exactly what I'll be doing. Though I heard Reaper is suppose to be releasing their own version of a mind flayer. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

You still bought a mini though. And yeah, with DDM's random model(as well as the pricing of Mind Flayers on the secondary market) this is exactly what I'll be doing. Though I heard Reaper is suppose to be releasing their own version of a mind flayer. Keeping my fingers crossed.

They already have (for several years in Metal at least).

They call them Bathlions (I think). Very Illithid like. The most recent one to come out was an Undead Version Last Year or early this year.

I don't buy Random (Burned waaaaayyyyy too many times in my Magic Playing days). Unless EVERY SINGLE rare is a Mini I REALLY want, I skip it.

As for why WotC does Random. I makes a lot of sense from a Stock-Keeping Point of View.

There have been what, a Dozen or so different Bar Codes Total for the D&D Miniatures Games so far? Only have to keep track of Inventory for a handful of items at a time.

Compare that to Reaper who has hundreds if not thousands of individual Units they have to track on a daily basis.

For a big company that would be a lot of overhead, plus all sort of headaches trying to get a system in place that worked well.

 

[Glyfair]

Practice, practice, practice!

Wow, the 30 years I've been practicing isn't enough (having a very shakey hand doesn't help)

Besides, it's not really worth the time when I can get pre-painted miniatures. IMO, having self-painted miniatures is overrated. That doesn't mean that it's not cool, a great hobby, etc. But the people who go around deriding others for not having self-painted miniatures are hurting the hobby. What's worse is they are often the ones teaching the new painters, and putting that attitude into them (I've seen 12 year olds running around talking about how "pathetic" those using prepainted miniatures are).

Honestly, for most of my gaming career I've used miniatures. However, only a small minority were ever painted.

For a big company that would be a lot of overhead, plus all sort of headaches trying to get a system in place that worked well.

In fact, the issue isn't as much the big companies, but the small retailer. Miniatures are only a fraction of their sales in many hobby game stores (with the possible exception of one or two war game companies, but the popularity is tied to using them in the wargame). Having to spend a disproportionate amount of time tracking their inventory, restocking what's popular, letting what isn't sell out, isn't enticing.

Having only a few items to track makes things much easier. In fact, I know of several cases where game companies offered more options for their product and retailers asked them for less (even one) option.

 

[Glyfair]

I was wondering if WotC explained why the price of boosters went up from 9.99 to 14.99. I will say at $9.99 it was a good deal, I think about $1.25 a figure...but now there at almost $2.00 a figure(that ain't so hot for random minis in my book). Just wondering if there was ever an explanation given for the increase, and will they be going up anymore?

They haven't explained, but there are several obvious factors that have been building for a while. China's economy has been building, and they have even been taking steps to slow down inflation so it doesn't go out of control. Costs are increasing in the spot where the production takes place at a fast pace, that means prices will increase.

Also oil prices are a factor since that affects the material costs and the transportation costs.