How does everyone see the monetary shakeout of the new retirement policy?

I spend about $250 on each new expansion. Its easy to justify this expense in the current, anything goes environment. Pieces retain some value and it is easy to trade or sell them. I could count on recouping a good portion of the $250 if I wanted to.

Now pieces will depreciate tremendously in value over a short period of time. How can anyone justify such large expenditures with little chance to recoup any of their money? Why would I want hundreds or thousands of pieces that I can't use?

It takes a decent amount of money to stay competative. For me, the $250 works out well. Some guys can do it for less. Without access to older units, this number may go up. And now, the return on investment will be alot less.

The way I see it shaping up:

Spend more money and end up with worthless plastic when its all said and done.

Not a good economic model.

Thats about what I see. Sure you can be good for a while with the set that just came out and not go completly broke, but when the new rotation kicks in youll have to start all over again collecting for competitive play. I see how this could help a new player because it does make even the pool of units you can pull from but the mister suitcase of the area will mostlikly win in a situation like this.

Also as the sets get rotated you wont be as able to find some way to get any money back from the stuff that is being "retired" to help having to get the new stuff. That is somthing that can really make a new or young player quit because his mom and dad wont or cant give him $300 or $400 each time a new set comes out.

Just my 2 cents. ;)

I dunno...having lived through the Magic "civilization is collapsing" changeover to Type II rules, I just can't get worried about this.

First off, I play four times (easily) as many fun games as tournament games. So, for most of my play, it's irrelevant.

Then it occurs to me, if I bring stupidly unbalanced units/tactics to a fun game (eg, most artillery, tank drop), I get sneered at...the only time I can play those units/tactics are in tournament games (and because they degenerate the battlefield so, I tend to play more fun games where we don't use the things...and hey, I get to bring multiple mech armies to fun games, too).

Even if earlier expansion are outlawed, it makes no difference for fun games. And, even it happens, it'll happen years from now (and hey, civilization may collapse from the oil bust by then, right? ;) ), and will probably only affect one expansion at a time.

Big deal. Evenrything I have (that's fun to play with) I can use right now, everything I have I can use a year from now, everything I have I can use 2 years from now when I just want to have fun. In a few years, if I still want to play tournament competitive, I'll have to keep buying boosters.

I'll just cross that ol' bridge when I come to it, and I really most folks are panicking over losing paper losses (and my offer to buy at 5% of last month's market value still stands...why isn't anyone taking me up?).

Take care,

Rick

I know that I will buy less boosters- probably a third or a quarter of what I would have spent before. with the virtual demise of WK supported unrestricted events that would mean only being able to play my current figures in fun games.

If I play primarily fun games then I don't need to buy any more boosters- I have several SS/ROTS boosters that have yet to see the light of day- I don't need to buy any more boosters to have enough figures to play with.

So I will buy less WK product.It would be cruelly ironic if a proposal designed to increase sales and hence profits had in fact the completely opposite effect.

:(

James

I feel your pain, folks. In CA I bought $300 worth (1 case). I pulled 9 uniques, 2 SSA4s and 2 SH Aesirs. I could easily get my money back - right now - if I wanted to.

And that will always be the case. You just won't be able to do that 2 years down the road. But that's like most collectables.

I used to do football cards. I spent $500 - $1000 / season on them. The rookies were short printed and they were sky-high in value. If I wanted to, I could sell them and recoup most or all of my investment. But 2 years later - no way. The rookies were either so-so players or they were great ones. The cards of the great ones would increase in value, but the others were not worth much at all.

That is the nature of collectibles. Only a small percentage retain any serious value over time.

Not a good model for the CONSUMER. but a FABULOUS model for WK. ... but this was not a financial decision...... <coughLIARScough>

I don't care about the monetary value, I care about the utility of my pieces.

One thing to point out: I remember when the uniques from DA were all going for $25 to $35 each. Go back two weeks and look at the prices for said pieces. They are down to less than $10. Look at all of the DA LEs. Same thing. These figures only roughly hold their value for about 1 more expansion before they start dropping off. Even LEs today hold their value until the envoys get their envoy rewards the following month that includes many of the same prizes.

Looking at the long picture here: we are to expect roughly 2 expansions a year. If one spends $250 (since I've now read several people giving this rough cost) per expansion that is only roughly $500 a year. Lets round that up to $600 just to make the numbers work easier and account for sets only being 5 months apart rather than 6. We are only talking $50 a month for this game.

I think back to college and how much money I spent in the bar with no long term gain (other than a pickled liver;) ) and realize that this game is not terribly expensive compared to the alternatives that I have done in the past. Factor in how many hours you play a month and it easily comes out to half the price per hour than going to a movie.

I think a lot of people who are very concerned about this are still thinking about the breakneck pace of the expansions from last year.

Good point, cavingjan.

For me, it breaks down to about $2/hr. That's strictly playing time, not time in between games at a tournie (which is entertaining itself).

I enjoy playing this game! It's worth it to me. 'Collectible' simply means I have to buy boosters, trade or buy on Ebay any peices that I really want. It does not mean there is ANY value to them whatsoever.

I know some will quit. But none who love the game as much as I do will. So, there will still be players. And there will still be games. And, there might be some good deals on Ebay!