The Last Bit of Christmas Cheer

Of all of the gratuitous pictures of Durham Red I've managed to fit into my posts, this one is probably the best for summing up what's going to happen to our hobby in the UK at midnight tonight.

That's right, the VAT Vampire is going to bite right into your wallet and suck out even more of your hard earned cash. VAT for those of you who don't know is Value Added Tax; is set by the UK Government and is added to almost everything. Currently sitting at 17.5% in the £1, at midnight it rises to 20%. So who pays it? You the customer. Whilst there may be the odd business or two out there who will take the 2.5% hit; there will be many who won't.

This means, in simple terms, the cost of gaming in the UK is going to go up.

Now 2.5% doesn't seem a lot in the grand scheme of things. For example a box of Tactical Space Marines on GW's site is currently selling for £22.50. Of this price £3.35 currently goes to the Government as VAT. At midnight, however, this will rise to £3.83 or an extra 48p. Total cost for the Box of Marines rises to £22.98. This is, of course, assuming that GW will pass the VAT increase onto you.

In itself, this isn't a massive rise; however, when added to all the extra 48 pennies that are added to things like fast food, insurance, bus fares etc. it means that there is a lot less in your pocket to spend on building up that army of yours.

The only way around it, as I'm sure most of you already do, is to buy your gaming supplies from online stores. Wayland Games currently sells their Tactical Squad for £18.45, that's £4.10 cheaper than GW, and have a sign on their site saying that until the loyalty scheme is fixed that they will hold off on applying the VAT rise. The VAT they apply to their Tactical Squad at the moment runs at £2.75 and, when they do apply the rise it should come in at around £3.14; a rise of 39p or a total cost of £18.84.

That's a massive £4.14 cheaper than GW.

Now, I'd like to point out that I'm not in any way shape or form endorsing Wayland Games, they're not the cheapest out there for UK Gamers.

What I am highlighting are sites like Mega Minis. Price comparison sites for Warhammer Fantasy and 40K that allow you to quickly compare the costs of your models from different suppliers. It may be that you've got into the habit of automatically going to your favourite online store to buy things, and have forgotten that perhaps it may be just a bit cheaper elsewhere. If you're rich enough not to worry, then I salute you; however, for us mere mortals, shop around for those 40k bargains and keep the VAT vampire as far away from your wallet as possible.

Guaranteed it ain't as pretty as DR.