GW Price Increase

It's been confirmed by a number of sources.  I still haven't seen or heard anything directly from GW.  Here's a link to Dark Sphere's site, which contains a list of new prices in pounds:

http://www.darksphere.co.uk/index.php

As my description here says, I've been an intermittent 40K enthusiast over the years.  I've always liked the lore of the 40k setting, but I've rarely painted or played for more than a month here or a month there.  I'm not sure what GW's reasons are, but it seems to me that hiking the prices yearly means that the hike(s) isn't due to the current state of the economy or any particular event, but rather to general inflation as Kim suggests.  That may be the case.  I'm not an economist.  But as a layman, I know that the economy is going through a questionable period and that, on the ground level, many previously employed people are without jobs or are working at reduced incomes.  With this in mind, I'm not sure how GW justifies a price increase.  Perhaps they can, though.  Given their reputation with their customers and retailers, however, I tend to believe that they aren't generally concerned with the financial condition of each individual consumer.  All I know is that the Assault on Black Reach boxed set released at a price of $50.00 here in the US and now it's up to $75.00.  Neither the quality or the quantity of the product has changed.  If this is going to be the trend, many would-be loyal customers like myself will be forced to leave the GW hobby behind.

That being said,  at this point I'm not going to jump on the table and shout my discontent.  I'll make a few more purchases before the hike and then be at peace with what I have for a while, at least until I get it all painted.  After that, who can tell?  By the comments and conversations on various other blogs and forums, though, the general response seems to be one of malcontent among us with many people looking to other game systems, such as Warmachine, or other sources for miniatures, such as Wargames Factory   (I've seen one post that mentioned the price hike won't affect North America, but it's unconfirmed). 

If anyone has any more information on the hike and GW's reasons behind it, I'd be very interested in hearing about it...

So, enough with the doom and gloom.  I'm excited to say I'll be making a couple of purchases before the hike - a predator and a whirlwind at least - this weekend.  I may do more.  We'll see.  I'm also thinking about purchasing a simple airbrush for primer'ing and basecoating quickly and evenly.  I already have the compressor.  I'll let you know.  Once I've decided and have started painting, you'll see the works in progress here.

Until then,
Sean