Monday, February 25, 2008

The Price of Paint

Price Increases: Several publishers and manufacturers have announced price increases lately, but none has me more concerned than Vallejo. My main distributor uses an importer that gets Vallejo products from the company in Spain. The dollar de-valuation has made anything from Europe much more expensive. Vallejo paints are no exception, and it looks like they'll be going up to $4/bottle from $3.29. They may be good, but they're not that good. Vallejo paints are already slow in the store, with Citadel paints dominating sales. I probably sell five times more Citadel than Vallejo and being 25% more expensive won't help Vallejo catch up.

I may need to drop some Vallejo lines, especially Game Color, which was designed to emulate Citadel colors. Right now I'm letting my Vallejo stock dwindle down to a bottle of each color (Citadel is never allowed below 3!). I'll be talking with my Game Color customers and asking their opinions.

2 comments:

  1. One advantage to Game Color is that they don't drop colors. The line started out as a straight clone of Citadel's line, but as Citadel has cycled out old colors and cycled in new ones, Vallejo simply adds the new ones without dropping the old ones. That means if you started your army with a color that Citadel no longer carries, then you can at least get the Game Color version.

    That's a long way of saying that if you have to cut back on Game Color, then I'd cut back on the clones of the current Citadel line, but keep the ones that match out of production Citadel paints.

    Of course, if I was still there I'd simply thump you on the head and tell you that your customers are idiots for buying Citadel instead of Vallejo in the first place. Then I'd browbeat you into continuing to carry the full line of Vallejo paints just so they'd be available for me!

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  2. I have to agree with what's said above. Except for the thumping and browbeating. IMHO Vallejo is worth the $4.00. They are that good. If it wasn't for the Citadel metallics and the spray primer, I wouldn't have any. And the spray primer isn't what it used to be.

    In the same vein as your previous post on consistency:
    I once had the local shop owner try to talk me up on using Citadel instead since that was what he had. He tried telling me that the pics that are on the Confrontation blisters look chalky to him. ????
    This is also the shop owner that gives excuses when I ask for particular lines they don't carry instead of taking a special order. I understand you can't carry everything. I'm just trying to work with him to bring in some business. I no longer bother to ask.
    Needless to say, I get Vallejos online or when I get to Sacramento.

    I'd support my local shop if they would get in what I want.

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