A question about product availability...

[ClavainRS 33]

Howdy folks!  I lurk here more often than I post, but I can see that most of you are genius level nerds who may be able to assist me with a question that has been frustrating me for months now.

 

I joined the X-Wing craze back when it launched. However, being an older nerd with older nerd friend gamer's, when I first invested in the game I didn't really have anyone to play with.  Even looking at the gaming community in my local area there weren't many groups playing it.

 

So being a somewhat responsible grown up I chose not to buy too much past what I had purchased initially.  Then of course, the inevitable occurs, my grown up nerd friends see my models sitting about ask what's up with them, and in a fit of boredom, ask to play.

 

Then I have five people who want to shoot space ships on a 3x3 board.

 

Problem: For months now many of the fighters have been unavailable, and although I have researched as stringently as possible, I have found no answer to when some of these ships may resurface.

 

I'm dying to get a Falcon, a Firespray, some more TIE Bomber's.  Is there any word on when some of these older ships will be released again? Or am I pretty much SOL.

 

Thank you in advance, and MTFBWY all.

[Forgottenlore 9,823]

If you click the "upcoming" link at the top of the page and then apply the filter for miniatures you can see the current status of the various expansions, whether they are being reprinted, are on the boat heading for FFG, whatever. There is a key on the right side of that page explaining what the icons mean and estimated time a product stays in each category.

"The boat" that these things get shipped on is notoriously slow however and is frequently late.

That is all the hard data anyone has.

[ClavainRS 33]

I feared that might be true.  Thank you Forgotten.

[Forgottenlore 9,823]

For what it's worth, several of the things that have been missing forever have been "on the boat" for a while now and should be getting back in stores relatively soon.

I hope.

[Gadge 4,294]

Also just keep looking.  stuff is usually still there on the smaller shops out in the sticks.

 

Until *very* recently everything was available at sensible rates on ebay.

 

Try ebay in other countries and ask the seller about shipping.

 

I've found ebay uk only very very recently stopped having b wings for the normal price, ditto falcons.

 

You will see chancers and opportunists pushing them out at double what they are worth but its important *not* to buy them at this amount and wait for release or all we do is artiificially inflate the price of game components.

 

I've seen this happen in retro 40k circles.    Old space dwarfs (squats) are not 'common' but they are not super rare either.   A normal trooper model is about £5 but some really really shifty traders put them on at £20 BIN 'look super rare' prices (they also have eight of the same model so hes not that rare eh?) but that means that other sellers see it and think 'thats what a squat is worth' so ramp their prices up.   Then home sellers and collectors and just guys getting rid of stuff put their old model on at a starting bid of £10 as they think the real BIN is £20.

 

And now we have a situation where there are tons of squat models about but most people list them at stupid prices so they never sell.  The people that do shop around have to wait a bit but still get them for £3 to £5 (i've an army of over 100 of thm bought off ebay at an average price of £2 each) while a load of greedy traders sit on piles of them they will never sell.

[OuterRimJob 38]

I recomend taking a trip to your local Barnes & Noble. I picked up a Falcon about two weeks ago at a B&N. They also had a Slave I on the shelf in addition to 3 A-Wings, an Interceptor, and 2 B-Wings. Ironically I was looking to pick up a third Defender and they were out of stock... go figure.

[Gadge 4,294]

Defenders, phantoms and ewings seem to be piled up to the roof in UK stores.  I dont think the EU stuff really has as big an appeal in the UK as it does in the US.

 

I think if you're playing in a 'competetive environment' and organised play is your thing they are strong ships or have strong cards with them so you tend to pick up at least one for the cards (i picked up one of each for completeness) but i dont think they appeal to the casual player.

 

Put it this way if you dont read up on the game online and know how lethal echo can be then its just a wierd ship you never saw in a film to most people when they see the phantom.