Yoymart

Brothers,
Just wanted to find out if any of you have had any experience ordering Forge World and/or GW stuff from Yoymart.com. Some gaming buddies mentioned it to me and from my initial research, you can get FW and GW stuff at roughly b/w 40-50% off. According to some friends who've received their orders, the quality is just as good if not better.

I'm pretty sure there's copyright violations being done but looks like China doesn't care.

Thoughts?

I have heard that it is okay.
Someone on this site has used them I think. I can't remember who though.

Are you thinking about picking some stuff up?

They have really awesome prices for certain FW models. I was just concerned about the quality. China is notorious for not adhering to safety and environmental concerns so I'm even wondering if they use lead in their resin.

If their details are actually up to par or better than FW, it would be pretty hard to pass up.

WOW! I just looked through the site…...   ……….. IMHO those are the prices that FW should be charging!!!

Yea, they are good and the reviews seem positive where they are present.
I mean we don't know... it's possible the castings for all the FW stuff is made in China and they just make a few extra castings, which they use to make these models.
It wouldn't be hard to make superior copies to what FW makes in this fashion if you were a bit more creative with the resin you used.

I'm tempted to get a Contemptor TBH....

I wouldn't think they would mix lead into their resin, although maybe in the old white metal model they sold its possible.
That being said from what I understand it isn't that dangerous unless you plan on eating it, which hopefully you aren't! Lots of cheaper foodstuffs than 40k!

Well, I test ordered bryarth ashmantle (salamanders character dreadnought). I chose this model because I'm collecting salamanders anyway plus the details are very intricate so I'll be able to gauge their quality.

The price was around 40% lower. They said it can take up to 4 weeks. No worries since I wasn't in a hurry.

The order arrived in less than 2 weeks and the quality was excellent. Other than the different packaging, I couldn't tell it wasn't from FW.

Rivan wrote:Well, I test ordered bryarth ashmantle (salamanders character dreadnought).  I chose this model because I'm collecting salamanders anyway plus the details are very intricate so I'll be able to gauge their quality.

The price was around 40% lower.  They said it can take up to 4 weeks.  No worries since I wasn't in a hurry.

The order arrived in less than 2 weeks and the quality was excellent.  Other than the different packaging, I couldn't tell it wasn't from FW.

WOW!!!!! That is a big deal!!!! Why on earth would you order from FW if this is as good as it seems....... apart from the moral and legal reasons of course      

What are you going to buy with all of the money you saved?   

Eventually completing a Legion-type Salamanders army is definitely tempting when I consider the cost savings if I buy from Yoymart. However, the moral issue is a big one for me. Yes, GW and FW are most definitely raking in a ton of profits, but I imagine myself in their shoes (or the shoes of any business owner) and I know I'd be pissed. People/companies that rip off products (like pirated movies and cd's) definitely hurt any business. But it's like this in any industry. There are knock offs for any merchandise (bags, wallets, watches, electronics, etc).

while i share your feelings on this matter rivan i have to say that GW is one of those companys that charge quiet heavily for their products. they charge more than most sellers. they increase their prices every year even though some of their productioin costs actually became cheaper. the best example are the codices for example. the costs in production and storage fees for a codex is a grand total of around 11$. a codex costs 50$. sure GW had to invest in the prints at first but those pay off real quick in the first 1 or 2 days of a codex release.

other retailers that sell GW stuff get a 30% discount from GW. thats why most retailers dont sell for more than a 20% discount.
GW gives their employes a 50% discount for their products. they have a budget they can spend for each quarter of the year (here in germany for example its 300€ so a GW employe can buy stuff for 600€ at 50% off every 3 months.) and even on those discount sales they still make profit.

so while i do understand that some may have moral issues you may also have to consider how much the stuff you buy from GW is really worth. and while you dont give GW a cent when you buy at yoymart, maybe it will show GW in the future to come to more realistic terms in the pricing of their products.

that or GW will send out their legal team and close yoymart... but well.. there are enough asians who will just jump back into this spot.

It all comes down to whether or not you will be able to sleep at night with your decisions.  

Well, just to appease the GW spies.

Grey knights forums does not endorse any illegal copies of games workshop copyrights. Any and all purchases from such businesses are made by the person and not supported by the grey knights forums site. We will not promote copyright infringement of any sort.

Now with that being said (i hope i got it right, i am crap at legal stuff )

If you ask me, the users of this site is more than free to discuss these sites, but do not advertise them like "Oh man guys, i founds this awesome site. Stop buying from Gw. Aw yiss." That's bad.

What we have here in this thread is a legitimate discussion.

And to reword the word of Notch (creator of minecraft) whom have an interesting view on copyright, i'll add this.

As Rivan mentioned, there will always be fakes and copies.
And Notch had an interesting comment on this.
One person contacted Notch about minecraft, and said that he wanted to buy it but he felt it was to expensive. He wondered if there was a way to trial the game first and later pay when he felt he could afford it.

And Notch's answer was interesting.
"You could just pirate it." Right up front, he said the guy could pirate his game.

His reasoning was that there will always be pirates, people whom have no intention of buyng anything. But then there is the lot of people whom use pirating as a Demo of the game.
The genuinely want to see of they like the game first. And that group actually add up to a few percents of those who pirate games.

And even the people that crack the games so that people can play them pirated often include a disclaimer that urges people to buy software they like.

Of course games and miniatures are not the same thing. It's hard to download a model, and then get a digital copy of it on Steam. Doesn't really work now does it.

But as a few buy from these less than legal sources, most will buy from the real deal.
And those who buy from these sources, are likely to have already purchased one or more rule-books from GW already. And as such GW has already earned money from these people.

So it's far less of a problem than it seems. Especially for famous music producers.
"Oh no, people pirate our stuff, WUAAEEEEHHH" *Dries tears with money.*

So i personally say save a few dollars pounds or crowns by buying stuff like this if you want. GW will probably survive anyway with all the thousands of people buying from them every day.
I would probably buy something myself, if it wasn't that i've quit playing 40k and WFB.

And now people probably think "Ugh, you are just cheap and think it's expensive."
No, that's not the case.
Games workshop figurines and games systems are a luxury product. Much like video games and paintball.
Sure it is expensive, but it is a leisure and a hobby. And as we all know people tend to go overboard on their hobbies.

I stopped because of fluff reasons. They broke their fluff. Simply as that.
I understand why they changed it, but not why they broke it.
Most of the changes are things that could have been done in a good way should the designers have thought a single bit. But money and or speed was more important than quality, so abominations like the necron codex was allowed to be written.

A piece of codex, which goes against the official horus heresy series (which is official fluff) and does so big time.
Mechanicum, i feel your sorrow.

But i digress, i have lost track of what i was doing.

Right, chinese copy markets.
Meh, they are alright. But you shouldn't buy from them since they mostly have poor to zero work environment safety laws.
Find someone who casts stuff at home instead, or do it yourself if you absolutely have to do anything to not buy from GW. But always remember, GW is a luxury product, and they do have a pretty established network of stores which already have the things you want for sale.
The slight increase in price might be worth skipping all that hard work of learning to cast, getting all the materials, or trying to find these obscure sites.
Just saying.

Oh well, i have ranted enough all ways in this post already. And i just keep finding myself continuing.....

Done.

Well said Klomster. This thread is definitely not intended to promote illegal GW/FW knock offs. Anyone (including members of this forum) can buy from whomever they choose to

In fact, Yoymart is not alone in this. There are several other sites from other countries like Russia that are selling GW/FW items.

Absolutely Brothers.
We are not promoting anything besides freedom of choice.

The main difference between miniatures and software is that once you paid for the original copy you are okay with your guilty feelings (and all those copyright issues) and at most you use only one version of the software (doesn't make much sense running to games at the same time on the same computer, does it?). With miniatures you still can use both models (original and pirate version) on the table with twice the fun and half the price, but the copyright issue is not fixed.

That said, as for my conscience, I would reinvest the saved money in a dinner for my GW retailer (as it happens he is one of my best friends), I bet he will make more money this way...