GW’s latest Warhammer 40k flop could become surprisingly valuable as poor sales, and exclusive supply of the Limited Space Marine Codex create an unlikely collectible.
GW might actually make the $420 Space Marine codex genuinely rare, just not by selling it.
It’s been weeks since launch, and the Limited Edition Space Marine Codex is still in stock. That’s a little awkward for a book that’s supposed to be hard to get. And it’s not like hobbyists weren’t interested in a fancier codex, either, because the $100 Collector’s Edition sold out in a hurry when it launched.
So yeah, people will pay extra for a nice codex. Apparently, they just aren’t lining up to pay four hundred bucks extra. Now GW has a bunch of expensive books sitting around, and sooner or later, it’ll have to figure out what to do with them.
- What’s happening: GW’s $420 Space Marine limited edition codex still hasn’t sold out two weeks after launch, while the $100 Collector’s Edition sold out fast.
- What we have seen so far: GW has cleared out unsold Warhammer before, roughly $1 million of new-in-box product after the COVID boom, and some of it later turned up for resale.
- What’s next: If GW writes off or scraps the leftover $420 books, the copies collectors did buy could end up far rarer than the print run suggests.
GW’s Latest 40k Failure Could Be a Collector Goldmine
The whole point of a limited edition is that not everyone can get one, right? That’s a big part of what GW is selling here. But what happens when the company can’t actually sell all the copies it made? Suddenly, being “limited” isn’t quite the selling point it was supposed to be, and GW still has to deal with all those leftover books.
And really, can you see GW wanting these things sitting on shelves forever, reminding everyone of a pricing experiment that didn’t exactly work out?
We’ve Seen What GW Does With Warhammer It Can’t Sell
Pallets of Written-Off Copies of Dominion Box Sets At Adepticon
And we’ve seen something like this before. After the COVID-era hobby boom cooled down, we uncovered roughly $1 million worth of new-in-box Games Workshop product that looked like it had been dumped for disposal. We’re not talking about a handful of damaged kits or some old sprues, either. These were pallets of recognizable Warhammer products that were still ready to sell.
GW made a ton of product during the COVID bubble, demand changed, and eventually all that extra inventory had to go somewhere. And that wasn’t the only time we’ve gotten a look behind the scenes. Drone footage over GW’s Nottingham facility showed piles of Games Workshop merchandise sitting outside the building. We don’t know why every pallet was there, but it sure gave hobbyists a look at just how much Warhammer can pile up before anyone finds out what happens to it.
Limited Edition Space Marine Codex Could Get Rare Because They Flopped
So let’s say hundreds, maybe even thousands, of these $420 codexes are still sitting around a few months from now. What does GW do with them? One obvious possibility is writing off the extra stock, disposing of it, recycling it, or just pulling it from sale altogether. Either way, those unsold books are no longer sitting there for everyone to see.
And here’s where things get interesting. That could actually make the books rare. Say GW printed 5,000 copies but only sold 3,500. Those are just example numbers, by the way. Nobody outside GW knows the actual print run. But if the remaining 1,500 copies get destroyed or written off, there are suddenly a lot fewer copies out there in collectors’ hands than GW originally printed.
Games Workshop Write Offs We Obtained
So the hobbyists who actually spent $420 could end up with something pretty scarce after all. Just probably not how they expected it to happen.
Normally, collectibles get rare because everybody wants one and there aren’t enough to go around. This would be the opposite. Not enough people buy them, GW gets rid of the extras, and the copies that survived become harder to find.
Getting Sealed Warhammer to a Landfill is Harder Than it Sounds
But there’s another problem if GW decides to dump these books. Everybody knows Warhammer is worth money. We’re not talking about old office furniture or broken shelves here. These are sealed Warhammer products that people can resell, and anyone moving pallets full of them can probably figure out what they’re worth.
And we’ve already seen how that can go. When we investigated GW products that were supposedly headed for disposal, some of that merchandise later showed up elsewhere and was reportedly offered for resale. Now imagine pallets of $420 codexes being marked for destruction. There’s a pretty good financial reason for somebody to make sure a few boxes don’t quite make it to the landfill or recycling center.
Turns out, getting unwanted Warhammer from a warehouse to a landfill isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds.
Final Thoughts on the $420 Limited Space Marine Codex Rarity
So yeah, GW could still end up making these books genuinely rare. Just not because everybody rushed out to buy one.
If the $420 Space Marine editions keep sitting around, GW will eventually have to make a call on that leftover stock. And after what we uncovered following the COVID hobby boom, it’s not like writing off and disposing of unsold Warhammer would be anything new. If that happens here, the collectors who picked one up could wind up with something much harder to find than the original print run would suggest.
Of course, first you’d have to get all those expensive, sealed books to the landfill without somebody noticing what’s on the pallet.
🔗 Related Reads:
- 40k Collectors Upset Over New $420 Codex Prices
- $420 Space Marine Codex Flops, Space King Roasts GW, 40k Tier List Now
- Thirty Pallets of Warhammer Products Disappeared
- Guy Who Flew a Drone Over GW’s Factory Finds Product Rotting In Back
- No, These 40k Codex Books Aren’t Worth More, Here’s Why
- Space Marines Codex, Model Pre-Orders: Oct 3rd Now Available
Would you hang onto a $420 Space Marine codex if GW started scrapping the leftovers?
