Hello gents
Very interesting reading on this thread - I'm new to this forum but my Specialist Games collections are fairly respectable in size and scope and I've been playing some years now.
In years past I'd seize every opportunity to jump on the GW hate/flame bandwagon - today I reason it's simply not an issue for me as I don't buy GW products nor - since they dropped Specialist Games - even play the company's games. So what's there for me to argue over?
Ebay has been pulling some quite questionable stunts (like their Global Shipping Program, a scam that I know would be illegal at least here in Australia but seems to be operating quite well in the US for some unknown reason...) so my solution is two-fold
1. Bartertown and other trade/sell forums can still render some rare gems at reasonable prices. I avoid FleaBay like the plague. To me it's like Target - I go there to buy my socks and jocks, but if I want a suit or a pair of runners I go to a clothing or shoe store
2. Proxy the heck out of anything that can be even remotely proxied. There are so many talented artists, innovative entrepreneurs, dedicated game designers in the market these days that GW is old news to me. They're the "have beens" of the wargaming world. Sure some of their figures are great, if I can get a GW original army all the better - but if I can't Eureka, Pendraken, Kallistra, Copplestone Castings and others will proxy just fine for my fantasy needs. Don't even get me started on the amazing 10mm ranges available for historicals!
Dark Realm, GZG, Exodus Wars, Brigade Models, GHQ/H&R with a little imagination, green stuff and superglue can all be made into very appropriate Specialist Games units. And as GW has turned its back on us, the SG community anyway, even killing off my beloved 1/72 WAB

I feel absolutely zero allegiance to them.
They may have designed the world over the decades, but the games I feel are mine. I grew up with them. The fluff as they continually re-write it interests me little.
Gaming is still to me a chance to meet like-minded people, sink some bevvies, compliment one another on painting and modelling, discuss tactics, win the odd game, research new historical periods - painting is my version of meditation, gaming my testosterone output.
Any tournaments, never mind pickup games, which I have partaken in over the years including the European GT not one person has ever raised an eyebrow at proxied units - pretty much everyone is of the same mindset at least in my current Victorian gaming cadre/community.
Pardon the long post and may all your dice roll high (or low, if making Ld rolls)!
