So has the TF: Prime FE market cooled?

[canprime]

So I was checking out the auctions on EBay and while the hard to come by figures are still selling above retail, the prices seem to have cooled significantly.

Yes Bulkhead gets at least 2-3 times retails, but Prime and Cliffjumper are lucky to get double retail now. Am I seeing things or does that seem about right? If it is then that was pretty quick. (What, 2 weeks?)

[juxtapose519]

So I was checking out the auctions on EBay and while the hard to come by figures are still selling above retail, the prices seem to have cooled significantly.

Yes Bulkhead gets at least 2-3 times retails, but Prime and Cliffjumper are lucky to get double retail now. Am I seeing things or does that seem about right? If it is then that was pretty quick. (What, 2 weeks?)

There are still people trying to get 3x retail on the sales boards, but there are more and more of them all the time and fewer and fewer people seem to be jumping on them. There's still a demand, but it looks like the super desperate already have what they're looking for.

[faustx]

No, you are not seeing things.

I've been tracking this whole thing with amusement and what you are seeing now is the scalpers with more inventory than they are comfortable holding on to jumping the gun to sell faster by lowering prices mixed in with "back-of-the-truck" vendors from Hong Kong and mainland China lowballing pricing.

The effect is to bring prices back down towards reasonable where they will hover for a while until inventory dries up and then bounce upward again for the occasional sale prompted when when the Prime/RID line completists realize they are missing some older product.

Given the lack of distribution in the US, a $40-$50 price point for a rare voyager is actually reasonable IMHO. Why anyone would pay $100 for a Bulkhead is beyond me, but it is frequently our own faults that prices rise like this regardless. If we would simply starve the scalpers out they would return their inventory to stores or be forced to sell.

Instead, we get scared that we won't get the 147th precious thing on our shelves and run prices up. Simple supply and demand economics but we never learn. This is a large part of why we are planning to fix much of this broken information processing with the predictive and historical price and sightings data on ShelfLife.

My 2 cents,

James

[chuchupika]

No, you are not seeing things.

I've been tracking this whole thing with amusement and what you are seeing now is the scalpers with more inventory than they are comfortable holding on to jumping the gun to sell faster by lowering prices mixed in with "back-of-the-truck" vendors from Hong Kong and mainland China lowballing pricing.

The effect is to bring prices back down towards reasonable where they will hover for a while until inventory dries up and then bounce upward again for the occasional sale prompted when when the Prime/RID line completists realize they are missing some older product.

Given the lack of distribution in the US, a $40-$50 price point for a rare voyager is actually reasonable IMHO. Why anyone would pay $100 for a Bulkhead is beyond me, but it is frequently our own faults that prices rise like this regardless. If we would simply starve the scalpers out they would return their inventory to stores or be forced to sell.

Instead, we get scared that we won't get the 147th precious thing on our shelves and run prices up. Simple supply and demand economics but we never learn. This is a large part of why we are planning to fix much of this broken information processing with the predictive and historical price and sightings data on ShelfLife.

My 2 cents,

James

I think you are quite right about this. I think the frenzy stopped once Hasbro replied to the US fans about the possibility of them getting FE editions in a different packaging. Once that doesn't happen, the price will get right back up as rare. I think 100 bucks for a Bulkhead is quite unreasonable, but maybe 70 bucks is a more reasonable.

It will also depend if Hasbro flops on the RID line or not and if Hasbro actually decide on producing something for the states similar to the FE line. What Hasbro is not telling us is why they don't have enough stock to stock the US. Might have been production problems, a broken or loss mold. So hence they were seriously about FE being a limited run.

Also scalpers won't hold onto this toys if they can't turn a quick profit.

[justprime]

It will all depend on if they reissue these toys,... G1 unlike the rest of the series forward of generation 2 ...(exceptions such as limited charaters reissued prime,blaster, jazz, etc) were produced in a limited quanitity, the loss of rights to produce as they didn't hold ownership of the molds or the name............................... ( ie molds jetfire,roadbuster, or the reissue hot rod, blue streak names,.. current movie dino) ment that G1 was unique as they were limited to the production run and next year product overlap took the overproduced stock,.. most of these toys to date have had no reissue(headmasters actionmasters etc) and overseas releases being even more rare here commanding a hefty sum..... that in all events will never come down to a resonable price (ie dino cassettes, black zarak,browining,brain&breast masters, starsaber, grand max, etc) as stated previously no reason was given for the short fall of FE prime (perhaps a problem has arisen overseas where the toys are currently produced that we are not made aware off)... or a confermation of when these replacement pieces will show, I do not believe that they will stiff the U.S. and risk the backlash that would follow.if repackaged under R.I.D. Fe will soar in price.

[CyberMnky]

FE Prime Bulkhead - $300, serious offers only!!!

Are things still crazy? A little. But I thinks it's sort of plateauing.

As has been said, I think as time goes on - if these molds aren't actually released somewhere in some form I would be surprised, but then I can expect to see the occasional one showing up here and there for 3 digit prices again. But for the most part, I think it's all good really.

[canprime]

Well a Bulkhead just finished at $65 dollars, so that is barely double the retail price. I would say things are defintely slowing.

However, I think you guys are overestimating the value of packaging and a slightly different mold. Yes if they never make these toys again for a specific reason (broken mold), then I can see prices staying high-ish. (ala the Robin Dragster from BTAS, however who is really desperate for that anymore?) However these characters/figures are going to be released under the RID banner and many a person, outside of completeists, are not really going to care.

I said this to a buddy before, a year from now I will be shocked if the FE toys are going for anything more than double retail. By then we will have had a glut of other TFs released and we will be anxiously awaiting Toyfair 2013 and whatever the new line is at that time.

[TFtoys]

I said this to a buddy before, a year from now I will be shocked if the FE toys are going for anything more than double retail. By then we will have had a glut of other TFs released and we will be anxiously awaiting Toyfair 2013 and whatever the new line is at that time.
yeah. At that time, FoC Bructicus might be taken place to go wide.
Hasbro does want to teach us the lesson if they say first edition exclusive, that is really quantities limitation and not expecting for more to come and wait until clearance. They mean it.

[ang3l3s]

I think prices are getting reasonable considering the classic nature of the vehicle and .... sorry yeah i think the prices are cooling and i agree with all the above statements but i think it will always have value as it is the superior mold series so far, why?? I have no idea? Usually the 2nd run is better ala rotf prime , bumblebee, hftd starscream but i guess not in this case.
I really can't see them not reusing these molds and repainting to make some mulah.

[shabooya]

Hasbro will release more FE primes.
If you read between the lines in their apology statement and a couple other announcements regarding the limited supply Id be very suprised if there werent more of these planned for release sometime sooner than later.

[Pascal]

From my understanding, no Prime FE Voyagers ever got produced for the US market. Factories only produced what was needed for the countries that got them already. If they release the molds later in the US, you can bet they will be redecoed to differenciate them from the FE toys.

[juxtapose519]

If they release the molds later in the US, you can bet they will be redecoed to differenciate them from the FE toys.

Agreed. Hasbro doesn't exactly have a history of re-releasing a mold unless it's redecoed or retooled. They would piss off just as many people by reissuing "first edition" figures as they did by not making enough in the first place. The molds will likely surface again, but they'll be different enough that the FE's will still be in demand. They just won't be AS in demand once the completionists all have them.

[Shockwave 75]

Here's what I think happened.

We know that the FE figures were originally intended to be part of the Generations line; I think when that fell through they just stopped producing them.

Then; because they simply can't have all these toys laying around that they sunk their money into doing nothing, some brainiac at Hasbro comes up with the First Edition idea and they roll with it. But instead of producing more figures to make a wide relase, they just pack up all the figures already produced and shop it around as an exclusive line. With only TRU biting at it.

But, TRU quickly realises that, despite all their sale promotions, they are still drowning in DOTM figures that just aren't selling, so TRU US only orders a smattering of deluxes, while TRU Canada orders the full assortment so the bulk of the figures go north.

In turn, Hasbro realises that they are much more likely to see a return on their investment through traditional sales in Canadian brick & mortar TRU's, they decide to screw the US online stores knowing full well that only the collector community will be ordering through them, resluting in only a few hundred sales vs potentially thousands in Canada.

I agree that they will likely "reissue" these molds, but they won't look the same as they do now. They'll either be "battle damaged" with lots of black smudges all over them, or be "premium" with paint schemes more akin to the Takara releases, and thusly being a little more expensive.

[justprime]

Hasbro doesn't seem to worry about toys laying around there are toys in storage/warehoused in china full of as yet unreleased repaints.....not picked up by the store chain they were made for (possible exclusive)... for example energon optimus and Megatron the "holiday colors" already packaged awaiting the day to see sunlight I guess it depends on if it has been packaged or not (if packaged its not worth the trouble to unbox/card and repackage as I was told) some times these make it to a discounter as other member here can atribute to what ever the case hasbro makes enought to right these off and not worry about lost revenue for the pennies they paid to produce.

[Shockwave 75]

Hasbro doesn't seem to worry about toys laying around there are toys in storage/warehoused in china full of as yet unreleased repaints.....not picked up by the store chain they were made for (possible exclusive)... for example energon optimus and Megatron the "holiday colors" already packaged awaiting the day to see sunlight I guess it depends on if it has been packaged or not (if packaged its not worth the trouble to unbox/card and repackage as I was told) some times these make it to a discounter as other member here can atribute to what ever the case hasbro makes enought to right these off and not worry about lost revenue for the pennies they paid to produce.
I've never heard of "holiday colours" Energon Prime and Megs.

Dude, you know your posts are one giant run-on sentances right?

[TFtoys]

Hasbro will release more FE primes.
If you read between the lines in their apology statement and a couple other announcements regarding the limited supply Id be very suprised if there werent more of these planned for release sometime sooner than later.
That's their statement to the US fans. Do they say the same thing to us ?