Prices looking up... & weird!
 

Hello, my wonderful people,

First a little disclaimer. I may be ignorant when maybe it has to do with importing and such but then that gives it all the more reason for how fucked up capitalism is in general but whatever onto the rant. So I was doing some surfing on the interweb; ya know lookin' at stuff that has become more expensive now. Now I might be kinda slow when it comes to conversions and stuff but I found something kinda good, if not weird. I was comparing prices on multiple sites to Hasbro's and I started to realize that it was looking kinda low. For starters, we are being overcharged for everything(What's new?!) but by a few dollars; enough to make a difference, to say the least.

So for example deluxes in USD are going for 20 bucks, that's fine right? reasonable for a deluxe. We are being charged around 30 to 35 bucks for a deluxe. The kicker is when you do the conversion it comes out what should be 26.82CAD. We are paying those extra 5 or 10 dollars in importing, I guess?
And for sake of flushing it out:
Leaders are 49.99USD, we get charged around 75 to 80CAD, Conversion is more like 67.07.
Commanders are 79.99USD, we get charged what 115 to 120CAD, the conversion is more like 107.31.

Yall will notice I left out the Micromaster and Voyager pricepoints. This is because we are actually getting undercharged for them, just a little though so nothing too exciting.
Voyagers 29.99USD, we pay 39, 40 CAD. It's actually a few cents over 40CAD
More noticeably, Micros are 10.99USD, we pay 12, 13 CAD. Its actually around 14CAD

SO to wrap up. A)I may be looking into it too much. I'm an artist not an economist so please correct me if I am wrong. B)It could be good news if prices are slowly changing. If the increase is not because of importing I think we should be justly charged 25, 65, and 110 respectively C)I figure I am wrong but seeing these numbers puts me at ease so that's ok cause I can at least not feel too guilty for investing.

So peeps here to hoping for a better future. Happy shopping peeps!

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

Stop looking at it as an investment, it's a hobby.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

Just playing devils advocate here. Our Country is large and population density is sparse so I can definitely see distribution being much more efficient (cheaper）down south.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

Ya if your in it to make money you shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

I believe our minimum wage is also higher, which should further increase distribution costs.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

When you actually research all the parameters of costs involved, the cost of plastic, manufacturing, distributing, research, etc.

There isn't any question about it, they are gouging everyone they can, all TFs are easily double what they should be.

This is in big part to thanks to

1) "everything being collectibles" now
2) they know people will buy regardless
3) Market research using the Unicron that proved that people WILL buy something that is easily 3x the price it should be, and defend their choice, and the company, tooth and nail.
4) bad distribution that creates a vacuum, and easy more price increases
5) cheap repaints/minor retools to suck even more via "exclusivity".

I've said it before and I'll say it again here... once I manage to get the original crew, I'll returning to "It needs to be a very impressive figure" before I get it.

But also, I'm refusing to be full price (unless there's one that I can't miss due to crap distribution of such), I'll be waiting for sales, or getting them via EBgames with my Platinum card that takes to prices down a bit.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

Agreed.

Bad distribution is most probably retailers doing. They were not ordering that many and some stores never got theirs. Just look at the latest round of Walmart Siege clearance: they still have a bunch of left overs and they have to sell, say, the Weaponizers for $0.50/ea. The corporations don’t care what characters or even waves they were, they just know they will order and distribute more cautiously.

Repaints and retools are a TF norm from G1... like there are a lot of differences with all 3 Seekers except colors and the tech spec.

And Unicorn is just a prepaid preorders no matters what Haslab claimed.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

You can buy an entire set of KO oversized dinobots for about the same price of two deluxe figures, 3 deluxe if you go back to the Prime Trilogy toy pricing.


You can also find KO oversized siege figures like sideswipe, hound, and prime that go for less than retail even after shipping.



Quality on these KOs is top notch as well.


Of course we are getting overcharded.

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

Sorry, bad phrasing. I mean I don't feel guilty for investing in my happiness of doing the hobby. I definitely would never try to make money of resale or any of that, I just sometimes question whether or not the effort I put into collecting is valid. But the miscommunication is my fault sorry bout that. Def would never sell my collection, I've put too much effort into it, even if it is relatively small compared to other:)

Re: Prices looking up... & weird!
 

See yall already know more than I do. Which is great for me cause I really stay with this hobby and can use all the info I can get. In my defense, I wrote this when I was bored and procrastinating, so not my proudest moments XD