JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:To be fair, Rated X did have a point in some online stores price gouging when it comes to TakaraTomy products, depending. We discussed transport and shipping costs being factored into the price, but what about storage?
What I mean is, brick-and-mortar stores have warehouses in the local area for easy access no matter the location. But what about online-only stores? Where are their warehouses located? It goes without saying that the Japanese ones have theirs in Japan, but the international/US-targeting ones like BBTS, TFSource, and Robotkingdom.com, where are theirs?
In short, would we be footing the bill for storage and whatnot if the warehouses were to be located in, I don't know, China?
The online gauging are from the domestic stores i.e. BBTS etc. But the gouging per se isn't bad as in a capitalist system, we have to profit so as to give the store an incentive to keep on selling.
Now that you mention about storage, which I'll tackle on later let us begin with a domestic retailer in the USA.
1. He imports the product from Japan. Either directly through their local contacts or directly from Hasbro Asia. I know of an online retailer (not US based) who does the latter.
2. He buys them, maybe depending on bulk, gets a bit of a discount if direct from source, like amiami etc
3. Pays for shipping cost and local taxes
4. Computes the overhead and tacks in the profit margins
The overhead. As you mention, means logistics and salaries to pay your employees. You need a warehouse too and a kick ass communications online facility setup and pay for your credit card securities too. You also open up line of credit form loans for your kickstarter business.
There are lots of things that are involved in any form of business. I'll mention again, taxes taxes and taxes.
Gouging? Well supply and demand. Take TT Arcee for instance, so high the demand yet low in supply. Good thing stores like amiami sold her by their "special price". They already had a guaranteed profit with it. Now once it gets into the hands of 2nd or 3rd party vendors, then everything goes. If there's too high a demand (remember Tickle me Elmo and Mattel's Elsa and Anna? Great examples of super high demand) A lot of enterprising "enterpreneurs" i.e. scalpers will also get into the act.
Basic boring economics 101............I was and still a nerd back then so I didn't snooze when my Prof lectured the class
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