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All I can say is...
WTF.

If you factor in CA sales tax at 8.75%, that means that out here we'll be at $20 for a large scout-sized deluxe very shortly.

I can tell you this, I'm done toy hunting. For that price I'm not wasting the gas to run around looking, I'll have the toys delivered to my door. If there's only one figure in a line that I really want, and I happen to see it while shopping in Target or Walmart, then I might pick it up. Otherwise, I suppose I have to thank Hasbro, or whoever's in charge of these outrageous markups, for saving me a bit of gas every month!

I've pretty much stopped buying at retail. Reasons or not, it's still too spicy for me. I've almost had it. Online for me, now.

While I have not read all 13 pages of post, my 2 cents is, that walmart will jack up the price then give the item a lower "Rollback" price, having a high "Was" price to show the "value" that the consumer is saving. This makes sense give how close we are to Christmas.

Ominous Prime-Evil wrote:While I have not read all 13 pages of post, my 2 cents is, that walmart will jack up the price then give the item a lower "Rollback" price, having a high "Was" price to show the "value" that the consumer is saving. This makes sense give how close we are to Christmas.

At the rate prices a climbing, these shelves are gonna be warm for quite some time. Hopefully that will make Walmart put these on rollback or even clearance a lot sooner if they want the next wave of figures on shelves.

And then the process will repeat itself.

Here, in the Netherlands, prices have always been extreme.

Right now we're paying 24.99 Euros for deluxes, which comes to 32 dollars and 54 cents today. I remember DotM Sentinel costing 89.99 Euros, close to 120 dollars.

And we don't get much. A wave here and there.

No Walmarts. No Targets. And ordering from BBTS means paying more for shipping than you do for your Transformers when you're ordering from here. But I still do. That, and bringing an extra suitcase or two when I visit America.

At the risk of being inflammatory, the complaints come across as somewhat sheltered to me tbh and I honestly feel like responding with "welcome to the world of international fans for over a decade now". Here in Australia with how well our dollar is doing compared to the greenback, is that the US (our dollar averages being worth $1.05USD) is now as an ideal choice for a holiday as Bali. Yet we're still paying upto $30 for deluxes. Seriously people, suck it up and welcome to the global marketplace.

At the risk of being inflammatory, the complaints come across as somewhat sheltered to me tbh and I honestly feel like responding with "welcome to the world of international fans for over a decade now". Here in Australia with how well our dollar is doing compared to the greenback, is that the US (our dollar averages being worth $1.05USD) is now as an ideal choice for a holiday as Bali. Yet we're still paying upto $30 for deluxes. Seriously people, suck it up and welcome to the global marketplace.

You know, everytime price increases come up I always see the same arguements. The source country complains, and everyone else responds with "welcome to what we pay", yet I always see one major factor missing. No one ever talks about respective salaries and how that converts.

Now, this is an honest question because I don't know, I'm not trying to stir up anger or anything or say one side is right or wrong. But do the people saying "welcome to the world market, we've been paying this for years" make (roughly) the same salaries as the people in the US? Take me for example. I pull in (roughly) $30k a year (before taxes). So for me, a $7 increase for a figure over the course of 5 years is a big deal and a cause for concern. Now, do the people paying $30 for a deluxe make about the same, or are the salaries inflated as well? If salaries are about the same, then yes we have less reason to bitch, but if salaries are inflated, then it seems a pretty level playing field, you know?

Anyway, just my thought and just curious ... Not trying to piss anyone off

Bubbah wrote:You know, everytime price increases come up I always see the same arguements. The source country complains, and everyone else responds with "welcome to what we pay", yet I always see one major factor missing. No one ever talks about respective salaries and how that converts.

That's because comparative salaries is an incredibly minor factor and applying it using common sense, means it will only be a factor when trying to work out how much of a hit companies can take on their profit margins while making a product marketable.

Your main factors are always going to be manufacturing costs, importing costs, and the value of the currency of a country. On top of that you have market complacency also affecting things (ie costs go down in one of those 3 factors, but you keep the price as is because passive consumerism will still see said product sell) before you have comparative salaries affecting them.

In fact, the fact that the price hike has happened, arguably means that comparative salaries have been considered to be irrelevant by Hasbro's marketing division in determining RRPs.