The Energon Pub

Most of the time there way too expensive like foc voyager sound wave he was 50 dollars rotf leader class figures were 100 dollars and generarations metroplex 200 dollars. So as you can see its truly not a cheap hobby.

And if your waiting for a clearance forget that they bring maybe 2 in stock and that's it no clearance you better pay full price or your not getting it.

Bbts ? Forget that it's 30 dollars just to ship a voyager. But then you get prices like these 60 dollars for mp ghost starscream and 80 for mp ultra Magnus now those are great prices too bad there the exception not the rule.

All in all American fans don't complain you have it easy as if the f&$&ng spiders weren't enough.

Loyal To The End wrote:Most of the time there way too expensive like foc voyager sound wave he was 50 dollars rotf leader class figures were 100 dollars and generarations metroplex 200 dollars. So as you can see its truly not a cheap hobby.

And if your waiting for a clearance forget that they bring maybe 2 in stock and that's it no clearance you better pay full price or your not getting it.

Ummm... yeah... so?

Loyal To The End wrote:Bbts ? Forget that it's 30 dollars just to ship a voyager. But then you get prices like these 60 dollars for mp ghost starscream and 80 for mp ultra Magnus now those are great prices too bad there the exception not the rule.

BBTS is the single best way for Australian collectors to buy most TFs as you can ship for about $6 - $7 per item if you turn on the PoL system and don't let the order hit $1000 including shipping Masterpiece should be purchased through Japanese retailers.

If you are shipping figures one at a time then that has nothing to do with costs and everything to do with you not making the most of what is available.

Loyal To The End wrote:All in all American fans don't complain you have it easy as if the f&$&ng spiders weren't enough.

This is an old argument that has been going on for a long time between U.S. collectors and the rest of the world, no point bringing it up again.



Btw, that $6 - $7 shipping is the fastest option BBTS has

Arctorro wrote:

Loyal To The End wrote:All in all American fans don't complain you have it easy as if the f&$&ng spiders weren't enough.

This is an old argument that has been going on for a long time between U.S. collectors and the rest of the world, no point bringing it up again.

I disagree. Americans need to be reminded everydays how easy they get it. EVERYTHING they purchase is usually cheaper than the rest of the world. So, when I heard an american whining about paying a deluxe for 15$ and a voyager for 25$, I cant help but answer, "Biatch please...".

(Even though I whine about 35$ voyagers and 20$ deluxes, with taxes, I know Canada is the second cheapest in the world so yeah.)

Arctorro wrote:

Loyal To The End wrote:Most of the time there way too expensive like foc voyager sound wave he was 50 dollars rotf leader class figures were 100 dollars and generarations metroplex 200 dollars. So as you can see its truly not a cheap hobby.

And if your waiting for a clearance forget that they bring maybe 2 in stock and that's it no clearance you better pay full price or your not getting it.

Ummm... yeah... so?
Umm we pay full price for something that is equal to the American release ?

Loyal To The End wrote:Bbts ? Forget that it's 30 dollars just to ship a voyager. But then you get prices like these 60 dollars for mp ghost starscream and 80 for mp ultra Magnus now those are great prices too bad there the exception not the rule.

BBTS is the single best way for Australian collectors to buy most TFs as you can ship for about $6 - $7 per item if you turn on the PoL system and don't let the order hit $1000 including shipping Masterpiece should be purchased through Japanese retailers.
Ok but what about the hasbro releases ? And no you clearly don't know just how expensive bbts shipping is to Australia if I combine I end up paying more money for shipping than what the figures are worth so what's the point ?

If you are shipping figures one at a time then that has nothing to do with costs and everything to do with you not making the most of what is available.

Loyal To The End wrote:All in all American fans don't complain you have it easy as if the f&$&ng spiders weren't enough.

This is an old argument that has been going on for a long time between U.S. collectors and the rest of the world, no point bringing it up again.



Btw, that $6 - $7 shipping is the fastest option BBTS has

That's American prices buddy we don't getvthe luxury of economy its ems or bust.

Loyal To The End wrote:That's American prices buddy we don't getvthe luxury of economy its ems or bust.

Which is why I slightly up'd the average I pay on the shipping for each figure

Which is UPS Air Service btw

You're not alone. In Singapore, A leader class is $87USD, Voyagers are $43, and Deluxes are $23.

Well you have two options, suck it up and pay retail price if you want a figure badly.

Though many department stores hold 20% off sales quite regularly.

But after the line's been out for awhile, voyagers start to go on clearence for $22, and Deluxes for $13. I usually wait for this price before getting any.

gavinfuzzy wrote:But after the line's been out for awhile, voyagers start to go on clearence for $22, and Deluxes for $13. I usually wait for this price before getting any.

It's pretty rare that I buy a retail TF at full price. Especially deluxes. Normal deluxes prices in Canada are around 16$ + 15% taxes. So, if I know those toys are not rare and will be there for a while, I just wait until they innevitably fall back to 10$ + taxes.

As for voyagers, it depend. If I want it NOW, I'll buy it at the full 30$ + taxes. For the less important ones, I wait until tey get at 20$ or 15$ plus taxes.

Cyberverse legions are usually 7$+tx and commanders are 11$+tx. If those get a sale, they barely cost a buck or two less. So if I want it, I just wont bother waiting because for some reasons, some small figures tend to appear for a short while and never come back again.

As for leaders, the basic price is 70$+tx. However, they always get a shit-tons of those and get relatively fast on sale at 50$+tx to even 30$+tx. Still, I rarely wait for a sale to get the one I really want.

Finally, there's Winners who can sell 7$ deluxes, 5$ commandes, 13$ voyagers, and 4$ legions. However, they get the stuff WAAAAAAAAAAAY late and what they get is totally randomised in extremely limited quantities. Buying a dirt cheap TF that you didn't have before from them is like winning a lottery.

Here's how this thread is going to go down, based on EVERY SINGLE TIME IT COMES UP IN ANY FANDOM(especially Games Workshop):

AUS: Our prices suck, American prices are better, why can't our prices be better? The dollars are about equivalent worth.
US: Your minimum wage is twice(or over) ours(and much of the RoW, too), so you should pay more.
Other Country: Ours isn't, why do we pay more?
AUS: Ours may be higher, but we shouldn't have to pay more!
US: 'Murica.

I'd like to copy-paste that for future reference, if I may.

Go for it!

gavinfuzzy wrote:Though many department stores hold 20% off sales quite regularly.

That actually seems to be a waning trend. A number of the bigger nation-wide stores hold "sales" on a regular basis and as such don't feel the need for bigger yearly/half-yearly sales as stuff is on sale all year round.

Plus, going by the last few years of Toy Sales, Tranformers is not regarded as one of the major brands and you'll only get one or two classes on special while the rest of the "boys toys" have more attention paid to the likes of Ben 10, Marvel movies, or whatever TV show is big at the time.
(Even when the movies are released TF's don't get that much attention)

Prices aside, there's still the matter of distribution. Not all waves are picked up (so we're still forced to import) and those that are don't make it all the way around the country. From a local personal perspective, it's hard to get past the first two waves as they just don't sell so restocks are few and far between.

And I don't particularly want to wait a year to pick up a figure on clearance otherwise I'll disappoint Va'al by not being able to join in the Year in Review.

You forgot one thing not only do our prices suck but be have terrible distribution, waves get skipped, we wait forever to get new lines, plus we are not getting generations at the moment!

ausbot wrote:You forgot one thing not only do our prices suck but be have terrible distribution, waves get skipped, we wait forever to get new lines, plus we are not getting generations at the moment!

Kinda the same problem in Canada actually. Still, they do manage to come over here eventually, but extremely late. We had to wait a full year to get TF Prime DELUXE Ratchet, Vehicon, Kup, Rumble, Airachnid, Deadend, Steatlh Bumblebee, and Knock Out. Even then, they didn't stay on the shelves for a long time. When 3/4 of a whole line come out so late, it's bad.

It's even worse in Quebec, the French province, where ALL Toys R Us TF Exclusives are skipped because they don't bother putting French on their boxes. It's been like this for years. Want ANY Masterpieces or special repaints and reissues? Tough luck, better import them from a 3rd party and pay double the price, sucker!
At least, TARGET are smart enough to have French on their Exclusives so I could manage to buy some Predacons Rising figures. Target, please be the next MP distributors!

ausbot wrote:You forgot one thing not only do our prices suck but be have terrible distribution, waves get skipped, we wait forever to get new lines, plus we are not getting generations at the moment!

Yeah your right I tried getting mp-10 I didn't see him in a single toys r us.

sounds like Hasbro's Australian division's distribution is as good as their UK counterparts.

craggy wrote:sounds like Hasbro's Australian division's distribution is as good as their UK counterparts.

Hey now come on man, that's just low. We're not THAT bad off.

craggy wrote:sounds like Hasbro's Australian division's distribution is as good as their UK counterparts.

Yeah the only good thing I can say is that we get exclusives like jetwing optimus prime a week before anyone else and we get heaps of platinum editions like omega supreme , ultra magnus , and grimlock vs bruticus I think it's because hasbro asia is involved and we gwt there exclusives.

Then you're even better off than we thought.
None of those ever made it to UK/EU.

Va'al wrote:Then you're even better off than we thought.
None of those ever made it to UK/EU.

It must be your lack of any awesome accents.

njb902 wrote:

Va'al wrote:Then you're even better off than we thought.
None of those ever made it to UK/EU.

It must be your lack of any awesome accents.

I should just post a couple of James Bond and Doctor Who montages to prove you wrong, mate!

craggy wrote:

njb902 wrote:

Va'al wrote:Then you're even better off than we thought.
None of those ever made it to UK/EU.

It must be your lack of any awesome accents.

I should just post a couple of James Bond and Doctor Who montages to prove you wrong, mate!

Ho hum

Loyal To The End wrote:Most of the time there way too expensive like foc voyager sound wave he was 50 dollars rotf leader class figures were 100 dollars and generarations metroplex 200 dollars. So as you can see its truly not a cheap hobby.

Where & when are you shopping?

Metroplex
Big W $148 on sale for $98
Target $149 on sale for $119
TrU $199 on sale for $149
Costco $119

Masterpieces
Hasbro OP & Soundwave, depending on when you purchased it at TRU were available for $112.50- $149.99.
Acid Storm $75- $99.99

Voyagers are the cheapest at Kmart for $39. Uncle Pete's also receives older Voyagers from time to time like Prime Bulkhead, Starscream, OP & Megatron for $25 & Deluxes for $20.
FoC Soundwave despite being $49 was on sale at Target for 20% off a few times.

Big W recently had a sale on Prime Deluxes at $10, Commanders at $5 & Playsets for $15 each with plenty of stock available.

You have eBay sellers like Figurebot in Perth who i use regularly & apart from BBTS, which i very rarely shop with these days, you also have Robotkingdom, Chimungmung, Anime Export, HLJ etc all servicing the region which will result in cheaper shipping & an up to date collection.

Burn wrote:Prices aside, there's still the matter of distribution. Not all waves are picked up (so we're still forced to import) and those that are don't make it all the way around the country. From a local personal perspective, it's hard to get past the first two waves as they just don't sell so restocks are few and far between.

This is one of the biggest reasons I import. The fuel used and time spent trying to find stuff that most likely wont even make it to my area (not counting skipped waves) will balance out when exchange rates and shipping are factored in to the toy cost from importing from somewhere like BBTS.

The retailers buy up crazy amounts of wave 01 stock, then wonder why it never sells, and don't order later waves thinking transformers aren't that popular. They don't seem to realise that the population isn't big enough for the levels of stock they are getting.

Arctorro wrote:

Burn wrote:Prices aside, there's still the matter of distribution. Not all waves are picked up (so we're still forced to import) and those that are don't make it all the way around the country. From a local personal perspective, it's hard to get past the first two waves as they just don't sell so restocks are few and far between.

This is one of the biggest reasons I import. The fuel used and time spent trying to find stuff that most likely wont even make it to my area (not counting skipped waves) will balance out when exchange rates and shipping are factored in to the toy cost from importing from somewhere like BBTS.

The retailers buy up crazy amounts of wave 01 stock, then wonder why it never sells, and don't order later waves thinking transformers aren't that popular. They don't seem to realise that the population isn't big enough for the levels of stock they are getting.

Outside of Canada and the US, this is a global situation. I rarely see anything outside of wave 1 and 2 and when it pops up, it´s on heavy discount (which is nice, two weeks ago I paid €15 for DOTM ultimate Prime).

On the other hand, the Netherlands are a great place for MIB G1. I rarely pay even half of the prices US eBay dealers ask, when I buy form local collectors.

here in the netherlands, i usually import stuff, because of the prices and availability