The Energon Pub

Sid Burn wrote:speaking specifically about Almar_ent, the ebay seller selling all those botcon sets being discussed here.

he started all these auctions at 1 penny, and let the market (ie the collector community) dictate the value of these sets.

that seems a lot more fair than what Toy Arena or BBTS is doing by buying them up and setting a fixed price well above the issue price at botcon.

For my money, he is an asset, not a scalper, there are fans all around the world who want these but cannot attend the show.

starting auctions at essentially 0 and letting the bidders dictate the closing price isnt anything like a traditional scalper.

That's fair. And I will acknowledge that he has nearly perfect feedback on eBay, so he must be doing something right.

As I've mentioned above, I accept that having to pay a premium after the fact to get something I missed out on is the nature of this hobby, to some extent. My biggest gripe was that this guy had control of more than 100 of these supposedly limited, supposedly exclusive items. I'm not sure if this is something FunPub directly facilitated or not -- perhaps the guy is just very industrious in his acquisitions -- but it smelled fishy to me. My ire is generally directed at FunPub, the purported "fan club", not at someone who successfully gamed the system.

It Is Him wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Scalpers are douchebags, but if people out there are dumb enough to pay, who am I to begrudge a douchebag his/her profit?

Yeah. What they're doing is offering a service to those who didn't attend. Who didn't stand in line for hours. Who didn't buy a $300 ticket package. Who didn't book a hotel or a flight.

100% markup? That's cool with me.

^ This.....

Im tired of people who every year complain about not being able to get the figures they want for some reason or another. If somebody wants a figure bad enough, pony up the cash or go to the con like most of do. Stand in that grueling line and wait like the rest of us, don't blame the convention goers for prices being high../rant

Thinking of getting the junkion set and the optimus and kick-over set. my question is should i just pay the prices they are asking for today? or wait a bit for things to die down maybe it'll be a little cheaper? I guess I want to know what everyone think their short term value will go up or down? i say short term not what they will be in 4 5 years.

Thanks,

mooncake623 wrote:Thinking of getting the junkion set and the optimus and kick-over set. my question is should i just pay the prices they are asking for today? or wait a bit for things to die down maybe it'll be a little cheaper? I guess I want to know what everyone think their short term value will go up or down? i say short term not what they will be in 4 5 years.

Thanks,

If you wait, you'll probably pay more, not less. Right now there are a lot of them on the market. As time goes on, many will be bought by collectors who are going to stash them away in their collections. The supply will shrink much faster than the demand. And if any of the collectors who are buying them now decide to sell them later, they'll want to make a profit, so they'll sell them for more than they paid.

After years of collecting I've learned that prices only go up, not down, ESPECIALLY for exclusives, and if there's something you want, you'd better buy it now or you'll regret it later.

mooncake623 wrote:Thinking of getting the junkion set and the optimus and kick-over set. my question is should i just pay the prices they are asking for today? or wait a bit for things to die down maybe it'll be a little cheaper? I guess I want to know what everyone think their short term value will go up or down? i say short term not what they will be in 4 5 years.

Thanks,

Pick which one you want the most and get it now.. You will pay more later if you wait. For example, look at the botcon 08 sets..those things go for $1000's now..

Order my sets. Thanks or the advice guys

Ya, you should pick up your sets now, fresh off the heels of Botcon. I mean, look at SG Rodimus or Prime... you never know. Hell, why even bid, when you can Buy It Now? Once they're bought you will never ever be able to get these! Why are you still reading this? Spend! Spend, you fool!

Actually Court Jester you're right a little bit: the BIN option is turning out a lot better for most of these than an auction, even moreso if you can get ahold of one with a Best Offer option (though that usually only saves $2-5 in the long run). As long as you can get close to a number you feel comfortable with, it beats getting into a bidding war with 4 or 5 different people that all want the same thing (and yes, they'll bid higher than the BIN auctions cost in the frenzy). Finding a seller that has others from the same set you wants helps too since that'll chop down on the final shipping price. Just keep searching till you find an auction near a price you feel comfortable with.

Right now other than Straxus (because I pulled the trigger too soon), I've yet to pay over $80 for any of these and own half the boxed set as a result.

Waiting a week or two fro the hype to die down cannot hurt your chances to get them cheaper.

Buying them now puts you in direct competition with every other collection who wants them. They made more of these sets than they have in the past.

Waiting a few years, yes, they will probably go up. But waiting a few weeks, less competition possibly, less demand, and yes, some diminished supply, but there still should be supply.