Agamemnon wrote:What about the light-up features? Also, Soundwave might be cheaper because BBTS still has stock and is looking to sell it. Not sure. I'm not trying to derail the thread, but I think sometimes online retailers get bashed a little too much. (Not saying you are here. I understand where you are coming from, but in all the years I've been shopping at BBTS, I do not find them to be gouging me at all. They are a business and have to make money and deal with market forces in their pricing.)
As far as Shockwave, indeed, I am much happier about the new lower price as it makes my decision to forgo Quakewave for the official release that much easier!
I totally get you too Agamemnon, you are always very logical and its always fun to converse with you. And I totally get that companies must turn a buck to operate.
One thing though, just so we can better analyse this, Soundwave has been at this price since he came out (pretty sure, this is what he was a year ago) and while Shockwave has a light up feature, Soundwave comes with an extra transformer. So I find both releases on par in terms of what the MSRP should be (which it technically, is, both have the same Takara MSP or just about).
I dont think they are price gouging just to get as much out of consumers as possible, but instead to stay profitable. There is no malicious intent. I do believe this high price and greater disparity than usual between their price and online japan retailers is due to them having to hedge their bets on other toys that they arent sure to sell (toys those japan retailers dont have). What I meant to say though is that consumers in return have a choice to get this figure for cheaper. My best example would be Windblade which was priced higher than retail at BBTS. They did this to cover their cost of the the other case figures they wouldnt sell. It's just business, but consumers did have a choice of getting her for cheaper at retail. And the higher price we see here is also because they do have the policy of cancelling preorders which cheaper options do not have. So those who would never cancel a preorder are at a disadvantage since they have to pay a special premium for a luxury other people may be using. Thats just consumer habit and policy, but I feel some consumers just accept it instead of looking into it, at their own buying habits, and seeing what is optimal.
My main point was just to inform users who may have a habit of shopping there of the other prices out there (with different policies) and how if we dont want to pay extra, we dont need to. They are free to charge us more, for whatever business reason there may be, and we are free to shop elsewhere.
And as you said, I dont have any beef with BBTS (they helped me get my Prime Vehicon) or any other online retailer, I jut shop whee it is cheaper for me, being fully aware of the different policies.
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In case you didn't notice, I am all about realism. I am okay about g1 Megatron and Soundwave, cuz that's the eighties. When you are talking about a 21st century Transformer figure, that has a gimmick that could in no way whatsoever be replicated in a show and still make sense, it annoys me.
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