ZeroWolf wrote:Agamemnon wrote:william-james88 wrote:Hellscream9999 wrote:TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Wait, I thought yesterday's report was that it was $440? Now it's $350? That's a lot closer to reasonable, if still pretty ridiculous.
No, it's $350 if you import it yourself, it'll be $450 to buy it from domestic retailers like bbts - unless I missed something
Thats right, could not have said it better myself.
Hrm...interestingly,
BBTS has removed the price (and even the ability to preorder) from their site. Maybe the fan backlash is having an impact?
Robotkingdom have him listed for $369.99 currently which is only $20 more then self import price.
Robot kingdom is always cheaper. By the way, BBTS is not selling at MSRP by choice. If they could sell for less they could. But as it is, they cant buy directly from Takara. Takara only sells to Japanese retailers, they cant sell transformers outside Japan since Hasbro owns the brand in ever other market.
So, middlemen buy wholesale from Takara and ship to BBTS and everyother retailer outside japan. That added middleman and shipping cost plus import cost means these toys always cost more locally.
Robotkingdom deals with hasbro Asia, who we know has its own releases of Takara products. So they can sell for cheaper.
But the shippng from china (which you guys can verify) will be about $50-60 at least so you end up at the same spot. There is no way out of that crazy price range right now.
If someone wants him cheap, you HAVE to wait to see what Amazon Japan sells him for, which will be around $350 USD. And then you have to pay shipping and import fees (which change depending on where you live).
Amelie wrote:Hellscream9999 wrote:But aren't they based out of china? Won't you still have to pay a lot in shipping?
I live in the UK. I end up paying for the shipping from China one way or the other at the end of the day...
How many people here are thinking of "gambling" on Hasbro taking this one up and going domestic in the hopes of a smaller price tag?
The alst time Hasbro was cheaper was with Starscream many moons ago. Since then, its been just as expensive or more expensive.
Here is Hasbro release of Beast Wars MP Megatron for $320. A Hasbro release of Prime would be $450, since they are matching MSRPs.
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/prod ... on/hse4006