The Energon Pub

[WreckerJack]

I have one target in my area that is easy to get to, so ordering is easier than hunting. I have been looking for Warrior Thunderhoof, no such luck so I decided to try online. (Idk if I am early or late on the hunt)

To my dismay I found they were selling a warrior class Steeljaw for $21.99 Which is ridiculous to begin with yet warrior class Grimlock cost $14.19. I want to give the BOTD and say that it was an error. (and they didn't even have the warrior Thunderhoof I was looking for in the first place )

Links for proof- the screencaps would have been too large
http://www.target.com/p/transformers-ro ... Slot=_1_37
http://www.target.com/p/transformers-ro ... Slot=_1_38

I figure I would go to Walmart.com instead because of Target's 'error'.

While browsing I found this:


It is being sold for TWICE what it is worth on the walmart site. It takes advantage of people not as savvy as us collectors and that is wrong. Toynk are price gougers and they are using the walmart site to scam people into paying more.

Toywiz does the same thing so make sure to look out for them too. (I know this is a WWE figure but Toywiz are to be avoided as the gouge prices on TF's too)


This toy should be roughly 10 bucks. Always check the MSRP no matter what you are buying these days.

As a person who is just getting into collecting all of this is very aggravating.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

It's not entirely the vendor site that does that, mind you. If there's anything they're guilty of, it's allowing 3rd party resellers to advertise their product there. And you know what? It's perfectly legal, Amazon does that all the time.

Because the resellers are not contractually bound (as far as I know) to sell at a certain price, they can tack whatever on their product. All the sites do is offer advertising space, and indirectly saying "hey, our prices are lower, come buy from us!"

That Steeljaw does seem suspect, but look at the ad for ToyWiz...

[WreckerJack]

I'm aware that it is legal but that does not stop it from being shady. Morals are not always equal to laws. There is what it right and what is legal.

The main thing that makes me so mad about this is how bad it rips people off. I used to be into Beyblade a few years back and third parties on amazon would sell things for much more like I posted above.

The saddest thing I saw was a review on amazon by a Grandpa saying that his grandson loved the beyblade set but it was super expensive for it's quality. The old man was probably a senior on a fixed income and didn't know he could have bought the same set at his local store for half the cost!

I feel like this should be illegal and that something needs to be done about it. I can understand collectibles being a bit more if they are out of production but this being intentionally deceptive to profit.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Still, it's kinda the same principle with scalpers on EBay and it's basic Economics. Besides, if such practices didn't exist, we wouldn't have those Consumer Information programs we like so much

[Optimum Supreme]

Because the resellers are not contractually bound (as far as I know) to sell at a certain price, they can tack whatever on their product.

Actually they can't be bound to sell at a certain price, or it becomes illegal price fixing. Nintendo got in trouble for that back in the NES era.