The Energon Pub

I was wondering if someone could tell me where a good, reliable place online is to buy Masterpiece Transformers? I only know of one store locally that sells them, but all they have is Ultra Magnus. I checked eBay, but many of the sellers are from China/Hong Kong. To be honest, I am very leary of buying from those locations because of all the counterfeiting they do. I'm very particular about only getting legit merchandise.

There are popular online stores for Transformers like Big Bad Toy Store and TFSource. There are many others but these are the big ones. The prices, however, are going to be somewhat high and the inventory may not be that extensive. You won't find MP-01/Optimus Prime but you'll find other figures like MP-02/Ultra Magnus, MP-04/Optimus Prime with Trailer, MP-05/Megatron, etc.

If you do want to try eBay, I wouldn't be concerned about the location of a seller on eBay. It's really more about their feedback score. I personally look at the score as well as how many negative, if any, feedback they have. I've purchased from several Chinese sellers on eBay with no problems. They all had 99.5% or more for feedback scores, which is not necessarily a great thing by itself. Sellers can have thousands of sales so half a per cent can mean quite a few negative feedbacks. I checked all of their negative ratings and saw that often the issues were relatively minor(such as scuffed/dented package, which I'm not concerned about as I'm not an MISB collector).

So I suggest checking the score, how many negative feedbacks there are, and also the nature of the negative feedback.

Be sure to check the prices and types of items sold previously by the seller. If the seller previously sold $3 items and now is selling a few $50 products all of a sudden, I'd err on the side of caution. If I see that a seller has regularly sold higher priced items, especially if they are of the type I wish to bid on or buy, I know that at least the seller has a history of dealing in this kind of item.

Most sellers should have personal photos of their items. If they have stock photos, it's another sign to be wary of.

BBTS, TFsource, Robotkingdom (they have an ebay site store as well) are all reputable sources to buy from.

look to the upper right side of your screen and pick a store

Convotron wrote:There are popular online stores for Transformers like Big Bad Toy Store and TFSource. There are many others but these are the big ones. The prices, however, are going to be somewhat high and the inventory may not be that extensive. You won't find MP-01/Optimus Prime but you'll find other figures like MP-02/Ultra Magnus, MP-04/Optimus Prime with Trailer, MP-05/Megatron, etc.

Just to clarify, I meant that specifically about MP figures. You can find all kinds of MP figures in a marketplace like eBay but stores like BBTS, TFS, RobotKingdom, carry what they carry and sometimes may re-stock on MP figures.

I also mentioned higher pricing...that's not true for figures like Megatron. I've found good pricing for MP Megatron in stores, usually better than on eBay unless you get really lucky on an auction that doesn't charge you an arm and a leg(or a FACE if RotF OP is the seller) for the shipping fee.

Thanks for the responses. I'll give eBay another look as well as the stores you suggested.