Your local Ollie's actually had some left at this point? Mine was cleaned out within 24hrs. Ebay is alight with them at this point, which is just silly. I see the lowest one going for around $80 shipped now, because idiots are flooding the market with them. More than half of the listings up were created since they went on sale on the 16th. Not sure why one would see one for that low, considering its weight. Glad to see that some of us got one before they were snatched up to be sold at a loss on ebay.

 

Yeah, just the one. One of the employees mentioned they put them out a few days ago with a 2 per customer limit. Except one employee sold 7 to a guy yesterday or so.
$80 is a is still a great deal. Seems this big influx of Trypticons has made him cheaper to get. That's nice

 

lol nice!

 

I picked up one this weekend as well in central Ohio. My store actually had four left. They were upfront, still in the shipping boxes. As I was checking out, the operator told me there was a line the morning of release and that they were sold out as of Thursday. She said the ones remaining just came in Friday.

 

Picked up mine in Greenville, SC on Friday at about noon. There was either 4 or 5 of them, stacked up by the end cap of the toy aisle. I even got to use my 15% off coupon!

Very excited to get him because he is going to be a Christmas present for my kids. They have really gotten into the *Masters and Trypticon will work perfectly with that. Especially as I have most of the small Titan Master sets also stashed away for gifts.

 

I do. I’m not a big fan of duplicates but I couldn’t resist the price.

 

I got two...one to open (and probably paint) and one to keep sealed and original.

 

Sucks the only ollies is an hour away I don't want to risk driving that far due to my truck acting up wish I a had a trypticon right now

 

Scored a couple last Wed night. I knew they'd sell fast, but had no idea we'd see photos posted with 20+. I must say that I think I like the head and overall proportions of the G1 over this new one. Even in proto pics I didn't like the narrow head. All the head detailing around the mouth, and the narrow profile always make me think of the Skeksis in The Dark Crystal.

 

It is, actually. The scalpers are somewhat helping others in this aspect, especially for someone who had no hope of getting one for $50. Now would be the time to grab it at $80, because I doubt it will ever be less than that. Not only that, you can gain the satisfaction of ripping off a scalper, because there is no way they are going to ship it and pay the fees for less than $30. Most of these "scalpers" obviously suck at math and investing, so take advantage of them for once.

 

Not everyone selling a Trypticon on Ebay is a "scalper". I am just reselling my extra to recoup the cost of it and the one I bought to keep. I am not really looking at gaining a profit, just regaining the money I spent in the first place.

 

If you are selling something in high demand that you bought to sell at a profit, no matter what the motivation, you would be considered scalping. Not that I am judging the act of it, but it is what it is. It is comparable to someone who had two Superbowl tickets, bought two knowing they only really needed one, and sold it to get theirs for free. If scalping were illegal, telling a cop that you only did it to get your money back wouldn't save you from being charged. Personally, I think scalpers serve their purpose. It is a free economy, and you do not have to pay for any price that you are given. I have used their "services" a few times, especially when I ran out of options at retail. I was ridiculing their business skills, not the act. And what you are doing is a smart move in my opinion. Nothing wrong with taking advantage of being in the right place at the right time. They had a limit, and you met it. However, if you are attempting to sell it now you might want to wait a month or so. Clear out the morons first. Let the price settle back at around $125 shipped, like it was before last Thursday. But if you really want to make yours free, wait until you can unload at around $140 shipped. Ebay and PP are gonna take about $15-20 of the sale, and that beast is going to run you around $25 to ship if you go fed-ex smart post. I think retail was around the aforementioned price, so it is definitely going to go for that much, if not more within the next few months or so.

 

But scalping implies an extremely limited item with incredibly high demand and selling for more than face value. Face value, MSRP, on these is $150 and they're available at plenty of outlets for less than that! While making a profit, people that are flipping Ollie's inventory can actually undercut other retailers while making money which is good for consumers in a free market economy.

I checked eBay and the lowest buy it now is $97 shipped, I'm ignoring auctions as they tend to actually go higher than lowers BIN pricing. Assuming they got the 15% off coupon that some people mentioned having, they paid $42.49 before tax. There is definitely room for profit at that price, more so if the user has an eBay store. It's not double your money profit but it could subsidize maybe half of the one you keep or possibly pay for it if you sell two.

 

You are not going to make anything at $97 shipped. The fees consume $15, the toy was $53, and not even $30 to ship. Plug the dimensions and weight into the USPS calculator. Shipped naked, 9lbs cross country is $42. Local seems inexplicably low (to the point of the USPS app being outright wrong) but with "free" shipping there's no incentive for buyers to think about distance.

 

I think you mean to say "I" because I see far lower fees and only an inexperienced person would ship a heavy box via USPS and not use FedEx ground or UPS. I plugged some info into a fee calculator based on getting Trypticon for $42.49 plus 7% tax. Using zip 30307 GA to 90210 CA for Fedex Ground on their site for a cross country example. FedEx rates are discounted when labels are created through eBay.



Now, it's not great money but any investor would tell you that a 20% return is a pretty good ROI, especially on a low risk quick flip.

 

Oh, so everybody got an Ollies coupon just because you did? And multiples at that because many of said coupons are limited to a single item?

I can tell you that calculator didn't account for the fixed cost of the eBay store either. It can't because the per item impact depends on how many items it's spread over. Further, it doesn't say what store tier or whether you're paying on a monthly basis, both of which affect the price. Do you think any casual flipper is paying extra for a store? And I don't see a location, so it clearly didn't figure on a foreign-registered PayPal account having a 4% fee instead of 3%.

Nor did you consider the additional drive to find a UPS/FedEx. All but the smallest towns have a post office. Not so with UPS and FedEx. USPS, by the way, shows $12 from Philly to Chicago, so what rate is an "experienced" person getting?

Then there's packaging cost and added weight. Amazon caught some flak in these parts for slapping a big ugly shipping label right on the reissue Predaking and Trypticon boxes. Even rippers pitch fits about boxes marred with stickers and punched full of holes.

Don't forget the risk of the customer simply claiming that it never showed up. Amazon requires signature delivery for you to win an A2Z. That comes out of your pocket, by the way.

As for an investor looking at 20%...yeah, that's great when you're flipping hundreds or thousands of dollars in stock. The cool $17 for lugging around a 9 pound box and putting up with eBay shenanigans, not so much. More power to people that want to put themselves through that for just over the cost of a large pizza though.

 

I actually got my coupon in the mail AFTER I made purchases with what I found out to be expired 10% off coupons. At one store, they actually handed me the 15% off coupon since my 10% were expired and not scanning. Many others mentioned using the coupon. The coupons were for an entire transaction, not one item so you could get three Tryps for $127.47 before tax. My point is the guy asking a slightly lower price may have gotten items at a lower price.

A non eBay store user would pay $3 or so more in eBay fees than the quote above. If you've got a store you're probably selling a lot of stuff and one more item is pennies in adjusted cost.

The foreign buyer is a stretch but okay, $1 extra in PayPal fees. However, when shipping out of country through the global shipping program, you also save a ton of money through USPS/FedEx discounted rates when you ship to the GSP shipping center.

I don't consider a drive to any postal carrier because they all do free pickup. You can estimate the weight and print a label online and they'll adjust the price accordingly. If you live near an Ollie's, you live near a FedEx/UPS or USPS location. I used a cross country trip to illustrate the high end actual cost of shipping a naked box while offering free shipping (my $22< your $42). A shorter hall would cost less and increase margin. No idea what your Philly to Chicago reference is but they're pretty close. With few exceptions, heavier items over 6 lbs going cross country are much cheaper via FedEx ground.

Box is up to the seller but it adds weight which adds increased shipping cost and your $42 quote was naked. Naked is not ideal but okay if explicitly letting buyers know you're doing that in the listing description. Obviously, someone that is offering better service is going to ask for more money to cover a box and packing materials. A good reason to keep all of the boxes and packing material from anything that's shipped to you.

Hard to deny receiving an item that tracking shows was delivered when all carriers offer tracking with free insurance included (USPS up to $50 and FedEx up to $100). Though the Amazon A2Z signature info is interesting, I was talking about eBay here. Is that why eBay prices are often lower than Amazon?

I'm glad you agree with my margin statement. I agree with you, people selling for lower margins are most likely casual sellers, probably subsidizing as per my earlier statement. If they bought three (the posted limit at stores in my area) with a coupon they could subsidize most if not all of the one they keep and would be satisfied with that. Most seasoned sellers are holding on to these, waiting for the low priced sellers to duke it out till prices rise. The quick flippers are willing to take the small potatoes and consumers benefit from it in the short term.

 

Investing and speculation on the value of toys is comparable to playing scratchers at 7-11. Low risk low reward. If you really wanted free toys, shoplift like the rest of us.