Why are old Transformers from a few years ago so expensive now?

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by iwasherenotyou, Nov 29, 2015.

  1. iwasherenotyou

    iwasherenotyou Medical Officer

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    Sorry if this is a dumb question. I stopped collecting around the time Dark of the Moon came out and I was just looking through Amazon curious about some old toys and I saw a huge spike in prices for some of the Transformers I owned. I was wondering, are they really that valuable now? I imagined that they would be as expensive as some old Gamecube games but clearly they're not.
     
  2. harveydent

    harveydent Unknown Member

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    Those are just prices listed by 3rd party sellers. Doesn't mean anyone is buying them at that price.

    Hell, you can find Combiner Wars toys being sold at 3-4 times MSRP there.
     
  3. Driskull98

    Driskull98 Evil is as evil do.

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    Amazon listings are generally not an indicative of aftermarket prices for things.

    Although you are not wrong. There are a lot of figures released in recent years that have suddenly shot up in price. Case in point: Alpha Bravo. This guy is suddenly 30-60 dollars on eBay even though he was released at the beginning of this year!
     
  4. 3.8TransAM

    3.8TransAM Banned

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    I'll sell you mine for $45. That piece of shit goes for more than it cost new.................I need a new hobby..

    Just depends on what it is. Popular masterpieces get hot in a hurry, especially once the stick dries up. Same applies for combiners if say a company does something incredibly stupid like not make all the correct figures available from the get go. Then magically releases them at some random point down the line and make them hard for customers to get a hold of.

    End of series waves are always under ordered or never make it to traditional retail at all. hence your Tuesday Morning/TJ Maxx/etc findings at random.

    So any of those contribute to the prices.
     
  5. timcrook

    timcrook Well-Known Member

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    "Shelf space" on amazon or eBay is cheap, people can make any price they want. I think it is crazy people would even pay more than retail for movie toys.
     
  6. Canbot

    Canbot Well-Known Member

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    It's all supply and demand. I haven't seen a Legends class CW figure in my local WM all year...all year! When they do arrive, it's in such small amounts that you literally gotta luck out to get them.

    I now see a shelf of Motormasters along with one Battle Core OP. No Stunticons to go with him?...enter the ebay resellers (scalpers, in some cases). It sucks, but whatcha gonna do?

    Remember that even some of these recent toys (say, Leaders from the movies) are getting picked up by collectors who now have the funds to pay. And since those collectors also buy MPs, it's no real sweat to buy a toy for $100. So the market caters to that, even though nobody would compare an MP to a main line movie bot. But that's how people justify the purchase: if I'll spend $100 on MP 10, why not spend that much on an MISB ROTF Prime? I'm not saying it's 'right', but that's how it happens.
     
  7. pilotmaster70

    pilotmaster70 Space Nerd

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    Greedy Bastards aka scalpers
     
  8. RKillian

    RKillian http://www.rktoyandhobby.com

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    Amazon's fees are also sky high and their shipping vouchers distant from reality such that you cannot sell a $20 item for a profit unless it "fell off a truck."

    Sorry you dragged your feet for years and years while those toys were readily available.
     
  9. nobleboivin

    nobleboivin Well-Known Member

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    Going to say the same thing :thumb . There are some figs that are ridiculously priced.

    Some of us weren't allowed certain transformers growing up. Others of us stopped collecting for a while or just started. Mean no offense though.
     
  10. Strike Creamsicle

    Strike Creamsicle Likes the G2 neon lights TFW2005 Supporter

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    Something crazy about Amazon resellers, this is a fascinating article about the practice:

    Retailer Arbitrage: How Internet Middlemen Are Scaring Traditional Stores : NPR

    The really short version is that some people will happily pay 3-4x the retail at-store price on items just because they're available on Amazon with free PRIME shipping or somesuch, and they don't even think to check other websites or go into a store. It's insane.

    Anyways, that's why you can't trust Amazon's listings for prices on figures. Unless it "ships from and sold by" Amazon.com, the prices will just be nutters. (And actually, sometimes even Amazon's own prices are out of whack).

    Right? Raise your hand if you're kicking yourself for not buying a dozen of him when people were unloading extras for $5 when "quickslinger" was released.

    /raises hand
     
  11. Autovolt 127

    Autovolt 127 Get In The Titan, Prime!

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    Scalpers seems to think the older the stock, the more valuable it is.

    The stuff with Alpha Bravo is ridiculous.
     
  12. pilotmaster70

    pilotmaster70 Space Nerd

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    The majority of Classics took place in a time when I was not allowed to collect Transformers. Now however I have virtually introduced them to Youtubers such as peaugh and baltmatrix and now see that collecting is ok for a teenager.
     
  13. Ragnar

    Ragnar Fun with G1

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    Roughly 10 years makes the difference between a child playing with Transformers to an adult with a big boy job buying them as a collector. Most adult collectors love to track down the toys they had as a child.

    That Alpha Bravo stuff is hella crap tho!
     
  14. grimlock1972

    grimlock1972 Optimus, serving up the primest of ribs since 1984

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    Amazon sellers are out there when it comes to pricing especially once Amazon is no longer selling the item themselves.

    you have to hunt and search for bargain and good deals.
     
  15. Dolza_Khyron

    Dolza_Khyron Well-Known Member

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    it really depends on which toys you are looking for.

    as bumblebees are really cheap. lol

    other than that, it really depends on how many were in a case. and how popular the figure was at the time. there also are not as many people getting rid of their figures anymore. so used ones are going up in value too.
     
  16. duttry98

    duttry98 Well-Known Member

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    So what is the deal with Alpha Bravo anyway? Did some dickbag one day make a stink that he was scarce, meanwhile he bought him up across 6 counties to corner the market, and people followed suit? LMAO
     
  17. timcrook

    timcrook Well-Known Member

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    Alpha Bravo is from wave 1, stores are selling wave 4 now. Why didn't people buy Alpha Bravo before?
     
  18. TheDecepticon

    TheDecepticon Resident Asshole

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    Glad I was able to recently snag MISB TG23 Metroplex for significantly less than the $400 Amazon sellers were asking (and I still had to overpay)
     
  19. Fallout

    Fallout Banned

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    classics are super prevalent on these boards. spend 10 minutes in the bst board and you can get basically any older classics retail toy.
     
  20. LSyd

    LSyd Well-Known Member

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    maybe the Alpha Bravo price jump is because of the backpack mode?

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