Yes. I got it $20-30 cheaper from them a few months ago. It’s downright disingenuous. It’s like they deliberately increase prices during these kinds of sales periods to target people who don’t know any better.

 

Yeap. I bought it for 79.99 during their anniversary sale.

 

I can't help but feel we're in the middle of a 90s comics crash and just don't know it yet. My sympathies to anybody relying on collectible sales as a sole/major source of income.

 

Oversaturated and too many cooks in the kitchen (and I mean that on the official level as well as 3rd party) and there's too much to consume and people are getting burnt out and fed up. It's just a matter of time before it all fails.
Heck. Even Beast Wars doesn't keep their value, not really. You can find some good, loose complete ones for roughly $30-40.00 when they were originally $15-25.00. Not a great increase considering they're roughly 25ish years old.

 

So now they’re holding back inventory to make it look like they have fewer items than they really do. I’ve seen this three times so far. I ordered the Maketoys Stealth Buster and Masterpiece Grapple when there were only two - Grapple today, in fact - and suddenly more inventory got listed. This happened with the Fansproject Dai Atlas, as well.

I’m not thrilled, since this doesn’t allow me to really plan my purchases like before, since they’re artificially creating scarcity and the impulse buys that follow. I’ve been a big BBTS backer for years, but I can’t justify this practice.

 

Yeah I noticed that too...I jumped at Dai Z when he got down to 2 and was at $50 price...then magically he had 10+ inventory the next day. I try to keep up with pricing on MMC stuff to fill out my wreckers and Lost Light crew but then I see them pull stunts like this...or the way they offer these huge sales and really they are the same exact sales been going on for 3 months. Excepts they will add 2 or 3 new ones in like the encore/takara big convoy/big blue they marked to $54 during cyber monday/black friday. Gotta say, even though I didn't buy anything from bbts or tfsource, tfsource had the better deals this year. I ended up going agesthreeandup just because they had the maas bumblebee in stock and for $20. And I really wanted a Cybertronian Bee since Hasbro screwed us by moving forward to Earthmodes.

 

Many stores have a certain number of product allocated for a particular sale. Perhaps that’s what this is..

 

I shipped my loot a little over an hour ago and already got my ship notification. Thats a record. I wonder if they prioritize Priority Mail shipments over the cheaper $4 shipments (PR doesnt qualify for the $4 shipping offer, so I always use Priority Mail).

 

Probably helps that a lot of hot items haven't come in this week. not a lot of people hitting ship at once.

 

Anything is quicker over the 4 buck flat rate thing. It'll always take atleast a week for it to even leave the warehouse if you do that method. Part of why I quit using it.

 

Well, the other side of that is look at how many stores are closing because people are waiting for clearance sales. Nobody can pay $15 for deluxes, sell them for $10, and stay in business. It might not matter to people with decent stores nearby, but some of us _need_ online shops that aren't Amazon to stay open. Seriously, in the last two years, I had to take Toys R Us, Captured Prey, AJ's Toy Chest, KMart, and my local flea market off of my list of places to buy toys.

 

For me it usually takes 2 days. Hit ship on Friday, and it has the ship notification by Tuesday.

 

The latest Studio Series deluxes are up for pre-order

 

Takes 3 to 5 business days for me. Usually get the package in 2 weeks from shipping the POL. Don't really care about the speed since I'm cheap.

 

I'm of the opinion its not what shipping method you use that determines how long it takes for your order to be processed, but when you ship it. If a bunch of people hit ship when a hot item comes, it will take more time. I hit ship on a Friday with the expectation that it will ship by Tuesday and be at my front door by the following Friday (a Friday that I'm usually off).

 

I placed a stock order last weekend that "shipped" on Wednesday, but the tracking hasn't moved yet.$4 shipping or not I would think they'd have the foresight to arrange extra FedEx pickups during a busy week.

 

So you just have a label created, and info sent to Fed-Ex or is it at a Fed-Ex facility?

 

Label created.

 

To be fair, that could be FedEx's doing, actually. BBTS can place the order as ready, but it's up to FedEx to actually come and pick it up. Problem is, the weather has been terrible this season and the holiday window is much shorter this year, so they're backed up left and right. I've got two packages that were supposed to be delivered yesterday, but they're just now updating as having been to the hub that's just before my residence...well after delivery stopped. So, now one is saying Tuesday, the other says pending, and I don't actually know when they'll come. So, yeah. That's fun.

When even Amazon is backed up and missing their delivery windows, you know something's off.

 

Of the many reasons why I'm glad I don't have to ship anything from Big Bad till January. I always cringe at anything going through the postal system or private in December.