this is going to become the norm for a while and it's not just things shipped from china effected , i buy a lot of records and buy them from germany,netherlands ect as some i can't get in the uk because of being oldskool hardcore techno/gabba from the places mentioned not many uk sellers will stock them, i bought some the other day and all prices to import into the uk from all sellers have risen loads since the pandemic

i think we are just going to have to except it for what it is at the moment with high international shipping/import costs

 

That's up to the seller. Baba wants to pay up earlier so that he can be in front of the queue, but he doesn't want to tie up his own money (not all of it anyway).

 

L-O-L

 

yeah I'm not all surprised that FT wants payment early. I am surprised that baba is asking existing orders to pay up front.

 

Is it? There's always the option of just waiting for the figure to be released, then deciding if you want to purchase it or not. No one is forcing you to preorder. Just saying...

 

That's assuming bad motives behind the actions, and to use familiar language, that's not fair to do. Nobody knows the thinking behind the pricing strategy except dalianjj, and unless he communicates it, there's no real basis to judge it as "cold and greedy" just because we don't like that the price went up in this case.

The reason they sprang up as an option was because they could offer the same product for less, yes. And now if they can no longer afford to do so, they may not continue to attract as much business. They'll have to determine if the remaining business is sufficient or if they need to switch up their inventory mix to other products with better margins or even exit the market altogether.

Close but not quite. I am suggesting that any good business will find the optimal price at which to sell its goods or services, and if the previous price was too high or too low, it will eventually find equilibrium, ex any artificial forces acting to influence price away from the natural equilibrium point. China-based sellers list prices that are both low enough to attract overseas buyers and overcome the longer shipping time and sometimes uncertain aftersale support, and high enough to be profitable for their business to exist. The point at which those two constraints meet is where their price should be. It may be closer to US retailer prices than they have been in the past, or it may not. But that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying they should arbitrarily charge nearly as much as US retailers. And doing so would likely put them out of competition for US buyers.

That may or may not be the case, but if there is an opportunity to turn a profit (for example, if existing sellers were charging too much), that is what provides the opportunity for a new business to come into existence and compete with the existing sellers. The longer term outcome of such competition will vary. Sometimes new entrants influence a market in a way that brings prices down.
Other times, they don't succeed or the gap in pricing closes that had once enabled them to exist. It may be because they miscalculated and it turns out retailer prices weren't really as inflated as perceived, so their prices have to rise as a result in order to stay afloat themselves.
In the case of FT, other factors on the production side have led to price increases that appear to be affecting all sellers, namely freight cost increases and manufacturer base price increases and payment requirements. It appears these factors have had the effect of closing the gap between the US retailers and the China-based sellers, at least for this particular product.
We may not like it but the demand side of the market has made it evident they will buy the heck out of Thomas with no hesitation even at the higher price. That indicates that, so far, Fans Toys' decision to raise the price was the correct one. The market could bear the increase and if that nets them more capital to put into the alleged factory startup costs so they can start to run two production lines, collectors as a whole benefit from that. For example, we may get FT products more quickly and/or more consistently and/or we may get the reissues of past releases that many want alongside new releases instead of FT having to choose between one or the other.

And that's okay. On the whole, market economics work in the favor of all parties to provide sufficient goods/services to those who need them. Sometimes our view may be too narrowly focused or short-sighted to appreciate that. On a wider view, it is better for prices to reach their equilibrium point than to be artificially suppressed or inflated. Suppressed prices (not allowing sellers to charge what the market will bear) reduce the capability for future investment and R&D, and negate bringing other products to market as quickly or at all. Inflated prices (or sellers charging more than the market can bear) leave unmet demand that could have been filled to grow the consumer base for that product and future/related products, creating more fans that results in long-term benefits such as scaling up of production volume that can result in lower per-unit costs over time. There's more that could be said but kinda running out of time or interest.

 

Hyperinflation is to blame for all of this it's coming from both manufacturer and retailers as well as shipping. It will happen in every place from China to the uk, and the Americas since no one has really been working for about 2months give or take. Expect local, domestic, and international things to go up.

 

Most expensive yet? Astrotrain seems cheap by comparison to this. When will Fans Toys make a more definitive version, Ive held out for years.

 

Well a FT Devy will easily be 1k. But I don't think that's unreasonable.

 

...then they break

 

I wouldn't spend that much on a pantsformer.

 

But others would.

 

If it’s still a pre order and NOT even in pre production phase why is it selling out everywhere???!?!

Seems like a false fake Demand and scarcity tactic. Damn. It works too, which really sucks.

 

Already saving up in hopes that their individual botmodes and vehicle alt modes are excellent so I have a reason to add them to the collection. I don't see a gestalt mode surpassing Constructor very easily but I could be swayed to get another set for botmodes or alt modes. I almost kept my spare Constructor set just because the alt modes are really nice.

 

No luck on reply email about Baba’s prepayment link.

I went ahead and preordered on eBay. With a discount it came to $221 so hopefully shipping recovers by the fall so it doesn’t increase.

I copied my PayPal transaction I for for the deposit made on the website. Hopefully I get that back.

Now I’ll just try to ignore it till the fall.

 

You're almost halfway there to understanding the basics.

 

Baba replied and issued a refund.

 

I think normal ft constructicons would be 105 for one pop. But with the price hiking now, it will be 150 for one. Over 1000 will be crazy.

As we are all paying 220 for astrotrain.
And next year when shipping gone to normal again, he will cost 160 ( i don't think he'll be 150 ). Bye bye 60 bucks.
If FTstill keeps these prices, then we all know where it comes from.
Everything got more expensive, but not 40%+ like astrotrain.

 

Someone please help. Where can I pre-order this figure? I was asleep at the wheel and had no idea he was available for pre-order. Astrotrain is by far my favorite Transformer and I’m gonna be really pissed if I can’t get this one. Please help!