At $600 for the Sentinel, the seller would net $510 before shipping thanks to eBay selling fees. And have around $175 in shipping expense. They'd lose money. The only upside for the seller there is that they'd owe no capital gains tax, which is being enforced more on eBay sales now.
I completely forgot I had this pre-ordered until I got an e-mail it shipped a few days ago. Really nice looking figure. I hope we get a figure of her current purple suit someday.
Looks highly likely we’re getting a herald as a tier reward https://twitter.com/danyunistrying/status/1416237602802393088?s=21 yep
Way too big. A Danger Room more likely but maybe too big. War Room? I’d love a classic or animated series Blackbird from Haslab. It would have to be in 4” scale to be remotely possible. I know MU is dead but I’ve still got mine and love that line. Blackbird could also go with Joes or other figures in that scale. Probably never happen. My issue is with things like the fingers. How well will they be made with all those points of articulation? What happens if one breaks? I feel like having my Sentinel would give me a better idea of what they will deliver with this guy. $300 was the price I said I would buy at. $400 is a question mark.
Normally I would agree with you. Scalpers buy up inventory from a fixed product pool and try to get every dollar they can. This usually makes things harder to find and hurts the average collector, especially for really limited stuff. However, that isn’t the case here. Yes, people will be buying to sell and make money and that might FEEL upsetting to someone that wants the product at a lower price but if too many of the buyers are speculating they will find it harder to sell and that price won’t be so high. The real difference here is that, as mentioned, every single speculative buy creates one of these figures for the future market. That is almost never the case. This is the one instance where people wanting to scalp these is a market good and not a market drain. Will is cost a lot more? Maybe. The market will decide a price. The amount of profit someone sells one of these for later doesn’t really matter. The less sold now will mean a higher price later and more backers is a good thing for access. The cold truth is that every collector currently has access to this figure at “retail” cost. The people complaining they don’t want to pay up front and will buy from BBTS or somewhere later are making a choice. They don’t get to complain about that choice or the price they might have to pay later. It’s absurd to me seeing people complain about a hypothetical future price when they can lock in a price now. If it’s too expensive for your lifestyle right now and you don’t feel you can cut somewhere to afford it. Well, not everything is for everyone. We can’t all have Lamborghini’s.
I think it's important to make the distinction between a Scalper and a Secondary Market Salesman. When it comes to a Haslab item, someone who buys 5 x Galactus figures and then flips 4-5x once they arrive at 2x, 3x, 4x MSRP isn't a Scalper - that person is a Secondary Market Salesman, who is taking advantage of market inflation once the item is no longer available at retail. The operative difference between a Secondary Market Salesman and a Scalper is the manipulation of available units in the current market for the purposes of maximising profit. If Galactus were a limited run of 2000 x units, and someone bought 5 x for sale, then that would be scalping because the intent is to basically control a portion of the available inventory, which in turn, drives up the market price, and then make a profit off of that manipulated scarcity, especially if those units are spread over a geographical brick-and-mortar distribution. If Town A only receives 5 x units during distribution, that area is now dry, and any other collectors in that area must now find alternative methods to obtain the figure. This is the manipulation of inventory in a given market. Since a Haslab item is made to order, there's no artificial manipulation/control of available units in the market by buying extra units. If Salesman Fred buys 1 x unit for himself or 5 x units for himself, it ultimately has no bearing on the overall availability of the item for Collector John at the time while it is currently available for order. Now, individual opinions will vary along a spectrum on the ethics of secondary-market selling and pricing for items that are no longer available at retail, from hardliners who believe MSRP should be for all of the things to those who place those insanely high Buy-it-Now prices on eBay in an attempt to maximise profit. Because that's a subjective evaluation for each person, there's no real argument to make there. But again, there's a difference between a reseller (Secondary Market Salesman) and a Scalper. Some Scalpers are Secondary Market Salesmen, but not all Secondary Market Salesmen are Scalpers. Yay Venn Diagrams.
Yeah, I don't agree that there's any scalping going on with HasLab items. They're is certainly speculation buying for later resale, but is isn't scalping. Whether a person buys one or ten of a HasLab item it doesn't effect the overall amount available as these are made to order. Person X potentially buying ten doesn't stop person Y from buying 1. If people are making financial choices and can't afford to lock it in now ...at the cheapest price it's ever going to be... that's really a decision that's on them. Whether because they simply can't afford it (no shame, as @Icebot said we all can't own Lambos) or they think it's too expensive for what it is they are making a choice not to buy at the current price. If they get hit with FOMO and change their minds later or come into a better financial situation for themselves after the August 30th deadline... they really can't complain about after market prices when they had equal opportunity to buy as everyone else and made choices they felt were necessary at the time. Also, those people wouldn't even have the opportunity to change their minds or buy one if they come into a better situation if others didn't buy extras. Because then the aftermarket would only be made of people who bought for their personal collection and eventually decided to sell for whatever reason... and given how rare that could make them on the aftermarket I can assure you that prices would be even crazier than the current aftermarket for HasLab products. Honestly Galactus is pushing what I'm comfortable paying for a single figure. However he's a character that I feel I need in my collection so I reworked my collection budget to be able to afford him and Star Saber. I'm passing on a few retail and import items in the meantime that I'm hoping to be able to go back and get later. If I have to pay a markup to get those it won't be anywhere near as bad as if I were to pass on Galactus and Star Saber and then get FOMO later. Basically I'm choosing to prioritize my budget to make these affordable at their lowest price now. I'm budgeting to be able to pay for my Lamborghini.
Yeah, it's one of those rare instances where speculation-based buying actually works out well for the collector community as a whole because: 1. It increases the number of units backed, which pushes the item closer to meeting the minimum unit requirement (and potentially the stretch goals). 2. It increases the number of units in the market overall, which drives the secondary market price down for anyone who has to buy it later. I'm glad the window is open until the end of August. I'm trying to decide if I really need Galactus in my collection. I sold my ToyBiz BAF one 6 years ago and never really looked back. ...but there's that part of me that can't deny that it's a cool looking figure, and then that part of me whispers about how I really ought to own all of the major Marvel villains for my collection. $350 would have been easier to swallow, though.
I don’t care about the whole argument and who thinks what of others but do agree that anyone buying extra Haslab to sell are doing others a favor because there will be none to buy after the cutoff otherwise. Pretty simple. Now, sorry for asking here but what is all the talk about Star Saber being another Haslab? Like a lot of others here, I don’t pay attention to or really collect Transformers anymore but I am curious. Wasn’t Star Saber already released as an MP? What’s special about the Haslab?
The HasLab project would be presumably a more Generations-compatible approach. Possibly even a Victory Saber giftset. They're probably just not super confident in the character, who has relatively little Western exposure, especially when the MP seemingly didn't sell well enough to warrant a Victory Leo follow-up. Haven't been following the topic super closely, though. I don't think Victory Saber is even really confirmed. Just the odds-on favourite. Maybe Victory Saber is already in the works, and the HasLab initiative is just for the sake of digging deeper into the roster. The only thing officially announced is that the next HasLab project is Transformers Victory-based (a nod here to how Generations Grand Maximus was released as a Japanese-only crowd-fund initiative. Perhaps they're using the HasLab platform for a higher shot at success, since Grand Max kinda ran out of steam as a Japan-only release). For all we know, it could just wind up being something weird, like the "lost" Combiner Wars Dinoking release. Maybe with Pretender shells as a stretch goal.
I really need to see the complete package before I jump in. Hopefully all will be revealed before 8/30.
I wish they still made those 12 inch marvel legends. They had a Black Panther, a Cap, and an Iron Man before they stopped due to lack of demand. If they had just done an Ant-Man it would have been perfect for a Giant Man on a 6 inch shelf. ... I'm trying to figure out where they get 20 points of articulation on each hand for Galactus. I'm trying to count using my own hand, but I have palm articulation and I still don't get 20. Are they maybe considering a glove swivel below the wrist as part of the hands? So far I'm at: 3 knuckles on each finger (12) 2 knuckles on the thumb, plus the swivel (3) Wrist Swivel (1) Presumably some kind of Figuarts joint so that you get wrist movement in both axes (2?) That's 18.
I think they’re counting 4 per finger, rather than 3. 3 hinges and a rotation where each digit meets the palm. 3 knuckles + rotation x 4 fingers - 16 2 thumb knuckles + rotation - 19 Wrist swivel - 20
The Haslab Galactus is exactly the kind of thing that I'm tempted to buy despite not caring much about Marvel stuff just because it's cool and huge.
Galactus is at 6,189 just under 24 hours in. The Sentinel got to 6,000 at 26 hours so so far Galactus is pacing ahead of it. It could slow down now though. Sentinel started giving stretch goals at this point which spurred interest. Hopefully Hasbro reveals what those are soon so people can be motivated to try to reach them.
