Im getting back on the horse of collecting Transformers. Im looking at Masterpiece more then any thing. It seems most links on this forum dont have a lot of the older ones and ebay is hit and miss. Whats the best for price,trust and selection? Thanks
I have a bunch of Masterpiece items riding at reasonable prices right now on ebay. Including a few older ones. Auctions end in a few hours, have a look: codekid2k1 | eBay
I use BBTS for convenience because they have by far the easiest mechanism for cancelling preorders if you need to. But I also use The Chosen Prime, because of their excellent customer service and responsiveness to requests and inquiries. I prefer to use them when I can because they are fans themselves first and foremost, and they really take care of their customers. Other commonly used stores include TFSource, Robot Kingdom, Captured Prey, TF-Direct (though I have had a bad experience with them, they do offer competitive pricing especially early bird preordering prices, and they offer stuff other stores don't such as KOs,) Kapow Toys in the UK, Masterforce in the UK, and many others. You'll find differing opinions on who has the best customer support and pricing. I usually go with Chosen Prime or BBTS in a pinch personally.
Checking out Chosen Prime right now. Prices are not to bad. Ive used BBTS years ago and they were ok, but I never had any issues with a product so I dont know how they are if issues arrive.
I currently mainly use BBTS for cheaper stuff and TF Source for anything above $150 so I can get free shipping. I have also used Captured Prey, Toy Dojo and The Chosen Prime with no issues.
Ive lost two auctions now for MP-02. Ive checked all the online retailers and no one has it any more.
I mostly use robotkingdom for MP relesases. I use toydojo once, not bad but shipping time was a bit long on my experience.
Check out the for sale forum on here. I just started collecting about a month ago, started out buying from the online retailers, then discovered that. I got a ton of MISB, a few MIB, a few slightly more used, but saved literally hundreds. I got a nearly MIB MP-13 (Takara version Soundwave and superior red eyes), with all of the cassettes as well, for $200.
Don't do the auctions, just look at their threads and then PM them! I also got MP-09 Rodimus from a guy on here. I was winning an auction, then lost it at the last second. Simultaneously I found out someone on here had a few of the open box ones that he was unloading, so I pm'ed him, and it turned out it was his auction! He still had a couple left and we negotiated and I got it a few bucks cheaper than my max bid on the auction!
I found a store that specializes in Transformers about a twenty minutes from my house. It seemed like he had decent prices I picked up MP-21 for under 75.00 after tax. This is his site if you guys want to check it out. Transfan2's Shop N' Look. Its kind of a weird name but its a decent shop.
I've used BBTS in the past, but they'll charge me sales tax since we're both in WI, so I usually only get small/sale items from them. I like TFSource's pre-order stacking system, as well as their free shipping for orders over $150. Other retailers offer similar free shipping too. About 15 years ago I ordered from Hobby Link Japan (HLJ), and had no issues. You'll need to pay the shipping costs from Japan, and the figure prices fluctuate somewhat based on the current Yen-Dollar exchange rate. I revived my account recently to order MP-10 (~$145) and MP-21G (~$36) from them. HLJ let's you stack items for 60 days. Hoping MP-25 arrives before then so I can ship everything together to save on shipping.
