If this is in the wrong place, can a MOD please move it? If at the convention the extra figures went for: Sweeps 3 pack - $49 Razorclaw/Elita - $79 Banzaitron/Skyquake - $69 Am I off-base saying that people selling them for $150 a set is a tad overboard? I am just curious how people got their hands on five or six sets of each? I have not been to a Botcon, so I am curious as to how this works.
I have not either, but I would bet that people would rather pay a premium for some figures, than buy a $700 plane ticket pay $100 a night to stay in a hotel and go to Botcon and save some money on a Tf. I'm not trying to be a wise #$#@@%%$ just giving my perspective. This is precisely the reason I can't go. Too much money. On the other hand maybe these guys that are selling Botcon figures at inflated rates are trying to recoup their travel expenses. Who knows. Thats my 2 cents.
That's pretty accurate. I was going to go this year, but it was in cali and I live in florida so that was just too expensive for me. The only figs I wanted anyway were the 3 sweeps and scourge. Yeah I paid a small premium for them, but all things considered it was great savings compared to a trip, tickets for me and the wife, boxset, exclusives etc. it was win/win...
as a past botcon attendee, i know that alot of people bring thier families and sign them up for the figures becuase of the re-sale potential. i sold my 2007 box set, and it alone paid for my entire trip. gas, hotel, and food. i kept a few momentos, but sold off alot. it was the ony way i could afford to go. the extra sets are sold 1 per lanyard, you have a family of 5, you get 5 sets, then, any extras are sold at the botcon store table. you can get in line as often as you want, but only 1 extra set per turn in line. this is how alot are getting extras to sell. also, in 2007, alot of dealers traded store credit for botcon figures. this is how bbts gets thier stock, as they have to follow the same rules as a dealer. alot of people trade up. prices set on e-bay are buyer defined. leozack was going for $150-$200 the day of convention, now, since alot seem to be willing to sell thiers, the price has gone down to $100-$150.
yeah the sweeps are going super crazy now...$150 to $200 plus for a set of three..... I nabbed a single one on a BIN of $79 yesterday.....thought at the time that was crazy....but that was 24 hours ago...now i am glad atleast i am getting one...i keep getting outbid on the auctions...just cannot justify $250 or up for 3 sweeps... but it is totally the folks would rather pay extra $$ than have to fund the whole trip to just get there to buy them...
I was a bit hasty and dropped a lot of money on a few of the botcon exclusives. However, I rationalize paying heavily inflated prices with the opportunity costs of not having to travel to the convention and wait hours in lines. I really hate waiting in lines, so I personally place a lot of value on foregoing that ordeal. Lastly, who do you blame for the crazy aftermarket prices? The sellers that set the prices or the buyers that are willing to pay them?
shit, the lines were hell to get those guys and the sweeps were limited to one per person. i would be really hard pressed to sell those for cheaper unless it was a personal friend.
Rarity equals value in the world of toys. I was able to secure a sweep for $50 to stand in as my scourge and thats good enough for me. Land shark seams to be the biggest dude. I saw alot of listings for only $50
That's how I justified my two Botcon purchases from eBay today. A total of $200.00 for both Elita 1 and Scourge beats the price of airfair, hotel and food. Seeing as how they were the only two figures I wanted I feel like I saved time and travel money.... plus I could still drop the extra coin here at home to buy ROTF stuff from Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys r Us and still come out ahead. Vacation at home all the way!
I can only give you my experience from 08 and 09. 2008 Thursday-Friday - limit one Megatron/Rod ($118+t) and one Sideswipe/Blurr ($82+t) Saturday - 3hr wait, line started at 5:30 AM, opened at 8:30 AM, limit 2 of each. I ended up with 3 Megatron/Rod and 3 Sideswipe/Blurr. If I had gotten back in line I might have gotten two more each. I took Wednesday-Friday off of work to go and if I had sold my extras then (finally got around to doing it yesterday) I would have covered a lot of my costs. 2009 Thursday-Friday - limit one Sweeps (49+t), two Banzai/Sky (69+t), three Razor/Elita (79+t) Saturday - 2:30 hr wait (line started at 6), limit one each, had to choose between getting the add-ons or getting Weird-Al or Peter Cullen autograph. I ended up with 2 sweeps, 4 Banzais, and 5 razor. I did immediately get in line and they were out of sweeps (so no way they had 200). I had to beg work to let me go and I only manage to get Friday off. Couldn't even stick around until Sunday when all the dealers drop prices. I'm selling off my 1st set of extras right now on ebay at the market price to cover expenses. Selling off the rest of my extras at the 25% mark agreed upon before the con to a couple of board members. I'm even giving them until Friday to find a better deal. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any extra sweeps but if I did I would be keeping my promise and charging them $67 for the set. ----- And it looks like the sweeps are creeping up to $200-$250 on ebay now so $150 a steal. Suprised BBTS sold theirs for only $160 when they only managed to get $20 of em.
All I know is that I spent 4+ hours in line on Thursday night just to purchase the extras. So for those folks buying these suckers online for anything close to cost is pretty good. That's 4+ hours of my life I'll never get back.
this is exactly why i don't like figures being an exclusive for an event as it drives up the prices on the secondary market to extreme levels and makes nearly impossible to impossible for those like me who must collect on a tight budget
Collecting on a budget sucks but you have to admit things like Scourge and Sweeps with a new head would NEVER be done as a non-exclusive. If you don't have money but have time here's the best option. 1) Botcon 1st announced 2) Pre-sell the Primus+freebie+add-ons for cost+$200 (in this year's case it would have been $715) 3) Buy 2 Primus packages 4) Show up at the con and stand in line 4 hours Thursday or 5 minutes Friday for your add-ons 5) This year you had the option to purchase 3 Razorclaw/Elita and 2 Banzai/Sky so the only piece you're missing is the Sweeps since you've presold yours. 6) Stand in line 3 hours Saturday morning for the sweeps I'm assuming the $200 profit from preselling covers your plane ticket and if you fly in Friday your only additional cost should be hotel+transportation. If you work with other people and split rooms and car that should cost you less than $100. Complete Set Retail Cost = $515 Boxset + leozack($300) Sweeps ($54) Banzaitron/skyquake ($75) Razorclaw/elita ($86) Botcon experience extra Cost = ??? getting to see the Hasbro, TFCC, voice actor panels getting the dealer room experience getting to meet and get autographs meeting a bunch of cool people A) Retail Cost of all Toys = $515 B) Normal Botcon experience = $1015 (Retail Cost + $200 plane + $300 transportation/hotel + Botcon experience) C) Cost of buying toys off ebay = ~$800-900 ($300 boxset + $100 leozack + $200 sweeps + $120 banzai/sky + $120 razor/elita) D) Poor man's Botcon experience = $615 (Retail Cost + $200 plane + $100 transportation/hotel, friday only - $200 pre-sell profit + standing in line for 3-8 hours + Botcon experience) So if you're poor you can do option D like me. $100 for the botcon experience is SOOOOOOOO worth it.
Some people go with the thought of turning a good profit due to the high demand that people on the secondary market set. Others on the other hand pick up a few extra sets and are nice enough to offer them at a price that's a bit more than retail, but far less than eBay. The way I see it, considering how long I've heard people had to wait in line, a slight mark up on price is more than fair. For me, I wanted to go to Botcon this year, but my fiance wanted to go to Paris instead. So we compromised. We go to Paris, and I spend some money on the exclusives, all of which people on here were nice enough to offer up at prices far less than eBay. Sigh....if only they would do Botcon in Hawaii....then she'd be up for it for sure.
its because you guys will pay anything for these toys and they know it, if no one bought them for that much then they would bring hte prices down (hasbro included) stop buying the exclusives at botcon and watch how quickly the price will drop next year, stop bidding ridiculous prices for something worth no more than 5 dollars and watch the same thing happen...its all of your faults that the prices are so high
Got a second sweep with a BIN of $89...2 is all i am getting...too much $ spent for the two...but gotta have atleast a couple...i am going to use the sweeps with noizemaze and the two purple ratbats that i have as scourge's group to command....
The toys are only worth a little in real terms but the more galleries of them get posted and the more we talk about them - the more it drives people crazy who can't be there. There are always enough people with fat wallets to drive the price as high as it can go. The question is how desirable is the current set. IMO it is not very desirable, and only a few previous sets have been (aka seekers and rid fem cars).
I noticed that there were a lot of box sets for sale at market price. That's unusual as last year the shattered sets were pretty popular...
well unless botcon comes fairly close to me where I can avoid airfare its always going to be out of the question, and i realize they wouldn't make it in retail for many event exclusives, i just can't afford to pay more than 10-15% above retail and given the retail cost of the botconfigs are out of my range to start with im screwed XD more than likely best id be able to do at Botcon is to go general admission to the sales rooms to troll for bargins and maybe meet up with some people from here
