I can't bad mouth them as they've always been great to me to deal with whether online or in person (talked to a few guys from there at Botcon) but I was surprised to see this as well. In their defense though, they may be getting an allocation of them at a markup above and beyond Amazon, thus the price hike. I obviously don't have any inside info or anything so this is merely speculation on my part but I have to assume if they were given access to him as a "shared exclusive" at the same price, I would have to assume they would also sell it @ $34.99. You know once (if?) Amazon sells out these will be on the secondary market for AT LEAST $60 so I can't kill them for their price. My only complaint really with BBTS is they don't offer free shipping like TF source does. Other than that I really cant hate.

 

No way would BBTS pay above $34.99 for them up front. If that was the case, they would simply buy a huge quantity of them on Amazon like any one of us can do.

 

Perhaps the difference in price is that BBTS appears to be getting them in August whereas Amazon's will be available in December?

MIKE
engledogg

 

++

I've seen that on a few of the 'cheaper' deals lately. People pre-selling later planned restocks while the higher priced guy has inventory now.

 

I just want to share a little knowledge on pricing, Amazon, discounts, etc... as I see a lot of misunderstanding here.

1) Best offer - despite beliefs to the contrary, the majority of sellers and items you find on Ebay are marked up very little, in order to keep listings on top of searches and be competitive. Keep in mind, the seller is likely marking up 10-20%. Ebay is then taking 12-15%. That leaves a 5% profit or so for the seller. When you submit a best offer, consider the discount you're asking. When they're only willing to knock off $5, perhaps that is a pretty significant portion of their profit? I see this often with my own store's customers. They assume an item costing over $100 has a pretty significant profit margin whereas we're only making a few bucks off the sale to remain competitively priced. So when the seller responds to your best offer by countering with the original price, they're letting you know your offer was unrealistically low and not possible.

2) Amazon's lower price - doesn't mean BBTS is gouging you. It's actually quite the opposite. Amazon watches sellers and items, and when they see an item that does well or gets a ton of page hits, they buy into it themselves. They REFUSE to follow manufacturer MAP pricing, they buy MILLIONS of dollars of an item at a time which obtains pricing for them that is much lower than any other sellers, then they undercut everyone to move the product very fast. The reality is that when they do this, most sellers CANNOT compete or price similarly. On some items I've even seem Amazon selling items at a price lower than my own COST on the same item (especially anything marked as an "Add On Item".


Please keep this in mind. It's completely unfair to expect a RELATIVELY small toy store to be able to have the same purchasing and pricing power that a giant like Amazon (or big box chain) has.

 

You're speaking logic and facts to collectors. Unfortunately all most collectors know is "SCALPER BAAAAAAD!!". They have no desire to attempt to understand the costs involved for eBay sellers or small businesses. All they know is they want what they want and they want it at or below sticker price. They don't care about eBay or amazon selling fees. They don't care about PayPal fees. They don't care about shipping costs, or shipping materials cost (most of which can be blamed on eBay's horseshit "Free Shipping" scam). They just want their shiny plastic crack delivered to their front door with a Coke and smile. It's the sort of infantile entitlement that has driven most small businesses under and given rise to the WalMart's and amazon's.

 

No I'm not assuming they're paying above $34.99 for each of them, I'm saying let's assume Amazon is getting them for $20 direct from Hasbro. (It doesn't matter what the actual cost is, just using that for the sake of argument.) BBTS has to get them from a third party in China or something for $30 because it's an "Amazon exclusive" and they can't source them directly from Hasbro, thus the difference in retail price. Therefore, they HAVE to mark it up slightly to turn a profit cuz, well, that's kind of what they're in business for. Or it could be as someone else suggested and they are getting an early stock, kind of like they did with Metroplex last year, thus the increased price. The good thing here is you have a choice, complete your dino set soon and pay a slight premium, or wait and save some cash. It's not like they are taking advantage of people cuz they know they have no other option...

 

You do realize that while the above statement is 100% true, nobody thinks like that when they are shopping. They don't care what your purchasing power is, or that there is a logical reason things are priced how they are. All they know is you are selling something for more than a competitor and they want the better price when they can get it.


Everything else here makes sense and I understand the cost in running a sales based business. My thing with eBay best offer sellers is if you're only going to allow maybe a $5 discount that's fine, I get why in some cases, but my thing is if you're going to hit me back with the same price as your BIN, then don't waste my time making me think I'm might get a better deal. All that's gonna do is piss me off that the option was there and more than likely I'm just going to end up going to another seller anyway because I thought your price was too high to begin with.

 

Sticker price already has reseller margin built into it. That's why it's the sticker price man. suggested RETAIL price.

Correct - because those are all costs that the business is supposed to cover with the margin they build into their prices. Just like I don't want to hear about the price of electricity in your city. That is all built into your cost structure and what margin you setup to capture on your goods to cover both your cost AND profits.

Sure some people forget at times some sellers are NOT private sellers... but don't whine about the 'hidden costs' of being in retail. If you want to be in retail, you need to price accordingly. Retail will never win on price vs private sellers - so they shouldn't try to. It's the same in every industry. Retailers win by offering things the private sellers can not.

 

i think the problem collectors have with wannabe entrepreneurs/self-proclaimed "economists" is that if "businessmen" didn't buy merch in bulk at the conventions or off the HTS site, they could purchase it themselves for a cheaper price. the unsold sdcc exclusives are shipped to HTS and available for sale at the original price thru HTS. it's not like they're destroyed. the collectable toy "Warren Buffetts" of eBay didn't invent, create, discover, or rescue anything for collectors/fans. they aren't facilitating the distribution of an item that doesn't already have a way to collectors. anyone who can buy it off eBay can buy it off HTS. or at least have an opportunity to. you are correct, no one cares about those fees because no one asked or forced you to purchase the items.
are there people willing to pay a premium to avoid missing out? sure, but i'd rather take my chances with HTS and a fair/equal shot at getting the exclusives for the original price. if i don't get them, so be it.

 

that's more for people who want to pay now for the figure rather than wait. g2 bruticus was that way too. and so was jetwing optimus, originally 130 at amazon, then 100 at tru a year later.

 

I think you missed his point. If he bought it at the sticker price, that's his cost BEFORE eBay, Paypal, and shipping fees. They have to mark it up to cover that, and then people complain that they can't get it for the original sticker price.

 

I think that any scalper that has already picked up items at the SDCC should stay far clear of the HTS sale if it happens tomorrow and give everyone else a chance. Have Heart. Show some compassion.   You made your money now let the people that really CARE about these toys BUY them. Non scalpers sill have to pay their own money to own these toys and will keep them for many years to come. They will open them, play with them(maybe) and never sell them. We are not looking for a quick turn around. So I hope everyone buys 1 of each and gets what they want.  

As far as bbts or Amazon prices, Who would buy the same items at one store or another for a higher price if both items are available for pre order at the same time?
Buy from amazon now. If you miss out buy from bbts later. End of discussion right? Maybe? no?  

 

People don't care that people want to resell something at a price to cover their costs - People care that people are making themselves into resellers and disrupting the sales distribution for everyone else. If they were legitimate resellers, they would be able to buy the product at a price that allowed reselling near the MSRP.

When you are waiting in line, and a flipper buys the piece that you were waiting for that. That's bad for everyone.

When enough people are involved it disrupts the normal sales distribution - it's bad for the community at large.

These items were always going to be available after the show. Guys standing in line to buy up the inventory aren't doing anyone a favor but themselves.

 

If the seller isn't willing to budge more than 5% - they shouldn't be advertising 'or best offer' to start with. If they can't accept less, stop advertising like you would.

 

Roughly 250 Dinobot sets have sold so far on Ebay. Another 80 or so are in the process of being sold. Many of these are mutiples from the same seller( I do not know how many different sellers in total ) So we have aprox 330 Dinobot sets in total so far sold or selling. How many were available for sale at Sdcc? What percentage of the ones purchased at Sdcc were bought for the sole purpose of resale?

 

Playing devil's advocate--If that's the case, how do you feel about those who sell the piece after it's no longer in the normal distribution channels and effectively "out of production". Should everyone be forced to sell said items at or near msrp forever. Because if so, the whole eBay experience is scalper central no matter if you're big business, small business or "collector" just offloading what we don't want anymore. At what point is the scalper line drawn? Most of us here seem to have no problem letting the market dictate how much we pay or buy in an auction. It's usually the buy it now pricing that really gets on people's nerves. But at what point is that distinction made?

 

How long does it usually take HTS to post these? Are we not getting them this year?

 

It's usually a few days after the convention. Yes, we are still getting them. Hasbro always puts stock aside for sale after Comic Con, its just taking them longer than usual this year.

 

"Before Labor Day" was what I was quoted last rep I spoke to.