I’ve had bad luck finding TF figures.... So I’ve been wondering, where do YOU usually get your figures from?

 

I'm patient and like hunting. I buy at brick and mortar unless there's an insane deal online or the figure just isn't available at retail anymore.

 

The only store close enough for me to check regularly enough to find everything I'm gonna want only carries Deluxe and Voyagers so I try to get most of those there. Any other size class, it's much easier to go online.

 

Almost exclusively online. Too much time and gas is wasted to go hunting in stores where stock is typically minimal to non existent, lines and waves are skipped frequently, etc.

 

I prefer physical retail.

Nothing beats the sensation of being able to find something you want, buying it, and immediately getting to enjoy it when you get home. Especially when it's a particularly rare find.

 

I voted local AND online. Lol. Honestly, it is probably 50/50 for me these days. I'd love to find more things in-store to satisfy my nomadic hunter-gatherer instincts...but my modern web-enabled neural net often beats my inner animal to the punch.

 

I go to a collectible store called Cape and Cowls for pretty much all my Transformers. Unless it's an exclusive he can't get, then I go to the source.

 

I enjoy buying Transformers in person at local stores, but the reality is that stock often comes in months after it was available online and distribution of figures is spotty in many places. I wish there were more toy stores, or toy aisles, or just more stock in the shelf space that is already allocated. I can see how there is still some fun to the hunt for some, but not for me anymore.

These days I preorder online and there hasn't been a single figure I've missed out on that I really wanted for the past couple years. Sometimes the deals are great, sometimes the shipping is high, but I have time for other things instead of driving and pacing stores. And it's fun getting mail. There are frustrations online, too - orders being delayed or even cancelled, or the frenzy of trying to order limited stock, but a lot of things come around again and later is better than never.

I also believe a lot of the online market is made up of small businesses which have filled the niche of the local shops, and I like supporting those businesses even if they are in other states.

 

Mostly stores. Occasionally online when I don't have much choice. Sometimes I'll find TF treasures at local yard sales and the swapmeet.

 

You can acquire a lot of great figures from other collectors through your local transformers fan club, from facebook groups for example. Several collectors are either trying to thin out their collection, or some have decided to stop collecting altogether. This cuts out the middleman, so prices are usually better than buying off of online stores or ebay. Also worth checking out this forum's Junkion Exchange section, or sites like Craigslist. Great for getting older releases that are now hard to find.

Also, there have been several occasions where I will get a lead on local stores that have just put out new transformers, from fellow tf collectors that share their sightings. Very similar to this forum's sightings section. But on Facebook, the sighting news are more frequent, and from a more larger and involved group.

If you're a Masterpiece collector, the cheapest prices for new upcoming releases are from Amazon Japan. For the cheapest prices for 3rd Party releases, there is Taobao, which is like the Ebay of China. But you'll have to learn how to use it.

 

Walmart, Target, Amazon, or Ebay, though I did just order Generations Selects Lancer from TFSource.

I have multiple Walmarts and Targets within relatively easy striking distance, so mainline figures are not usually difficult to get.

 

Ebay too

 

Online more often than not now, since most of the brick-n-mortar forget they have a toy section.

 

Amazon Wal-Mart ebay

 

Most of my purchases are online. I love going to B&M stores and buying them in person but I have about a 45 minute drive to my nearest Walmart or Target, those are the only stores I can buy figures from and distribution in this area sucks. So I pretty much have to shop online.

 

I usually buy my figures online about 95% of the time. I only buy 5% of the time in store since its very difficult for me to do the store purchase. So i wholly and completely rely on online stores. So i usually have to either wait or if available buy right then or get something else i need at that time.

 

I've got the most orders/pre-orders in at different locations than I've ever had before:

• Just got an order in from TCP
• An order is coming from a China EBay seller
• Have a pile of loot at BBTS
• Have POs at Amazon
• Have POs at Walmart
• Have POs at Hasbro Pulse
• Also recently bought from other members here and other EBay sellers

 

Pure retail with online in only one case (Berserker)

 

Toy Dojo all day long unless it's something they're not getting. Their customer service is second to none and have earned my loyalty several times.