Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. I also want to thank you for answering with a calm tone, and with a thought out explanation. It makes me happy to see that there is still room for debate.
This could prove to be a very interesting opportunity, because as collector’s we do not get the opportunity to provide feedback directly to resellers. With having the person responsible for making business decisions communicating to the community, it could open doors for collectors.
I want to address some of the points that you made:
• Prices are based off of Ebay completed auctions and BBTS.
I understand that you are basing pricing off of what other people have been able to charge for the same figure. If that is how you want to run your business, that is completely fine. I just won’t buy from you. BBTS and Ebay sellers are accused all the time of being scalpers (just look at the flack BBTS took for their Indiana Jones Lost Wave sets).
BBTS deliberately prices the new items higher because they know that is what people want. Again, if BBTS would offer all the figures at $10.00 - $12.00 and allow customers to buy them in singles, I would be happy to buy from them. But BBTS tries to force purchasing decisions and tries to create false demand. I consider what BBTS does to be manipulative and opportunistic. That is my opinion of their business model, and is the reason that I will not buy NEW product from them.
Ebay has also made collecting new items a pain in the butt because people have very little to no patience. Lots of people operate under a have-to-have it attitude, and they also have discretionary money to spend. When some “sellers” see the prices things can command on Ebay they go out to the store, buy all they can and then try to sell it and make a quick buck (I understand that this is NOT what you do). The Ebay culture however has artificially raised the cost of new items because people are easily scared.
• You don’t want to get stuck with non-selling figures.
Take the sales numbers you get and the feedback from your customers back to Hasbro. If enough of Hasbro’s customers complain, they could potentially start making a new Case assortment for non-mass retail. I know that it is unlikely to happen, but you never got anything by NOT asking.
• Prices are better in the store, and you have Make an Offer on your e-bay auctions.
I have heard from other collectors, that your store charged the online prices in-store as well. This was after you had told the local guys that you would give them a discount. When they came back you told them no discount. Also, I have tired your Make an Offer (reasonable offers – a couple of bucks above retail) and have been refused every time. If you want to promote alternative pricing then I would love to see you live up to it.
• Order cases ahead of time.
I don’t want to buy figures that I don’t want. This is why I will not buy a case. I stated multiple times that I CAN wait for retail, but I am willing to support a local business if their prices are in the realm of reality. NOT $23 for a brand new figure
If you have taken the time to read all of this, then thanks for listening. If you stopped reading at the beginning, more power to you. There is nothing forcing you to read this, expect to promote a better collecting community in Indiana.
I have one Final question however. Mass retail prices their figures the way they do so that they can make a profit. This means that there is a profit level at the 7.99 – 9.99 price range (granted, the profit level may not be enough to run a business, especially a specialty shop like yours). I am curious at how much Hasbro actually charges for a case of their figures. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, and I know that their prices vary depending on the volume you buy, but could you give us any insight to how much Hasbro charges a customer like you vs. how much they charge a customer like WalMart?
Thanks again for listening, and I promise that any further posts will be kept short.
