Quote Originally Posted by DELTAprime View Post
The minimum wage is fair, medium is not you are comparing what a person can actually earn to a statistic.
Scientific statistics are the only way we can get objective comparisons, without being misguided by personal experience or opinion.
Minimum wage people in either country are less likely to buy "unnecessary" items like collectable toys. And the minimum wage statistics for America aren't accurate, because the people on those wages earn tips to make up the difference, and those are rarely declared (for tax or statistical purposes). This is why they have recommended tipping rates (of about 15%) to make up for the low "minimum wage" rate. Since our minimum wage earners don't get tips, it is impossible to compare the real (actual) earnings of our minimum earners to American minimum earners.


Inflation isn't a factor because it applies to America as well (hence the 30% increase in Deluxe pricing in the last 10 years).

And most stores here have maintained the same price during the last 10 years ($25-30 for a Deluxe is what it was since Beast Machines came here while our Dollar was at it's worst). Hasbro raised our prices when the Dollar weakened (Deluxes went from $20 in Beast Wars to $30 in Beast Machines & RiD) while the US price of the Deluxes stayed the same during that time... but when our Dollar strengthened, did we see an improvement in our prices? Nup. The Wholesale price stayed at AU$17-18 for Deluxes (depending on the store chain and how many they bought), so stores like Kmart and BigW did compete with each other about 3 years ago and got as low as $23-24, but not because the wholesale price dropped... while stores like Toyworld, TRU and Myer have stayed at $30 since 2001.

The cost to Hasbro Australia dropped by half during the last 10 years, due to the exchange rate going from US50 cents to US$1.10... so factoring in the inflation of 30% that American Deluxe prices have seen during that time, Hasbro Australia have only passed on 30% of the 100% increase in profit margin that they made in the last 10 years.
Still fair?

(this is why I keep records of all the prices reported ever since Ozformers started in 1996, and archive the current prices for reference (even have the occasional wholesale prices from Hasbro too)... so that I can enlighten the newer fans on how much we've been cheated in Australia all these years)