Quote Originally Posted by Gouki View Post
And in an ideal world, everybody could afford to do that. But we don't live in an ideal world.
$220 seems less affordable than $150 to me. One reason why I prefer collecting toys off the primary market as opposed to the secondary market is because it works out cheaper (usually)!

Quote Originally Posted by Gouki View Post
Each case has to be taken individually, but basically, yes. If Grimlock was rereleased for $400 and his aftermarket prices were $500+ then, absolutely. What am I getting for $220 if I buy this? Well, I'm getting what would cost me way more on the aftermarket, so, how is that a bad thing?
I wouldn't say it's a "bad" thing -- good and bad are subjective and open to interpretation. But I wouldn't say it's terribly good value for money. Let me out it this way, a loose complete Fortress Maximus might cost you $1000 -- goodness knows how much a MISB G1 Fortress Maximus would cost. Let's just say $2000 for the sake of argument. So if they reissued a Fortress Maximus and sold it at $1500, would you consider that to be a good price considering that our hypothetical aftermarket price is $2000? Maybe for you it would be, but I personally wouldn't pay that, not when Brave Maximus cost me about $300 MISB. But of course, Encore Fortress Maximus is slated to be sold at 29800JPY ($315), which I find to be acceptable as it pretty much matches Brave Max's RRP (cheaper still for those of us who've preordered and obtained earlybird discounts). They recently did that chrome reissue of Sixshot (another Asian exclusive) at a much higher RRP than the first reissue... I can't remember what the price was, but I remember thinking to myself that there's no way I'd ever pay it.

I often feel that I'm paying an "impatience tax" when I buy toys at full RRP instead of waiting for it to come down in price during sales. But I think that when you pay inflated aftermarket prices, you're no longer just paying for the intrinsic value of that toy itself, you're paying like an "aftermarket tax". Every dollar above that toy's RRP is part of that "aftermarket tax" (just as every dollar I pay above sale price is part of the "impatience tax" for me). So at $220, you're paying $150 for the toy and about $70 "tax" on top of it.

"I love paying more taxes!" - Nobody Ever.