2021 Transformers Toy Checklist for Australia

[griffin]

Updated post #2 with all of the items officially revealed today by Hasbro.

[griffin]

Finally added Cyberverse items (they never had an official reveal), and the new "not Rescue Bots"... plus the second wave of Buzzworthy Bumblebee toys, including their expected status in Australia.

[JJJ]

So what story is being given to explain the disparity in US and AU prices for the Fangry box?

The exchange rate is roughly 1:1.4, so USD $85 is AUD $120. Why is it being listed at $160? That's an extra 33% from no-where. No damned way is that due to alleged extra costs of transport.

[nalops]

So what story is being given to explain the disparity in US and AU prices for the Fangry box?

The exchange rate is roughly 1:1.4, so USD $85 is AUD $120. Why is it being listed at $160? That's an extra 33% from no-where. No damned way is that due to alleged extra costs of transport.

I'll admit, it's higher than I'd like but it's Myer, they overprice pretty much all their stock but they seem to have constant sales nowadays so you probably won't end up paying full price anyway.

I'd be shocked if they didn't just look at their current Deluxe price of $40, saw 4 of them in the pack and decided $160 was good enough.

[griffin]

So what story is being given to explain the disparity in US and AU prices for the Fangry box?

The exchange rate is roughly 1:1.4, so USD $85 is AUD $120. Why is it being listed at $160? That's an extra 33% from no-where. No damned way is that due to alleged extra costs of transport.

If you look at all of the different price points in the checklist, Australian prices are generally double whatever the US number is... so for something to be less than double, especially at a retailer like Myer, we actually got a good deal.

It's actually how I work out the estimated prices here of future items, because it is a very reliable conversion rate of just doubling the US figure, no matter what the current exchange rate actually is.

[JJJ]

Okay. So what do Hasbro Australia say when they are asked about this gross disparity?

[griffin]

Okay. So what do Hasbro Australia say when they are asked about this gross disparity?

You have to understand that Hasbro America is the toy company... Hasbro Australia is just a branch office like in most other countries, that is allowed to import and distribute their products, to not only make a profit for the local (Australian) office to pay for their expenses (including staff and marketing), but they also have to include profit that goes back to Hasbro America. Because Hasbro America is not going to have millions of its products sold in other countries each year and not make any money from them.
If you look at Hasbro America's quarterly reports, they include an "international revenue" component in their own revenue/profit amounts. That's the percentage of money they get off everything sold in other countries to retailers, which is on top of what those products have to sell for to make a profit to those non-American local distributors.

So if a Deluxe toy in America has a 40% profit margin when they sell it to an American retailer, it has to have a similar profit margin in non-American countries on top of the 40% profit margin that the local branch has to charge the local retailers for their own profits/operating costs.... which essentially doubles the price difference between what it cost to manufacture an item in Asia to what the product sells for (wholesale) to retailers in non-American countries, compared to what American retailers are charged (wholesale).

I've done the calculations in the past and it actually has very little to do with import taxes, corporate taxes and GST, as both countries have various duties and taxes that can be factored in, and the difference between Australia and America per item below a certain dollar value is quite negligible.
The significant difference comes down to the "commission" that goes back to Hasbro America from every Hasbro product sold in every non-American country like ours.


One thing that I can't get an explanation for though, is the significant price difference of Japanese exclusive items that we get here through Hasbro Asia (in Hong Kong). Those items are sold to retailers in Asia so cheaply that they are half the price at retail over there in places like Hong Kong, than they are here.... as if the wholesale price here is more than the retail price over there. It has nothing to do with shipping costs to Australia because we sometimes get non-Japanese items from Hasbro Asia that end up being similarly priced here at retail as over there (which means a similar wholesale price). You'd think that one branch of Hasbro (HK) would do a special deal for another branch of Hasbro (AUS) to make the stock cheaper for going to a "fellow branch of Hasbro", instead of charging them double what they charge the toy retailers that have no relationship to Hasbro.

[DELTAprime]

Also, the retailer has to make a profit. As we have seen from EB Games, some retailers like more profit margin than others.

[griffin]

Updated posts 2-5 with newest releases and reveals.

I will have to start filling out the 2022 post, now that we have several items officially revealed, including Victory Saber for late 2022.

[griffin]

Spent the day updating everything, including the confirmed 2022 items.

I still want to update some of the prices, but need to update the pricing topic first.