Interesting, rare and sometimes cheap ebay items.

[Verno]

$350 per basic is about what those would be worth these days. Still, $350 for each one is cheaper than the 1994 & 1995 BotCon toys... which admittedly were twice as rare, but half as small.
And with more recent BotCon toys getting close to the $1000 mark, imagine how expensive it would be to collect all BotCon toys.

It's crazy mad! There was a time I was considering getting the '06 DOFP Set, but $1k for Megatron?! You've got to be kidding. I mean I'm pretty big BW fan, but I'm not that much of a fan.

Some of the Beast-related BotCon figures are almost justifiable. $80-100 for an Onyx Primal. $150 for a TM Tigaton. Windrazor and Sandstorm seem to have come back down in price a bit.

Is it scalpers pushing the prices up to these ridiculous levels? And what was this whole thing with Soundwave's headband from this years Convention?

[SuspectimusPrime]

$350 per basic is about what those would be worth these days. Still, $350 for each one is cheaper than the 1994 & 1995 BotCon toys... which admittedly were twice as rare, but half as small.

That's insane! I was quite sure maybe a year ago there was a MIB set of these two little guys going for less than $200? Bidding started at 99cents. I was thinking no way I'd pay $100 per BW Basic..

It's crazy mad! There was a time I was considering getting the '06 DOFP Set, but $1k for Megatron?! You've got to be kidding. I mean I'm pretty big BW fan, but I'm not that much of a fan.

This year's Botcon had a SG Longarm/Shockwave custom class exclusive (via the RTS Jazz mould), which flew straight to $1000 on eBay just days after Botcon

[Verno]

This year's Botcon had a SG Longarm/Shockwave custom class exclusive (via the RTS Jazz mould), which flew straight to $1000 on eBay just days after Botcon

That's disgusting! If figures are that popular, Hasbro/BotCon should be producing more of them post-BotCon to keep the prices down. It would be stupid of them not to. Why let a seller make all the profits when they could sell it and still make a healthy profit margin themselves.

[griffin]

I'd like to see something like that as well (not exact reproductions, but similar ones for the rest of us to get, while still allowing the BotCon ones to remain special without having an inflated value - which spoils the point of the exclusive if people selfishly snap them up first-hand only to resell them)... but it's probably that kind of thinking that now has FunPub selling over-inflated toys, just to get a cut of the Scalper action. (they probably figured, if fans will pay scalpers 3 or 4 times the price of their previous figures, why not bump up the price, to line their own pockets with some of that scalper profit margin)

[Verno]

If that's true, that's disgraceful behaviour from FunPub. Scalpers I can understand doing it, because they're the scum of the Earth - but FunPub?

What can we do besides demanding to see their production costs and what sort of mark-up they have on each figure?

[griffin]

There's no proof they are doing it... it's just speculation based on how they have been able to sell toys in expensive, fancy boxes in the past for less than these (which are just toys in plastic bags this time). If they can produce Deluxe figures as membership toys, and sell them in plastic bags for $25-30... you gotta wonder where the extra $30 is going for these ones. And keep in mind, Hasbro can produce Deluxe toys for about US$4 each and sell them wholesale at about US$8 each (complete with backing card & bubble) - even if a small production run with extra paint apps and a couple new heads adds to the expense, there is a massive difference here that someone is pocketing.

[5FDP]

After the credit card debacle and the contempt with which FunPub treated their loyal customer base, nothing about them surprises me anymore. They will never see a cent of my money.

[SuspectimusPrime]

If that's true, that's disgraceful behaviour from FunPub. Scalpers I can understand doing it, because they're the scum of the Earth - but FunPub?

What can we do besides demanding to see their production costs and what sort of mark-up they have on each figure?

I don't think there's much we can do but act like 5DFP and vote with your feet. It's not like they're a listed company so we can't really demand for their profits or production costs.

We know they're making exuberant amounts of profits, however if they wanted to make tons of money through toys I wished they were smarter with it. What happened with customising class SG Shockwave could easily be avoided if they produced several thousand for sale to non-attending club members, with the end result being more profits for them and more equality for their other club members. People will still pay for the customising class just to get it first ahead of everyone else. Those toys came on sprig trees for your own assembly (via here) so they won't have any assembly costs. This and this could have easily been avoided.

[UltraMarginal]

I'm darker on the selfish A-holes that go to the custom class with no other intention than re-selling the toy afterwards. Get lost and make room for someone who wants to be there and keep the toy.

I do see validity in making the kits available to others outside of the class, it's not a bad idea, though the custom elements could be a bit harder to provide. the minerva ears were extremely fragile. it would take the shine off the secondary market though. and I find that extremely appealing.

While it's a bit surprising at the price Funpub are charging for the subscription service, I'm wondering if they priced it a little higher than necessary to allow for orders to fall short of their projections. If they had posted prices a lot lower and then not had enough people buy in, they would have ended up losing big time and when it comes down to it, even though they are fans, they are also a business and have to pay their own wages.

If they are going to make say 10,000 of something, they know in advance how much they can charge for it and make the necessary profit. if they don't know if they're making 10,000 or 1000, they'll be much more likely to price as if they are making 1000, it just makes good business sense.

keep in mind that this is the first time they've ever offered first class mail international for any club postage options. they could have made it a lot harder on us if they'd kept postage the same as they used to.

Maybe it's time this discussion had it's own thread...

[Sky Shadow]

BotCon '97 Fractyl and Packrat

Would I like to one day own such a piece? Sure, yeah, it's an interesting piece of history.

But how can it possibly be worth $700? That's $350 for each basic sized figure!

If that's the case, are they not the most expensive Basic sized toy ever?!

I bought my set from eBay this year for about $80 shipped. So yes, that is overpriced.