Hasbro clamping down on buying from U.S. direct?

[awe]

Hi,

This came up on another board that I check. A poster received this response from a largish-scale eBay seller when asking about Star Wars and Marvel Legends type figures. I thought it might also have implications for the people here.

That's if its true. It's important to note this is only one response from one seller and they may not even have the facts straight from Hasbro. It's difficult to tell. I just know that Playmates started doing something similar last year with big online retailers such as BBTS.

In any case, here's the troubling text verbatim...

<snip />

***************

Sadly, Hasbro is no longer allowing US sellers to ship their product
overseas so you will not be able to see any of our Hasbro product
going forward. If you want us to send you Hasbro product, you have to
visit the US Ebay site to view our Hasbro offerings, then have your
item shipped to a friend in the US. I understand that this is a very
unreasonable expectation, but sadly, it is the only solution we are
left with. As you can imagine, we are pretty upset about it as it
represents about 20% of our total sales. You will find other sellers
who have decided to simply ignore this rule at their own risk. Hasbro
has threatened to pull the account of anyone attempting to sell
overseas. We can not risk our account being pulled so we have had
decided to abide by their policy. We are urging them to reconsider and
are trying to find a legal way around the policy.

***************

-awe

[CBratron]

No links, names, screenshots?
Anything to distinguish this from random scaremongering?

[UltraMarginal]

interesting, if true I can see a lot of online stores having issue with this, BBTS, TF Source to name a few.
I am not going to worry about it though untill we hear something concrete from Hasbro. If true it may also be restricted to just those lines.

[fatbot]

interesting, if true I can see a lot of online stores having issue with this, BBTS, TF Source to name a few.
I am not going to worry about it though untill we hear something concrete from Hasbro. If true it may also be restricted to just those lines.

Agreed, until places like BBTS etc start saying this, I'm not going to worry.

Maybe Griffin can ask at the Melbourne toyfair this weekend?

I think it's bloody dodgy though, if no retailer wants to stock these figures, does that mean we can't get them easily?

[Zommael]

There's absolutely no advantage to Hasbro doing this, so if it's true, it's both surprising and short-sighted. However, I can think of no conceivable reason why they would. In all the 10+ years I've been collecting, I've been outside the US, and I've never known Hasbro to implement such a policy. It seems very unlikely.

What is true in my experience is that some sellers, particularly in the US, don't want to go through the perceived "hassle" of selling something overseas. The way to deal with that on eBay is just to say you won't ship abroad, but some people say they will then change their minds afterwards. Even though this seller - if they are a seller and this isn't just random scaremongering - says about 20% of their sales are overseas, it seems more likely they've decided they don't want to ship to the guy for some other reason and are trying to pass the buck along.

Honestly, there would be a worldwide fan outcry if this were an official Hasbro policy. BBTS and the other online stores that ship worldwide would oppose it and Hasbro would pretty much be forced to back down.

[awe]

No links, names, screenshots?
Anything to distinguish this from random scaremongering?

There weren't any in the original post, and when I asked if he minded me reposting over here he did say as long as I made sure that I communicated this info is far from official and tenuous at best.

Not trying to scaremonger. Just wanted to increase the likelihood that we could get some more info or at least have a placeholder for discussion if this does turn out to be more than one seller spinning a yarn.

Transformers at least appear to be more favoured at retail in this country. At least that's how it seems to me as the casual collector when comparing with some of Hasbro's other lines.

[Omega Metro]

Lego has done it. So won't surprise me if others follow.

[fatbot]

Lego has done it. So won't surprise me if others follow.

Playmates does it as well.

It really doesn't matter, as long as Hasbro Australia lifts it's game & allows us to buy toys directly from them, just like the yanks can with hasbrotoyshop.com

[griffin]

It would be stupid (but not unlikely) for Hasbro and Mattel to follow the lead of Lego, because they profit from their "exclusive" rights to importing and distributing of their brands to the Major Retailers.
So instead of lowering the prices to match other countries, and being more reliable with their products (to prevent us from resorting to import), they'd prefer to prevent us from importing, even if it meant preventing us from buying products that they don't even import into the country.

It's not like we choose to import to spite them... it's because we have no alternatives on some items (availability), and need to save money on others (excessive wholesale pricing here).

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Honestly, there would be a worldwide fan outcry if this were an official Hasbro policy. BBTS and the other online stores that ship worldwide would oppose it and Hasbro would pretty much be forced to back down.

No there wouldn't. It'd be Australia and NZ-wide at best. If hasbro really wanted to enforce it, I am sure the threat of pulling their products from BBTS would be more than enough to make BBTS and co back down.

It would suck though as the main reason I buy online is due to the lack of availability over here. Sure paying our prices when compared to O/S sucks, but the main problem is that I see the same toys on shelves for YEARS.