I love BBTS but lately their prices have gone insanely high

[Tigermegatron]

I love BBTS.com & i'm their biggest supporter but lately their prices have gone sky high.

The reason I created this thread was because for the past few weeks/months. I noticed BBTS.COM/Joel & other USA based import on-line stores are charging extremly high/outrageous prices for Hasbro TF Prime & Takara TF Prime toys. when news that hasbro cancelled the FE line & hasbro wasn't carrying Some FE stuff in america. this is when all the on-line import stores leaped into action & raised their FE Hasbro & FE Takara TF toy prices. literally within hours of hearing the news.

Sadly bbts.com & other usa based import on-line sites are almost charging double prices for the hasbro TF Prime Rid toys.

It goes without saying all these usa based Import stores on-line are charging double or tripple prices for all the Takara TF Prime FE & Rid toys. since the minicons are not being sold by hasbro,their rare & desired. thus it feels like these import on-line stores are charging based on rarity or popularity & not price.

is the hike in gasoline & the economy affecting joel/bbts.com & other usa based import on-line stores? or is greed playing a role in all the insane/outrageous price hikes on TF toys?

It use to be,one was able to by pass the import prices on joel's bbts.com site by ordering in bulk & paying less for the items & getting one decent shipping price. Sadly these days seem to be long gone. Examples: ordering 4 newly released TF deluxes in a bulk pack use to almost cost about retail store prices. Now BBTS has those 4 newly released deluxes bulk packs calculated at almost the same exact price a buyer on his site would pay for one singular newly released deluxe purchase. to further explain this,here are two bbts.com links with some TF Prime hasbro deluxe listings. http://www.bigbadtoy...415&mode=retail
http://www.bigbadtoy...527&mode=retail
http://www.bigbadtoy...530&mode=retail
http://www.bigbadtoy...529&mode=retail

it just seems like all these usa based import sites/shops are getting a bit extra greedy these days by over charging double or tripple prices. they all seem to be making up their own high prices based on the popularity or rarity of the item,rather than making a slight profit off of what they paid for the item.

I noticed all these usa based import on-line stores charging for rarity or popularity a few year ago. when the Alternity figures first came out. most of these USA based import on-line stores were selling alternity toys for the same exact prices as the Binaltech toys when they first came out. I remember the average usa based import on-line price was around $50 for each newly released binal-tech TF toy. years later these same import on-line stores were charging around $50 for newly released ALTERNITY TF TOYS.

So,what's the deal? were the alternity TF figures that were sold by takara MSRP. Cost the same exact price as the binal tech TF toys MSRP? or did all the usa based import on-line sites charge double prices? due to the rarity,popularity & low volume units on the alternity TF toys?

[Shockwave]

I think it depends on the toys. The Alternity ones might have actually cost more to produce because of the die cast metal. I've noticed price changes too, specifically with the Henkei Hot Rod figure. Originally, it was ~30$ when it first came out, then in 2010 they had it priced at ~78.00 (even though they didn't have any in stock) and now I think they have it at ~35 after the recent restock from Takara. I can understand that they are a business and want to maximize their profits as much as possilbe, heck I've often done the same thing on ebay (although it should be noted that when I sell on ebay, I'm selling out desperation, not greed as I'd usually rather have the toys than the money). I often search what something is going for and place a buy it now on my auctions for just below that so to make mine the most desireable while still getting what I can for it. The problem is that bbts loses out on those sales when they price themselves too high. It's like they would rather overestimate the value in hopes of making a few sales at the highest price rather than more sales at a lower price.

[Tigermegatron]

I think it depends on the toys. The Alternity ones might have actually cost more to produce because of the die cast metal. I've noticed price changes too, specifically with the Henkei Hot Rod figure. Originally, it was ~30$ when it first came out, then in 2010 they had it priced at ~78.00 (even though they didn't have any in stock) and now I think they have it at ~35 after the recent restock from Takara. I can understand that they are a business and want to maximize their profits as much as possilbe, heck I've often done the same thing on ebay (although it should be noted that when I sell on ebay, I'm selling out desperation, not greed as I'd usually rather have the toys than the money). I often search what something is going for and place a buy it now on my auctions for just below that so to make mine the most desireable while still getting what I can for it. The problem is that bbts loses out on those sales when they price themselves too high. It's like they would rather overestimate the value in hopes of making a few sales at the highest price rather than more sales at a lower price.

I agree with everything you said,except the alternity & binal-tech toys both were made using a lot of diecast metal.

[Shockwave]

I think it depends on the toys. The Alternity ones might have actually cost more to produce because of the die cast metal. I've noticed price changes too, specifically with the Henkei Hot Rod figure. Originally, it was ~30$ when it first came out, then in 2010 they had it priced at ~78.00 (even though they didn't have any in stock) and now I think they have it at ~35 after the recent restock from Takara. I can understand that they are a business and want to maximize their profits as much as possilbe, heck I've often done the same thing on ebay (although it should be noted that when I sell on ebay, I'm selling out desperation, not greed as I'd usually rather have the toys than the money). I often search what something is going for and place a buy it now on my auctions for just below that so to make mine the most desireable while still getting what I can for it. The problem is that bbts loses out on those sales when they price themselves too high. It's like they would rather overestimate the value in hopes of making a few sales at the highest price rather than more sales at a lower price.

I agree with everything you said,except the alternity & binal-tech toys both were made using a lot of diecast metal.

Which is more expensive than plastic and therefore more expensive figures.

[Tigermegatron]

I think it depends on the toys. The Alternity ones might have actually cost more to produce because of the die cast metal. I've noticed price changes too, specifically with the Henkei Hot Rod figure. Originally, it was ~30$ when it first came out, then in 2010 they had it priced at ~78.00 (even though they didn't have any in stock) and now I think they have it at ~35 after the recent restock from Takara. I can understand that they are a business and want to maximize their profits as much as possilbe, heck I've often done the same thing on ebay (although it should be noted that when I sell on ebay, I'm selling out desperation, not greed as I'd usually rather have the toys than the money). I often search what something is going for and place a buy it now on my auctions for just below that so to make mine the most desireable while still getting what I can for it. The problem is that bbts loses out on those sales when they price themselves too high. It's like they would rather overestimate the value in hopes of making a few sales at the highest price rather than more sales at a lower price.

I agree with everything you said,except the alternity & binal-tech toys both were made using a lot of diecast metal.

Which is more expensive than plastic and therefore more expensive figures.

Your missing the point. since alternity & binal-tech toys both had diecast metal. this doesn't justify alternity which has deluxe sized toys being the same exact price as binal-tech toys.

[Shockwave]

I think it depends on the toys. The Alternity ones might have actually cost more to produce because of the die cast metal. I've noticed price changes too, specifically with the Henkei Hot Rod figure. Originally, it was ~30$ when it first came out, then in 2010 they had it priced at ~78.00 (even though they didn't have any in stock) and now I think they have it at ~35 after the recent restock from Takara. I can understand that they are a business and want to maximize their profits as much as possilbe, heck I've often done the same thing on ebay (although it should be noted that when I sell on ebay, I'm selling out desperation, not greed as I'd usually rather have the toys than the money). I often search what something is going for and place a buy it now on my auctions for just below that so to make mine the most desireable while still getting what I can for it. The problem is that bbts loses out on those sales when they price themselves too high. It's like they would rather overestimate the value in hopes of making a few sales at the highest price rather than more sales at a lower price.

I agree with everything you said,except the alternity & binal-tech toys both were made using a lot of diecast metal.

Which is more expensive than plastic and therefore more expensive figures.

Huh. I thought they were the same size. Be that as it may, that would only make for a price difference of ~$10.00 between the two. Of course, it may be the quantity of die cast parts that increases the price and not the size, but I don't know enough about the details of how that works to really back that up.

Your missing the point. since alternity & binal-tech toys both had diecast metal. this doesn't justify alternity which has deluxe sized toys being the same exact price as binal-tech toys.

[Onslaught Six]

Yeah, I don't blame you for not knowing the difference between Alternity and BT, since Alternity sucks.

Anyway. The real culprit is something called exchange rates. Money is not a universal currency. $1 does not equal 100 yen, for example. As of this year, the yen is "stronger" than the US dollar. The exact exchange rate right now is about ¥78 to $1.

What this means is...say Classics Rodimus cost ¥3000. A few years ago the yen and dollar were more equal, so he would have cost about $30 USD in Japan. (This is an example.) Now that the Yen is stronger against the dollar, though, that same ¥3000 is worth $38 and change. So for BBTS to make any kind of profit on importing Classics Rodimus, they'd need to increase their prices, because it's costing them at least $8 more just to get the toy initially. To Japan, the figure is still the same price he always was--3000 yen. It's only because our currency is worth less than it was before that he's more expensive to import now.