Sparky Prime wrote:JediTricks wrote:Of course that's the case, that's why they're "list price" as previously mentioned. Discussing aftermarket prices that are affected by sources outside the initial item cost would only obfuscate the factual portion of the conversation.
I'd have to say leaving out a little detail like importing costs is obscuring the factual portion of the conversation, not to mention making this a conversation about "list price" which is really beside the point here. Because either way, you're still going to be paying more than the MSRP to actually get the item from another country. Maybe it might be a
bit cheaper overall to get it from a store in Japan, but we're still talking about it costing roughly in the $70-100 USD range for these figures. Even comparing the prices of Optimus Primal and the Autobot cars on anime-export... Primal is listed at $75 USD where as Tracks is $61, Ironhide is $70, Ratchet is $63... Some of those are only about $20 cheaper than BBTS's prices. Add in cost of importing them from the Japanese stores, and it's really not that big of a difference. And also, Primal's still not that significantly more expensive than the Autobot cars, being close to the same price range as them, which if you might recall, that was simply the point I was making in the first place.
Using list price negates all factors even when importing as they all have equal shipping costs based on weight/size, that's also why I factored the prices in Japanese yen since that would negate international currency exchange fluctuations. Your metric doesn't work as well because there are too many outside factors at play to judge it, you're comparing prices that were affected by exchange rates different from today, you're using a pre-order price against a post-release-window value, and then the prices you cited are each gauged by outside secondary market factors (Ironhide pricing has gone down below pre-order price on some retailers). Using the list prices in their local value clears the board of every single variable factor.
I haven't paid MSRP or above for any of the Masterpieces I've gotten from Japan:
- Wheeljack, list price 6500 yen, AE price 4550 yen, I paid 1090 yen shipping, 5640 yen total ($44.69 + $10.31, $55 total at the time, now it'd be $53.03 due to fluctuations)
- Tracks, list price 7500 yen, AE price 5250 yen, I paid 1860 yen for shipping (I splurged on faster shipping), 7110 yen total ($44.45 + $15.50, $59.95 total at the time, now it'd be $66.85 due to fluctuations)
- Hot Rod, list price 8000 yen, HLJ price 6440 yen, and split shipping with Shockwave so we'll tally it half at 1330 yen, 7770 yen total ($57.73 + $12.065, total after shipping is $69.80 rounded up, now it'd be $73.06 due to fluctuations)
- Shockwave, list price 16800 yen, HLJ price 13440 yen, and split shipping with Hot Rod so cost 1330 yen, 14770 yen total ($121.89 + $12.065, $133.96 total rounded up, now it'd be $138.87 due to fluctuations).
So as you can see, even with HLJ's higher price (which I justify as insurance on those purchases as HLJ is known to stand by purchases and I thought those 2 might need it - both were fine), I still spent less after shipping than MSRP would have had before local taxes. If I hadn't wussed out and just stuck with Anime-Export, Hot Rod was 5600 yen ($7.90 less than I paid) and Shockwave was 11760 ($15.80 less than I paid), but I would have probably paid at least $5 more in shipping between the 2.