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Gamestop Selling Marvel Legends For $30 - Stick A Fork In Them


JayC

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25 minutes ago, Jmacq1 said:

The thing is, most indications are that Gamestop is actually better at selling "the products beyond that" (Action Figures and Collectibles) than "the stuff they specialize in" (Video Games), or at least the action figure/collectible segment has been more profitable for them than the video game segment in the last year or two, which is why they keep expanding it. 

There's virtually no reason to buy new games at Gamestop and their used game prices (outside of sales/specials) are often barely competitive with new copies of older games (and newer used games barely sell for less than they cost new).  Even most game developers don't do retailer-exclusive preorder bonuses anymore (which to be clear is a GOOD thing, but it's no help to Gamestop).

 

That's what I'm saying, they should have found their own little niche by now. I know the game market is going predominantly online but there is still a huge collector section of the gamer population they could have appealed to. At this point a physical disc is little more than a receipt confirming that you paid for the product which then goes on to download it online, but a lot of people, myself included, just enjoy having the box for display. A lot of hardcore gamers don't really care where a game comes from, but how many of us know people that won't buy used games cuz the box doesn't look good? It's a collector thing, I think everyone here knows that. They shoulda tapped into that market a long time ago. That's all I'm saying.

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So I did some checking with a few sources, and other than Gamestop there are no indications of price hikes coming from Hasbro at this time  for mainline Marvel Legends. At one point with Tariffs it was a possibility but since those didn't happen all should remain relatively stable. I just wanted to throw that out there since I had seen rumors popping up that Gamestop had raised their prices in anticipation of an overall price hike.

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29 minutes ago, Jmacq1 said:

I think if it reaches that point we're likely to see more instances like Super 7 and Mattel's agreement.  Hasbro itself trying to sell action figures solely to adult collectors online would likely be seen as "beneath them/degrading" by Hasbro shareholders.  They're supposed to be a mass retail company, and if a line can't survive at mass retail, then they shouldn't waste time and resources on it, and instead focus on the things that are successful at mass retail.

But then again, Hasbro wants to shift to being more of a media company than a toy company, so they may well be licensing out their brands to other manufacturers to make toys sometime in the next couple decades regardless.

The problem with that is Super7 figures cost $45 + shipping for a 7" figure and regardless of how justifiable the reasons are for that price increase, many people simply just aren't going to pay that much for a 7" action figure. Some will but more won't. So if that becomes the norm the market (which is already relatively small) shrinks even more.

IDK how many of you follow Star Wars news but just yesterday Hasbro announced a very cool looking Vintage Collection Troop Transport vehicle for their 3.75" line. The cost is $70. Ever since then all I've seen from folks are things like Im not going to pay that much, or I'll wait until it goes on discount. I agree 100% that $70 is very expensive for one Star Wars vehicle, but thats the reality of the market. If people don't buy it or it has to go on discount, Hasbro isn't likely going to lower the cost, they will simply just quit making it. This is why you don't have lines like Marvel Universe anymore. Collectors want their cake and eat it to, but its just not going to work that way. Companies will either quit making it all together or make it cheaper to cut costs.

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2 hours ago, JayC said:

The problem with that is Super7 figures cost $45 + shipping for a 7" figure and regardless of how justifiable the reasons are for that price increase, many people simply just aren't going to pay that much for a 7" action figure. Some will but more won't. So if that becomes the norm the market (which is already relatively small) shrinks even more.

IDK how many of you follow Star Wars news but just yesterday Hasbro announced a very cool looking Vintage Collection Troop Transport vehicle for their 3.75" line. The cost is $70. Ever since then all I've seen from folks are things like Im not going to pay that much, or I'll wait until it goes on discount. I agree 100% that $70 is very expensive for one Star Wars vehicle, but thats the reality of the market. If people don't buy it or it has to go on discount, Hasbro isn't likely going to lower the cost, they will simply just quit making it. This is why you don't have lines like Marvel Universe anymore. Collectors want their cake and eat it to, but its just not going to work that way. Companies will either quit making it all together or make it cheaper to cut costs.

Hasbro and shops are going to price themselves out of the market. I agree seeing the SW troop transport, $70 is a lot of a vehicle (especially when I picked up the Rebels version on sale for €16), but then again it is the vintage line, which is always more expensive, since it is the "collector's" line. What I always found strange is that the likes of SW, Marvel and Transformers all have kid and "collector" lines but only TFs cost the same prices across all lines.

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5 hours ago, JayC said:

The problem with that is Super7 figures cost $45 + shipping for a 7" figure and regardless of how justifiable the reasons are for that price increase, many people simply just aren't going to pay that much for a 7" action figure. Some will but more won't. So if that becomes the norm the market (which is already relatively small) shrinks even more.

IDK how many of you follow Star Wars news but just yesterday Hasbro announced a very cool looking Vintage Collection Troop Transport vehicle for their 3.75" line. The cost is $70. Ever since then all I've seen from folks are things like Im not going to pay that much, or I'll wait until it goes on discount. I agree 100% that $70 is very expensive for one Star Wars vehicle, but thats the reality of the market. If people don't buy it or it has to go on discount, Hasbro isn't likely going to lower the cost, they will simply just quit making it. This is why you don't have lines like Marvel Universe anymore. Collectors want their cake and eat it to, but its just not going to work that way. Companies will either quit making it all together or make it cheaper to cut costs.

Oh, you're absolutely right.  But that all leads back to the fundamental problem that's plaguing the collector-oriented action figure market (and a big reason why we DON'T see the manufacturers trying harder to market exclusively towards them):  Adult collectors are not a growth market.  If anything we're a constantly-shrinking one, as eventually everyone reaches that point where they either have "enough" or the manufacturers and retailers have frustrated them into quitting, or they just don't enjoy it anymore, or they just can't afford it anymore, or other aspects of their lives (or other hobbies) start taking priority...and a lot of them never come back once they leave.

There are a lot of people at Hasbro and every other toy company that love their jobs and the stuff they make and genuinely want to make fans happy, but ultimately the dollar is king, and as a corporation most of those manufacturers (with the exceptions of those like Funko and Neca who are entirely built on adult collectors and little else) aren't sentimental about the bottom line:  If "collector grade" action figures aren't making them the profits they feel like they need, they're not going to suddenly start cranking out more collector-grade product to entice a shrinking market...they're just going to stop making an unprofitable (or "not profitable enough") product to focus their time and resources on something that is (or that they hope will be). 

Hell, there are days I seriously wonder if the only reason we're getting collector-oriented action figures at all is because there's still folks of the right age group working at Hasbro et al... who love the stuff too much to give up on it.

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This doesn't surprise me, GameStop has to do this to survive and as others here have mentioned the action figure market will shrink as the years pass. The newer generations are not likely to carry on the torch as they were brought up in the digital age unlike people like myself who grew up with action figures and toys in general. 

I do think that the future for this market will be more direct to customer offerings such as the Super7 model but the price will likely keep this a niche market.

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11 hours ago, Jmacq1 said:

Oh, you're absolutely right.  But that all leads back to the fundamental problem that's plaguing the collector-oriented action figure market (and a big reason why we DON'T see the manufacturers trying harder to market exclusively towards them):  Adult collectors are not a growth market.  If anything we're a constantly-shrinking one, as eventually everyone reaches that point where they either have "enough" or the manufacturers and retailers have frustrated them into quitting, or they just don't enjoy it anymore, or they just can't afford it anymore, or other aspects of their lives (or other hobbies) start taking priority...and a lot of them never come back once they leave.

There are a lot of people at Hasbro and every other toy company that love their jobs and the stuff they make and genuinely want to make fans happy, but ultimately the dollar is king, and as a corporation most of those manufacturers (with the exceptions of those like Funko and Neca who are entirely built on adult collectors and little else) aren't sentimental about the bottom line:  If "collector grade" action figures aren't making them the profits they feel like they need, they're not going to suddenly start cranking out more collector-grade product to entice a shrinking market...they're just going to stop making an unprofitable (or "not profitable enough") product to focus their time and resources on something that is (or that they hope will be). 

Hell, there are days I seriously wonder if the only reason we're getting collector-oriented action figures at all is because there's still folks of the right age group working at Hasbro et al... who love the stuff too much to give up on it.

To be honest, there shouldn't be collector's lines and even Hasbro know it, for ages there were no collector lines for either Star Wars or Transformers and then Hasbro thought it would be a great idea to split the lines with poor results in terms of availability as most shops only stock the kids line (except Transformers). With Transformers, the collector's line is supposed to be Generations but they learned that the biggest players of Generations were 9-10 year olds.

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Which "most shops" only stock the kids lines?  I've certainly seen Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, Star Wars Vintage Collection, etc... at all the major retailers.

You find kids lines stuff on shelves more frequently, but that doesn't mean the collector stuff isn't getting stocked.  It's hard to keep it in stock when a single collector will wipe out all or most of a case as soon as they show up.  But because there's the lingering pegwarmers/extras from previous cases already on-shelves, they start to pile up to the point that the retailers won't order more cases until they sell because their system is saying they already have "enough" Marvel Legends/Whatever on-shelves.

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3 hours ago, Jmacq1 said:

Which "most shops" only stock the kids lines?  I've certainly seen Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, Star Wars Vintage Collection, etc... at all the major retailers.

You find kids lines stuff on shelves more frequently, but that doesn't mean the collector stuff isn't getting stocked.  It's hard to keep it in stock when a single collector will wipe out all or most of a case as soon as they show up.  But because there's the lingering pegwarmers/extras from previous cases already on-shelves, they start to pile up to the point that the retailers won't order more cases until they sell because their system is saying they already have "enough" Marvel Legends/Whatever on-shelves.

If you live in Ireland, most if all shops only stock kids lines, most collector lines are only available in the few comic shops around and even then not all.

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The thing is, if prices everywhere were going up to $30 for ML, that would be one thing. The fact that its mainly just a Gamestop thing is just suicide for them. I'm sure there might be a few people who will pay but most wont when their plenty of other options at $20. It may be that Gamestop is so desperate at this point they just dont care anymore and trying to do one last cash grab on the way out the door, but for any kind of long-term longevity I just dont see this move by them being smart in any way. 

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1 hour ago, JayC said:

The thing is, if prices everywhere were going up to $30 for ML, that would be one thing. The fact that its mainly just a Gamestop thing is just suicide for them. I'm sure there might be a few people who will pay but most wont when their plenty of other options at $20. It may be that Gamestop is so desperate at this point they just dont care anymore and trying to do one last cash grab on the way out the door, but for any kind of long-term longevity I just dont see this move by them being smart in any way. 

Yeah, but a few is fine. If they wanted everyone, they'd leave the price lower. They were already the most reliable chain to locate stuff because they were marking up to $23. Now they'll be the chain where you're all but guaranteed to find the good stuff, so long as you're willing to pay the premium. And if they can sell half a wave at $30 per figure, they can more profitably clear out the rest at lower prices after a few months. They know they're going to see a drop in purchases, but it won't matter. They will make a lot more money, that costs them a lot less, selling fewer figures at higher prices. The way Hasbro produces things, Gamestop can virtually never restock anyway, so why not leverage that scarcity? This move gives them a reasonable margin on a product that's hard to get, easy to clear out, and which ultimately appreciates after supply dries up.

Think of it this way. Let's say you know you could only ever get 100 of a particular product to sell (for instance, a particular figure), and you'd observed that products of this general type sold great at $20 when they first released, then most sold only if dropped to somewhere between $10 and $20 for a few months but some would sell consistently at anywhere from $20 to $35 during that whole period, and then after a few months the vast majority of them would sell great at some price between $30 and $100, once all your competitors' supply had dwindled. Remember, you know at the outset that there's a cap on how many you'll ever be able to stock. The number I picked is arbitrary, but the existence of a cap is not. Where do you price them to best balance supply and demand? If you said $30, I think you're on to something, since some will sell at that price initially, virtually all will sell at that price eventually, and the ones that won't can always be put on clearance. That combined with actually getting a sustainable margin at that price, and potentially getting a reputation as an easy place to score older and more desirable figures, that also does regular deep discounts, strikes me as basically all upside.

They'll definitely sell fewer figures quickly, and they'll probably sell fewer figures overall, but they'll make a lot more money doing it, likely with lower investment. Especially if they're already in rough financial shape as a chain, this is a great decision for them, even if it's a bummer for us.

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Sorry, to add to that, @JayC,what you're saying would be true if each figure were widely available and in print indefinitely, but neither of those things is true. Don't think of it as an evergreen line, think of it as a collection of scarce and limited products that fall under the same general pricing umbrella as each other.

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Also, the more I think about this, the more I realize this change doesn't actually affect my personal buyer's calculations one bit, and I have to imagine I'm not the only one for whom that's true. I already wasn't buying figures from Gamestop unless I absolutely couldn't find the figure anywhere else for less (Boba Fett), it was on deep clearance (Skullbuster), or it was a Gamestop exclusive (Jedi Revan). I will still shop there the same way. I'd obviously rather pay $23 than $30 for a figure, but I've paid $30 for must-have figures when I had no other choice, so Gamestop will see exactly the same amount of me. They already weren't targeting the most discerning collectors. They only have to worry about people who weren't already bargain-hunting and for whom the new price is beyond their normal threshold.

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I was on the Hasbro site in December 2019 and I noticed the new waves went up a couple of dollars. I figured what might be the cause and I did a little research and found an article where Hasbro said earlier in 2019 that the tariffs from China would eventually be passed down to the consumers. Now don’t get me wrong, GS has always been higher, but a $30 price tag is ridiculous. I’ve noticed now that not all of the new figures are $30. Some of the upcoming Black Widow figures are between $22.99-$24.99. Looks like they are jacking prices up on popular figures like Dr. Doom. If they think they have financial problems now, this will be the death of them because I saw some hard to find figures I wanted over the Christmas holiday in FYE and left them on the shelf due to the hefty price tag. I do think eventually the action figure market will fade away. I’ve heard the reasons for why GI Joes went the way of the dinosaurs and I think it will eventually happen across the board because the younger generation is into technical devices and not action figures. I’m my opinion, people in their 30’s to 50’s make up the majority of the consumers in the action figure market. I see more people my age on the toy isles than kids. 

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On 2/7/2020 at 11:28 PM, Benn said:

Sorry, to add to that, @JayC,what you're saying would be true if each figure were widely available and in print indefinitely, but neither of those things is true. Don't think of it as an evergreen line, think of it as a collection of scarce and limited products that fall under the same general pricing umbrella as each other.

I Don't know. Generally the regular waves are not that hard to find. I just picked up FF Dr Doom at Target for $20. Amazon has had them all in at $20 or less. You can always pre-order these from places like BBTS. I just don't see ML in general that hard to get. Again I am sure some people who have money to burn and dont care paying an extra $10 will maybe buy them there, but I have to think the number is pretty small for what is not a huge number to begin with. Maybe someone did a calculation and decided the added markup even at reduced sales was enough for them to make more profit, but I would be surprised if that pans out. Also the reputation they are developing is not a good one from where I stand. The aren't becoming the place to go for action figures, they are becoming the place to avoid.

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39 minutes ago, truedante2004 said:

I was on the Hasbro site in December 2019 and I noticed the new waves went up a couple of dollars. I figured what might be the cause and I did a little research and found an article where Hasbro said earlier in 2019 that the tariffs from China would eventually be passed down to the consumers. Now don’t get me wrong, GS has always been higher, but a $30 price tag is ridiculous. I’ve noticed now that not all of the new figures are $30. Some of the upcoming Black Widow figures are between $22.99-$24.99. Looks like they are jacking prices up on popular figures like Dr. Doom. If they think they have financial problems now, this will be the death of them because I saw some hard to find figures I wanted over the Christmas holiday in FYE and left them on the shelf due to the hefty price tag. I do think eventually the action figure market will fade away. I’ve heard the reasons for why GI Joes went the way of the dinosaurs and I think it will eventually happen across the board because the younger generation is into technical devices and not action figures. I’m my opinion, people in their 30’s to 50’s make up the majority of the consumers in the action figure market. I see more people my age on the toy isles than kids. 

The tariffs never happened. As I previously posted in this thread, I did some checking to see if a overall price hike from Hasbro was coming, but all indications are that they are not.

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1 hour ago, JayC said:

The tariffs never happened. As I previously posted in this thread, I did some checking to see if a overall price hike from Hasbro was coming, but all indications are that they are not.

A price-hike already happened this year. The MSRP on most figures is $21.49 now, not $19.99, and the wholesale cost went up proportionately. It isn't universal (yet), though. The MSRP is still listed at $19.99 for some figures, though the wholesale hike seems to be across the board.

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As much as it sucks, I only ever bought exclusive figures and games from them. Though, I’m one of the lucky few to have only gone to GameStops where all the employees were nice and didn’t shove twelve preorders and a minutely reminder about some premium or another in my face all the time. Always sucks even more to hear about others’ bad experiences with GameStop. As someone who likes to get games physically over digitally, it all just sucks (which I’ve said three times now) to have to keep being reminded I might not even be able to get games physically soon.

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4 hours ago, Fresh_Fish said:

As much as it sucks, I only ever bought exclusive figures and games from them. Though, I’m one of the lucky few to have only gone to GameStops where all the employees were nice and didn’t shove twelve preorders and a minutely reminder about some premium or another in my face all the time. Always sucks even more to hear about others’ bad experiences with GameStop. As someone who likes to get games physically over digitally, it all just sucks (which I’ve said three times now) to have to keep being reminded I might not even be able to get games physically soon.

I've never had any issues with Gamestop customer service. Generally when I do go into one the employee's and the service they provide has been decent. Sometimes you can tell they aren't really super familiar with the product in question, but that's somewhat to be expected. Still they try to help.

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22 hours ago, Benn said:

A price-hike already happened this year. The MSRP on most figures is $21.49 now, not $19.99, and the wholesale cost went up proportionately. It isn't universal (yet), though. The MSRP is still listed at $19.99 for some figures, though the wholesale hike seems to be across the board.

Hasbro in their press releases at least still list the MSRP as $19.99 for basic figures. The Power Rangers initially had a price jump, not sure if they still do but ML and Black Series haven't changed on the info they send to us. Regardless this price hike at Gamestop I dont think is related to anything Hasbro has done.

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3 hours ago, JayC said:

Hasbro in their press releases at least still list the MSRP as $19.99 for basic figures. The Power Rangers initially had a price jump, not sure if they still do but ML and Black Series haven't changed on the info they send to us. Regardless this price hike at Gamestop I dont think is related to anything Hasbro has done.

Could it be they just haven't bothered to update the info on Press Releases?

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4 hours ago, JayC said:

I've never had any issues with Gamestop customer service. Generally when I do go into one the employee's and the service they provide has been decent. Sometimes you can tell they aren't really super familiar with the product in question, but that's somewhat to be expected. Still they try to help.

Glad to see they, at least to you, seem to be doing better now.

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