Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullseye
Just checked out their official EU distributors. They are taking the piss with those prices.  |
Yeah.
It's a double edged sword.
On one side, I can see the inflated price. European import fees are huge and taxes on sales are very high, as is fiscal pressure. Retailers do need to jack up prices, especially with the dollar being so strong now (Singapore dollar gained strength over Euro, too), they're basically investing big sums ahead of time to get a net profit of 100-200$ per piece when they are released, which is at least one year later.
On the other side, it's ludicrous that I alone, as a private individual, ordered XM pieces from Singapore, paid the very high shipping price, paid the high customs fees, and still end up spending a good 250-300€ less than what I would pay to the european retailer.
It makes me hard to sympathize with the european store, I see it as a last resort when you absolutely want a piece and all doors are closed (happened with Thanos to me); but I'll be honest, I'd rather pay the inflated price to a flipper from Ebay. At least I know he had to sweat, to secure that piece....
Quote:
Originally Posted by VS1976
There are more collectors in North America then probably everywhere else. It just feels that all the good stuff are from Asian region that we can't get. I want the 1:4 Hulkbuster but it's in Hong Kong. Such a pain in the butt. SSC shouldn't be the only players in North America and they have an open license where they can ship anywhere. Fuk marvel on this!
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Yes but when you need only 999 people per piece, it doesn't matter if North America has a ton more collectors. Tsume just sold out in a day their 1000 Whitebeard statues (from One Piece), they almost only sell in Europe and Europe is, like, the third world of collecting.
I do feel your pain but I also gotta say that Sideshow invested in this busines much longer ago than any younger company. They bought licenses ten years ago and established a durable relationship with the most important brands out there, in a time when nobody would have bet on this market getting so big.
But yeah, this semi-monopoly sucks indeed. Competition is good, too bad there's a crapload of money behind this business and companies act accordingly.
