Author Topic: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)  (Read 60930 times)

Offline Morgbug

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #315 on: May 22, 2006, 11:15 PM »
I'd say it all goes back to this:



Figures are made with plastics which are derived from oil
Figures are boated or flown across an ocean which is consuming oil
Figures are being driven or flown across the continent again consuming oil

Inflation is a bitch :-[

I'd agree Scott, except we haven't seen any price increase from the ROTS stuff at all.  Same price at TRU, Sears and Walmart.  Zellers raised the price by $1, but they were lower than the others anyway and are now in line. 

I don't disagree with the notion, it's completely logical.  But it would stand to reason that we should be seeing a similar price increase and we aren't, at least not yet.  And you guys have been on about the price increases since Saga2 began.  We're four waves in with no change and the VTSC are just coming now with supposedly identical price to the VOTC.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #316 on: May 23, 2006, 12:22 AM »
And like I mentioned...  I can buy sheets of styrene that are 3'x5' today that cost me not one red cent more than they did 1, 2, 3, or even more years ago...  Other toy lines aren't costing more now than they did in as far back as 1999... 

A pizza delivery may cost more, but the impact of oil in plastics manufacturing industries doesn't seem, at the moment, to have outward increases....  From toy lines to tupperware.  For Star Wars to continuously increase substantially (relatively speaking), is just a sign of gouging to me...

As far as profit margins, I think the closeness of the profit margins are greatly exagerrated online...  For instance TRU's recent sale that put figures in the $4 and change range still was yielding a tidy profit for the store from what I heard.  I think there's a lot of misinformation about how "hard up" Hasbro is to sell the line to retailers sometimes.
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Offline ruiner

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #317 on: May 23, 2006, 08:40 AM »
I would bet almost anything that the sheet price (what the retailers pay) for TSC figures is close to $4. 

At 40% markup (retail standard), that comes out to a $6.66 retail price.


Offline Darth Slothus

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #318 on: May 23, 2006, 01:51 PM »
And I'll bet they don't pay more than 3$ per fig.

Offline JesseVader08

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #319 on: May 23, 2006, 02:05 PM »
I can't remember where I heard it, but supposedly TRU's cost in Canuckia is $7.50CDN per figure.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #320 on: May 23, 2006, 03:46 PM »
I don't believe the prices personally...  In TRU's last sale I heard from a source I personally have no reason to disbelieve, that they still made money despite figures costing only $4 & change...  I think the margins are grossly overestimated by people... 

I have heard the excuse that retail uses toys as loss leaders, but what people who cite that example neglect to mention is that they don't often use licensed products to loss lead their toy department...  Just from experience though, stores rarely do a "sale" on an item unless it's still profitable for them, and like I said TRU's was supposedly still a profitable sale...  I heard K-Mart's recent (decent) sale was profitable too, and they weren't taking a loss...  So I'm not willing to accept that Star Wars is just so close in cost to sale price like that.  If it were I don't believe retail woudl support it like it does for this long.  Movie years perhaps, but not non-movie years.  They'd need something more legitimate than a hunch it'd bring people to their store for them to dedicate any level of space to it, much less the relatively large space they always devote to it  year in and year out.
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Offline ruiner

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #321 on: May 23, 2006, 04:28 PM »
Slothus - maybe, but I don't believe retailers are making more than 50 points on figures.

JJ - I'm sure you already know this, but let me give my two cents on loss leaders. 

Loss leading products can be anything - licensed or otherwise.

A retailer will sell a popular item (breakeven or at a small loss) to generate traffic (in the stores) in hopes that the consumer will purchase other "high profit" items.

Another benefit to this practice is "hurting" the competition.  Reference TRU's market share in the toy industry compared to WM's.

TRU is down to what, 560 stores? 

« Last Edit: May 23, 2006, 04:29 PM by ruiner »

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #322 on: May 24, 2006, 04:28 AM »
Yes, it can be, but from what I've heard of toys, companies like Wal-Mart and the their ilk tend NOT to loss-lead with high-profile licensed toys...  TRU I've heard doesn't do the lossleading gig with much of anything, much less Star Wars, so considering theyr'e comparable prices between stores, I'm back to my original thought that the profit margins on SW product are exagerrated and they're pretty ample for the retailer to profit from.

Like I said though, I've heard the TRU sale they ran not long ago that cleared the pegs at every store in my area was still a huge profitable success for that product line for the company, and it brought figures down to $4.50 or so in my area...  I believe that to be true personally but that's me...  I've had no reason to doubt it.

I've heard that WM's loss-leading plan focuses on toylines they're contracted with manufacturers on, like Motorworks and others, and not products like say Lord of the Rings defunct line, or the current POTC or Star Wars lines generally. 
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Offline Taminar

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #323 on: May 27, 2006, 05:33 PM »
My husband got the UGH Greedo for me a couple of weeks ago for our anniversary; that was the only one the store had that day.

We picked up the other four needed for the Lucas mail-in today at Target. I'm not going out of my way to look for anything else in the UGH.

Now I'm just trying to figure out if there's a "best way" to open the "collectors case" thing.....  I don't usually open the toys at all.
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Offline Word_Weaver

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #324 on: May 27, 2006, 11:29 PM »
If they're taped shut, just cut them with scissors, but by the way i'm reading your response, they're probably heat sealed. If so, take an X-Acto hobby knife around the edges to slit the package. You dont need to cut all the sides, just three so it will "hinge" open. The plastic is somewhat thick, so if you're not used to an X-Acto knife, you may want to wear some protection, like gardening gloves incase you slip. If you don't have a hobby knife, you could probably just cut the thing apart with scissors. I don't know how likely this would be to kill the cards, so the knife is your best bet.I hope that made some sense.  ;)

Offline Hemish

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #325 on: June 2, 2006, 09:47 AM »
Hey Jared,
did you end up getting the case of those figures from casefresh?
Just wonderinf if any of you guys took em up on the offer considering howe much trouble you guys seem to be having finding these figures without being raped on ebay
The problem with America is stupidity I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself

Offline ruiner

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #326 on: June 3, 2006, 01:48 PM »
Well ****, I've given up trying to complete my UGH set.  I'm four figures short and the secondary prices on ebay are slowly going up because collectors are realizing that these waves are not shipping anymore.

This hobby is becoming more work than fun.  And it's too expensive!


Offline Jesse James

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #327 on: June 3, 2006, 04:41 PM »
This hobby is becoming more work than fun.  And it's too expensive!

Between that and the fact the UGH have drawn a lot more unwanteds into the Star Wars aisle, I'd say this little promo of Hasbro's did just what everyone predicted it would.  It created demand not among collectors or kids, but rather among jagoffs and scalpers, and it basically frustrated the core collecting groups that've been here since day 1... 

If UGH wasn't involved at all, and this never happened, I wonder if the SW aisle would be the shambles it is every time I'm in it at various stores?  Would collectors and kids still be driving the line's popularity like it is going or did UGH relaly benefit the line for Hasbro?  I'm thinking things wouldn't be any different if UGH had never been introduced this year...  And that Hasbro just made collector's lives a little harder.
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Offline mr director

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #328 on: June 6, 2006, 07:41 AM »
Lee's Toy Review has the UGH value at either $18 or $22 depending on which figure you got.

Offline Gatillo

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Re: Ultimate Galactic Hunt Figures (aka Bounty Hunt Chase Figures)
« Reply #329 on: June 6, 2006, 04:50 PM »
That is exactly the problem with exclusives and crap like the UGH.  Now all the left over UGH stuff and the new stuff is going to fly from the shelves even faster.
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