Price of toys to increase 10% in 2008?

[Darth_Anton]

The increase is more likely due to the pissing match the US and China are getting into over the value of the dollar. China's taking advantage of our outrageous growing deficit and growing production vs consumption gap and trying to devalue the dollar. That's why all of a sudden we "caught" the high lead in those Mattel toys.

[JesseVader08]

Very interesting thought Anthony.

We're currently paying $8.99 to $9.99 per figure up here in Canuckia, so an increase above $10 is a very dangerous place for retailers to go.  Paying "less than $10" to "more than $10" completely changes your thinking about the value of the figure, both for collectors and parents, and could really hurt sales. 

[EdSolo]

First of all, we don't know at this point if Hasbro will be affected.  This situation stems from a backlash from the Mattel toys with the lead paint and loose magnets.  It easy for them to say that they are going to tighten up on safety and have to increase costs 10%.  The truth of the matter is that wages are increasing all over China.  China is having a hard time curbing inflation and their rate of growth economically.  China is trying desperately to avoid a recession.  If China goes through a recession, prices will drop again.

[Morgbug]

Very interesting thought Anthony.

We're currently paying $8.99 to $9.99 per figure up here in Canuckia, so an increase above $10 is a very dangerous place for retailers to go.  Paying "less than $10" to "more than $10" completely changes your thinking about the value of the figure, both for collectors and parents, and could really hurt sales. 

Somewhat debatable I'd think, or have you forgotten the POTJ era early on when only TRU was carrying the line in Canada and we were paying between $11.99 and 13.99 (plus taxes) for our figures?  I very clearly recall paying over $15 after taxes because I found the Darth Maul Sith Apprentice figure at TRU. 

I would agree that for parents there are ample other choices that are larger and probably offer better play value than a $10 star wars figure.  I still maintain that the number of collectors strongly outweighs the number of kids buying this line, but perhaps that's skewed by Canadian perspective where figures haven't been at that low price margin for a long time. 

I think Anthony has hit on a very important aspect as well.  The value of the US dollar has been in decline for nearly 4 years now and much more rapidly over the past 12-18 months against worldwide currencies.  When you couple that with increasing oil prices the increases seem realistic.  But given our prices in Canada have not risen over the past 2-3 years (longer, actually) and yours have started to approach ours, I think the currency issue plays a stronger role than the oil issue. 

[Darth Slothus]

This issue should be raised in one of the Hasbro Q&As.

Agreed

Hmm, then how are getting figs are going so high again...?

I don't understand this post for some reason.  Jon?

I know, it's probably because I sucked at it. My bad...

Basically, what I was saying was a 10% increase really doesn't amount to much price increase...Our figures certainly aren't going up to 8$ with a 10% increase. I guess I could understand if a figure was 100$ for example and had a 10% increase so now it's 110$- but we're nowhere near that situation yet. So... I'm not panicking.

DS

[Jeff]

Our figures certainly aren't going up to 8$ with a 10% increase.

Let's see, here in MN:

Target price = $6.99
Tax = 6.5% = $0.45
Final Price = $7.44

+10% increase = $7.69
Tax = 6.5% = $0.50
Final Price = $8.19

Seems like an $8 figure to me... am I missing something?

10% doesn't seem like much, but if you buy 100 figures in a year, it's an extra $75.

[ruiner]

Our figures certainly aren't going up to 8$ with a 10% increase.
DS

Close enough.

And there really is no difference between $100 and $7.  In the end, 10% is 10%.  

Surely you spend over $100 on figures a year so your argument is moot.

[JesseVader08]

Very interesting thought Anthony.

We're currently paying $8.99 to $9.99 per figure up here in Canuckia, so an increase above $10 is a very dangerous place for retailers to go.  Paying "less than $10" to "more than $10" completely changes your thinking about the value of the figure, both for collectors and parents, and could really hurt sales. 

Somewhat debatable I'd think, or have you forgotten the POTJ era early on when only TRU was carrying the line in Canada and we were paying between $11.99 and 13.99 (plus taxes) for our figures?  I very clearly recall paying over $15 after taxes because I found the Darth Maul Sith Apprentice figure at TRU. 

I'd love to be a fly on the wall and see Hasbro Canada's sales during the POTJ era, because I remember it as being very lean times.  Availability was almost nonexistent at retail and I had to resort to a scalper shop in Saskatoon to get my figures since the only ones I could ever find were the Han Solo Bespin wave at Wal-Mart.  I always assumed that retail didn't want to sell the figures because of the drastic price increases.

The value of the US dollar has been in decline for nearly 4 years now and much more rapidly over the past 12-18 months against worldwide currencies.  When you couple that with increasing oil prices the increases seem realistic.  But given our prices in Canada have not risen over the past 2-3 years (longer, actually) and yours have started to approach ours, I think the currency issue plays a stronger role than the oil issue.

Excellent point.  The Canadian dollar has hit a 30 year high at over $0.97US, so hopefully this will help offset any impact from the rising cost of oil.  However, realistically, Canadian sales are such a small fraction compared to the US, so I wouldn't be surprised to still see the price on the peg go up.

[Darth Slothus]

Our figures certainly aren't going up to 8$ with a 10% increase.

Let's see, here in MN:

Target price = $6.99
Tax = 6.5% = $0.45
Final Price = $7.44

+10% increase = $7.69
Tax = 6.5% = $0.50
Final Price = $8.19

Seems like an $8 figure to me... am I missing something?

10% doesn't seem like much, but if you buy 100 figures in a year, it's an extra $75.

Yes some.
You're numbers are based on SW collectors doing their shopping at Target...which I mostly don't(I realize Target is 'big' up there-and your WM's suck and never have anything-based on what I've read from your posters up there).

Additionally, I wasn't including taxes-because they were never mentioned.

I won't notice the increase since I typically get a gas tax refund of between 125$ to 200$ annually anyway, so I'm really not panicking much.

EDIT: My math was incorrect, our sales tax is 8%, not 10%! SO after tax from buying a 10% price increase figure at WM our price should be $7.87

DS

[EdSolo]

Our figures certainly aren't going up to 8$ with a 10% increase.

Let's see, here in MN:

Target price = $6.99
Tax = 6.5% = $0.45
Final Price = $7.44

+10% increase = $7.69
Tax = 6.5% = $0.50
Final Price = $8.19

Seems like an $8 figure to me... am I missing something?

10% doesn't seem like much, but if you buy 100 figures in a year, it's an extra $75.

Yes, you are missing the fact that you could move to a sales tax free state like Delaware where I get my figures.   

[Darth Slothus]

I'm not missing that fact

there are plenty of sales tax free states- they got it made!

 

[Nathan]

Don't they just have a zillion percent property tax to make up for it? Or more tolls? They'll get revenue from you somehow.

[Chris M]

When I see stuff like this, it makes me so thankful that I got out of the modern game a couple of years ago.  I still wonder through the toy section from time to time, but can't tell you the last time I bought a figure.

Thankfully it's all vintage now.  Of course, we still see the price spikes from time to time, but that is kind of expected at this point.

[P-Siddy]

I agree with Nate. I'm not a completionist either and the price would be getting up there for a little piece of articulated plastic.

[Straxus]

I'm not missing that fact

there are plenty of sales tax free states- they got it made!

 

I was thinking Oregon was the last sales tax free state left. Good to know there are others. Sales that always throws me off when I go out of state. I am not that Washington, but most the time I forget about sales tax when I go to stores there.
If they are increasing the price of the figures, I definitely am cutting back. The current price for star wars figures is too high in my opinion considering there are largers figures from different toy lines with far better articulation with the same price. Just ridiculous.