Ooooh...is this the part where we all sit around and drink the Hater-ade?
I'll tell you how places like that stay in business. It'll sound a lot like simple economics.
If the demand exceeds the supply, prices go up on hard to find items.
If you're the only place that has something, you can pretty much charge what you want.
Third, not everyone has the same economic situation as you. To some people, thirty bucks is to them like five is to you.
Fourth, a lot of these items are sold to overseas buyers who are getting quite a deal, since our wonderful President has weakened our dollar beyond belief.
Four simple rules that prove true time and time again. Sorry to say it, but I'm a capitalist... and if you can make a decent dollar on something, do it. I can't buy in to this socialistic belief that everything should be price fixed forever. I should not be able to pick up a Tie Interceptor for thirty bucks nowadays.
There's some stuff that's priced high on this site. But then again, this site has a lot of things in stock that no one else does. That tells me they pay high to have a wide selection, and selection is the only way that the smaller businesses can compete with corporate juggernauts like Wal-Mart.
The fact of the matter is, carrying toys that have been out of production for the last twenty years is probably time consuming and costly. If I walked into your houses and offered you retail for your collections, you'd throw me out. But if I offered a decent enough premium, I'd be loading B-Wings in my car by the armful.
And it's not like this site walked in and cleaned out Wal-Mart for $4.77 and then turned around and sells them for thirty. I'm sure a premium was paid to import these early from Hong Kong or whatever third-world hole workers are being exploited in for a nickel a week to make sure Hasbro can produce toys at a price point that doesn't offend the masses tender pricing sensibilities.
Some collectors are on the higher end of the economic ladder, and gladly pay for the newest items first, or older items that they don't have the time or inclination to search for. These are all "market will bear" items...if your market doesn't bear quite as much, that's fine...but don't hate a site that caters to people beyond your economic status, or hate the collector that has more disposable income to burn on his hobby. I've got to go with Jesse James on this one...if someone has the money to burn and wants the figures three months before everyone else...more power to them.
It may also bahoove us to rememeber that places like Toyrocket help to support the fan community by advertising with a lot of the boards that we enjoy so much. I know a few of the guys at Toyrocket, and have done freelance computer work for them in the past. I actually have been trying to have them spend some of their limited ad budget here...but now I wonder if I should bother.
It never ceases to amaze me how quick the collector community is to divide up and start ragging on others in the same community. What are we, a bunch of Goths?
Personally I find Wal-Mart's world domination plans and devastation of small business and liveable American wages to be far more offensive.
Oh, and since this site already sold out of Chewie's and Barada's, I guess their business model works, and works well. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
That's my two cents. Let's let go of the hate and all remember we're all in this because we're obsessed with Star Wars. Now check out this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4888526365200963792If you can still hate after seeing this clip, well...maybe you can't be helped.
-DD