Ya know, I'd love to see the numbers on this... How many sold at full price? How good/bad was the discounting of this?
In general the knee-jerk is that discounts = bad, but that's not necessarily true... Hasbro's claimed, in the past, things did well that were found at stores like TJ Maxx/Marshal's or elsewhere (AT-TE, for instance).
But there's a lot of complex accounting involved here... total number produced, what they're discounted for, what Hasbro was able to sell to mainstream retail and what they had to unload to secondary, profit margins, and so on.
Now, we see something the collecting world had a boner for since the AOTC set got leaked. The day that thing showed up, the immediate thought, and speculation, was that it would get a repaint for ESB colors, and fans were giddy... A big sculpt of a "fanboy" iconic ship. Something beloved by collectors for sure, and kids too I'd wager, but definitely the adult market is squarely targeted.
Then it shows up... And right away the price is "too much". This is from the crowd that messed its pants at just the THOUGHT of it being repainted a short time before because it had a Carbonite slab hideaway spot. Now though, it's too much...
And don't get me wrong, I agree it was too much, but that's to me... Someone not that into it for my own personal reasons. I'm not the guy that is the litmus test for something that should, even at an inflated price, have support from the collecting core that supposedly keeps the hobby afloat in the lean times.
I'm not saying I know something you don't know here. I'm just saying the evidence, to me, indicates Hasbro CANNOT count on collector dollars like people wish they could. Maybe they're ecstatic at Amazon with how it did? I don't know, and nobody really knows, but that saw a pretty damn steep discount... And it's one of those things I'm shocked saw any this year, given the hype and supposed demand floating about.