TSC Prices - Price Hikes, Discounts, and Sales!

[Jeff]

Just an FYI that the Heroes and Villains / Greatest Battles figures are on sale at TRU this week...

[jedipurge]

Now if I could only find anything beside bugs, yoda's, & 3po/battledroids I might remotely be intrested in this. 

[Jesse James]

I used the ad (grab one on your way in the store guys, don't forget) at Wal-Mart tonight to get a couple Sandtroopers I found for a little less.  Worth it to me I guess....

Haven't tried Target and doubt they would take it, but K-Mart WILL pricematch (or they did last year I found) so I may hit a couple of the KM's around me and see what floats to the surface I guess.

[Darth_Anton]

A new Target opened up in my area. Basic figures were $7.64. GB and H&V were still $6.99.

[P-Siddy]

A new Target opened up in my area. Basic figures were $7.64. GB and H&V were still $6.99.

Yeeeeouch!! My bum just puckered.

[Jesse James]

If Target is jacking it up over $7, **** them.  I officially will NOT be buying basics at that store if that's the case.  That or Hasbro had better put out figures of a quality level they've yet to acheive. 

Target can suck it hard and long if that's the route they plan on taking.  THe price increases this year have been probably a tied gripe with the decrease in articulation overall as far as I'm concerned.  Further increases are f'n ridiculous.

Every toy line out there IS NOT increasing in price, except Star Wars...  bull****.

[Jeff]

It seems like it's only NEW stores that debuted at that price as I haven't seen the $7.64 price at any of the other local Target stores (just the new ones that opened in October).

I'm hoping it's just a glitch in the computer or something because when the last batch of stores opened (in July), the figures were priced @ $6.49 for the new stores ("New Store Special").  Doesn't make any sense that this time, 3 months later, the figs debued @ $1 more than the old stores?   

[DoctorPadawan]

When I was at Local Wal-Mart Number One this morning, I noticed that they had one of those "aisle endcap" things (not the whole endcap, but the things that hang on the sides of the endcap with actual pegs) filled with MORE Greatest Battles figures, and the price marked above the 10 pegs filled to the brim with more Threepios and Padmes and (strangely enough) a rather sizeable amount of Shocktroopers was $7.59.  I thought this was a little odd, since the regular section had the price at 6.62 (which is what it's been for months now), so I scanned a GB Threepio (plenty to go around) and sure enough, it was $7.59. 

If this is a fluke occurrence, then that's one thing; if figures are, across the board, going up to over 7 bucks (Episode I figures didn't even get that high), then I think we can kiss the line goodbye in the next year or so if Hasbro doesn't make a conscious effort to increase quality over quantity. 

Half an aisle down you can still get the much more articulated Marvel Legends figures which often include those "Build a Character" pack-in parts and a comic book for the price of a SW figure.  But I guess now that Hasbro's doing those as well, we can expect to see 1000 Wolverines and Spider-Mans with "awesome 12 points of articulation" and no pack-in build-a-characters.   

[ruiner]

Wow, Target doing it is one thing - but to have both retailers on board with a near $1.00 increase is very bad news.

A lot of us were/are at the point of 'getting out.'  This is not a good thing.

[CorranHorn]

Wow, Target doing it is one thing - but to have both retailers on board with a near $1.00 increase is very bad news.

A lot of us were/are at the point of 'getting out.'  This is not a good thing.

Well the H&V and GB figures are a seperate SKU and have consistently been more expensive than the basic line at Target and Wal-Mart, so Dr. P's report is not completely indicative of what will happen to the basic line, yet. The local Walmart near me did increase the price of the basic line figures to $5.70, while GB figs remain $6.62. Not sure what the future will bring, but I have observed that prices at Target and Walmart are not consistent region by region, or even within the same region. In the last couple months I've seen prices at Targets in Chicagoland range from $5.00 to $6.89 for basic figures, ironically the cheaper prices were found in the more "well to do" suburbs while the higher prices could be found in stores within the city limits.

I agree though if we start seeing basic figures going for over $7 it's going to be a bad day for kids, collectors, big box retailers, and Hasbro alike. I stopped buying figures from TRU and KB because they hit the $7 mark, if Target & Walmart join in on a regular basis people are going to have think harder about buying every fig or multiples of figs. On the flipside though, if my experiences this past year have shown, Target and Walmart will see their prices go up and down throughout the year so it just may be a matter of wait and see. 

[Darth_Anton]

A dollar increase especially hurts when the upcoming figures are all repaints.

[MetalJedi]

I don't plan on collecting as much as I did in the past. This just seals it if it stays at almost 8 bucks a figure. I dont understand why Target changes the prices of their Star Wars figures and never on any other type of action figure.

[JDH1173]

Hit you with a higher price now, lower it for the 4th quarter volume and gift buying and make you think you are getting a break.  Gotta love the retail business plan.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

In South NJ and Chicagoland its the H&V at a dollar more. what does not make sense to me is that is paid for tooling so it should be a $1 less. I have not bought one single HV or GB. Whats the point been there done that. I saw a Mom complain about how she had 2 SW figures and they rang up different. Its just oplain dumb and only hurts in the long run.

[ruiner]

I saw a Mom complain about how she had 2 SW figures and they rang up different. Its just oplain dumb and only hurts in the long run.

Good point.  We often lose sight of the fact that we aren't the only ones buying figures. 

Imagine the confusion that parents and casual collectors endure when they purchase an Episode III Clone and a Episode IV Sandtrooper at the same time....