TVC and Tariff Pricing

[McMetal]

I got a notification that one of my Marvel Legends preorders went up by $2, despite the fact that other retailers already have this figure in stock and are selling it at regular price. 

So nope, I don’t care if it’s for two dollars or two cents, I would feel like a sucker paying more for something when I don’t have to, so that one is getting canceled. None of my Amazon preorders have gone up yet.

I wonder how much business they will lose over this.

[Jediknight760071]

It does seem there was a pre-tariff price hike of some sort. I really like BBTS and have used them several times this year to catch up on all the TVC I could, so I don't want to be disparaging.
However, a few weeks ago I ordered one of those Heavy Battle Droids from BF2 and it was $9.99. Now it's $11.99. I doubt they are paying an import fee now for a figure that has been on a clearance sale for weeks.
Noticed the same with the Peasant Disguise Anakin and their own BF2 Arc Trooper. Looks like a $2 increase across the board, clearance items included.

I will support the hobby as long as I can. Having recently gotten back in, I already had to mentally adjust from paying $7.99/figure to paying $16.99/figure.
What I don't want to happen is that BBTS, EE, and others like comic shops have to raise prices now while Amazon weathers the storm and siphons the customer base away.
I just lost my 2 closest Gamestops and only 1 Walmart by me regularly restocks TVC. Amazon can be great, but I don't want a future where they are the only reasonable option.

[P-Siddy]

I'm hoping they aren't going to charge a fee for stuff that's in Pile of Loot that came in before all this "fun" happened.  That would be upsetting.

[Ryan]

It does seem there was a pre-tariff price hike of some sort. I really like BBTS and have used them several times this year to catch up on all the TVC I could, so I don't want to be disparaging.
However, a few weeks ago I ordered one of those Heavy Battle Droids from BF2 and it was $9.99. Now it's $11.99. I doubt they are paying an import fee now for a figure that has been on a clearance sale for weeks.
Noticed the same with the Peasant Disguise Anakin and their own BF2 Arc Trooper. Looks like a $2 increase across the board, clearance items included.

I will support the hobby as long as I can. Having recently gotten back in, I already had to mentally adjust from paying $7.99/figure to paying $16.99/figure.
What I don't want to happen is that BBTS, EE, and others like comic shops have to raise prices now while Amazon weathers the storm and siphons the customer base away.
I just lost my 2 closest Gamestops and only 1 Walmart by me regularly restocks TVC. Amazon can be great, but I don't want a future where they are the only reasonable option.

Yeah that sucks. :-(

It could be a situation where they raised the price of everything, even the stuff they had already imported and have in the warehouse, by a little bit to spread out the cost increase and avoid sharply raising prices on just the newly imported stuff, in hopes that the tariffs will go away before too long.

[Dave]

It could be a situation where they raised the price of everything, even the stuff they had already imported and have in the warehouse, by a little bit to spread out the cost increase and avoid sharply raising prices on just the newly imported stuff, in hopes that the tariffs will go away before too long.

Yeah, tariffs technically only apply at the rate on the day you accept your items through customs, so anything that has been stocked for more than 90 days has not been hit with the new tariffs. 

Although keeping track of different tariff rates on different days from different countries from different distributors is probably well beyond the capability of all but the most sophisticated of retailers.  I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of retailers just generally raise prices when they don't have an easy way to break it down by product.

Its one thing to track toys that have a release date and you probably get one big shipment, but imagine the impact to your operations if you order something basic from different countries and have shipments always arriving.  How and when to raise prices would be be a challenge.

[Rob]

Companies might also raise prices on non-tariffed existing stock as a way to reduce the amount they have to raise prices on incoming stock.  Like, they can opt to sort of spread the pain out a bit.

[Rob]

Without making this political, the president seems to be giving in a bit for the moment.  Yesterday he walked back comments about wanting to fire Jerome Powell, and said that some tariffs would remain in place on China but far less than we have now.  He seems to be at least slightly aware that this isn’t causing anything but harm, including costing him political capital. 

I’m not convinced he’ll feel that way in a week, but at least there seems to be a little bit of movement in the right direction.

Apparently a bunch of CEO’s went to Washington to warn that we were potentially just a few weeks away from empty shelves in the US.

[Dave]

Without making this political, the president seems to be giving in a bit for the moment.  Yesterday he walked back comments about wanting to fire Jerome Powell, and said that some tariffs would remain in place on China but far less than we have now.  He seems to be at least slightly aware that this isn’t causing anything but harm, including costing him political capital. 

I’m not convinced he’ll feel that way in a week, but at least there seems to be a little bit of movement in the right direction.

If you want to get political we've got the thread in the Sarlaac Pit.

Glad that Trump did tamp down the anti Jerome Powell stuff.  I don't Trump can tie more than two dots together on how macro economics and his behavior and rants can upend the global markets.  He needs some capable cabinet members than can talk him off the ledge and counsel him on these things.  **** is a lot more complicated than he realizes and stability at the Federal Reserve, the bond market, etc. are critical to the entire global economic ecosystem.

[Jedi Idej]

Oof. Slightly less than 8% average for my EE pre-orders, but considering the quantity, a solid dinner w/ drinks. Not hating on EE.

Hopefully with Trump's announcement that the tarrifs against China will be lower than previously announced, businesses will be able to walk back some of the proposed increases.

[McMetal]

Hopefully, but when was the last time anyone went back to charging less for something? 🤔

[Jeff]

Hopefully, but when was the last time anyone went back to charging less for something? 🤔

That is my worry too.   I like the way that BBTS did things.  They undid their price hikes (example: they had put the Landspeeder at $65 but recently revised it back down to $60) and then added a nebulous "excludes tariff surcharge" line.  I'm hoping this means they will be able to hold the line on prices and then just drop the tariff surcharge when they can.

[Jeff]

Not Star Wars, but posting this for comparison on how some others are handling things.  I got this one today from Super 7 - they are going the "tariff surcharge" route.

Dear Super7 Community,

We want to share an important update about how recent changes in global trade and import tariffs are affecting us.

Starting today, April 24th, an 8% surcharge will be added to all non-apparel items.

We didn’t come to this decision lightly. For as long as possible, we’ve worked to absorb these rising costs ourselves—without passing them along to you. Unfortunately, the scale of these increases has made it unsustainable for us to continue doing so entirely. Even with this surcharge, it still doesn’t cover the full impact we're facing.

We’re doing everything we can behind the scenes to minimize the effect on our community. If conditions change or a better solution becomes available, we’ll reevaluate this surcharge immediately.

Super7 has always been about more than just toys—it’s about the people who collect them. We’ll keep you updated every step of the way, and we sincerely appreciate your understanding and continued support during this time.

[McMetal]

Yeah, they applied it to everything including the oldest stuff they have in stock that has already been sitting here in the States for MONTHS and was not imported under any kind of tariff. That’s shady af.

They would likely claim that they were trying to spread out the impact by applying it across the board, but if that is true they should have done it to EVERYTHING, including apparel. Action figures seem to be bearing all of the burden alone.

I hope they lose a TON of business over this and are forced to reconsider the whole thing. I’m def not ordering anything from them directly anymore, I know that.

[Rob]

I quit collecting Super 7 a few years back and sold all my ReAction figures.  I loved that line at $10 and tolerated it at $15, but I was out at $18… now it’s even more than that.  I just couldn’t justify it anymore.

[Jeff]

I have been picking up some of the S7 Sesame Street Reaction stuff, mostly in the $16-18 range on sale at Amazon.  $21 each is just too much for 5POA stuff.  I'll be quitting those unless I can still find deals on Amazon.