I am pretty much a loose collector. With other lines, I’ve never really bought multiples of the same figure to collect loose and keep MOC. But with the 25th line, I had to do it – the packaging is just too nice and the figures look great on the single cards. So I’ve been buying at least 2 of each and displaying them.

But with the Wal-Mart price for single carded figures going up 40% since the beginning of the year, I’m feeling a bit uneasy continuing to buy multiples. There are 13 figures in the next two waves; say I buy 2 of each for a total of 26 figures:

26 x $4.88 plus tax = $135.00

26 x $6.84 plus tax = $190.00

That’s a nice chunk of change, and that's just the next two waves of singles. It makes it tough to justify buying more than one of each figure. Anyone else rethinking the ‘multiple-buy’ plan? What about army-builders?

I'm still going to buy my 2 each, cause I collect the same as you mention. I doubt I'll buy more for customizing though unless I come up with a really good idea. Even my new sculpt custom fodder, I got most of it on clearance and the single packs at the dollar store.

So yeah they think they're making more, but in the end they're not. It's that same old marketing thing that many companies seem to have lost touch with. Volume sales always gain you more money than price hikes. Most people will buy more when they feel they are getting a good product at a good price. They buy less even if they feel they are getting a good product when that item costs more. Too many corporations are trying to use that "fuel charge" to raise their prices when they're already making 4 to 6 times the money that was put into the product.

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That's why at times like these I wish I could deduct my fuel costs at the register. Conveniently it's equal to their price increase...

"I deducting my fuel costs because I had to drive here."

Also I want to charge a fee to all those businesses that charge fees for the sake of doing business or for being 'my provider'.

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Well, since my Walmarts have had next to no joes this entire time, I'm not too concerned. Its close to what you pay per figure for a case from some online retailers. So it'll make me consider those guys more than brick and mortars like TRU & Target.

$6.84? My Wal-Mart is still $5.99 just like Target and TRU.

But even if they were $9.99 a piece I'd buy what I still buy. 25th is worth whatever they ask for it.

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My Walmart has them for $5.44. I thought WM had standard pricing for non-clearance merchandise.

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doesn't make sense that only joe figures have gone up in price though, SW,pokemon, ben 10 and so forth hasn't just joes.Buying online might be a better option now since the price and the gas searching.

They are $6.84 in Danielb's and my neck of the woods. Oh well; Dan, they are all yours...I'm out...(can't afford this any more!)

5.84 here but they were priced at 4.88 last week. Of course they are not here, thus no one is actually spending that price. They just keep the stickers up and "hope"

$6.84 here now but nothing in stock except comic packs.
$5.99 at Hasbrotoyshop.com, Kmart, TRU, Target & Meijer
Target usually has lots in stock so I'm going there instead.
I was planning on buying multiples of Torpedo & Snow Job but now I'm not to sure about that.
If the other stores follow Walmart with the price increases then I am out for sure. I stopped collecting Star Wars figures when they went back up over $6+ heck Kmart wants $8.99 for those & Kohl's wants $9.99. They have plenty warming the pegs at those stores.

I currently am driving a truck for a liquor distributor, and I can attest to the fact that fuel really is taking a massive chunk out of overhead for businesses. Driving the same route, with essentially the same amount of product, cost my house about $95 in fuel a day this time last year. I fueled up yesterday and the reciept was for $172.50, and yesterday was my shortest route of the week. This is for the skunkiest contract fleet service diesel, that's such poor quality it is forever clogging our fuel filters. Nearly twice the cost in fuel daily in one year, with negligible growth to offset it, and that's just ONE truck out of fifteen. That has translated out to roughly 2 to 5 dollars a bottle price increase to make the same amount. Furthermore, as it is, my house was the only one in the southeast quarter of the US to make a substantive profit last year, because we aren't a union shop. Our dividend subsidized the two warehouses south of us that are twice our size. Boys and girls, when LIQUOR doesn't make money, things are bad. The "Fuel Charge" isn't always the straw man people expect it to be.

I also expect that It's costing Hasbro more to make toys, as plastics are sure to have increased. being petro chemical based.

Gas Good BusinessWeek article about unreasonable price of gas.

So yeah you have a right to be very mad at a certain sector of the economy about all of this. Esp. given other things like the delay in fixing oil rigs in the gulf area (they may have done that by now and be pumping from them, but i still haven't read about it)

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Maybe but that doesn't seem to be the case yet for Walmart's price increase...

http://www.hisstank.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7611

that could be a database that hasn't been updated to reflect price increases. also, couldn't this be a case where the "futures" prices of oil come in to play?

if it's like other manufacturing processes, oil would be ordered by hasbro way in advance of production, so the price increases we're seeing now could have been from price jumps back in the fall. kind of like how the price of eggs is set every quarter to plan/account for the cost of getting them to stores...and so it jumps every 3 months to account for the fuel cost increases and increases in the cost of corn (b/c idiots try to use corn for gas...and farmers benefit).

so this will lead to some interesting questions, such as if/when gas prices come down and people stop buying into the smoke being blown up their asses, will costs come down or will companies get greedy and try to "maintain margins for their stock prices"? esp. since a lot of the current price jumps are being done to "maintain profit margins" in the face of diminishing sales and execs will want to protect their stock options.

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I'm blaming the politicians. They knew we were heading to big spikes in fuel costs, but they don't do anything. They tack on ridiculous taxes to fuel (both fed and state), which no one ever talks repealing even temporarily, yet they haul in "big oil" for show trials about runaway profits, when in reality their profits as a percentage are flat. Each state mandates custom fuel standards, forcing companies to make "botique" fuels. They block new exploration, new refining capacity, and stymie all the alternatives but ethanol, so not only does our fuel go up, but so does our food! Like that judge from NY said a mans life liberty and possessions are all in jeopardy when the legislature is in session.

These guys don't get that we'll always need oil, even if we go to hydrogen or nuclear-electric for transport, because we need petro-chemicals. They want to go after "big oil" let's see them haul in OPEC, GasProm, and Hugo Chavez. Exxon-mobil and all the western companies are minnows comapred to the state run companies. We're sending our wealth overseas when we could be investing it in ourselves.