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02-10-2008, 10:22 AM | #1 |
low level hell
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Central Alberta, Canada
Posts: 614
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Well I decided to take the plunge and bought Waves 1 through 3 on Ebay. Sadly these won't likely be available in Canada so I paid a small fortune.
Lots of new zero feedback users bidding on these. It worked out to over $11 a figure:( About standard for Joes shipped to Canada. Anyone else going broke on the BAy? |
02-10-2008, 10:29 AM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Ellenwood, GA
Posts: 114
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Why is it so hard to get Joes in Canada?
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02-10-2008, 11:14 AM | #3 |
low level hell
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Central Alberta, Canada
Posts: 614
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First wave released was wave 5 in very liited numbers(1 case of 8 figs per WalMart). It's not clear if the first 4 waves will be released here or not.
Basically, Canada has 1/10th the population of the US so the market is quite a bit smaller. My guess would be that despite the "free trade agreement" there still seems to be quite a bit of import duty resulting in $8/fig. I imagine that manufacturers do a cost analysis of projected sales concerning higher retail costs and the smaller market to see if it's worth their while releasing a product in Canada. I'm not an economist so all that is based on what I learned in grade 9.......20 years ago. lol Anyone else have any ideas? Last edited by WildBill; 02-10-2008 at 11:16 AM.. |
02-10-2008, 11:31 AM | #4 |
www.kittyspryde.com
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: New Port Richey, Florida
Posts: 8,434
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I caved myself and bought the wave 2 comic packs on the bay. Luckily last night my brother picked up the wave 3 SE and SS comic pack, so now I only need to hunt down the other two.
Sometimes you have to bite the bullet unfortunately. |
02-10-2008, 12:12 PM | #5 |
Banned
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Ellenwood, GA
Posts: 114
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I imagine you don't live close enough to the boarder to pick the Joes from U.S. side?
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02-10-2008, 01:49 PM | #6 |
Smack-Talking Ninja
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 126
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I'm guessing that you're on the east coast? I'm in BC, lower mainland and there's a few places to get them (local niche toy shop, comic shops). What I haven't been able to get, I use smalljoes.com and bbts.com...
smalljoes has been flawless for me so far, shipments take about 2 weeks to get here since he's on the eastern states I believe... but the cost works out better than $11 per figure no prob. I just wait for his newsletter to get emailed to me when new stock is in and BAM! order is here two weeks later. I've been collecting 2 sets of everything. One for my son and I to open/play-with and one to keep MOC. We've managed to army build a nice cobra trooper army with smalljoes $7.99 dealio. I find getting stuff from the states now is less painful since the dollar is on par or better ;-) Anywho, just my two cents. Cheers! ~ Paul. |
02-10-2008, 03:32 PM | #7 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Edmonton, AB
Posts: 306
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It's not import duties making prices higher in Canada (based off my knowledge of DVDs as a store manager). It's a combination of three things:
Higher transport costs from the factory, because most of it goes through the U.S. before coming to us. (Ironically, a lot of it probably came into North America through Vancouver...), adding to the per-unit cost. Less economy of scale because we have fewer stores and they're farther apart (1/10th the population spread out over 75% of the land area, if you ignore the mostly unpopulated North. 105% of the land area if you include it.), adding to the per-unit cost. A population trained to accept prices based on a dollar at $0.75 U.S., which raised the cost on this side of the border. That's not the situation any more, but prices aren't dropping because a) wholesalers don't believe the situation will persist and don't want to end up selling at a loss down the road, and b) if people will give the retail stores the same money and the retail stores will give the wholesalers the same money, why shouldn't the wholesaler pocket the extra margin? (I would like to point out that it is the wholesaler who's making all this extra money. Granted that placed like Wal-Mart act as their own wholesaler.) There used to be an argument that the manufacturer had been paid six months ago when the dollars were still different, but things should be through the pipeline now. And we are seeing prices drop somewhat, so I'm not sure how much extra margin is being claimed. People get angry about that and like to blame the stores, but the transport costs really are a lot higher up here. (That's part of why Canadian on-line stores have prices closer to American stores. They don't have to ship things all over the country until someone buys it, and then they charge you for that.) Price wise, $11 per fig shipped is about what I've paid too. Alas, I'm literally 1,000 klicks from the U.S. Border (and that's Montana, whose largest city has less people in it than the University of Alberta has students.) |
02-10-2008, 03:38 PM | #8 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Netherlands, Europe
Posts: 108
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Here in Europe (Holland) they don't even sell the 25th at retail.
Fortunately, we have the Euro, LOL |
02-10-2008, 03:52 PM | #9 |
Not Yet A General
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 45
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$11 per figure is about what I've paid. I refuse to get the shoddy "Canadian" cards so I'll gladly pay an extra $2 for full art and a proper cardback. Not to mention selection Yes, things could be better in Canada but I doubt it'll change and at least we have eBay/online retailers/comic shops to get 25th figs from.
__________________
Please check out my music: www.myspace.com/sabuthejungleboy My Haves/Wants: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...-bst-list.html |
02-10-2008, 03:55 PM | #10 |
Cobra Brewmaster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: San jose, Ca. United States
Posts: 2,135
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At least you have awesome health care. Ours is..........not so awesome.
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