What the fuck!??!?!?!?!

I am not so offended by someone overpricing an item as I am by someone overpaying for an item. Today someone paid $87 for a loose complete G1 Octane. WTF?

One item for your prospective site might be debunking this "With the movie coming out, these things are going to skyrocket!" messages now attached to every TF auction.

Is there any basis to believe that someone is gonna walk out of a theatre in July and say "Damn! I gotta go gets me a G1 Snaptrap on eBay!".

Why does "Snaptrap" sound so dirty to me.

Yeah. I've been told prices on ebay have been going up.

The thing is... who the phrock is buying this stuff?

I just don't see non-TF people getting into it.

You are either into TF and not.

I've not met anybody who crossed over into it from another geekage collecting binge.

Giga I suppose lives vicariously through my collecting problem but has never one in the past 8 years really become a collector or cared much about it.

I guess I can see how someone might want to replace their childhood Optimus Prime or something, but it is filtering down to all sorts of esoteric 'bots.

The value of Octane should not be shooting up. Nobody likes Octane. Only an addict who wants to complete his set of 1986 TFs buys Octane. Right?

Sandstorm liked Octane.

Bottom line, yes the G1 shit might go up, but I doubt it'll seriously affect the kind of stuff that you don't really know about unless you've spent a few days exploring TFU.info. Do we really expect Overlord to skyrocket in price because of Michael Bay? I really don't. Then again, people are pretty stupid when they think they can make some quick money.

"With the movie coming out, TFs are going to skyrocket!"

I friggin hate seeing that line on eBay auctions ... those eBay sellers are trying their best to self-perpetuate the TF 'movie hype'. Frack! Annoys me to no end.

Although, unfortunately, I think that once TF 'movie hype' goes mainstream media (like on those entertainment news shows) ... there will be people who haven't thought of TFs in years and perhaps will start to buy some G1 figures out of nostalgia. Which in turn will cause TF prices to increase b'c of demand. Maybe not for ALL figures, but certainly some of the more popular characters. IMHO.

Hell, that's what happened to me last year. I bought a reissue G1 Hot Rod off of eBay (cause I never got it as a kid), and almost a year later I've been sucked back into collecting TFs. Luckily, I've managed to acquire some figures BEFORE the TF 'movie hype' goes mainstream.

*Hangs head in shame...* I sold a battered ol' G1 Scourge on Ebay, with Targetmaster gun for £82! Was amazed as I was very honest about its condition, but was awestruck as the price just kept on climbing. I reckon if it'd had a few more minutes, it would have beaten the £100 barrier...

:oS

M.

With the gun I can sorta kinda maybe a little understand. The price of Nebulans gets scary sometimes, though being that I lost all mine as a kid I can understand why. Thankfully all my Headmasters have heads.

How about Playidia's $119 and $139 Alternators Mirage listings?

6 and 7 times the retail price. And the 6x ones have been out of the box.

Yikes... I think the sad truth is, the person paying the hiked-up prices is the common TF collector.

The problem is that eBay seems to demonstrate a sort of internal price consistency principle; one seller raises their price, others follow suit. Next thing you know, anything below an experienced collector looks over the auctions and says to themselves "Dammit, I guess that's just what you've got to pay these days for a reissue Optimus Prime."

Alas, one would like to think of eBay as a kind of online marketplace; but the reality is that unlike most markets, eBay actively works on the principle of demand far outstripping supply. Consequently, there is no requirement to compete with other vendors through lower prices.

I concur, Playidia is one of THE WORSE friggin price gouging eBay vendors ... talk about insane mark-ups on used items!!!

And I have to agree with JOP ... I have to admit I've caved a few times and overpaid on a TF figure. Simply b'c I get tired of trying to find the ideal price, or in one case, I really wanted to complete G1 Computron.

My personal favourite, "Oh, how nice of Takara to release a new wave of MP-01 Primes, now that I have paid so much for a first wave version. Well, at least I can count on Takara not to re-release the same damn toy again, only this time with a trailer that really should have been in the first release. That would just be crazy."