What's with not being able to buy figures on Walmart.com
 

It seems that less and less action figures are able to be purchased online from Walmart themselves. Instead you have to buy from ToyWiz which jacks up their prices like the typical flipper. Even their exclusives you cant get from them, but you can from ToyWiz and they jack up the prices by like triple. Am I missing something here?

Kinda irritating :mad:

I feel where you're coming from. After so many years of relying on figure purchases through online venues, because it was always pretty difficult to track down the stuff in person, the online market has basically turned into an "aftermarket" option.

Only second to finding what you want at the brick-n-mortar option (Wal Mart, T'R'U, Target etc...) buying online limits you to a few big sites at sometimes discount prices depending on how close to launch you are making your purchase at. If it's several months after launch you have to resort to "collector" prices, which is a definite hassle. But this isn't new either.

I recall when Toy Biz's original Marvel Legends launched I just so happened to stumble upon a series 1 Toad figure that for whatever reason was fetching stupid prices online. To this day I have never sold it. $14.99 off the shelf at EB Games and the only reason I kept it was because it felt like a turning point to me...the box is crushed and worn and not in good shape now. That's exactly how I feel the toy industry has evolved in my eyes since 2002, I don't collect mint in box, I like to open and display. The only figures I left in the box are only there waiting until I can figure out where to display them.

You're not wrong though, it almost seems like figure hunting online has become almost as difficult as finding something in your favorite store for MSRP...

I find most bricks-and-mortar collection-shopping more trouble than it's worth. In Canada, the most common problem is slow distribution. You never know when a given product will finally, finally arrive in-store. Wal-Mart just received the last wave of Star Wars Black Series that I ordered online quite a while ago, and because they took so long to stock it, they missed a lot of sales to collectors like me. Consequently, many days later, most of the inventory is still sitting there, collecting dust.

I sense that some major retailers are trying to use their website "Pre-Order" and "Send-me-an-email-when-this-product-becomes-available" features as a way to measure demand prior to specifying their own order quantities. In the Black Series example, the Jango Fett wave was posted 'unavailable' for many weeks before it finally came up as 'available in stock.' What's more interesting and aggravating to me is the out-of-control pheonomenon of SCALPING that seems to dominate the sales at these websites. If you don't sit around 24-7 with a hair-finger hovering over the 'pre-order' button when it becomes available, it's hard to say when or even whether you'll get another chance to pick up a popular item you're after at MSRP. A particularly dramatic recent example is the Ahsoka Tano figure, wherein scalpers apparently wiped out online inventory from all major retailers within mere moments, and then continued to do so, over and over and over, every time a new batch of inventory became available. It seems remarkably systematic and consistent. I wonder if some of it is automated, maybe using a web bot and some kind of script.

I've never shopped at ToyWiz, but the 'scalper' / 'flipper' description seems apt.

Yeah.. Toy wiz is such a ripoff. It's amazing that anyone actually uses that site.

No one should open that site at work. The words out of my mouth at lunch literally should have gotten me fired even if I was technically on my own time

It just amazes me that a retailer would not sell their products through themselves but another online retailer. Especially an exclusive. How can you have an exclusive but have someone else sell it, and at a price that doesn't match your in-store price.

I think Toy wiz buys out walmart stock at the retail rate and then Jacks it up on the same site because you either get it in store or buy it at their insane rate.

But why does Walmart.com even have them on their site in the first place.

walmart pobly gets a good enough cut of each sale, plus they save cash by not having to hold an item in stock or pay a worker to find the item in their shipping facility or even anything to ship it. its an all win situation for walmrt in making cash.

I will add though, that I don't rely on the internet anymore to buy my figures. When the Spiderman Classics series blew through the stores and I missed most of the og figures in early 2000's I did ebay a couple of them...for a markup of course (same goes for a few early Black Series that I still want).

But I find that patience is on my side. Example was this weekend.

My town has way more Wal Mart's than any town should have, none of them are all that good at stocking anything at launch that isn't Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles, so this was an unusually good weekend for finds.

The TMNT 2 Secret of the Ooze figures hit shelves, only one case per store mind you, and with it came some random Black Series and Marvel Legends appearances on the shelf.

We've been sitting on that last bulk wave of Kylo/Poe/Phasma/Guavian since April, I saw old Han Solo and a Flametrooper in a Wal Mart once but other that rare sighting our Wally Worlds just don't stock Star Wars figures much at all (Target and Wallgreens seem to be consistent though). And the Allfather BAF Marvel Legends wave has been on clearance for just as long.

I didn't plan to find anything, which is basic routine nowadays in the figure hunt, but the first Wal Mart I hit last Friday had just stocked the new Marvel Legends Giant Man series and they do in fact short pack Black Panther. There were doubles of every figure but only one Black Panther. And not to brag, the second Wal Mart had pallets of recently opened boxes so I checked the Star Wars figs and right on the outer pegs were a single ANH Luke, Asohka Tano, Jango Fett, and that ever sought after Flametrooper...No Kanan oddly enough.

Black Panther went to my nephew, that was his favorite character from Civil War, the Luke and Tano went on figure stands and I feel I can relax until Force Friday II...

I feel a retailer should just be that retailer when it comes to online sites.
Walmart is not Amazon. Target, while you cant even buy most legends from their site, do not offer other retailers. Maybe they are the last because I think even K Mart offers other retailers for their stuff.

I hate Toywiz with passion. Nothing but scalping at it's finest. Other places sell figures at higher prices but Toywiz takes it to a whole new level!

It's unbelievable that they're still in business. I guess they sucker enough people who don't know any better sadly.

Rey resistance outfit 3.75 inch figure on toywiz... 55 dollars lmao. You would figure I should be able to find their star wars exclusives stocked at least. My Walmaarts in upstate new york just don't care about restocking product or putting out

So I just had a chat for shitz & giggles, with Walmart customer service.
Unbelievable. Not only would they just say, "OK, we'll sell it to you for this price", but they said they cant price match ToyWiz!!!!111!! They are on the Walmart site selling shit but they cant price match! HA!