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Quote:

Originally Posted by EricCC

Part of the reason you see these figures going up in price is there was a 12% price increase to toy dealers from Hasbro. The MSRP (Suggestest Retail Price) of the Marvel Universe figures was $8.99. A lot of the big box stores (TRU, Target, Wal-mart, etc) were able to sell the figures for less, depending on volume, but usually 6.99 to 8.99.

Because of the price increase from Hasbro, they have marked the MSRP of the latter part of Wave 12, as well as Wave 13 and 14 (these are pre-ordered, and are release in April and May), they have told us the MSRP is now $12.49.

That's a huge jump, and it means that some retailers are not ordering new cases. Toy sellers don't have to charge MSRP, of course, but many do set the price of Marvel Universe figures at that as a base (and then charge a premium for rares and variants).

Having a small toy store, I'll never compete with Target or Wal-mart on price...but you also won't come to my shop and find 12 Stealth Ops Iron Man and 15 Captain Americas as the only selections on the peg.

Interesting info about the increased MSRP, but I'd hazard a guess and say you didn't pay $12.49 a figure or $149.88 per case, though I'm sure the wholesale cost went up too.

And some people seem to forget that the S in MSRP stands for Suggested. There is no iron clad deal that says all retailers must sell them at that price. Retailers are free to charge as much or as little as they want.

In my area, I've seen both Walmart and Target drop their prices on MU figures back to $7.99 after being at $8.99 for a few months. Do I expect another price increase in the future? Probably. But I don't expect it to stay that way, either.