[Tiberius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thechris

I know I whine and complain a lot about the price gouging we Canadians suffer at the hands of America but by golly, it sucks! I finally found something reasonably priced on Toywiz of all places, the figure is only $16.00. I went through the checkout and when it came time to sort out shipping, they want $39.48 to ship the item!! It's a small 3.75 action figure!! What the hell, toy shops? It doesn't cost that much to ship here! You're losing customers with this B.S. Do you realize that the volume of your sales are going down the tubes? How is it some people on eBay can afford to ship out 4 or 5 MOC action figures to Canada from the US for say $9.99 at most, registered, insured, includes tracking ID, I don't pay a cent of duty when it comes through, where as a company like Toywiz charges nearly $40 on the shipping of ONE 3.75 action figure, when it arrives, I STILL get charged duty??

How is it it only costs BigBadToyStore 25% of what you're charging to ship the same thing?? It just doesn't make sense. It's like some companies are doing everything they can to prevent Canada from buying from them. You've got to assume that the profits from ripping off 1 or 2 Canadians who are actually crazy enough to pay their inflated shipping costs is significantly lower than the profits they could make from charging ACTUAL shipping costs and a fair handling cost. It just seems like bad business to me. Am I wrong? It's bad enough that the prices suck, it's worse when the shipping is insane on top of it. And how about those psychos on eBay? How can they even afford to relist the item each time it doesn't sell?

I know the first relisting is free but then you've got to pay again if it doesn't sell. I worked at a shop that had an online eBay component and the fees were insane. How is it worth it to them to keep listing an item for $40 that everyone else is listing for $9.99 or less? And it doesn't sell and they keep relisting it. And it's NOT cheap to list at such a high price to begin with. You'd think it'd just be cheaper to just list the damn thing at $9.99 and sell it the first time than paying fees and trimming profit off the top each time. By the time some idiot forks over $40, the seller already spent $50 in fees. Is it worth it? Are they making so much that they can afford to use it as a write off? And if so, aren't there less tedious and more productive ways to lose money and use it as a write off other than giving it to eBay? For example, giving to a charity??

I don't think your gripe is with Americans, as your title says, but with Toywiz. I think your going to offend a lot of people with this, at least with the title. I am as annoyed as you with the price gouging, but we Canadians don't only suffer. Imagine how the Europeans feel? Probably a lot more pissed than you or I. The problem comes down to Hasbro distribution issues, and I hate to say it, but even Mattel has done a better job thus far and their products are crap in comparison to Hasbro. I don't see how much harder it is to ship something a bit more north, honestly. It's all a game to these companies, and they KNOW people with money to blow will most likely pay over top dollar for the figure. God knows how much I want the SHS Beast, but refuse to pay 30+ dollars for it, give me a break, its a piece of plastic! I guess it all comes down to what you are willing to pay, and some people do pay a STUPID amount of money on this stuff. All in all, I'm sticking to BBTS, set my pre-orders and just wait it out, god knows we will NEVER see any of these new figures in Canada.