[FallenOne]

You guys found me out, I'm the ghost of Marvel collectors past... from the future.

Sadly, I don't think there is much we as collectors can do about it. Especially since Hasbro just stopped answering the Q&A's about a year ago, and obviously has no interest in maintaining a collector relationship with the fans for this line like they do for other lines (Star Wars, Transformers, Joe). Hasbro will use the excuse that these figures are targeted at kids, but they do fail to see the logic in releasing more expensive, inferior versions of almost identical products that can still be found hanging on pegs from the prior year. They also fail to adequately account for the number of adult collectors/buyers. Without us, I have little doubt that the Marvel lines would fail utterly and be canceled. I almost never see kids looking at the Marvel figures in the aisle. They're usually looking at Bey Blade or something similar. But you know who I do see regularly going through Marvel figures in my area? Other adults like me.

It's a vicious cycle that ultimately results in collector frustration, kids that don't care, because they've moved on to something else long before wave 3 with the one new character ever hits pegs, and eventually, clearance and discount store sales, which must be causing SOMEONE to lose money, whether it's Hasbro or the retailers.

The one thing we can do, unfortunately, is pre-order and buy what we actually want online. Unfortunately, that sometimes means buying an entire case, and having to figure out a way to dump all the carry-forwards (that's the only way I got Kings Loki and Laufey. Ordered a case, sold the rest for a little below retail on ebay). I can see why a lot of people don't go this route though, it's expensive and hugely inconvenient if you only want one or two figures from the case.

And the dark art I most closely study is called "internets".