Mkdlmr wrote:Thanks for the well thought it I reply. I couldn't agree more with your not paying more than MSRP stance!
Shame Hasbro doesn't seem to care about fans when it comes to artificial scarcity and exclusives. I guess they get big bucks from companies and/or have done some financial calculations to see how to best leverage FOMO to maximize profits.
I think it's more of a situation where they don't always have the control with exclusives, rather than being a lack of caring.
Sometimes making a figure an exclusive may be the only way it's going to get released.
Where I have a problem with exclusives, is when a figure of a really popular character now has limited quantities and availability.
Knowing exclusives have more limited production runs, it's an ideal scenario for characters that aren't as popular.
And at the same time, it can come off as a lack of caring...
I think to the Cosmos situation; while it was Walmart who decided he would be short-packed, it was Hastak that offered it to be included in the first place.
For me, it also would have been different if this figure would have been a retool of Origins Bee.
But the fact that this was a new mold of a G1 character who had never had a deluxe class release...
I still call it poor form on the part of Hastak.
And being this was the Velocitron line, they could have offered a figure with a more common type of vehicle alt mode, and Walmart was still going to sign-off on that deal.
They clearly weren't sold on Cosmos and his ship alt mode, which is why he was short-packed.
But sure, the driving force and bottom line is profits.
And back to the thread topic-- another aspect that may help you decide if you ever want two copies of a figure is the costs.
Which is one of the top reasons I'm okay with retiring from this game sooner than later.
Again, it's not that I can't afford whatever figure(s) I want, but the price increases are getting too much for me to justify, just in general...
I can still remember feeling the sting when I was hunting the Terrorcons in stores, back when each was $17.99... When the deluxe figures I bought before those were $15 each...
And now just 4 deluxe figures are $100+.
The counter to this is what I said before-- if you
really want a figure, then it's probably worth it despite the price tag.
And lastly, again, I'd consider what you'll end up doing with any second copy...
Will it indefinitely end up in a storage container or storage space/closet?
Similar to my thought on aftermarket prices, I definitely recommend resisting the temptation to buy something purely to buy it and have something else just because it's new.