Has anyone notices the price change at toys r us?

[batmanrocks]

So I was at Toys R Us yesterday with my 5 yr old daughter and was scoping out the toy section. I have been looking to buy the transformers prime and Gi Joe renegades figures, so I hit the aisle and what do I find but the joes are a whopping $11.49 a figure when I paid $9.99 the week before and the transformers figures are $17.99 each, is toys r us trying to go out of business? Just curious if anyone elses TRU's are raising prices like this?

[Mikey]

The toys r us around here is a ghost town even at prime time shopping hours.

I'm guessing extemely high prices is one of the reasons

Also, there seems to be generally less adult "collectors" than there was a few years ago.

[toys2cool]

yea it's all a rip

[phil]

Target's prices on some figure lines have also increased quite a bit.

[MEMEGO]

Toys in my option, will soon go the way of comics. Remember when comic collecting was all the rave in the 80's to mid 90's? But, then comic publishers got greedy and out of hand, started making 20 different covers for one single issue, and making super hard to find covers, as well as the comic stores jacking up the price of a certain issue the same day it went on sale, then comic prices started to raise till they just raised above the regular comic reader or casual reader. Well, the same rule is now effecting toys, hundreds of reduculous colored batman/spiderman figures, limited villians, short packing, stores shooting up the price of a short packed figure and stupid high priced figure which in no way rate the price.

[batmanrocks]

yeah I know stores like walmart and target are cheaper for the most part like target the joes are 10.99 and tf's primes are 12.96 and walmart's joes are 6.97 and the tf's are 12.88, problem is walmart never has the joes, I got suckered into paying $11.49 for a joe at toys r us cause they had the stormshadow that is hard to find! if it wasn't for that figure I wouldn't bother

[samurainoir]

I shudder to think of what they will be charging us Canucks if the yanks have now passed the ten dollar barrier. Our dollar's been close to par or better for years now and we're still not seeing any equity in pricing.

[emeraldknight47]

I think toy prices were outrageous already and now they're getting worse!!! I bet if you were to ask the toy mfgs, they'd blame it on oil prices since petroleum distillates are a major component of most plastic and rubber. Personally, much like the gas stations around here that raise and lower their prices (mostly raise) on a whim, I think it's just basic greed gotten out of hand. And yeah, it will drive the toy business to the likely point of extinction and put TRU out of business....

[torgospizza]

I went to TRU yesterday looking for the new Captain Action and/or the Spider-Man and Captain America sets and found nothing. I walked out empty handed. Things I want are priced higher than they should be and everything else bores me or has crappy sculpts. Retro Lex Luthor and Sinestro are still $19.99. I'm just getting to the point I'm buying things I really want online and assuming brick and mortar stores don't have what I want. I'm spending more now than I ever have before, too--I'm just being choosier and buying more expensive items. ACI's 1/6 Spartacus comes out next month...TRU could have had a chunk of that money yesterday, but they made it easier for me to buy the ACI from Cotswold Collectibles.

[MightyMegs]

They usually mark up items that are about to go on sale... which I always thought was illegal...

[Thor]

These price increases have helped end almost a decade of collecting in my case. I don't have the funding or room.

[Delusional B]

These price increases have helped end almost a decade of collecting in my case. I don't have the funding or room.

Me, too. I've been trying to wind down my collecting habits the past few years to varied results. However, the new prices on most of this stuff has helped me to just say "no" most of the time, now. It really becomes a no-brainer. Like someone mentioned earlier, my casual spending in brick and mortar stores has almost completely stopped.

[starsky]

yeah, both target and toys r us have really hiked their prices. i dont think it has anything to do with toy manufacturer's charging more because the prices are not the same in different regions. i think it's more of the retail chains trying to cut out the toy scalpers/dealers. i dont think it's working though bec all the good figures are still getting snapped up and the scalpers/dealers are just charging more for them.

[Nostalgiabuff]

TRU has been out of control with their pricing for a while. Monster High dolls are 5-7 dollars more per figure than WalMart of Target. the walking dead figures are 19.99.....for a 3.75 piece of plastic. what a rip!
problem is that Target and WalMart only ever has bare shelves for things like Monster High, which is pretty much the only toy I buy in stores these day, as my 8 yr old is an avid collector. I don't get why the stores don't order more of a product that they can't keep on shelves

[huedell]

Well, the same rule is now effecting toys, hundreds of reduculous colored batman/spiderman figures, limited villians, short packing, stores shooting up the price of a short packed figure and stupid high priced figure which in no way rate the price.

If so... it's been a nice healthy long run going strong for about 20 years...
cause what you described sounds like the 90s to me.