TRU raises price on "retro-action" figures

[nubee]

With all the reaction to this(my) thread I took it upon myself yesterday to call over two dozen TRU's in my part of the country and guess what......every store in the New York city region had the figures priced at $22.99....every store outside this region had the figures priced at $19.99.....I then called TRU corporate in NJ this morning and after many many tries finally found some one who was willing to find out what was going on......at 3PM the TRU rep called me back on my cell phone while I was working and explained EVERY thing to me.....hear is what she told me.....regarding item #373 364(DCU worlds greatest), all TRU stores in the NYC area are increasing the price per figure from $19.99 to $22.99,this will also happen in several other TRU's around the country...BUT as a whole TRU is keeping the figures at $19.99 and there are no indications at this time about raising the price....this is an internal TRU decision and is NOT because Mattel is raising its wholesale price to TRU...the second and later waves of "DCU worlds greatest" will be averaged priced at $19.99.....if any one pays $22.99 for a figure they can present it's receipt to a TRU selling it for $19.99 and be reimbursed the difference within 14 days of it's purchase....she said there was no other reasons for the price increase other than a "regional decision"(bottom line... it sucks to buy them in the NYC area)....so let's stop the "conspiracy theories" about this price change...she also said that TRU will be the only national chain selling these figures and that the figures were selling well in the NYC area....which should lead us to see that this is probably TRU trying to see if they can charge more per figure if sales stay well

Many thanks for the "leg work." I guess Amazon is the better place to shop then especially withe free shipping.

[Flynne]

At the end of my original post I ask every one to post the TRU prices where they live....when I saw that this thread was running wild I wanted to bring some more clarity to it...I hope it helped :smiley:

Huh! Facts and legwork versus conjecture and blanket "assurances" - who would thunk it? Thanks for the shoe leather work, Trekman.

[samurainoir]

The only-NYC makes sense to me given the price of rent/real estate there vs other parts of the country.

[MIB41]

Thanks Trekman. Glad I don't live in NYC! When you think about it, it seems you could just take a copy of the website amount ($19.99) in there and get the same adjusted price as well.

[Sandman9580]

Wow, nice detective work trekman! This is good news and should set everyone's mind at ease.

[Meule]

With all the reaction to this(my) thread I took it upon myself yesterday to call over two dozen TRU's in my part of the country and guess what......every store in the New York city region had the figures priced at $22.99....every store outside this region had the figures priced at $19.99.....I then called TRU corporate in NJ this morning and after many many tries finally found some one who was willing to find out what was going on......at 3PM the TRU rep called me back on my cell phone while I was working and explained EVERY thing to me.....hear is what she told me.....regarding item #373 364(DCU worlds greatest), all TRU stores in the NYC area are increasing the price per figure from $19.99 to $22.99,this will also happen in several other TRU's around the country...BUT as a whole TRU is keeping the figures at $19.99 and there are no indications at this time about raising the price....this is an internal TRU decision and is NOT because Mattel is raising its wholesale price to TRU...the second and later waves of "DCU worlds greatest" will be averaged priced at $19.99.....if any one pays $22.99 for a figure they can present it's receipt to a TRU selling it for $19.99 and be reimbursed the difference within 14 days of it's purchase....she said there was no other reasons for the price increase other than a "regional decision"(bottom line... it sucks to buy them in the NYC area)....so let's stop the "conspiracy theories" about this price change...she also said that TRU will be the only national chain selling these figures and that the figures were selling well in the NYC area....which should lead us to see that this is probably TRU trying to see if they can charge more per figure if sales stay well

There you go, case closed. Thanks Trekman

[trekman101]

Mego Talk - View Single Post - TRU raises price on figures

Trekman, thanks for doing the legwork. It's what I suspected because Matty cannot be suicidal.

At the end of my original post I ask every one to post the TRU prices where they live....when I saw that this thread was running wild I wanted to bring some more clarity to it...I hope it helped

[hedrap]

this is an internal TRU decision and is NOT because Mattel is raising its wholesale price to TRU...

Mego Talk - View Single Post - TRU raises price on figures

Trekman, thanks for doing the legwork. It's what I suspected because Matty cannot be suicidal.

[B-Lister]

they're still $20 at my local TRU, but my Local TRU is pretty quick to adopt any price increase.

[trekman101]

Let the speculation end

With all the reaction to this(my) thread I took it upon myself yesterday to call over two dozen TRU's in my part of the country and guess what......every store in the New York city region had the figures priced at $22.99....every store outside this region had the figures priced at $19.99.....I then called TRU corporate in NJ this morning and after many many tries finally found some one who was willing to find out what was going on......at 3PM the TRU rep called me back on my cell phone while I was working and explained EVERY thing to me.....hear is what she told me.....regarding item #373 364(DCU worlds greatest), all TRU stores in the NYC area are increasing the price per figure from $19.99 to $22.99,this will also happen in several other TRU's around the country...BUT as a whole TRU is keeping the figures at $19.99 and there are no indications at this time about raising the price....this is an internal TRU decision and is NOT because Mattel is raising its wholesale price to TRU...the second and later waves of "DCU worlds greatest" will be averaged priced at $19.99.....if any one pays $22.99 for a figure they can present it's receipt to a TRU selling it for $19.99 and be reimbursed the difference within 14 days of it's purchase....she said there was no other reasons for the price increase other than a "regional decision"(bottom line... it sucks to buy them in the NYC area)....so let's stop the "conspiracy theories" about this price change...she also said that TRU will be the only national chain selling these figures and that the figures were selling well in the NYC area....which should lead us to see that this is probably TRU trying to see if they can charge more per figure if sales stay well

[Meule]

I agree , but we must look at the inflation rate.
I don't think its greed on matel part butrising cost, might be do to lower value of the American Dollar.
If your your not going to support the line because ,of the highter price to me its not helping the cause to bring back megolike items.
somethings can't be help.

$20 is the limit for a lot of people, especially for the folks with kids or the ones that lost their job. Maybe they're "not helping the cause", but I'm sure those people can spend their money on better things, like rent and food.

[samurainoir]

Regarding apples, oranges and other fruit...

Whatever Mattel's profit margins are, at the end of the day it's all about what consumers are willing to pay for an item, and all those items look to me to be within the ballpark of a kid's birthday/christmas present these days when I stroll through the toy department.

We live in a world where a cup of coffee is FIVE BUCKS! I stood in line a week ago at the Starbucks at the front of the Target in Wheeling, Virginia behind mothers who were willing to pay that much for a beverage. The difference between $20 and $23 is pocket change these days.

(or am I just a Canadian who's gotten used to carrying around loonies and toonies for the past dozen years? It could also be that I'm used to overinflated prices of up to 1/3rd more on most things and everything seems really cheap to me these days due to the US and Canadian dollars being on par lately)

[AAAAA]

I agree , but we must look at the inflation rate.
I don't think its greed on matel part butrising cost, might be do to lower value of the American Dollar.
If your your not going to support the line because ,of the highter price to me its not helping the cause to bring back megolike items.
somethings can't be help.

[palitoy]

Well, I think we are pretty close to the same page, I just don't agree with comparing a promotion to a replenishing brand item.

I agree from my experience that going past $20 dooms a lot of impulse items.

[MIB41]

...this is an untested, much more expensive to produce toy line and they're still keeping it under $20 which is likely the max they can put on it.

We're pretty much saying the same thing. It's priced high end because they don't know what kind of response they will get. Wave one is essentially in the books so they have some history on it now. No other wave will have more hype or greater interest than that initial push. So, hypothetically, where they go with price and distribution after 2010 (now is too soon) will be very telling on how the line is doing. Honestly I think they need another vendor, like Walmart or Target to make this the success collectors on this board are looking for. That is my hope as well. Should any of these rumors bare fruit and the price does go up, that would be risky to the longevity of the line since their already playing on the top end of pricing anyway.