Wal-Mart GI Joe Price Hike?
So, I strolled into Wal-Mart last night to pick up some groceries (chocolate milk and fruity pebbles, to be exact) and as I swung by the barren toy aisle, I noticed something startling. The lone GI Joe 25th Anniversary single carded Roadblock that has been hanging there for months was tagged as “6.84″ on the peg. I figured he was just misplaced and Wal-Mart was prepping to reset the aisle or something. But, I read the peg, and it clearly said 25th GI Joe. Hmmm… So I snagged Roadblock and took him to one of those little scanner things they have at the end of the aisle. Yep. He rang up for 6.84! Just last week this very same figure was $5.48, and a couple months before that single figs were only $4.76 at Wal-Mart. That’s a 40% price increase in less than a year!
This morning, I hit up the forums at the usual major toy sites to see if anyone else had seen this, and several other people confirmed it. So, this got me thinking. The toy companies have said for a while that we’d be seeing a price increase this year. We all sort of freaked when we heard Hasbro was jumping the Hulk Marvel Legends to 15 bucks each, but that fury was squelched a bit when we saw how big they (and the BAF) are going to be. But, maybe that $15 dollar tag is gonna be the norm now. I mean, on a percentage scale, that’s only a little more than what GI Joe’s have jumped to. Even DCUC has said they’re raising the price starting with Wave 3. Granted, the online shops have said they’re only raising it by 3-4 dollars a case (about 60 cents per fig), but who knows what that will translate to in terms of retail price. I was figuring a dollar more per figure, but if they follow Hasbro’s lead, toys could very well get very very expensive really soon.
Getting back to the 25th GI Joes, I think a 7 dollar price tag will end this line for me. The main reason I got into collecting them in the first place was that they’re easy to pick up for $5 a pop. I mean, these are some fun, neat little figures. But they’re not seven dollars worth of fun. These are tough times to be a toy collector! I guess I need to find a better job…
Tags: gi joe 25th anniversary, price increase
This is really ridiculous. If the DCUC go up too much I’m going to have to drop my collecting. I work at Wal-Mart of all places (which never gets anything), and I’m going to school, so I’m not making good money at all lol. If things go up too much, I won’t be buying anything. If the GI Joe figures have gone up by 40% in a year, I wonder if my raise at the end of the year will be 40% of my hourly wage? It won’t, it will be 40 cent not 40% lol. In fact, the only thing not increasing is wages……..
Thank God comics are still $2.99…………..
Agreed — there were a few of the Joes I was thinking of picking up, but not for $7 a pop. If Hasbro hikes Transformers too (because really, $10 is too much for a deluxe figure as it is — and there’s no way scouts are worth $7-8), I’m done.
Depending upon how much shipping costs for DCUC cases (and whether the paint is improved by the time Wave 3 hits), you’re making an excellent case for ordering the figures online. Though given the popularity of these things, is there any guarantee I’d see them by the end of the year if I preordered now?
fryman: Thank god comics are still $2.99? That’s actually one of the major reasons I stopped collecting — I still remember when they were $1.25 and $2.95 got you a fancy holografx cover or something.
Well I’m only 22 so I’ve only been able to collect in the last few years. I know comics used to be cheaper but I still feel that 2.99 is a steal cnsidering your not just paying for the paper and ink, but paying all the creators involved. As I’ve said before, toybiz marvel legends were under 8 bucks a few years ago, now they are 10….
I’m in my 30s so the $2.99 comicbook cover price seems steep to me too. I wait for the better story lines to hit TPB (trade paper back) at $20 retail and then order it on Amazon for, usually, $13.59. There’s usually 4-6 issues rolled into the TPBs so for me that’s been the better value and worththe wait. Lately I’ve been on an omnibus collection quest (latest being GIJoe v. Transformers Omnibus which collects all 4 TPBs in one hardcover). Granted I get my comic book jones on a 2 or 3 year delay for being too cheap to buy the individual issues when they first hit.
i download all my comics…
I stopped collecting Marvel Legends when they became 10 dollars each. At that point, none of the characters interested me enough to bother and I was sick fo the BAF theme.