Re: Toy Anxiety, incoming!!
A hundred bucks for a body without any pegs or hands/feet? Come on TA, don't be that guy.
I saw it. Threw it my cart. I went to check out and that's when I saw the price and closed the web page
I sometimes do that. It depends on the rarity of the item in question. I'll add it to my cart and look at it for a few seconds, and ask myself, "Do i want a HT ANH Leia head? Like, enough to pay $99 for it?". I think if you have to ask yourself twice, maybe you don't want it enough, lol.
This isn't an attack on Toy Anxiety. I have quite literally spent over $11,000 on doll parts from them over the past five years(I just went through my receipts...).
I certainly don't think TA are trying to rip anyone off. Or forcing anyone to pay their prices if you think they are a bit high. It's a market driven pricing system. I don't think anyone would expect them to part a rarer figure out and sell the parts cheap. This is a business after all. When my own budget grows tighter, there are parts i am priced out of if they are above a certain level.
My own rule of thumb when i see a HT(Or similar) figure on the horizon, is whether there's a part(Or parts) that i need for a custom i have in mind. If there is, i have an idea what i'd like to pay and work out the rarity of the figure in question. If the head is $100, i have to ask myself: "Will this ever be available elsewhere, and for a cheaper price, or might this be my only chance to secure one at this price?". There's never an easy answer, and we are buying doll parts so, if they seem too expensive, then they probably are. My parts containers are full of items i spent $60 on(And bought four), that i can now get for $20 apiece. But i gambled and lost. I also have pieces that could command four times what i paid, so the eventual custom figure they will go towards would cost less than if i waited till now to buy it.
I have often seen a head or body placed on a site at a slightly higher price than i'd like to pay, and if it languishes at that price, it might drop lower. And if it gets snapped up, they will know they priced it right, or perhaps raise it a little if they part that figure again. They are the ones forking out ten of thousands on dolls to take the gamble that the parts will sell and make them a net profit, after all. And i am assuming that, although they do part a few when a figure comes out, they must have a Raiders Of The Lost Ark sized warehouse full of ones they bought in to part out farther down the line. And all that cash laid out now to be recouped ten, twenty, thirty months down the line needs to be recouped. And if a $200 figure gets parted out and eventually makes a bit of a loss, then others will pick up the slack.
There will always be certain items that have more of a "perceived rarity" than an actual one. While i understand there might be someone who wanted a HT Stan Lee, i have no idea who would just want the head for $75, or why an AOU Hawkeye head(Which has a far greater likeness to Jeremy Renner), sells for $35, while the original Avengers one which hardly looks like him, commands a $60 price. But I suppose i'd never understand how exactly to price these things, so i leave it to those who have made it their business, lol.
I reckon the HT Han sold badly and fewer were made, because of that crummy headsculpt. So i assume that's why the bodies go for such a high price.