So I didn't see this posted but I may have over looked it.

Since last week my walmart has had the joe's and starwars figures priced at 7.84 and two packs at 12.88. Not to mention that the Deluxe transformers went from 7.77 to 9.98 and now to 12.88 within a 3 week period.....sometimes I hate buying toys.

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yeah, prices have to go up, walmart reported a 1.2 percent increase in sales, time to drive home their advantage, lol.

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Yeah I have been reading it all over, everything is going up. The TF one sucks massivly though. I was actually picking up quite a few at that sale price. Knew that wouldn't last forever but didn't expect an increase right after.

It's been mentioned on other boards and such. Yeah ever since KB Toys closed Wal-Mart seems to think they can adopt those prices. I hope Target doesn't follow. If they will stay lower they'll beat the crap out of Wal-Mart in the toy market. So far I'm still seeing the deluxe Transformers at $7.98.

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Bad news then cause I have heard its target that is starting alot of the hikes something like $8.50 for both SW and Joes for several weeks. In fact there is a huge thread on Yakface forums about it all related to Target prices. Not that it has hit chain wide yet but expect it as several have gone up in recent weeks.

From what I am gathering this is a Hasbro thing, not a WM or Target thing.

It's not just toys, either. I've noticed it in quite a few food products. I could say something really political here, but I won't...

Toywise, I saw the Wal-Mart hike on Transformers today, and YIKES! Weren't these things $7.77 just a couple'a months back? Think I'll wait for a sale before I get Hound.

G.I.Joe and Star Wars are less of a concern to me since I don't collect those as much and they're still less expensive than Transformers, although certainly I don't want to see a price hike on those, either, but I'm waiting for it to hit DC Universe Classics. It's already hit Infinite Heroes.

There's even some high-priced Super Legends Power Rangers out there.

I am recalling something that I heard around the Christmas season, some "official statement" by Hasbro and Mattel that they would keep most of their toys under $20 for Christmas. Guess what -- it's after Christmas... Granted, most of the stuff is still under $20, but...

Not a good trend, but I think we'd better get used to it, whether we blame Wal-Mart and Target, Hasbro and Mattel (and Bandai), the demise of K*B, or something else entirely.

Iron Man and Spidey Classics are now up to nearly $13 as well. Was able to get the new Tarantula Classics figure at a Target that hadn't raised the prices yet, but odd as it is, that extra 2-3 dollars will have me thinking a lot more about future purchases.

Well it'll have me backing off. There's too many G.I.Joe figures anyway coming that I want. I've about backed down to mostly just G.I.Joe and Transformers anyway. Transformers will become more selective for me too.

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Eggs are up over $2 now where they used to be 87 cents. Milk is almost $4 a gallon.

I can't think of one thing that hasn't rocketed sky high (Besides gas which is way down ironically. . .) so I don't know why toys would be any different.

Not that it doesn't suck, but another price hike wouldn't surprise me at all.

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7.77 to 12.88 is a 66% increase. The economy is bad, but it isn't that bad. It honestly feels like stores are now trying to take advantage of people. I hear that Target TF deluxes are moving to $11.99. My guess is that it is a numbers thing as well. I won't be surprised when wal-mart advertises a huge price cut or sale when the TF ROTF movie hits.

What it means for me is that buying the somewhat different henkei transformers is slightly more justified and I'll definitely a whole lot less of the movie transformers so that I can save money for Joes.

Heck, the way I look at it, unless its a hasbro hike, I can finally justify buying only online and never going to a store again, woot!

Milk is not that expensive here, it peaked at about 4 dollars a gallon(like gas), but now its 2.73. We all know gas is going back up as soon as it warms up, though, so that'll also factor into toy buying.

I'm hoping this will drive the secondary market up, I have a ton of toys I'd like to unload, lol.

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One Target near me had joes for 8.50 since Christmas... another about three miles from that one had them at 6.99 for awhile then 7.50 and most recently 7.99.

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In the case of TF, it's not so much of a "price hike" as a reversion to what non-sale prices would (ish) be. The $7.77 was only a limited time thing for Wallyworld - to clear out old stock. Transformers were going up in price regardless of whether Wallyworld was having a sale - Hasbro said so last year, IIRC. I still think $13 on average for a deluxe is ultimately untenable; if it wouldn't work for the "Mega" price-point, it's not going to work at the deluxe. For long, at least. Kids & parents of those kids won't shell out that much money right now.

I do suspect we'll see a price-cut around the time RoTF comes out. Hasbro would be stupid not to do that.

I hope the Joe prices stabilize somewhere reasonable. Kohls has had 25th figures at $9.99 for a while. I hope that's not the end-target for other stores. There is no way that they can keep the line at that price and sustain sales for any extended period of time.

Even with things the way they are globally, parents and kids will ultimately stop buying product once it hits a certain price point.

~Marduk

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yeah Target has TF for $11.99 now, glad I bought cyclonus when I did,That is way too much of a price for them.
Joes were $7.99 for quite some time but since wal mart has them for $6.89 target dropped theres to $6.99 which is fair I beleive.Shopko sells them for $9.99 which is a complete rip and if that's the price they will reach I will be very selective or quit buying.It's pretty sad when toy r us was the higher priced toy store but wal mart and target are over them in alot of stuff....

I've been seeing prices rise at Target and TRU recently. However, the last time I was at a TRU (which was a month or so ago), the price had actually gone back down. On the plus side, it looks like the online stores have dropped their prices a little bit on the full cases.

What is odd is that I've seen the prices on the vehicles and DVD sets drop a few $$'s on the shelves, with the single figs going up in price.

I wonder if the toys currently in the pipeline were produced under the really high price for plastic, and now that the price is lower, if everyone is trying to make back what they may have lost by not immediately passing that higher cost along.

Then, as the movie's come out - BAMN! - price cut on these figs, get them now.

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