Commenti Thoughts on prices drastically increasing?

Prices are going up and it kinda sucks, but I hate when people are getting shamed for spending more on a figure that OTHER people think aren't worth that much, the "X $ is too much for this figure" argument is very opinionated to me, someone might think the figure is not worth X $ but they aren't the ones buying the figure

Prices are definitely getting too high. You could easily get a cool quality scale for like 8k yen a few years back which would now be like 15-20k +

Thing is you can't even get those older figures cheap any more either cause of after market inflation... :(((

also old figures are being sold for much more than they were worth 3 years back, even if they're not rare.

I see the over saturation of the market of too many higher priced items limiting the likelihood of collectors wanting to obtain every piece that they would if there were fewer. Well that maybe sounds stupid but.. Likening it to television shows, for a long long time one could watch every show that they were remotely interested in; now there are TOO MANY to possibly watch them all – resulting in every viewer having to choose only those which they can either conveniently or really want to watch – letting all the others pass.

ShindoW • 9 mese/i fa • #98888207Honestly I relate to this post so much. I'm basically at the point where I'm getting priced out of collecting scales. Even 1/8 are like $200 now, when it used to be $80-$100... I just can't justify spending that much on something that's so small. I see the people buying the $400 1/4 Bunnys and I'm just in shock :V I don't know how they do it.
I've either moved to less pricier lines like Bring Arts figures or make exceptions to buy maybe one scale a year.
i'm glad someone relates. i can't justify spending $200+ on one 1/8 character especially knowing i will probably want more from their series... i am more into pop up parade/the cheaper lines, high quality figures are beautiful of course but that money adds up.

Honestly I relate to this post so much. I'm basically at the point where I'm getting priced out of collecting scales. Even 1/8 are like $200 now, when it used to be $80-$100... I just can't justify spending that much on something that's so small. I see the people buying the $400 1/4 Bunnys and I'm just in shock :V I don't know how they do it.

I've either moved to less pricier lines like Bring Arts figures or make exceptions to buy maybe one scale a year.

billowsandsmoke • 9 mese/i fa • #98568783Thiiiiiiiiiis, literally everything both of you just said, thank you. Particularly re: new collectors having money and not being discerning about quality--within the past week I was asking a new collector on Reddit if she thought her Crystal Dress Rem was noticeably better quality than her Emilia? And it was really lovely that she was so excited about how much sparklier Rem's dress was, and she seemed very nice, but she also had zero idea what I was talking about when I tried to explain the concept of like...actual quality/craftsmanship on a figure.
Anyway, my one addition is that I have another theory about why the influx of new collectors is causing prices to rise. Basically, companies can't keep up with the consequent influx of pre-orders (i.e. handmade things are not designed to be manufactured at mass-production level numbers), and so they're purposefully trying to price people out. Hypothetically, if they could raise prices high enough that they get pre-surge order numbers--but at this much higher profit margin--then they could put out releases at the same rate as before but make even more money.
I do have a question for both of you if you feel like answering? Recently I've been chatting with another veteran collector about this (and obviously nobody can say for sure), but what do you think about the possibility of this being a popularity/market bubble that bursts? Might we see a significant number of pandemic collectors fall off the bandwagon? And if so, would that lead to a hefty price drop in the figures that went to pre-order during this time? (Personally, I thought we'd have at least started to see a slowdown by now? But like two out of every three posts on the figure subreddit is someone asking for beginner advice or showing off their first figure, and I feel like it's only continuing to pick up speed. So now I don't know. /:)
I would honestly be surprised if prices became more reasonable anytime soon, especially since we were seeing them creep up even pre-Covid. There's lots of thoughts about why the prices are increasing from increased demand, to rising manufacturing costs, to companies simply testing limits. But whether they get their money mainly from new collectors, old ones, or a mix of both, I feel like the best we can hope for is reaching a point where sales drop off enough that companies don't raise their prices any higher for a little while.

As far as newer collectors dropping off, unless the prices continue spiking at the same rate they have, I actually think this topic's a good indicator that we'll be seeing more of the opposite. Several newer collectors basically said the prices don't bother them because that's all they've known, whereas those of us who have been collecting for at least a few years can't help but look back at what the prices were when we started and more often than not, feel the increase isn't warranted.

Jessi0807 • 9 mese/i fa • #98652782I believe as the popularity of anime and Otaku culture has skyrocketed in recent years(snip)
The popularity increase was mostly outside of Japan, so I doubt it had much of an effect on the prices. Figures have become more mainstream within anime culture (and out) universally however.

I'm just glad that event goods prices haven't gone up along with figure prices. The release and aftermarket prices have largely remained the same throughout the past few years.

I believe as the popularity of anime and Otaku culture has skyrocketed in recent years, companies feel the need to keep the exclusivity and awe of scale figures high, so they mark them up. As the hobby has become more popular, companies need to manufacture more and jump onto popular series to keep up with demand. Manufacturing costs and keep going up, getting the rights to an IP could be becoming more difficult for all we know, and companies want to squeeze whatever they can out of a series/character's popularity knowing fully that fans will pay mostly any price. Even Nendoroids have been getting more expensive as of recently. (They used to be averaging like $45 USD back in 2017 but now they're averaging $55 with some being as high as $75.) I think Companies are also seeing the selling aftermarket prices of items and feeling like they can now get away with raising prices beyond what they're worth. It's definitely sad to see something like this happen in such a short amount of time, especially as someone who's only been in the hobby for a few years.