why are toys getting more expensive if the price of oil is cheaper than ever?
I remember gi joes were $3 now they are like $10
>>5498330
>why are toys getting more expensive if the price of oil is cheaper than ever?
Anon, toys are not made of crude oil.
/thread
>>5498339
Oil costs was the excuse for the last few years of price hikes though
>>5498339
but oil is a main component of plastic isn't? so if the main component is getting cheaper, why toy is getting expensive?
>>5498330
Because companies like to make money and demand will not always increase proportionally with decreasing prices
>>5498330
Also, the psychological effect of raising prices is much greater than lowering them. If they lower them than they would have to take the hit again when oil prices go back up. Best to take the profit.
>>5498330
>I remember gi joes were $3 now they are like $10
When was this? because even back in the 80s they were at least 5 bucks a pop. Hell, right now Toys R Us's website has the two packs on discount at 10 bucks, originally they were 13.
...so, why you gotta be talkin out your ass?
>>5498330
You want toys made by slave labor or people earning a living wage?
>>5498349
>selective memory
I remember it was stated that oil prices were rising for a long time BEFORE Hasbro prices got a bump.
>>5498413
>5 bucks a pop
wat
>>5498330
OP thinks that as soon as the price of a barrel of oil drops, someone gets on the phone and calls all the toy manufacturers:
"Hey this is Englebert Gaylord over at the Barrel of Oil Pricewatch Commitee, calling to inform you to IMMEDIATELY lower all prices due to the latest drop in the cost of crude oil!"
>>5498413
GI Joes cost about 1.99-2.99 back in 1988 and before.
If you were paying more than that, you were getting ripped off or living in a shit country.
As for why toys cost the same even though oil costs less, it's because companies only like to raise prices and rarely ever lower them.
However, you will get deals from time to time. Stuff like GI Joes cost $9.99 just three years ago for a single pack, but Hasbro had been pricing them $14.99 for two packs and $24 for three packs.
Similar deals are made for various other lines, where you're getting more for your buck when you buy more. I should also note that two packs in the 00s and early 10s also cost $14.99, so there was little to no increase in price.
Anyway, the bulk of the price increase is the fact that Chinese labor costs way more now than it did in 2005 and has been increase every single year. It's part of the reason why various toy companies either cut down on how much they made or stopped making toys altogether.
>>5498431
I want the economy to provide fair prices, if oil goes cheap I want plastic to go cheap and they to stop jacking them up.
>>5498444
But anon, you don't understand how time and manufacturing work.
If I buy plastic for 10$ to make a toy, but after I make the toy the price of plastic drops, the plastic I used to make the toy STILL cost me 10$.
To see a change in the price of manufactured plastic takes more than just lowering the price of one of it's ingredients. That price has to stay low, the price of labor can't increase, and the price of overhead can't increase.
Feel free to read a book on any given subject before posting on 4chan about that same said subject. I can tell it would really help, this is pretty basic economic stuff I am talking about here and the fact you have to ask these idiot questions is sad really.
>>5498453
you don't have to be a jerk about it with that last sentence man.
>>5498455
But I'm not being a jerk, I'm giving you free life advice.
When you act like an idiot, people will think you are an idiot.
You want a hugbox, fuck off back to Tumblr.
>>5498330
If water flows free in rivers, why do people charge money for it?
I think the price hike is because of less people buying toys. These days kids dont want toys they want video games. Demand goes down, price goes up.
>>5498453
So the price of toys will decrease proportionally with inflation in relation to previous its previous trend should oil remain cheap?
Because they realize that the only people buying these little pieces of plastic are adults like us who work and get paid more money than when were kids. If we get paid more we can spend more. Not only that but the value of the dollar fluctuates each decade. Big name companies take both of these into account and raise the prices of their figures ever so subtley to the point where you didnt even fuckin notice until you had to see a thread on 4chan about it.
>>5498573
literally what?
>>5498607
Never mind, I think I was wrong anyway
Oil is nowhere near the most important factor, and even if it was it would take a while for prices to drop in relation to it. Inflation and general market trends are more important, and they're both pointing to increased cost.
TLG (Lego for those of you unaware) always said that the high prices of Lego are due to oil prices.
Well look at it now, petroleum products are the cheapest they've been in decades, yet the price of Lego has gone up, and you're getting less and less value for each set as the years go by. It used to be that ~100 pieces = $10.00. Now, it's more like ~100 pieces is $15-20.00
>>5498648
Are you taking inflation into account?
>>5498339
You don't "/thread" yourself, bro.
>>5498583
>Because they realize that the only people buying these little pieces of plastic are adults like us who work and get paid more money than when were kids.
And even then, companies like Hasbro say shit like they make toys for both kids and collectors when talking about Generations.
I wouldn't mind, for example, the 20 dollars they ask for a deluxe today if they felt like 20 dollar toys. Worst part to me was getting pampered during the first movie lines and the start of Generations with toys that felt like the 30 dollar toy you would order from jap stores.
>>5498748
It's different with Transformers toys, though. They're aimed at children and autists, not collectors.
>>5498750
What does Hasbro make that is not aimed at children and autists, though?
>>5498330
Wages are rising in China, and that's a key component of a toy's overall cost. In fact, economists are predicting significant wage increases in China which should more than eat up any decline in oil prices.
>>5498898
There's always some bullshit like this isn't? "X is going good oh but Y is going worse so it is all the same in the end"
>>5498459
Eh, I don't like hugboxes, never been to Tumblr, but yeah your response was pretty jerk-ish. Calling peoples questions idiotic isn't gonna get you very far. The market info you provided was nice, but losing the attitude would be nice too.
>>5498871
GI Joe, it's apparently not aimed at anyone.
>>5499023
Maybe if Trump wins there'll be a rise in nationalism and a Joe revival might occur.
Though I think it'd still be difficult to see soldiers as heroes in America after all the shit that's been happening.
>>5499019
I'm not even him but if you actually talk like that then you'd be more welcome in a hugbox, what he said wasn't even that bad considering how presumptuous OP was getting. Also
>Calling peoples questions idiotic isn't gonna get you very far.
This is the dumbest thing I've read all day. How people act on an anonymous forum neither reflects or affects anything about their lives.
>>5499030
People don't really have hateboners for soldiers, though. Soldiers are all minorities, hillbillies, and future welfare queens that are too ignorant to disobey shitty and immoral orders. People more often feel sorry for them than anything else and want them to feel like heroes because, damn, what else do they have to look forward to once they're out of the service? If they had actual real-world skills they'd be making and repairing the equipment used in the field, not going out in the field and using it.
>>5499042
I'm pretty sure the people who make and repair equipment are still technically soldiers, and if shit goes down can be pushed into service. Dated example but my grandfather was in the military as part of some engineer think tank during WW2 and when they needed more troops they just put them into normal service.
>>5498330
The low oil price is only temporary. The stinky arabs are lowering it to hurt Russias economy.
>>5499055
>can't hoard gasoline because it'll go bad in less than a year
fucking bullshit oil mafia does it on purpose!
>>5499030
I don't think there's much of a connection between army politics and news media and how that affects toy soldier sales.
GI Joe was very successful with its relaunch even though it came out during the height of negative criticism against Iraq/Afghanistan and politicians pandering to the populace to take them out of those countries.
Then was a HUGE fad in the mid-00s, right in the middle of hating on Bush's BS wars, where military toys were selling big time. Everyone and their mom was making military toys back then.
If anything, the lack of war drives down sales for toy soldiers.
>>5498434
Hey, asshole
>>5498330
A few years back, companies like Hasbro started stripping the quality out of their toys and upping the prices, claiming it was a necessity due to the soaring costs of oil.
They probably had a point, but collectors kept gobbling up the shit they were putting out (I remember the Transformers threads here and elsewhere around that time, where anyone pointing out how vastly inferior the new toys were to the older output got loudly shouted down by the brand loyalists).
Now oil's low again but the precedent has been set. Hasbro, Mattel, etc knows you'll eat up whatever shit they serve up no matter how poorly-made or overpriced.
>>5499368
As recently as 2007 I was only paying $2.98usd a pop for Star Wars figures at WalMart, I know because I have a few with non markdown stickers on them at this price. Then in 2008 or 09 they rocketed back up to $6. now the 3" Black series is $10. WTF?
>>5499368
sure is ignoramous who doesn't pay attention to the news
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3b1da2b2-d90e-11dc-8b22-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz40cFrvdng
They've stated lots of reasons for the rising prices
This is 2008 btw. This was around the time we started seeing a rise in prices.
This happened again in 2011 and that's around the time they started pulling the budget on our toys.
Here's something they wrote in 2014
>Cost savings efforts are lowering our underlying cost base and the increase in the quarterly dividend reflects confidence in our ability to profitably grow Hasbro over the long-term.
This isn't as simple as your thought process.
>>5499042
What this anon >>5499051 said.
The people that refuel jets, vehicles, reload guns, repair guns, scrub toilets, peel potatoes, etc are all actually military personnel. This goes for any military branch. It's a great way to cut military spending by putting your troops into labor and giving them a set wage.
>>5499385
Sure is Subjectfuckwit.
>>5498648
>Now, it's more like ~100 pieces is $15-20.00
Yeah, add to that the fact that the bricks are more lighter and breakable now because they has less plastic.
>>5499398
*have
>>5499385
dem delusions
sure is Mississippi marfan.
>>5498648
>It used to be that ~100 pieces = $10.00. Now, it's more like ~100 pieces is $15-20.00
You're talking about licensed sets like Star Wars. "Regular" sets still average about ten cents per piece.
>>5499312
y-you too
>>5498330
If raw material costs were the only thing that goes into pricing, then drugs would generally be as cheap as milk or bread.
>>5499312
>comparing apples to pears
So even if it was worth $5 back then, the buying power of the dollar was much more back then.
Inflation is only one part of why things cost more today than better days, but some cockmonglers only like to look at one tiny bit and bitch about it like it's the entirety of them problem.
