Rant about Mattel Elites

Its criminal really, especially since our dollar is now above the US dollar and has been for the better part of the past few years. At this point, Im not sure who the blame falls with but the situation here is pretty depressing and incredibly demotivating to collecting. I understand shipping costs factor in but double the price of the US and with our dollar stronger doesnt make sense. But the biggest problem has been distribution. Why some stores get new basics whilst others dont and no elites since series 8 is just wrong. Theyve always sold except when they ordered excess E6 because stores thought it was smart to order them cheaply by getting huge quantities. Even mattel australia representatives have given empty promises. Its a very frustrating scenario,

And online, the competition is fierce, so many of the figures are priced so ridiculously high and all over the place and with shipping considered, its just all too hard really.

And also why would shipping even factor in? Aren't they produced in china?

Its clear these problems are happenning all over, though it may not necessarily be mattels fault but perhaps retailer, distributors, wholesalers, etc.



Shipping is always factored in. Even in the US prices shipping has to be factored in. They are not straight from factory to shelves, they most likely go through screening then distributors and so forth. Even though we are geographically closer I dont know the exact process they go through.

However, as far as contacting someone about the price. Perhaps ask a store representative like Kmart customer service or something? Even mattel australia customer support perhaps?

The situation has been like this for not months, but over a year so as frustrated as I am about the whole thing, im used to it. Very wrong really.

German TRU's aren't even getting new(er) Elite figures in anymore. All you can find right are some leftover Elite 9 figure like Orton, Kingston and MVP, which are going to stay there forever as nobody is buying those!

Also taking into consideration that the Elites over here cost EUR 25,- ( = $ 30,-), the outcome is that were doomed over here as well!

i should go on record in saying i've only ever seen in stores here in Nova Scotia the following:

- Elite 1 'Taker and Mysterio
- Elite 6 Batista and Punk

that's it for elites. sometimes there's new basics and battle packs.
and not to mention Flex Force galore.

it's a sad state of affairs when i have to buy E16 Punk on ebay for $40.00...

i'd hate to be THAT guy but i NEVER had this problem with Jakks.
but even then, i'd still take all these problems with Mattel over Jakks any day.

I joined to say that none of my local toy shops (Located in Belgium) even got any Mattel WWE figures, we're still stuck with Jakks. Mostly those Backlash figures which are sold out by now.

Its a pretty lame situation that they aren't selling them in Aus anymore, but the distribution has been so bad lately that a lot of people are resorting to eBay also. I think it equals out pretty well though, because the exchange rate is basically 1:1, but the minimum wage in Aus is over double of that in the US. If a figure costs you $30 and $20 to ship, that is about 4 hours of work at minimum wage. In the Us it would be $30 and maybe $5 to ship, which is just over 4 hours of minimum. Maybe I'm missing something but when it comes down to it you guys aren't ACTUALLY paying more, the number is just higher.

I can see your reasoning but thats not quite it. Other products from iphone, electronics and so forth arent always double. Your basics are $10 ours are $15 but for some reason elites are double. It doesnt quite work out. If your elites are 15, ours should be 20-25 max. Our DAs were 18-24 but were overpriced.

And since everyone resorts to online, we have to battle a lot harder to get what we want with everyone else in the world that is struggling. Its pretty clear that everywhere is experiencing pretty bad distribution issues. Though I would say ours is one of the absolute worst.

The one I'm closest to is Lochristi and they ditched the FlexForce, had them sent to the bigger cities because they didn't sell. No basics to be found. All they have here are Backlash series, some of those Jakks two-packs and every now and then some Morrison rumblers.