Astronomically High Heroscape Prices- Why?

[Hogg]

Heroscape was not meant to be collectible. Everything was supposed to be reprinted so I don't think anybody bought into it as an investment. When it was in print there was still price fluctuation, as sets that hadn't been printed in a while got scarce, but you never knew when you might wake up to an announcement of a reprint. Hoarding HS didn't make much sense. I personally ended up with more than I needed and a lot of it was unopened so I can see how that can happen.

You can still get into the game cheaply. The first two master sets can still be had for close to retail. There are plenty of good expansions still to be had at retail prices. For $200 you can put together a very fun collection. Yes, some sets are high but it shouldn't keep you out of the game if you just want to have fun.

Places like Auggie's and mom and pop stores are not charving 400% less than ebay. They'd be crazy to do so. If you look at the prices for wave 4 figures they are very high everywhere. If they aren't, let me know. I'd like to buy all of it.

[Sphere]

Originally Posted by Hogg

Heroscape was not meant to be collectible.

The Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays baseball cards I bought in nickel packs as a kid weren't meant to be collectible either, but if I still had 'em, they'd fetch a ton of money on eBay.

The market is what it is - your chance of impacting that by an appeal here is nil. I'm not trying to be unkind, just trying to explain how it is. As the others have said, it's simple supply and demand. Such things never change.

[Hogg]

Originally Posted by Sphere

The Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays baseball cards I bought in nickel packs as a kid weren't meant to be collectible either, but if I still had 'em, they'd fetch a ton of money on eBay.

The market is what it is - your chance of impacting that by an appeal here is nil. I'm not trying to be unkind, just trying to explain how it is. As the others have said, it's simple supply and demand. Such things never change.

Oh, I get it. I was just making the statement for the record. I want another squad of Aubriens and Glads and know full well I'm going to pay $40+ per squad.

[nyys]

Originally Posted by enkidu

The thing is every once in awhile--rarely mind you--someone will pay crazy money for rare items like Ticalla Jungle or Aquilla Alliance or Skahen or Woo. It annoys me because it just encourages more crazy asking prices, but I imagine these people pay these prices, because they have lots of money and little time. Their time is more valuable than the extra they are paying, so they pay it. I personally can't justify ever getting ripped off, but some folks don't see it that way. They don't mind paying a premium to get what they want, when they want.

Exactly enkidu. The high 'buy it now' (on ebay) or listing prices on a site like Amazon exist because there are people who will pay it, simple as that. I jump on Amazon all the time to see if there is a board game I've been eyeing is on sale, and I'll always find someone selling a product (that I can run down to Walmart or Target and grab at retail) for 4 or 5 times the retail price.

Someone who has to watch their wallet (like most of us) look at something like that and our eyes bulge out of our heads and we get upset. "What the heck are these sellers thinking?" Well, they're thinking that they know that out of the millions of people that log onto Amazon all they need is one who has the $$ to burn, is lazy, or doesn't know any better.

[Kinseth]

I need a couple of more master sets, where can I get them for close to retail?

[SuperSamyon]

I appreciate everyone's response to this thread. I think I was just initially shocked/annoyed because when I saw certain packs going for $500 bucks or more, I just couldn’t believe it. Nyys was correct; my eyes did buldge out lol

I know my plea on here is ultimately meaningless, but if someone was to stumble on this thread while doing a Google search maybe they would then know that there are better places to buy Heroscape than the vultures on ebay. And if I encouraged one person to resist the urge to “gotta catchem all at any price,” than I will be happy.

I know if it wasn’t for this thread I would have given up a long time ago (great online store resource!): http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ad.php?t=30646

Btw, I said that I wasn’t new to ebay, but apparently there are some things I can still learn. That completed listing feature is terrific and answers a lot of the questions I posed in my original post. Thanks for the tip!

[ElvenEnvy]

It's not uncommon to see really high prices. The most shocking heroscape sale on eBay I've seen was a set of Wave 4 with x2 Uniques and x3-4 of each Common go for over $400. But I guess if they were to have sold it piece by piece it probably would have netted over $550.

[lonewolf]

I think that sellers just hope for buyer 'ignorance'.

For example there is a complete Wave 10 selling buy it now for $199, while the same set is available at HouseMousegames.com for $60.

The $60 price is probably much closer to reality for that set right now.

[Ghostship]

I've been watching and waiting.
I managed to get one and a half RotV for $47.

It's the eBay shipping policies that are killing me.
There's next to no HS available on Canada (through eBay).
$30-$40 shipping for USPS because ebay requires sellers to have tracking on international orders over $20. This doubles the cost of most of what I want to buy.

I'd probably pay $25-$30 for RttFF, or VW, but it costs my twice that.

January isn't exactly grage sale season in Canada.

The costs of production on the expansions has to be dollars. The painting in an overseas labour market is probably the most expensive part of the process. I would guess the packaging costs them as much as the contents on an expansion set, considering materials alone... were any of it still in production.
Of course character and game design are a significant cost.

Its just tough to look at RttFF as a couple of dollars worth of plastic, then pay $30-$40 for it.