Booster box prices at the distributor level

General
21

You would think they would use “carte mundi” considering they are the MTG printer and are located in Belguim. If shipping and import costs are a factor causing box prices to be so high.

The answer might be as simple as they are charging that much because they can. This is why “Grey Market” products are around. For example Canadian drug companies selling drugs to Americans. Drugs area lot cheaper in Canada so many Americans buy them from Canada. Another example is years ago cigarettes were almost double the US price in Canada. Everyone was selling cartons smuggled from the US.

22

Slightly off-topic, but I found this article about “carta mundi” having a dispute with Pokémon. Seems like their relation isn’t that perfect. Nothing to do with the TCG however, it’s about Pokémon Shuffle.

mynintendonews.com/2016/04/16/nintendo-cartamundi-have-resolved-the-pokemon-shuffle-legal-dispute/

23

It’s true about the drugs and cigs but the differences in the Pokemon box prices, sans the shipping which neither you or the seller can do anything about, is very little. Let the sellers make some money cause believe me, their margin is very small.

24

Indeed Carta Mundi printed Pokemon under WOTC, They still print magic and Yugioh…
If they still did it would be heaven for me tho because i live like 20 km from the factory XD and the prices i can buy Magic and yugioh boxes from my ditributor are insane low.

I asked my distributor to why pokemon became expensive (25 EUR over 1,5 year increase distr level per box)

these are the main reasons:

US and EUR still have no decent trading accord (hopefully this year!) if u follow the politics a litte u’ll now that the EUR and Canada had a new and improved trading accord, hopefully the US follows. (hello cheap shipping! no more import taxes etc…)
The economics in the US are growing again, while during the eco crisis the dollar took a plunge so that resulted that our EUR had more value then the USD, now they are at the same level again.
And last but not least, in some EU countries TPCi has commercials on TV for their TCG… commercial airtime is hella expensive so… that is also calculated in the costs :confused:

25

For the European people I can give some insights.

I’ve been mailing with various distributors in West Europe (mainland, sorry UK) to find out their pricing. This, because after leaving my last/old job in August I had money on the bank and had the crazy idea to make the next step and realize my dream of having my own toy store. Since they didn’t want to give me real numbers (no bulk discount, no previous order history) and only wanted to give me info on retail pricing I discovered this.

MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) for a sealed Pokemon booster box (English, 10 card packs) is € 129,95 including VAT. Any shop selling for € 119,95 either has major bulk discount (the bigger hobby stores, real toy store chains don’t sell boxes since they not allowed to) or selling below MSRP to get those few extra sales out of Google AdWords.

Anything below € 114,95 is basically making a loss. After speaking with local shop owner she suggested the price they pay for a box was about € 90. I have to add here, that since toy stores are not allowed to sell single boosters and only those boosters in the cardboard, she might as well been referring to those. Meaning the margin on a box, selling at MSRP, is just around € 30. Any webshop selling below € 104 is not making profit or having Pokemon as a side business and they don’t really care for the product/the income.

The real profit is in the 3-pack blisters. Which have a MSRP at € 15,95 and only cost around € 7 to get from distributor.

At that point I didn’t really care for speciality products like the EX boxes, so didn’t get insight on that.

What we (Europeans) should not forget is that US prices are always excluding VAT, while European prices are including.

Also as pointed out, it’s forbidden to ship product from the US to Europe. This is just because Europe has a different pricing on the product, multiply language prints, different pack sizes and marketing budget. For Nintendo it’s pointless to advertise the Pokemon TCG in Europe if all product is shipped in from the US and not official distributors.

Second note: I’ve been only in contact with distributors serving the Benelux and France. I tried to reach out to a German and even a Greek distributor but got turned down right away because they were not allowed to sell it to me. Basically for the Netherlands there is 1 distributor, for Belgium and France there are 2. There is not much overlap. In the United States you got GTS, ADC, SHS all very big companies able to compete with each other and offer lower prices, doing speciality (1 day) promotions etc. It’s just impossible to compare US pricing vs EU pricing.

1 Like
26

The one in the Netherlands ur talking about is Bergsala

the 2 in Belgium are probably Asmodee en Intrafin…

Be aware that a few months ago Bergsala en Asmodee did a behind the scenes fusion :wink:

27

I am aware of that. They were mid fusion when I was in contact with them. And I am not in favour of it, because it’s one company controlling the whole market. Enigma-Bergsala being the old PS-Games didn’t really fill me with joy either when I went for the search. Got some very bad experiences with PS-Games and it’s staff…

28

Indeed they are creating a monopoly here in the BENELUX, and im not a fan of it either!
On the other hand i have to say PS games was indeed a dread to work with but Bergsala stept it up ( I think Bergsala originates from Sweden, not sure if the managment is situated there to, or they are seperate) anyways, they got a new staff and the manager responsible for Belgium is a very helpfull guy!

29

Nice read Genosha, i see those 3 pack blisters for 17€ at the intertoys which is nuts lol.

Selling those packs at 6€ each for a whopping 216€ boosterbox which is about 231$… #Margins

30

Not really a nuts price.
If you keep in mind shops like Intertoys (for non Benelux people: it’s the only Toystore chain left in Holland) are only allowed to sell those boosters in cardboard (€5,95) so selling those 3-blisters at €15,95/16,95 is still a good deal. You’re getting a discount of about €2 and a promo card+coin. It’s a typical check-out last-minute purchase item. And that’s why there is a nice margin on it.

As I stated, the shop owner didn’t specify what kind of boosterbox she meant when she hinted me that price. I don’t think there are 36 of those card-boosters in a box. And a company like Intertoys (especially in June when Intertoys, Barsmit and ToysXL finalize their merger) can buy in such a bulk (combined they have 700 stores) that I am sure they are able to buy boxes at 80€ and those 3-blisters at 5€.

31

At the moment the 3 pack blister costs distr. level 8,42 EUR (exl VAT) and comes in a “case” of 24 :blush:

32

I know an UK distributor that’s selling at 7,75 euro exl VAT :wink:. And they’re selling them per 12.

33

At this point it seems better for small stores to wait on Ebay $15discounts on orders of 75 and more, to buy booster boxes shipped at 75 with many different ebay accounts

34

U got some info about them so maybe i can contact them? thx

35

I pre-ordered a Guardians Rising box for about $80 and change off of eBay with free shipping from a fairly reputable seller. How can they afford to sell that low? I imagine most of their margin goes in the cost of shipping.

36

*and ebay fees, and packaging and paypal fees and the man always takes a cut aswell…who ever the hell he is! that guy is rich.,.

Ive been wanting to sell on ebay for a while, the fees and costs have deterred me alot. I’m not a business, just an independent guy wanting to sell some stuff. £10 sale ends up at maybe £6 depending :‘’( sad times

37

That is appx. what I pay my distributor, but only when I buy at least a whole case. Otherwise I would have to pay shipping.

I have no idea how exactly they were able to pull that off. If that was timed with one of those eBay promotions for $15 off $75 or more you would likely be getting the box for about what the distributors pay to Pokemon for the boxes. Insanity.

eBay store fees for top rated seller would be 0.09*80*.8 = $5.76 alone. (9% of $80 and then 80% of that reflecting 20% discount on fees for top rated) I bought one from them curious to see how they shipped it. They used a padded flat rate envelope on mine. They probably qualify for some better rate on that, but still, even a better rate I couldn’t see being lower than ~$4 as commercial base price on f.r.e. is $5.95. PP fee is 2.9% + 0.30 so $2.62.

So say $12.50 in fees and profits have to be somewhere in there, as well as factoring in returns, losses etc. Time to pay the person fulfilling orders. It seems like they would have had to pay $60-65 on the box to be barely making anything, but I just don’t think that is a reality. As far as I understood, even the biggest guys would be paying ~$72 and it just doesn’t add up.

2 Likes
38

looks like some of these sellers may afford it by not shipping some of the boxes??? I literally don’t know how else someone can sell on ebay for $75 …

feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=limitedfigures&myworld=true&items=25&iid=-1&de=off&which=positive&interval=365

39

These guys are the ones who did the ~$80 box for a while there. They have sold 1,110 Guardians Rising boxes just on the one listing. Also sell by the case too so whatever that adds. I mean they may just be the absolute highest volume seller there is, but I still don’t get the $80 price point. Even $90 is a little insane. They also have stellar 99.9%+ feedback.

I know I have picked up ~$400-$450 cases before from people who decided to “invest” in a set (especially evolutions) with money that they didn’t have and then shortly after realized they needed a quick sale to pay whatever bills it may have been. Small quantities can always be explained by an individual liquidating a small poorly thought out position they took, or even a small gaming store going under that was bought out for pennies on the dollar only to be auctioned off. This seller is clearly not small quantities, and somehow they are getting worthwhile profits from this listing.

40

I’ve bought from them a few times now and will continue to. They ship quickly, albeit in a bubble mailer. Coupled with the eBay coupon when available it makes the booster boxes cheaper than you can find anywhere else. I’ve bought from a couple places that undercut their prices by a little and the results were terrible. Super slow/ late shipping/ fraudulent tracking numbers etc.

I’m not sure how they are making money but it would have to be a very small amount after fees and shipping costs.

They also receive their products days before release date. Could this be an indicator? Perhaps they are operating at a distributor level not retailer?

On side note, the coupon that ebay offers doesn’t effect the amount the seller receives. It’s an eBay coupon, not a specific seller/ store discount. Assume everyone knows and understands that though.