It’s October now and pre-release sales of Crimson Invasion are happening. Post the best prices you find so we can reap the rewards! Normally I find pre-sale boxes at $75-$78 but it seems different this time. The big sellers are doing their pre-sales at $85+. Wonder what is happening at the distributor level… Anyone want to chime in?
Update: $79.99
I’ll keep updated as I find cheaper sources the next few weeks.
I read a similar thread on Virbank.
I think that those distributors who you are talking about probably got in trouble with Pokemon, because as discussed before it was probably employees using their connections to link those ebay sellers to cheaper prices. That being said… You never know?
Last I spoke with my distributor, they & majority of the businesses that use them were furious. I wouldn’t be surprised if they rectified prices to reduce the lethal price dumping, as it was destroying pretty much everyone. The price dumping wasn’t sustainable, even from a strategic lose perspective. I am curious to see the complexion of boxes in price point in the next year. Perhaps this was the inflection point.
“Them” as in sportsandmore?
here are some of my prices in the past. I pulled the trigger late on these though.
You said the businesses that use “them” were furious. Who is them?
@pokeaddict84 That is simply what my distributor told me. They didn’t and most likely cannot specify exactly which particular businesses.
The general frustration is the price dumping is killing most businesses. There are probably only a handful of businesses that actual make money on selling sealed product. Your purchase prices from sportsandmore are literally lower than some businesses distributor price point. Therefore the price dumping is killing these level of businesses.
I’m curious as to whats the regular MSRP for an average booster box, and how much does retail pay from distributors?
So buying from ebay sellers that sell booster boxes lower than MSRP prices, hurt regular retail stores like my local card shop?
I had heard that these big stores do this to take a financial loss and get into the lower tax brackets. I think anything under $85 is a loss on ebay with fees and shipping since most big distributors pay $76 or so per box.
MSRP is $144 ($4 per pack), but that is completely meaningless in a digital marketplace. MSRP is an outdated concept altogether.
Distributors are selling to stores in the upper $70 range if purchased in large quantity.
Buying lower than MSRP is not the problem. Buying for less than distributor cost is. Retail outlets like local stores are an incredibly important part of how games grow and thrive. There cannot be tournaments if there are no small tournament venues. When you pay an extra $10-15 at a local game store, you support the health of the franchise, small businesses, sustainable marketing, and so much more. Sportsandmore is a perfect example of what the impending death of the game looks like.
The description on this box made me laugh lol
www.ebay.com/itm/POKEMON-TCG-SUN-MOON-CRIMSON-INVASION-BOOSTER-BOX-PRESALE-PLUS-BONUS-/302470573766
Update: $79.99
That doesn’t make any sense (underlined). People who say this have no concept of how tax brackets work and how losses work. Except for exceedingly rare circumstances with entitlement subsidy cliffs this just isn’t the case where someone can lose money and have it be a net gain. There aren’t situations where losing money makes or saves you money in business like this, period. Sure, you get to keep more of the first $10,000 you make than the last $10,000 you make as everyone is taxed lower on their first $XX,000 amount of income, but even when you make $1,000,000 it isn’t like that all is magically taxed at the higher rate. You pay the same % on $0-$XX thousand as everyone else. Only amounts in each bracket are taxed at that brackets rate. You and Warren buffet pay the same tax rate on your first dollar although his last dollar falls into the top bracket (39.6%) whereas most folks falls into the 15 or 25% bracket.
I pay $79 per box from my distributors when I do a big multi case order. Typically they want to charge me $80. All orders are subject to a minimum purchase of a few hundred bucks. That is plus a credit card fee if I want to use one, and plus a home delivery fee as I have a residential address. eBay I can pay $79.99 any quantity shipped free to my door saving 1% eBay bucks off the top and 2% cc fee (citi doublecash). Sometimes more eBay incentives on top of that. It is insane the prices these sellers are moving product at. What I have been told by my distributors is that it is essentially the distrib selling product through a store. Not something that my distributors are happy about.
What would the strategic loss be? If they were truly losing money, why would they sell that low?
Also, just watched one of your vids about the sub $90 booster box prices for SM1 from back in March. Interesting that the prices are being driven even lower.
The only time a strategic loss can really make sense is when you need to free up capital to avoid major penalties or interest accrual in the short term. Or if somehow taking a loss on X amount of product gets you up to a volume break point for a cost savings on all your product. Certain distributors give XX% off msrp based on your previous quarters total business. If you have to take a small loss on a bit of product at the end of a quarter to ensure an extra few percent off all your product the following quarter sometimes it could make sense. As I said earlier the tax loss for lower tax bracket thing is just not reality.
I live really close to DreamJoey’s supposed business in Riverside. I’ve been tempted to ask if I can go pick up a box in person and have a chat. Hes the one always in a price war with SportsandMore.
That’s an interesting idea - I almost bought a few boxes from him recently until I realized the same-state sales tax actually made it more expensive than SportsAndMore for me. But yeah, it always seems to be the two of them vying for the lowest price on new sets.
Anyone who hasn’t picked up a box might wanna jump on this deal - $60 dollar Crimson Invasion booster boxes until Sunday night:
Shipping is $6 or free over $100 meaning you may wanna buy 2.
Dear lord that is cheap. I guess CI is selling really bad
I think it is. I’ve been to two Targets and two Walmarts every week since release and not a single ETB has moved and all of the CI packs look untouched, stocked to the brim.
All around bad set aside from the full art trainer cards.