FitzTheRuke
Legend
I don't disagree with you that prices are overinflated (both here and on most other things these days). Speaking as a FLGS Retailer, it's crazy how often lately we sell something, and then try to get another one in, only to find that our cost has now gone up to close to the price we sold the previous one for - meaning the price has DOUBLED.
WizKids seems to have decided, as prices rose on their costs, that "No one but the wealthy can afford these things anyhow, so why not go crazy - sky's the limit!"
And honestly, the blind-pack you bought is the low-end of that mentality. You should see the Trophy Plaques - which went from being in the $200 range (our cost, so that they retailed for ~$300) to the latest one costing us... $485. Now, I'm used to AT LEAST a 50% mark-up (usually closer to 80%) - so I'd have to charge, like $750 to make any kind of reasonable mark-up. Getting one in just to "show it off" in the hopes that someone wants to buy one? No chance.
Now, there's a few reasonable excuses for some of these price-hikes, like labor laws in China changing so that the paint jobs are much more expensive (but aren't taking advantage of people quite as much) and all the usual shipping and materials increases of the last few years.
It just seems that miniatures (and toys in general) have gone up exponentially - quite a bit beyond what I would think is explainable by rising costs alone.
