What irks me the most is the fact that Wal Mart doesn't seem to think our store is important enough. I have yet to see any of the 2nd or 3rd wave Alternators and the eBay prices/competition for these figures is off the scale!
Back when Armada was around I thought, oh I'll wait for Starscream to go to clearance, bad move. Ended up spending about $40 just to get a Japanese version of him.
Did not get and am still hoping at some point to pick up an Energon Swoop/Grimlock pack. They never were at my Wal Mart/Kmart and I kept looking for them at Target during that time...nada.
I was able to pick up the Classics Ultra Magnus vs. Skywarp package off eBay after checking 4 different Sacramento, CA (this is the state capitol) area Targets for almost twice a week when the toy was supposed to be in stores. Yes, I was perhaps lucky to have only paid $10 more than the retail price.
The market's fickle. I definitely agree on the whole pay now or pay later mantra. The only exception is that sometimes you want to wait to see if the repaints will be more to your liking. I did this with several of the Cybertron toys. I preferred Galvatron over Megatron, liked Skyshadow over Jetfire, this time I decided more Decepticon character repaints were better than some of the original Autobot toys.
Of course, I then broke that rule entirely with the Movie toys. I probably bought every single one as soon as I saw them, especially if they were on sale. Now I wish I'd waited for the repaints. Those G1 styled Ratchet, Jazz and Starscream toys are much more interesting. And I'm out of free cash to play with...
Great article and topic.
Thanks.