Monday, May 18, 2009

PVC Pricing

Ok, so pretty much anyone who follows the whole PVC figure market from Japan will have noticed and felt the pain of ever increasing prices.  My question though, if given a chance to pose it to the manufacturers, would be what exactly is the reasoning behind it? 

Collectors and their money is a relatively finite resource.  It CAN run out.  Surely a lower price point is healthy for sales and for the market as a whole?  It seems that if sales are down across the industry then that should indicate that perhaps the pricing is no longer acceptable to the market in general?  

It just seems that we are squeezed more and more when it comes to SRP on PVC figures.  This is a niche market - higher prices just push these items further and further away from the reaches of new fans.  I don't feel all that optimistic about this industry right now.

The photo below says it all..





2 comments:

  1. I know exactly how you feel. I'm a long time anime fan and I also run an anime figure store. The reson for the increase in price is sadly the fact that the yen has gotten higher in value due to the other world markets tanking. For example..it used to be 120 yen per $1....now it's 95 yen to $1...was as high as 87yen/$1 back during x-mas 08. Sadly anime store owners like myself have to pay more for figures as well because the dollar isn't worth as much anymore :-( Hopefully it can get back soon.

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  2. Hi there,

    Thanks for posting. I agree that the strength of the Yen did indeed increase the price of many N. American releases and the cost of importing from Japan. However, that does not explain the rise in the domestic Japanese SRP on many PVC releases. Lets be honest the domestic market in Japan is still where most of the companies are doing the majority of their business. The export market does come second - this is excluding the gray market - to Japanese stores etc.

    Raising the price to account for falling sales is just not good business. Hey, what do I know though. :) I very very much want to be proven wrong on this subject.

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