late afternoon update of Markville Mall:

 

Walmart:

A few old cybertron items

nothing new, except 1 Cybertron Brushguard (decepticon repaint of Overhaul).

I didn't see any new Alternators there yet.

 

Toys'rus:

A lot of Mudflap, and some Evac. I didn't see any Leobreaker though.

Had some Cybertron Prime, Meg and S.Starscream.

They also had wave 1 Cybertron Minicons 2 packs, about 1 dozen or more than that.

I also found 3 LOC left there, one LOC Evac, one LOC Scourge and one LOC Leobreaker.

A lot of Energon Megatron.

 

I was in a hurry and hence didn't check out Sears and The Bay. But never mind, I don't think they'll have anything surprising.

Okaaaay.  I'm in Montreal, so here's what I've seen around the past few days:

 

Toys R Us (in Laval, across from Carrefour Laval):

Lots of Scout and Voyager-class Cybertron, a gazillion Cyb.Landmines and Super Starscreams.  They seemed to have gotten 3-4 sets of the 3 Wave 1 Minicon 2-packs.

 

Toys R Us (Lasalle, next to Carrefour Angrignon):

Same as above, 'cept they also got a dozen or so LOCs (HotShot, Evac, Jetfire, Scourge).

 

Wal-Mart (Lasalle, on the other side of Carrefour Angrignon):

Seemed to have gotten about 3-4 sets of the 3 Wave 1 Minicon 2-packs, as well as about 2 sets of the Armada-wave Deluxes (Override, Redalert, Sideways, Snarl, Buzzsaw, Blurr, Runamuck, Longrack; all with DVDs).

 

Wal-Mart (on Decarie and Jean-Talon):

Same as the other Wal-Mart above.

 

Unfortunately, seems to still be no new Alts or Cyb.Deluxes in my city.  Either that, or I've got some other crazy-ass hardcore collectors to fight off.  :P

Quick update from me in Montreal:

 

Wal-Mart (on Decarie and Jean-Talon):

They got the new Alts.  Just 1 shipment; so just one of each of Skids, Sunstreaker, Tracks and Prowl.  But I took both the Skids and the Sunstreaker, so yeah.  :thumb

It seemed that somebody failed to sell alternators for profit on ebay and 2 Hounds were returned to WalMart at Major Mac of Richmond Hill.

 

I didn't see those Hounds a month ago, and hence I drew such assumption.

 

Those 2 Hounds were in very mint condition from the appearance, and now they're marked at $20 each. I didn't pick them up during 9.92 clearance and hence I would not pick them up at such price this time.

 

Other TF items found there included 2 armorhide, 3 Evac and 1 Overhaul. S.Starscream were put at the corner aisle near to the clearance, and on top of the shelves.

was at silversnail today.  they have the new wave of alternators for 39.99, more then i was willing to spend, but great for you impatient folks.  will wait until they appear at walmart.

was at silversnail today.  they have the new wave of alternators for 39.99, more then i was willing to spend, but great for you impatient folks.  will wait until they appear at walmart.

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I think they've reduced a bit. They used to sell red box alternators for 41.99 plus tax.

 

I don't understand SilverSnail. Why can't they do pre-order?

If they can get an estimate of customers, they can mark the price lower than present price.

was at silversnail today.  they have the new wave of alternators for 39.99, more then i was willing to spend, but great for you impatient folks.  will wait until they appear at walmart.

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I think they've reduced a bit. They used to sell red box alternators for 41.99 plus tax.

 

I don't understand SilverSnail. Why can't they do pre-order?

If they can get an estimate of customers, they can mark the price lower than present price.

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The best part is...SilverSnail has Sideswipe and Smokescreen in the old old package for $46... talk about out of touch.  What's sadder is that some one will buy it as a present for someone else without knowing any better.

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The best part is...SilverSnail has Sideswipe and Smokescreen in the old old package for $46... talk about out of touch.  What's sadder is that some one will buy it as a present for someone else without knowing any better.

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According to some comics stores, they don't carry Alternators because they cannot get any sweet deal like Walmart does, and so all the costs added altogether will end up a very high price. In addition, certain waves of Alternators such as Ravage/Shockblast/Windcharger/Decepticharge were not available in Quebec Hasbro. These alternators had to be ordered from US.

 

Unless there is a very big volume of customers, it is impossible for small stores to break even at the same price as big retailers selling.

 

That's why some online stores like actiontoyhouse and greenpigtoys can give lower price upon certain items such as Binaltech. If they get a confirmed number of customers, they can do a more accurate pricing.

 

I know you'll argue some online stores like greenpigtoys and kooltoyz sell alternators for $40 smthg. But remember, if i can get a Binaltech Transformers at around sixty to seventy canadian dollars, who will care to get a plastic edition?

 

In addition, it's more risky to order Alternators bcoz you cannot order one single type of alternator. Each set of Alternators contains 3-4 different types. On the other hand, Binaltech is issued per type rather than per wave. If certain type of BT is believed to be unpopular, say BT Swindle, stores can skip Swindle and wait for another item such as Grimlock.

 

On the other hand, say the current wave of Alternators, each box contains 1 prowl, 1 sunstreaker, 1 Skids and 1 Tracks. We know the 1st 3 items are the most popular, and Tracks is less attractive. But you can't just order these 3 without Tracks. In such case, it's very likely for the store having lots of Tracks remaining.

Even if comics stores do pre-order, Tracks is likely to have less order than the rest. Besides, how many customer can a comics store get? Let say thirty to forty from its neighbourhood or even the whole city. But will such number be enough to break even? Finally, if WalMart is doing a clearance, who will buy from these comics stores?

 

This's all business man. Hence, the cheapest ways to get Alternators are to get them in US or to get them from WalMart sale.

thornhill Winners have Alternator Swerve left.

picked up 1 and left 1 there.

thornhill Winners have Alternator Swerve left.

picked up 1 and left 1 there.

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what intersection