View new posts | View your posts Can I buy the Mattel PKE Meter from a regular toy store?

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Hi,

I'm in Bellevue/ Seattle at the moment and would LOVE to pick up one of the Mattel PKE Meters whist I'm here. I'm just a little confused (and sorry for the silly question), is MattyCollector.com the only place I can potentially buy one or do regular toy stores sell them as well?

I tried contacting Mattel Customer Services and they couldn't answer my question

Many thanks for your help.

No, the PKE was only, and sold out after just a few days. Your only real options now are ebay, and the for sale section here. I suspaect as time goes on, and GB3 gets greenlit, demand will also rise, and prices will increase.

If nothing else, do NOT wait till the month before Halloween!

Thanks for the speedy reply. So looks like I'm at the mercy of eBay then unless some very kind, generous soul reading this can help me (can PP immediately if it helps

I LOVE to GB and this would make an AWESOME way of interacting with folks especially the kids charities we work with.

The PKE Meter is illegal in the United Kingdom.

AJ, you so crazy.....LOL

As for finding one, good luck on eBay.

I saw one for $100 but shipping was like $30!!

Damn eBay scalpers!!

If I were you I'd Post something in the wanted section here on GBfans,...You never know what might come up.
Or:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=24473

Good Luck!!

I got mine from Ebay mate delivered from the States, and got it alot cheaper than what guys were selling them for here in the UK, there is deals to be had but you got to wait for them, but as time goes on there gunna be harder to get hold of bro.

He was serious.

The number available on eBay sure is dwindling.. and the prices are going up. I looked and there were only a few listed.

matty collector must have the absolute worst marketing strategy i have ever heard of. put out a high demand product with ridiculously low supplies and availability. Had mattel put these in retail stores their sales would have quadrupled!......... I would have gladly bought one of these for the original price, but now the only option is to buy them from ungrateful yuppie larva for outrageous prices their up to $150 dollars on ebay now! shame on anyone who sells something for %300 profit may you fall victim to a giant slor!

I wouldn't be surprised to see them at $300 or more once we hit september and october for the busy Halloween season.

Im starting to think that might not happen. ALOT of people are holding onto the ones they have and waiting for september to hit. It may very well flood the market and force the price to drop

Be interesting to watch at least though...

Really? Their marketing strategy works perfectly. Maybe you don't understand how a business or supply and demand works, nor retail distribution. If anything it sounds like you are upset that you missed out on the original sale. That's not Mattels' fault.

I don't think this would sell very successfully in a retail store. Quadruple sales? First of all, Matty would have to convince the toy stores that they would actually sell and wouldn't be stuck with a bunch of PKE's in stock, taking up shelf space. Would fans have gone out and bought (in some cases) 10 PKE meters each if they knew the quantities weren't limited, and they could walk in to a store and buy one at any time? No, the PKE meters would sit there on the shelves gathering dust. So either Matty, or the retail outlet, would have money tied up in a stockpile of a bunch of PKE's in stock. There's risk associated with that, so the price would probably be higher as well.

Matty's strategy is to make a quantity that they are pretty confident they can sell QUICKLY and get a return on investment right away. Often the promise of that quick return on investment is the only way a company would be comfortable with creating such a niche product.

$150 would be about 100% profit, not 300%. Plus $150 is still much cheaper than any other alternative out there that has working lights and motion.

The Mattycollector sale lasted a number of days before they were sold out. A lot of people camped out at the computer, poised to purchase the very second they went on sale--- but as it turns out it wasn't necessary. It was pretty easy to get one --- or ten. So, while it's fascinating that you thought about Matty's marketing strategy for four whole seconds before forming an opinion, I can state with confidence that they probably thought about it a lot more than you did. Perhaps your purchasing strategy is what needs some work?

Yeah, I'll have to agree with AJ here.. Is there REALLY demand for more than one thousand pieces of the PKE meter, even if we wish it be so? Now, if we would think that there were, and they were sold on toys 'r' us alone, there must be at least ten to twenty pieces per store, to sell properly. One can just add up the number of stores on the US alone to get a number for the necessary meters... And, that alone will not guarantee that ALL of them WILL be sold out.

The PKE meter was sold out in little over a week (really, it took that time), even though the flame war for the lack of proper stickers on international customers. And the sales date was announced everywhere.

We got ours, at a price of 100 euro's per PKE here in Finland. That price includes shipping, MyUS accounts another shipping and customs, the whole deal. If you check the dollar course, 150$ is not bad, considering that the item has been sold out for months...

Remember that the 60$ price tag on the Mattycollector is WITHOUT taxes... After that, it'll be nearly one hundred bucks...

For me, the Mattycollector's marketting strategy is perfect. They make a set of high demand items, and sell them all out. Nothing is left to rot on any stores. Everything is calculated, nothing is left for chance and nothing is left to waste.Sure, it stinks on some customers, but who then is to blame? They do the same on Masters of the Universe figures...

We should be glad that the item IS/WAS made.

Now, if you compare the PKE's to the 6" figures, note that the full line of the figures do not need separate sculpting, they can easily use bodies and other bits in another figures, to reduce the amunt od moulds for the job. As for those, there is the demand for collectors who want the GB four on EVERY version. And there was so much sales on them, that they COULD be released on toys 'r' us... On the continental US alone, if I am correct?? So, no, here across the pond, we have no t'r'u that carries these...

I'm wondering what you tink a fair price on eBay would be?? After the listing fees, end of sale fees, paypal fees, packaging, shipping, and even gas to get it back and forth to the Post Office, $150 really is not ll that bad.. You do realize what a finished PKE used to go for before the Matty PKE came around, or even just a kit for one?? Well over $400-500.. Hell, the Iona shell alone would run you as much as the Matty PKE..

Overall I do indeed agree in the sense that its a good thing to keep things as cheap as possible, that's how i've been doing business lately with my little parts store. But, ide be lying if i said that charging 300% over cost wouldve stocked my store with a ton more usefull products as well.. This is why you should realize that a proft margin that high is what almost every business does, that how the world works, and stays in business with everything you need. Its an economic necessity

Yeah, for me, the price for one was 100 euro's, shipped (141.150 USD at the moment), after taxes from Matty directly (though MyUS). IF I were to put it on ebay, one can only guess the price... Would be near 200 dollars if I were to make any profit, and that is without shipping...

There is a shop in Vancouver BC called Toy Traders selling them for the original purchase price - and they said they had about 50 of them. They are an official Matty distributor.

This post was deleted by AJ Quick on April 7th, 2011, 12:21 pm. Reason: Going around the selling requirements.

look on some sites

a 2 hour drive north will take you to a place called Langley BC - they have a whole swack of them at a store called Toy Traders....they are a matty reseller.

Thank God you wrote these words. It made me feel a lot better to hear someone speaking truth and logic. I feel warm and fuzzy inside. Honestly.