Why Do We Never Support Vehicles When They Are In-Store?

The Vintage Collection Tatooine Skiff is an amazing vehicle, and it interacts with the many skiff guards that have been released so far. It was an important piece to go with our cherished Vintage Collection Sail Barge. It's configurable to represent the damage that the prisoner skiff suffers during the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon. It was released at a very fair MSRP of $40. We needed two of them to recreate the scene. It seemed to check all the boxes for a bona fide seller, yet it tanked at retail.

I immediately bought one from Hasbro Pulse literally while I was sitting in the auditorium watching the Toy Fair presentation. Mr. Nomadscout had to read my CC number to me because I didn't have my glasses with me. Good times. I bought a second one at full price once they showed up at my local Walmart. I think I was the only customer who bought one at MSRP from that store. The remainders sat there until they hit clearance when I bought a mint-in-box keeper for $25. Even later during Target's buy-two-get-one-free toy sale, I bought three more on clearance. The price per unit came out to a whopping $10.86 each. I got skiffs for less than we pay for basic figures. Heck, at that price I got two skiffs for less than the upcoming deluxe Boba Fett. It's a shame that such an incredible vehicle release was reduced to such a lowly state.

Fast forward a few years, and most retailers have rid themselves of their stock. So what's happening on the secondary market? With shipping, collectors are routinely paying more than $40 for the Skiff:


I fully admit that Ebay sales volumes are only a mere fraction of what is required to support brick and mortar, but I wish these collectors were around in 2019.

There was a similar pattern with the Walmart Vintage Collection TIE Fighter. In fact, that one had a frustrating lifecycle:

• No one asked for this, and it's too expensive.
• It's on clearance, but I'm going to wait for it to go lower.
• It's $18 now, but I can't find one anywhere.
• It's too expensive on the secondary market. Hasbro should re-release it.

Okay, I added that last little bit about re-releasing it, but I have seen complaints about how expensive it is on the secondary market.

I feel like we collectively have some sort of psychological block against paying full price for a vehicle whenhhh we actually see it in stores, even if the MSRP is perfectly reasonable as with the skiff. Maybe brick and mortar conditioned us by being overly willing to clearance so they could reclaim the post-holidays footprint. Regardless of the reason, there is no mystery why the vehicle program has all but dried up.

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