Fanatics keeps on raising prices, yet people continue to buy....why?

mfw13 · 01-07-2025, 01:25 PM

So...this post/thread is prompted by an exchange I had with a fellow collector....

It's pretty clear by now that Fanatics is raising prices across the board on just about every product....Archives came out yesterday at $130 a box....a product that used to pretty consistently release at $65-75 a box.

Yet people (and I'm NOT talking just about breakers/gamblers) seem to be falling over themselves backwards to buy just about anything Fanatics releases at just about any price point.

Now obviously there are going to be some people who are wealthier and/or less price-sensitive than others. For them, the pleasure they get from opening wax is worth it, even knowing that they are highly likely to lose money doing so. From that perspective, it's no different than paying for an experience (going out to dinner, seeing a movie/cultural performance) that will deliver no value once the event is over. So buying a case knowing that you are likely going to lose several hundred dollars on it is no different than blowing $200-300 going to a MLB baseball game or Broadway show.

However, the flip side is that those who are less price-sensitive do not raise prices just for themselves....they raise prices for everybody by allowing producers/manufacturers to sell at higher prices, thus making it more difficult for others to force prices downwards.

An analogy that occurs to me is the fact that consumer discretionary spending has remained high at the same time everyone is complaining through the nose about inflation. Logic says that if people were truly being bothered by inflation, consumer discretionary spending would decrease. But perhaps it's simply the fact that people who are less price-sensitive have so much more spending power than people who are more price-sensitive that they're the ones setting market prices even though they numerically might be in the minority.

It's easy to simply blame breakers/gamblers, but I think it's actually a bit more complex than that.

Thoughts?

01-07-2025, 01:25 PM	#1
mfw13 Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 17,923	Fanatics keeps on raising prices, yet people continue to buy....why? So...this post/thread is prompted by an exchange I had with a fellow collector.... It's pretty clear by now that Fanatics is raising prices across the board on just about every product....Archives came out yesterday at $130 a box....a product that used to pretty consistently release at $65-75 a box. Yet people (and I'm NOT talking just about breakers/gamblers) seem to be falling over themselves backwards to buy just about anything Fanatics releases at just about any price point. Now obviously there are going to be some people who are wealthier and/or less price-sensitive than others. For them, the pleasure they get from opening wax is worth it, even knowing that they are highly likely to lose money doing so. From that perspective, it's no different than paying for an experience (going out to dinner, seeing a movie/cultural performance) that will deliver no value once the event is over. So buying a case knowing that you are likely going to lose several hundred dollars on it is no different than blowing $200-300 going to a MLB baseball game or Broadway show. However, the flip side is that those who are less price-sensitive do not raise prices just for themselves....they raise prices for everybody by allowing producers/manufacturers to sell at higher prices, thus making it more difficult for others to force prices downwards. An analogy that occurs to me is the fact that consumer discretionary spending has remained high at the same time everyone is complaining through the nose about inflation. Logic says that if people were truly being bothered by inflation, consumer discretionary spending would decrease. But perhaps it's simply the fact that people who are less price-sensitive have so much more spending power than people who are more price-sensitive that they're the ones setting market prices even though they numerically might be in the minority. It's easy to simply blame breakers/gamblers, but I think it's actually a bit more complex than that. Thoughts?