A few years ago we had a golden age for Australian collectors of… er… collectibles.

Ebay was growing exponentially, the Aussie Dollar was worth more than the US one, and not only were all the physical stores stocking a plethora of toys, but fledgling Aussie Toy Importers were opening businesses on the net, making it even easier to get those rare collectible toys from places such as Japan and America.

 Sadly it’s all now changed.

In the last couple of years many of the Aussie online toy importers have shut down or are under investigation.  The introduction of GST on all overseas purchases under a thousand dollars has made importing many toys too expensive – especially since you have to pay an extra 10% on the postage as well.   Any overseas companies such as the US branch of Amazon who don’t comply with the new GST laws are simply refusing to ship to Australia from this point on.  And now the biggest toy stores to find in this land – Toys’R’Us – are shutting their doors forever.

So whether it be in real life or online, avenue after avenue that was once available to your Aussie toy collector are disappearing.  The Golden Age is Over.

 To see how this is affecting your average collectibles buff, we talk to three toy collectors and find out their take on the current situation – Dallas, Darryl and Jason.

Question 1: What effect do you believe the application of GST by the Australian Government to all overseas purchases will have on your collecting?

Dallas

A lot of what I buy overseas is not readily available here. There are one or two importers who sometimes stock it but otherwise I will continue to buy from overseas. the only difference may be that I buy less stuff, but it will probably just mean I spend 10% more than I used to.

The secondary effect of this being places like Amazon.com no longer being available to me. I will be surprised if the exclusive items or super deals I used to occasionally find on there will be available through the Amazon Australia site.

To be ‘real’ my international purchasing really slowed down when the dollar dropped from 1.05US to 0.75 US. that’s a 30% price increase, another 10% hurts but it’s not the end of the world for something that I possibly can’t find anywhere else.

Darryl

Aside from having to pay a little more, I doubt it will deter me much.  I find myself having to import later waves of a line due to distribution rarely making it up my way so if I want a figure, I just have to lump it.

Jason

The only impact that the application of GST is going to have will be to increase the cost for obtaining any of the Transformers that I am currently collecting. Most of my spending on current collecting is purchased through Australian retailers so I am already paying GST and that cost is factored into my collecting. It is the items that do not receive an Australian release that are going to cost more.

Given that sites such as Amazon.com are no longer allowing sales to Australia for such items, it is going to cost a lot more to source these harder to find items from other overseas stores or pay significant amounts on postage to freight forwarding companies as well as the GST on top.

I understand that the point of the GST is to charge end users a flat tax across the board and that the purpose of applying it to low value goods is to create equality in trade between Australian retailers and overseas retailers, however the issue is that the Government has created for itself is a situation where they have reduced the possible supply/variety of goods into the country whilst relying wholly upon foreign entities to voluntarily remit GST. The compliance costs will be astounding and it will be interesting to see if any actual profit is generated for the economy from this or if there is simply more funds moving offshore.

Question 2: What effect (if any) has the behaviour and subsequent closure  of Australian-based online collecting stores such as PC Collectibles, TFI Downunder and MaynStream Merch had on the availability of collectible figures on a local level for you?

Dallas

I have a lot of money tied up with PC. They used to be great, I have received a lot of excellently priced product from them, until they fell off the wagon, it must be nearly 2 years ago now. I hope to get my money back, but that’s up to the judge I guess. I never shopped at the other two stores. I never minded waiting for my stuff a bit longer as I often pre-order in batches and I nearly always collect faster than I open toys so I never ‘suffered’ the indignity of not having anything new to open because PC was taking longer than everyone else.

Lately I have been making  lot of purchases at TLTC and TBI. Both are reliable and both have excellent prices on different product. I’ve actually been buying a lot of stuff from these two stores that I used to import, long before the GST was introduced. I guess it’s a sign of a good competitive business that has moved with the times.

Darryl

I was fortunate in that while I had issues with PC, I didn’t lose any money to them (nor did I get the stuff I ordered).  That being said, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I’m reluctant to deal with any Australian based online retailers unless they are a well established business.

Jason

I was a huge fan of PC when I stumbled across the online store in mid-2015. There was a solid 1 ½ years where I was a very happy customer and I moved a lot of my purchases from overseas retailers to PC. However, it all started to unravel in 2017 and it has left myself, and a lot of others, out of pocket.

PC’s demise and the way in which PC conducted itself no doubt put a dampening on my collecting enthusiasm. All of a sudden, I went from using my spare time to research what Transformers I was wanting to buy to using my time to attempt to correspond with PC, reading forums such as Ozformers for guidance on dealing with PC/Banks and corresponding with the Banks and attempting to do chargebacks.

My hobby went from something enjoyable to something more akin to my job. However, there have also been some other stores pop up recently (or that have just come to my attention) such as Toybot Importz and The Little Toy Company and I am willing to give them a chance. Neither have disappointed me so far and I hope that neither will. Both have shown exceptional communication and competitive pricing. Whilst the range (and pricing, but we now know why PC’s pricing was so good) may not be the same as PC, I am able to source most of the Transformers that I want from these two online stores.

Question 3: What effect will the closure of various brick’n’mortar toy stores (such as TRU) have on your collecting?  Especially since so many online avenues have been closed off?

Dallas

The closure of TRU is a bit sad. I have purchased a lot of exclusive items from them over the years and I’ve often made use of their 20% off sales or price matching policy. It’s likely that I’ll have to resort to more expensive avenues to find those special items that they would have otherwise stocked. Even TRU US supplied me with the recent Titans return Grotusque and Arcee. I would like to think Hasbro Australia will find another avenue for this product but only time will tell and I imagine if prices through alternate channels are too high I may end up skipping a lot of stuff.

Darryl

Probably won’t affect me much.  My nearest TRU is over an hour away so I didn’t get there very often, in fact, with my local K-Mart as the only close source for TF’s (Target, Big W are also an hour away) I’ve accepted that I’m going to have to go online more to get the figures I want.  As much as I want to support local stores (even if they aren’t owned locally) they haven’t been very supportive of me.  So sadly, it looks like any money I will be spending on my collection will be heading off-shore.

Jason

I don’t think that so many online avenues have been closed. There are now quite a few Australian online retailers and a lot of the overseas retailers still appear to be selling to Australia.

I was never really one for buying Transformers for my collection from brick’n’mortar stores. The convenience of online shopping and having the items delivered straight to me is to irresistible to pass up. Not to mention, I often found the prices online (even from Australian online retailers) were far more competitive than in store prices.

Whilst it will not impact upon my collecting, it may impact a little on my younger son. He is really getting into Transformers at the moment and we enjoy going to stores like TRU together and picking ones out for his collection. Whilst we have a great time doing this, it seems as though stores such as Big W now have such a large selection of toys that they have effectively replaced the need for speciality toy stores such as TRU.

Many thanks to these three fine lads for sharing their thoughts with us.  How have all the recent changes effected you?  Let us know in the comments section below.