Boba Fett shows the impact of inflation and tariffs

[HDGristle]

https://www.target.com/p/hasbro-star...41843?TCID=OGS

A 3.75 inch Boba Fett made by Hasbro and manufactured in China is selling at Target for $29.99

In 2004, the price for the comparable scale by the same manufacturer was $6.99

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_060607b.htm


If we look at December last year the price at Target was $19.99

Fron 2004 to 2024 the amount of plastic used is comparable, but up. Paints costd have increased. Likenesses and licensing have increased. Steel tooling is up. Transportation costs have increased over time. That $10 jump since Christmas?

Mostly tariffs.

Same character. Same scale. Same manufacturer. Same materials. Same injection molding process. Same paint applications. Same factories abroad. Same methods of shipment. Same retailer.

Now, with the temporary reduction in the trade war will we see this price fall?

Time will tell.

[HDGristle]

Interesting question to consider.

Is the above Boba Fett a doll or an action figure for the purposes of tariffs?

[mulletman66]

I work for a company that does injection molding with factories in the USA, vietnam and China. We dont make toys but we make industrial products
so cost basis would be similar. Although the cost of an item like this would be significantly increased the price jump you are seeing is likely more related to what some would call price gauging. Its likely Hasbro and the retailer wanting to maintain a specific margin for the item in question.

The production cost for this item is likely to be approx $2 USD. So before tariffs that item would have been sold by hasbro to Target for probably $4 (50% Gross Margin) then Target would sell it for $6.99 (43% GM)

Insert Tariffs. 25% from first term is at the production cost level.
$2 production cost item now costs $2.50. Hasbro now charges $5.00 to Target for the same item. Target wants to maintain the same GM so they now charge $8.77 for said item. (25% increase due to tariff and maintains 43% GM but their profit went from 2.99 per unit to 3.77 per unit at the same profit margin.

Insert the 10% February, 10% march and 10% April and April 115% tariffs.
The total cost of the originally $2 item for Hasbro now costs $5.59 each for them to maintain 50% GM they would have to now charge Target $11.18 each. for Target to maintain a 43% GM they would sell the item for $19.61 but their actual profit has gone up significantly from $3.77 to 8.43 each.

I can tell you that freight is only up slightly right now so transportation costs (cost per 20' container of goods from China is approx $4500 per container currently) at the height of Covid, the cost per container went up to approx $25,000). Current 40 foot container cost is approx $5700.

During covid freight costs were added on to costs much like a tariff but when the freight costs went down many companies held on to those costs as a margin grab and never lowered prices when the costs went down.

My calculations above do not account for anyone who held on to the freight savings as a margin grab. That would account for the difference between an item being approx $20 in december and $30 now. Freight costs normalized almost 3 years ago but many companies including my former employer never reduced pricing when the costs went down.

For an item like 6" tall Boba fett would currently cost approx $0.15 in freight per piece which is calculated into my numbers above. Those numbers would also account for Duty of approx 5.7% which is average depending on the tariff code assigned to the product.

This is more about corporations seeing an opportunity and excuse to become even more profitable than they were before than it is about tariffs costing us more. In the end tariffs cost us more but its only part of the equation.

Also, said item made in the USA would cost approx $3 to produce, sure tooling costs would be higher for sure but actual production cost would be competitive with the original china cost plus tariffs added which was the whole point of adding them in. Get companies to produce more in america and create american jobs.

Also, many companies source tooling in china and then ship the tools here for production. its still more than tooling up an item and producing it in china (because the Chinese Government cheats and subsidizes tooling if its kept in china) but its much lower than using a USA tool maker usually by 2-3 times the cost.

[Swikgm3]

So having seen The Book of Boba Fett, what would Boba do?

[HDGristle]

Excellent post Mulletman. Yes, Hasbro and Target both want to maintain their margins, but they aren't making a lot on these. Hasbro's margin has traditionally been between 11 and 15%

They need mass volume and don't want pegwarmers that will sit and ultimately get dumped to discounters like Ollie's... but that's a problem that's been going on for decades

Additional context. Each figure is typically sold in either a mixed assortment or straight case. The mixed assortments blend in varying figures of varying sizes and a variable mix of tariffs and duties based on doll vs toy but all primed to retail for the same MSRP. The variability also allows for the inclusion of reissues or minor variants using the same tooling. Paint is automated and special designed often use tampo prior. All of it designed to get the best cost mix and margin for that specific assortment.

The duty for dolls (human figures) was 12% while the duty for non-human characters, creatures, droids was 6.8%

So an assortment with a new Boba, an R2 reissue, a standalone Grogu and a mostly retooled Luke Skywalker would be one with blended margins and blended duty rates. Which is why the exact assortment matters.

That said, Target isn't going to sell nearly as many 3.75" Boba Fetts in store for $30 when you can find the 6" Boba Fett for $39 in the same aisle.

To be honest, they're not going to sell a lot of those either. That was a $24.99 product last year and a $20 product pre-COVID

Given some of those details where do you estimate the per unit cost?

[HDGristle]

Originally Posted by Swikgm3

So having seen The Book of Boba Fett, what would Boba do?

Take off his helmet and talk dank

[mulletman66]

HD, you seem to have some knowledge of the specifics of Hasbro Margins and target margins on these items and also knowledge of duty rates for these types of products. Are you in the toy manufacturing business? if not where do you find these relatively specific details?

I just know in my business the manufacturers of my products lie about many things because they dont want the market to know their true costs or how much they are making. They would overinflate certain costs to the market on purpose to keep their profitability levels a mystery. A little misdirection goes a long way to keep profits high. the minute the customer knows your costs they will low ball you into a poor profit position. I know walmart is a master of this practice as my product is sold to walmart as a consumable good that is not sold in the store but used in the store.

[HDGristle]

Ancient Chinese secrets... my friend.

As for the HTS, a cornerstone of how to determine which code to use would be Toy Biz, Inc. v United States. The one which confirmed that Toy Biz' X-Men toys got misclassified as dolls, but, as mutants, should have been deemed as non-human toys.

Toy Biz was due a hefty refund.