For a while it felt like this hobby was starting to become relaxing, but it's crazy again with resellers. Honestly, just such a silly hobby. Prices keep going up and they have no correlation to the worth of a figure, it's all supply vs demand. The same quality toy can go to Ross for $6 or sell on eBay for $90.
I've said this elsewhere, but, for my local collector economy:
When the Covid checks hit, everyone jumped in. My Facebook groups had lots of new faces navigating Mezco, how do get exclusives in Canada, the whole dance. Reselling in groups was instantaneous and you could easily clear $40 plus a loose Legends figure as people were building collections.
Then quarantine ended. A lot of them got out and went back to their prior world. But they tried to sell at what they had paid or more.
Buuuut, the support checks had stopped, jobs had been tumultuous, and as someone who sells a lot, I noticed the hobby economy (games, cards, comics, toys) was stuck in Quarantine Pricing, but nobody has Quarantine Money.
But people needed money, so they stuck to the pricing even when no one could pony up.
And then they go off US markets, action figure 411, eBay, none of which match the reality of Mezco or Mythic Legions demand and value if you're doing Pick Up Only in Toronto. It's a different scene. I adjust my prices and expectations accordingly, but even now, as the economy is bucked around thanks to our modern world, people are still valuing things at stupid prices, expecting you to pay the stupid price with no bargaining...
...all while trying to get me to come down to unreasonable pricing solo or bundled.
I'm sure there's a larger Capitalist analogy to be made from this snapshot.
Tldr: people are out of touch, out of time.