EnigmaticClarity
Studious
Yes, that definitely did happen in mid-2019. Trump threatened a 15% Chinese tariff somewhere around June 2019, and Hasbro explicitly said they were raising prices to $21.49 on their adult collectible $19.99 figures to compensate which was exactly a 15% hike. By October they had fallen through, and that new price only ended up applying to one wave I followed--the Black Widow movie wave with Crimson Dynamo as the BAF. I mean I assume they did it to all of their products, but I was only buying Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series at the time.I have a vague memory of something that I think happened during Trump 1, but I could be mistaken. I remember what was basically a temporary price hike on Marvel Legends - basically a new wave went up for preorder at a higher MSRP (maybe $22.99, up from $19.99?) - and then either the MSRP went down on that wave later on, or the next one was back to the lower price. I think the general consensus was that Hasbro upped the price in anticipation of the China tariffs Trump was talking about, but ended up bringing it back down when those didn't go through. This was before there was a tariff threat every other day and they were trying to be proactive instead of waiting to see what actually happened.
Obviously tariffs DID eventually go through, and between that and covid supply shocks the price went up several times. But am I misremembering the "temporary" tariff hike that Hasbro did and pulled back on?
This time he's changing his mind so freakin' often that companies don't know what to do. If there's any consistency or duration to the tariffs we're definitely going to see a hike on pretty much all factory-manufactured goods within a few months. Him changing his mind back and forth is the reason the market is tanking more than the fact that he's tariffing at all; if he had come out with the "Liberation Day" idea to liberate the masses from their money to line rich people's pockets in say mid-2024 along with numbers that just finally kicked in last week I doubt the markets would have fallen so much, but him being indecisive means companies have to either wait and see or keep zigging and zagging as he waffles, and they're choosing to wait and see for now and just play everything conservatively hence the drop that will probably continue this week.
What's fascinating right now is Musk coming out this weekend and saying we should have no tariffs at all with Europe. Why just Europe? I can certainly guess a reason why a South African guy would pick them over say Canada, Mexico, Japan, or any South American or African country...

