Responses were varied, many outright negative. Take it with a grain of salt; most of these folks (myself included) do a brisk business with him (well, USED to do a brisk business with him; I for one never bought a single thing from him after this). He was an upstanding fellow, by many accounts. Yet can even the best sometimes go astray? Response 1: G, I would appreciate it if when you compile your list, you didn't use any of the information off of my site for this purpose. I do not want to be seen as contributing to any kind of a price guide, and would NOT like to see someone adjust prices on certain pieces upward because it is now a more 'rare' variant. I may be jumping the gun, and not have anything to worry about, but by the same token I wouldn't want to see any simple-dash Ironhides or purple Primals on that list. :-) Most collectors don't care about those minute changes; as you yourself know they would be more concerned with the difference between Scorponok and Black Zarack (which I am definately looking forward to seeing in your guide)...but we variant hunters do this minute stuff for fun, not to hand anyone a reason to double the price on a toy because the color is off or there's an extra peg... :-) Response 2: Excuse me, but what do you mean, 'every' variation? how do you expect that 'variations' should have a different price? The numbers have been disputed already, I find the variants bit interesting. Between Fred's list of variants and my growing list of Mexican variants, this price guide is going to be the size of 10 phone books. I can see the headlines now - "Robozone produces biggest book ever, Norris McWhirter impressed!". Wonder if there will be a price for Blue Bluestreak in TF box, like Toyfare? Oh and if Toyfare know where I can pick these up (MISB I might add) I'll take 10. Maybe more. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Robozone, but these are some really (pardon the Britishism) gob-smacking statements and I thought I'd comment (seeing as I can't sleep). I wish Robozone the best in their endevour, as I sure as heck would buy this price guide, but I won't be holding my breath for it. Response 3: Yea .. Ebay would actually pull his prices DOWN unlike what he's trying to imply by stating that a bluestreak won't be priced at $180 in his guide like on ebay. Response 4: Every dealer that I've talked to about things like this (not that many but I was in a silly discussion with Gerry once on the newsgroup) claims that eBay has "ludicrous" prices. However most dealers price a Bluestreak for example way over $100 while on eBay they don't get more than $75 for one. Loose that is. IMO eBay is one of the few places where a collector decides what an item is worth and not a dealer. There are always some items that are overpriced like overhyped items suchs as Artfire and Stepper but for most items they sell for relatively fair prices. There are also the zero-feedback bidders. Sometimes these bidders are simply new to this game, sometimes they'll be shill bidders or whatever but in my experience the serious eBay user knows his prices and knows what an item should be worth. Toys just aren't an investment unless they are case fresh mint condition. Loose items just aren't c9.5+. There will always be some sort of wear if you look close enough. If most dealers would be truly honoust about their things they'd be out of a job real soon. Response 5: My own look at this whole situation. Click here to read my rants! I think it sums up my feelings on the issue nicely. We point our fingers at the dealers, but maybe it's the collectors who are at fault... Response 6: That's bullcrap, man! The store I shop at doesn't even use a price guide. He threw them all out, and doesn't price anything in his store. When I bring a tf up to the counter, he looks the thing up on ebay, and averages the price from what he sees on the screen at that moment. Response 7: Dealer responds. Here is the response of the dealer to this page, offering his viewpoint on the subject.

In the end, it is all a moot point, really. A useful exercise, but nothing more. The non-issue fanned flames across various mailing lists and...like all discussions, faded into fuzzy memory. My favorite part? The personal attacks on me. Seriously, you know when comments are most vicious, and directed at you, that you've hit a nerve. That means something. Like the name-calling, the cautions in the form of thinly-veiled threats, accusations of bias...Also, the fact that only a handful of people got the point of this whole thing. The bulk of people were too-busy engaging in those activities to really stop and think about the issue. Ah yes, we transfans are an emotional lot. :-) God bless us, every one. The point? Allow me to reiterate: the prices from the dealer are purported to be higher than what you would find similar toys go for on other sites. The prices in some cases were higher than other price guides. This would mean that if the dealer makes a price guide based on his database, it would list prices that are higher than what other price guides already list the toy, not lower like the claim. Does this accurately reflect the tf market, or just one dealer's ability to go the extra mile while making an extra dollar? The funniest part of all? This was how Lee's AFN got started. Yes, AFN, the target of most people's barbs. I'm simply surprised that the dealer wants to risk opening himself to similar ridicule. Like others, I wish him the best of luck. I'll buy his priceguide. I'll put it next to the other four on my desk. :-) Epilogue: no price guide has ever surfaced. Gerry quit Robozone. Life goes on. Imagine that. :-)