Talk:ARC-170 Expansion Pack/@comment-104.186.108.142-20180312030325/@comment-454133-20180312034814

Ideally you can get it for $16 (see links at bottom). As for price gougers... I have a rambling several paragraphs on that subject. ;)

The MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) is $20, so anything over that would presumably be opportunistic, even price gouging. Gouging is a problem you'll occasionally see in X-Wing because FFG does limited prints of each ship at any given time, and it usually takes them several years to do another run of that same ship. So some ships produce a glut of products that won't sell because they're not as desirable (insert your favorite "least good" ship here), while others sell out rapidly and spend years being nearly impossible to acquire, creating a gouger's paradise. K-Wing and Y-Wing are the two recent examples I remember.

Some people make a living by buying up products like this in anticipation of such a shortage, so they can spike the price later and make a profit; it's like a mini stock market but feels terrible because it actually affects us directly. And I have a mild suspicion that this speculative buy&hold can actually contribute to the shortage the gougers were counting on, depending on the size of the product run, and the number of speculators and how much they buy etc, but maybe the sizes don't matter. Whatever. Whether you're willing to pay a gouger is a matter of how much you need the product -- if it's water you need to live you might be willing to pay anything, but typically with an X-Wing ship most people don't bother with the gougers, opting to wait or go without.

This was a problem for years with the K-Wing... and I saw some obscene prices but didn't really believe them. That K-Wing "selling" on Amazon or EBay for $200+ wasn't necessarily being bought, ever. Beware of taking a gouger's listed price as a reflection of reality... the price listed isn't necessarily the price people are paying; it's just what's left on sale when people reach the limit of what they'll pay. ;)  Though maybe there's a Worlds Tournament player who needed the K-Wing so bad for his list, money was no object; for the rest of us, that's crazy.

Getting back to the ARC and your actual question, Miniature Market (my go-to store) currently lists it at ~$16, but it's out of stock. However, The Collector Store and Barnes & Noble both claim to have it in stock for that same sixteen bucks, so I'd try there. Google led me to those results and it tends to be a good first tool. Fish around online, and also maybe check some physical stores (calling is sometimes faster than visiting). A physical store sometimes has something in stock that is impossibly rare online, and they might be oblivious to its value -- go grab it! ^_^  Also check if anyone in your local area (e.g. on your Facebook group) has one used that they'd be willing to sell you (but make sure you get all the cards etc you care about with it).

And if you can't find it anywhere... IMO resist the temptation to buy it for more than $20. Scalpers and price gougers exist at all only because people are willing to overpay.