When the dollar was at levels close to R$3, about five years ago, Germanio Daldegan, 36, from Minas Gerais, took the opportunity to increase his collection of statues and articulated dolls, and also obtained better prices on products ordered from abroad.
“For a few years now, the high dollar has complicated things a lot. In addition to the licensing fees, the actors who play those characters charge a fee for the right of the companies to make the puppets with their faces. product”, says Daldegan, creator of the YouTube channel UsBonecos.
“Everything I have is imported. Even items made by a Brazilian company are produced abroad and they still need to seek licenses in the market.”
“Due to the crisis, there was a growth in people who had collections and were forced to sell some items. At the same time, we have customers who gained a lot with bitcoins and were able to buy more products”, says the manager of the Limited Edition store, in São Paulo. Paulo, Rodolfo Pranaitis.
Despite the high prices, he says there was a 20% increase in sales last year, due to the pandemic. With many Brazilians without leaving home, consumption ended up being directed towards items for the home and many customers ended up starting collections during the health crisis.
The nerd public has represented a growing slice of interest from companies in Brazil and abroad. “Although it seems kind of childish, because of the characters in cartoons and games, etc., it’s a hot market. Companies know how to reach the nostalgic side very well, and as we are economically active adults, it’s even easy for them to profit”, says Daldegan .
This Wednesday (25), the Nerd Pride Day is celebrated, to coincide with the release of the movie “Star Wars – Episode 4: A New Hope”, by George Lucas, which premiered on May 25, 1977.
The date is also known for being Towel Day, which is celebrated by fans of the series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, written by the British Douglas Adams.
With high prices, many end up opting for 3D printing, but the raw material is also imported, collectors say.
A fan of comics since childhood, Marcel Rodrigues, 44, also a youtuber from the Mania Geek Oficial channel, has been collecting articulated dolls, statues, shields and replicas since 2012. “The high dollar is very bad for those who collect.”
Rising prices also help to explain some of this discomfort. In April, official inflation measured by the IPCA (Consumer Price Index – Broad) in the country was 12.13% in 12 months — the highest level since 2003.
The main items that helped push up prices were food and fuel, but “geek” items that appear in the basket of products monitored by the IBGE rose in the period. Electronic devices, in general, rose 16.31% in 12 months. Within this category, there was an increase in the prices of TVs, sound and computers (8.94%) and video game consoles (9.91%).
The prices of the products increase and, when the imported item passes through the Federal Revenue Service, we are at a loss: we pay a high cost for the part, plus the IOF (Tax on Financial Operations) and freight.
An alternative, says Rodrigues, is to buy through Chinese websites, such as Ali Express, to be able to cushion the final value. “Even with all this, it is cheaper to bring a direct import than to wait for the item to arrive in Brazil”, she says.
He says that he even bought statues from a franchise for US$ 470 abroad, which are now found for US$ 730. “The good side is that these products in Brazil always have a rapid appreciation, so if the collector is able to buy, the investment in some items can compensate with the dollar even above R$ 5.”
The dollar started a downward trajectory in early March, starting to fluctuate in May. Today, the currency is at a level of R$ 4.80.
In the year, the accumulated drop is more than 12%, but the currency has reached much higher levels since the beginning of the pandemic – such as R$5.85, in May 2020, or R$5.70, in May 2020. last December.
Exchange rate oscillations bother even experienced collectors. Counting video game consoles, accessories and games, the collection of Alex Mamed, 48, has more than 12 thousand items and has been in the RankBrasil, of records, as the largest video game collector in the country, for more than seven consecutive years.
“The collection started in 1992 and is richer in old items than current ones, like a Sega Dreamcast and an Entex Adventure Vision”, he says.
About 90% of the items collected by Mamed are imported and he has seen prices rise more and more, both due to the higher level of the dollar and the greater interest from other collectors, which has heated up the market.
“Before, many donated items to me or placed ads in newspapers and magazines at affordable prices. With R$100, I could buy a cool old video game not long ago; now, it would be impossible”, he says. “We stopped buying items for a while, both for the exchange rate and for the inflated market.”
He also ends up keeping some items for exchange, due to the high prices. Recently, he began to exchange more games with fans and other collectors, also to circumvent the high prices.
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