Whale Shark prices mystery

Hi Everyone,

Can someone explain why the Whale Shark is so expensive even though its still in the catalogue and on the website as available to buy (ie. not retired)?!  I want it but I'm put off by the horrendous cost!
Am I missing something?  Is it a special edition or is it a real-life sized version?!

Thanks

Matt

Not sure what price you are looking at and where - I purchased my at a local TRU a few years back for $12USD. It actually is retired though, so if you're looking on eBay or something, sellers might think it should be more expensive. It's a pretty good size, but definitely not life size. And not a special edition either. When I get the chance I'll measure it for you. :) I wish you luck in finding it at a good price.

Yes, which website? As previously told, the whale shark was only retired this year so out of speculation. It is surely still easy to find on local shops once sea life takes always long to get out of stock. The old version, on E-bay, naturally has speculative prices. Another thing is that old sealife series were more expensive than the newer ones that are smaller. :)

Thanks for your replies - here are some websites I've hunted for one on:

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I can't find it in any others store I would normally visit (physical or virtually) - can someone point me to somewhere in the UK I could buy one from at a 'normal' price.

Thanks!!!

Lol    Seriusly ???   It's a lot..I saw that figure from 16 euros

I have no idea how much it was sold here, but tomorrow, if I have the chance, I'll check if I can find any being sold here. I suspect the price was something like Alvaro said or a little closer to 20 euros.
The 2013 line is much cheaper as I told, it is impressive that MPV is selling it for 35 Euros, no reason for that. Maybe the figure left production already some years ago and kept in catalogue once it was hard to sell. ... and sellers may know it considering they were not restocked. But that is just speculation. I believe you need really a Schleich, but you can find for about 10 Euros, the Maia & Borges Whale shark, that brand created most of Schleich line and has a similar quality to previous Schleich, if not a little better. It is a 23 cm figure, similarly sized to the Schleich one but almost 4 times cheaper.
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Those prices are completely mad !!!!!!!!    

Try googling for British on-line shops. Sorry I can`t do it for you. My silly browser always chooses dot-com pages instead of the European ones  

But as Roger says, the one from M & B is excactly the same...except for the logo  

Oh, wow that's a lot!  I would try to stay away from Amazon for retired figures - they usually are not cheap. Try ebay.de.

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I would try local stores - as Roger mentioned, it usually takes a while for sea life to stock up, and there may be some left over. Also try the M&B one if you don't mind the logo. :) Good luck!

I apologize for the delay - my whale shark is about 10 1/2 inches long by about 4 inches tall. :)

Curiously, as promised, today I was in three different shops that sell Schleich and none of them have the whale shark. Though, it was possible to know that its regular price here is 14,95€.

I found an online shop in the UK that is selling the whale shark for £14.99. Here's the link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I have no idea what they would charge for shipping.

Unfortuantely, once a Schleich figure is retired the price does go way up. Sometimes you can find a figure you're looking for on eBay for cheaper than what some of the shops are asking.

The only thing I have to add is to be aware there were two versions. I would expect the older version to be more since it's been retired for some time.
Here they are compared, the older one is 16076 from 1996-2005 and the newer 16089 from 2006-2013

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That's why mine looked different from other photos! I didn't realize there were two versions - thanks Tim! I have the newer, 16089 version. :) 

I see this one is newly listed:
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I was looking at that and checked the shipping price to the UK and it's $15 and I wasn't sure if he was willing to pay that.

Schleich_Figures_4U wrote:

I see this one is newly listed:
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I did not know that !!!  

Gosh ! Thankyou, Tim !!!! 

Mine is dark and not-twisted like the upper one of yours, but it does not have those clear lines on top of the head  

Thanks everyone for your replies and especially orcagirl26 as I purchased the Whale Shark from the shop you linked :-) I managed to get it for £18.99 incl P&P which is 'ok' not a great price but better than everywhere else I could find!!

Thanks ;-)

Congrats ghostme9! I hope to see photos! :)  

No problem! :) 

ghostme9 wrote:

Thanks everyone for your replies and especially orcagirl26 as I purchased the Whale Shark from the shop you linked :-)  I managed to get it for £18.99 incl P&P which is 'ok' not a great price but better than everywhere else I could find!!

Thanks ;-)

Whale Shark arrived :-)

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I am glad you've found it for a reasonable price. Honestly, it was being harder to find here than I thought before. As I commented before, it was in catalogue until last year but surely production stoped already some yars ago. :)

Congratulations!  :)

Congratss:cheers: 

Amazing model and photo as well.  Congrats!

ghostme9 wrote:

Whale Shark arrived :-)

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Congrats