More Than Meets the Eye

I invested money this Christmas for my nephews, but it doesn't do much for the excitement factor when there's nothing to open up under the tree. They're in love with Transformers as many children this year are and in light of that, I went looking for a Transformers toy. Being in a small town with no branded chain store other than the dollar-type, this morning I shopped online for some ideas. My natural choice was amazon, which has never given me any trouble. I found the Bumblebee transformer which turned out to be the same size Transformer I played with in the 80's. The price? $44.98.
The reviews say that it's actually priced around $10 at brick-and-mortar stores (probably $5 20 years ago), and this place is ripping people off. It's a third party seller, named "Waityn4JC" (is price gouging Christ-like?) and apparently the Amazon marketplace sellers are not held to any kind of ethics codes. In my humble opinion, Amazon should really stay away from allowing people to do this, but hey - it's America. They'll do their part to make a quick undeserved several-hundred-percent markup, and I'll do my part to find something else that doesn't feel so much like rape. I love this country.