>>5871493You know, I love the idea. If only a store in the US (perhaps in one of the geek/anime/nerd cities or comics conventions) would carry gacha in large numbers (like 100 machines), I'd love to book a flight!
But, based on what I've seen in discussions at other toy boards, I think the issue is simple economics. Regular (US) vending machine toys are sold in bulk at wholesale rates of 10 cents per toy w/ capsule. They can be sold in machines for 50 cents. That's a 5x markup. That amount of profit is what floats the seller and enables them to keep restocking the machines at supermarkets. 50 cents is still pocket change, but the toy quality is low.
Gacha, however, needs to be imported from Japan. Unless gacha is available at wholesale rates that allow a 3x-5x markup, it's not profitable for a US store to buy a bank of machines stock capsules.
Instead, comic stores and specialty stores here have to buy gacha at retail or close to retail, and then mark it up to sell to US consumers. That explains that whenever I see gacha in the US, they're in boxes and the sushi cat gacha (300 yen in Japan) sells for $6.99 or $7.99 in the US.
