Barney,
Do you not have a Toys R' Us, or KayBee near you? I doubt there is a danger of a monopoly on action figure prices, as the last I heard, stores don't change their prices by the region. You may have only Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target near you, but nationwide, Wal-Mart has lots of competition.
If you're worried that only two stores will drive up prices, I'll give the Canadian example, as tiring as it must be getting to hear by now. We have a whole TWO stores in the country that sell Star Wars figures at retail - Wal-Mart and TRU. While TRU's prices leave much to be desired, Wal-Mart has maintained a $3 difference in price for the better. If they were looking to cash in, their prices would have risen to TRU levels by now.
Just something to think about.
Barada