Just wondering how much these usually go for at Botcon itself, as well as afterwards on places like eBay and whatever? And are they usually limited to being a boxset of a certain amount of characters (ie: one boxset of 5 characters) or do they have various exclusives available?

Just trying to get an idea of what to expect either by going or passing it up and watching for this stuff to surface on eBay instead.

Thanks!

 

in the old days, the botcon exclusives would usually be sold seperately. However, for the past 2 years they've been sold as one large boxset (with smaller items sold seperately to convention attendees only). The price is generally over $200 if memory serves, and that's whether you attend or not. Sometimes test shots of the individual items will show up on ebay before the convention itself, which is one possible way to acquire them, though that isnt expected to be any less expensive. The value of the figures themselves after the convention varies. An entire boxset will usually increase in value, depending on demand. Individual figures are usually more of a wild card. A Botcon Ironhide is far more desirable than a Botcon Buzzclaw, for example.

 

botcon exclusives price = 1 arm, 1 leg, and your first born.








seriously though just the set (not including attending exclusives) approx. $250

 

Eleventy jillion!

However, while I won't make it to Botcon this year, it sounds like I won't be able to resist this year's set.

 

Botcon 2006 info for Botcon 2007 questions  

 

Very useful info - thank you.

So I'm guessing since this year's Botcon is happening sooner than the last one, all the updates pertaining to what the exclusives will be and whatnot should be showing up sooner as well.

Oh, and for the record, the prices some of you mentioned of what the exclusives usually go for are nuts! For $200-$400 USD, they better be something pretty f*cking special, way above & beyond just some basic repaints. For prices like that, they should absolutely be able to pull of a limited run of some entirely new molds. Talk about collector gouging at its finest.

 

Assuming figure production is similar to large-scale printing, you have your base costs for the setup and production, your molds & paintmasks as Vangelus brings up. This is fixed for the most part regardless of how many units you're running. You also have the base cost for the materials, per unit. The unit will always cost $X, no matter how many total units you run (though suppliers do offer discounts on large quantity orders).

Say, for arguments sake, we have something that costs $.10 for materials, and $100 in preperation. One item, then, costs $100.10 per unit. Ten items cost $10.10 per unit. One hundred items cost $1.10 per unit.
Its not so much the buyers, as aftermarket prices will attest to there are plenty of those, but the scale of production. When Hasbro can spread the setup costs over hundreds of thousands of units, it makes a huge difference when you compare to spreading those same over just 5,000.

 

In 2005, the box set contained 7 figures and the cost (which also included attendance for everything at the convention was $270. There was also a bonus 8th figure given if you picked up your package in person. Available for sale at the show was a set of two figures for $65 and another set of two figures for $35.

In 2006, the box set contained 5 figures and the cost (which again also included attendance for everything at the con was $250. There was also again a bonus 6th figure given if you picked up your package in person. Available for sale at the show was a set of two figures for $95 and another set of two figures for $45.

Granted, $400 is a lot of money for 10 figures, particularly when most of them were basics. However, keep in mind that those ten figures were selling for $900-1000 in the weeks after the convention, and have not settled down too much from that level even now.

With this year's set being based on Classics, expect demand to be similar or even higher, as a LOT of people are going to be wanting these and willing to pay an arm and a leg. I would NOT recommend waiting for ebay. They're never going to be as cheap as they are at the show again, so either bite the bullet and pay the price, or just put them out of mind and decide you don't need them.

 

And actually to echo KD sentiments, you might even consider picking up extra sets of the figures. With pre-reg you are able to get one complete bagged set of exclusives (complete with no box) which you could also sell to recoup some fund from your trip.

 

so can you buy all the figures at the show or did you have to buy the box sets in advance? I have never been to a botcon.

 

I have never been to Botcon and I am attending this year. If someone could answer me these few questions I would be very happy.

1. I want to buy all the figures that will be exclusives this year, if they come boxed I want mine boxed.

2. How many sets are we allowed to purchase if we are a club member and we preregister for the Con?

thanks.

 

1) Well, that's not really a question. But they'll almost certainly be available as a boxed set, if previous years are any example.

2) Last year, the Primus package was one boxed set with the option to purchase one loose set. Hopefully, it'll be that way again this year. You could certainly purchase multiple packages, but that would get crazy expensive.

 

This is how things worked last year IIRC.

There is a boxed set which comes with the Primus package, the box is already opened so no MISB issues there.

You are allowed to buy one additional set of bagged exclusives (complete, no box) with your preregistration.

There are always others who don't buy the additional bagged set, so you could always give someone the money and see if they will get it for you I suppose if you wanted more than that.

 

Thanks guys, I just know that there will be people I know who can't go and if I can pick them up a set I will.

So if anyone doesn't want their extra set, please let me know.

 

I do not believe there was a limit on how many Primus packages you could buy, HOWEVER there will most likely be a limit on the number of convention only exclusives.

Last year Primus package holders were only allowed to buy one complete set of the convention only exclusives regardless if they bought 1 Primus package or 100. After All Primus package holders were given an opportunity to purchase the exclusives, the remaining quantities were opened up to others. If this year is anything like last year, there won't be many left.

 

I doubt I'll pick up a second set for myself unless they're unbelievably amazing figures, so I don't mind picking up a bagged set for you to pass on to people who can't go. I would have done it myself last year, but I was too late to pick a second set up.

 

Last year it was $350 if a member of the Club, $399 if not. That got you everything, according to the registration form I saved