I don't think you quite understand what they said. Anyone who places an Iacon Package order after the 14th will be put on a wait list. Those who ordered before this date, by my understanding of the words (they seem clear enough) anyone who ordered before that date is fine. So you should be fine. I went for an Iacon set just like you, so I believe we are both good.

 

You make a fine arguement from FPs business perspective... Except that your whole arguement ignores the fact that these are supposed to be convention exclusives.

On the surface it would be great for FP to be able to sell one of these to each and every fan who wants one. Heck, they could probably get the price down near the normal retail if they made enough...

But if they did that, these would no longer be exclusive toys. Well, that's they road you head down with your line of thinking.

There has to be a limit to the number of these made. A limit low enough to keep them exclusive and special. Otherwise, FP will find that they are eroding the demand for future toy sales. That is exactly what MIB and Glen did. They both followed this train of logic and both made WAY too many toys, leaving them stuck with inventory. They slashed prices to clearance them, and Glen found a significantly decreased demand for his toys at full price the following year.

Also, these toys are supposed to be a draw to bring people in to actually attend the show. FP may get their full payment from Iacons, but what about the dealers who set up at the show? If people don't come, dealers will stop, and soon you don't have a convention.

 

Wow. That is the most accurate description that I have ever heard.

QFMFT.

 

Yeah, I know it states that orders after the 14th are being put on a waiting list, but it's been over 2 weeks since I got confirmation that they rec'd my fax so I'm just questioning why my CC hasn't been charged yet.

 

Don't push my "line of thinking" so far. I'm not ignoring the convention exclusive nature of these toys. My reasoning requires that they be "convention" exclusives (admitted emphasis on the first word, not the second) to push sales. I don't think as many of these will sell if there's not a convention driving the whole thing. I don't know how many Astrotrains and Airazors are left, but theoretically there should be more made to sell, since these aren't convention exclusives. But I wonder how many have actually sold compared to convention exclusives?

And, again, allow me to repeat that I support FP's action of putting a hold on non-attendee orders (having noticed a shortage this year) to ensure that attendees get priority. I said this before, which itself should be evidence enough that I'm not ignoring the convention exclusive nature of the toys.

(My apologies if the part of your message I snipped seemed to address points I have failed to respond to, but it seemed that this was sufficient to "remember" your post and allow me to get to my point, which I think does address the rest of what you say, as well)

 

BotCon does not need toys to draw. BotCon itself draws.

 

The toys are a damn nice bonus, though.

 

BotCon draws more people with toys than it does without....

 

That's debatable. Exclusive toys have always been a big draw with a lot of people. I have friends for who that is the make or break on going. The lack of exclusive toys was a deciding factor in our deciding not to attend the final Cybercon.

Botcon might now be as big as it is today if they never had exclusive toys.

 

Botcon itself isn't enough to bring some fans out. I agree that the toys do make a world of difference, like last year's which just happened to coincide with the movie's release. If there was any year to go, it was last year.

With that said this year's set is not worth the money to go to Cincy for a few days, IMO. If the toys are off the charts though, it would seriously make me consider the effort, which thus far they have not.

 

Cincy is close enough for me to go, but I couldn't justify it if it wasn't for the exclusive toys. So yeah, the toy makes the difference. And I think it does for a lot of people. Yeah, there are other reasons to go, but I think people are fooling themselves if they don't think the major draw of a toy convention is the toys.

For the majority of people.

 

Nice to see someone on ebay is profiting from the Boxed set sales... One seller has already sold 3 sets for $400, and has 3 more listed. Yeah whatever...  

 

I have no intention of going through eBay reporting every auction, but I'd like to point out the following among their policies:

Until the end of March, all auctions for BotCon 2008 toys violate this, by definition.

 

Right, upcoming prototypes available to grope and stare and drool at. Not necessarily the exclusives, even if they help.

 

Yeah, saw those earlier, what a joke. 

 

I don't know, isn't that what BBTS sold them for, without the attendee bonus? If I wasn't going, that sounds about what I would expect to pay total, assuming I got the main package thru the club. That guy would be smarter to wait until they sell out, sell them for that much (or more) for the boxed set alone, and then sell the bonus for another $100.

 

Shouldn't we have gotten another update today?

 

Told ya. Rooting out Goldbug early like that was gonna foul things up. Yeah I know, FP said they were gonna show him that day anyway, but that was probably just damage control.

 

Well, they might have been. I do recall we got two updates per week last year. Also, it's possible they got yesterday off for the "holiday," although not likely since they posted pics of Topspin. I hope this isn't related to the Goldbug leak, because otherwise someone involved would need a kick to the junk, and I'm just not in the mood to deliver right now.