Exactly this^^^ The year the Sweeps came out I flew in at LAX that Saturday morning, I couldn't get there earlier. Did FunPub set aside a set of Sweeps for me as a Primus package holder....NOOOOO. The dealers probably bought them all up like they did with the Junkion set.

 

Ah, yes. GA could buy anything but that one set. Step up the game FUNPUB and at least hold off on selling unlimited until the GA have a chance to buy the exclusives. Botcon is not for the fans.

 

Golden Ticket holders were limited to a buying allotment of X3 while Primus was allowed X1 per wait in line.

 

Over the past couple months, I've grown to hate this company for how they screw the fans over. Thank you everybody for being forthright and calling them out on things. Bringing attention to these issues raises alot of awareness.

They're finally releasing a figure I want (Scourge), and I know to unhesitatingly NOT buy from them and pick it up aftermarket on eBay.

 

There in lies the problem. FunPub is so desperate for a sell-out that they cater to the dealers instead of the fans. Its not fair to the walk-ups that haven't even stepped foot into the building.

Dealers should have been given a strict limit until late Sunday giving everybody attending the show a fair shot.

 

I want a club that is good to the fans. I understand its a business but run it better so that members/ga have a chance to participate and pick up exclusives as well. This is not a club that I would be proud to be a member of and is the reason I have not renewed since my membership ran out. This club needs a lot of changes and a subscription and new website are not enough.

 

I would be ok with late saturday or all day sunday. At least that way people who can only go on the sat/sun and GA have a chance to buy at con exclusives. It's such bs how people try to spin this about it being good business sense to allow unlimited so early for a sell out.

 

I've put this in other threads but I'll repost my thoughts again.

1) People saying "the limit should be lifted on Sunday, not Saturday" are thinking too short sighted. The club has been lifting the limits on Saturday since 2010 (okay, they still had official limits in 2010 but nobody was really enforcing it. Nobody complained about it in 2010. Nobody complained about it last year when dealers were walking away with boxes. This year was just unfortunate in that the Junkion figures were a huge success combined with the coincidence that they sold out when the dealers got to them first. There's no guarantee that next year's set will be as successful. For a 2 1/2 day convention the difference between one day is big.

2) For the people who say the club should just keep the limit and sell extras in the club store as they'll sell out eventually, see Botcon 09 Anniversary Razorclaw/Elita-One. The club made a ton of those for not only attendees but to go with previous year's set. It took them forever to sell out in the club store. People like to talk about popular or unpopular sets but hype plays a big part in contributing to popularity in this hobby. And whatever the opposite of hype is. Un-hype? Figures that are un-hyped get shafted even if they are good. It's in the club's best interest to sell out at the convention and move the inventory risk to others.

3) In 2009, the club was still holding on to all of it's figures until Saturday. I flew in Friday night and had no problem getting one. The club's promise up to that year was to guarantee one up to Friday. If you flew in Saturday how is that the club's fault? The new system of opening up sales on Friday is better as it allows the club to produce more figures, which in the long run benefits the entire fandom. The Sweeps were very popular but the club was only starting to re-test the waters with army builders. They sold out within minutes on Saturday and none of the dealers got more then a handful.

4) You know what's funny about all this bitching? In 2010, when the club first allowed purchases on Friday, the dealers were required to set up in the morning when the fans got first stab at the club store. They almost completely wiped out the Sharkticons and the dealers had to fight for the scraps. That year, THEY were the ones complaining about not getting any Sharkticons.

5) In conclusion. I don't think the club did anything wrong, but I do think it would benefit them in the long term to get at least some of the toys circulating to the general public. Instead of a stupid, simple "lift the limits on Sunday" a better idea would be to re-implement limits once you get down to the last 80-100 figures.

 

He feels that FP can do no wrong and that they walk on water...

I agree...FP sucks ass for letting dealers snap up all that stock...the argument that the dealer had to front $50K and is taking a risk is a crock of shit.

they will scalp the fuck out of the junkion sets and make a mint on that spending spree...there is no risk to a dealer getting a botcon troop builder set.

 

sorry but i believe sidecutter.
If he said he saw it then he saw it,

 

bottom line: If you are advertising botcon as a convention for the fans, selling out stock on saturday to dealers before the "fans" can get in to attend and buy add on sets is not being a convention for the fans...it is being a convention for the dealers.

And it is wrong.

 

I don't think "short-sighted" means what you think it means. We can offer feedback when and if we see something wrong, we don't give up that right because we didn't say something two years ago. I wasn't at the con two years ago.

From my perspective the club's stuff is generally doing very well. Also, by Saturday you can totally tell what sets are going to disappear if you lift the restrictions.

If they want to call themselves a fan club, they should put attendees first.

Agreed, but on the other hand they did sell out of Razor/Elita in the fullness of time. That means they made their money. And that's one "failure" out of how many sets offered over the last few years?

Not all of us can afford to fly in at any time, much less any particular time. I got up at 4:30 am on Friday and drove for hours to ensure that I got my figures. I could do this because I happen to have a very flexible work schedule. My fiancee could not join me that day and had to wait till Saturday.

The point is, there are arguably ways in which the club could serve its paying members and other con attendees better. In this case, they could have blown out their inventory Sunday no problem. We can see that, so we are allowed to observe that the dissatisfied club members poating here could instead have been satisfied, and that's information FunPub should have.

Frankly, as long as the club has Generations molds to work with I'm not sure what kind of risk they think they are dealing with.  

Who gives a fuck? They are convention souvenirs, not dealer perks.

See, this is good feedback, except where you insult me and others who were kicking around ideas for no real reason. I'm not trying to solve their problems in detail, I'm trying to kick around a few ideas that MIGHT help avoid the problems people have been observing.

 

I was only allowed 1 on Thursday. I worked the front of the line from 8-11PM. The line started at 5PM (GT) and went until 11PM. The runamucks didn't sell out until after 10PM when there were less than 50 people in line.

The order form said 1 Per for the souvenir sets only. Runamuck did not have a limit written on the form but the limit of 1 per was being enforced, at least as far as my purchase.

It was two on Friday. I had the chance to buy two Runamucks on Friday but only bought one more. It was actually a pleasant surprise because we were not expecting anymore after they were sold out on Thursday.

From 2005-2009 you were subject to the limit whether it was Thursday or Friday. Starting in 2010, the club started selling off extras on Friday with the limit being one or two for each time you got in line. In 2010, the limits were still being loosely enforced on Saturday. Loosely because they did not enforce it if there was nobody in line behind you. For 2011 and 2012 the limits were lifted on Saturday.

Pete already answered. Runamuck sold out before the limits were lifted Saturday.

What exactly did sidecutter see?
1) Dealers walking away from the club store line with loads of Runamucks.
2) The limit was enforced but if the dealers are allowed to repeatedly get into line before the store opens to GA Friday. This is a problem. Now how would you enforce this?
3) Loads of runamucks at the dealer's table. I know of more then one person who was buying Runamucks and then bringing them to the dealer's tables to make trades.

Rage at the Junkions is more justified then rage at the Runamucks. If you're a club member then you already have one.

 

NO this was specific to them selling out all the remaining stock of junkions to the dealers on saturday before fans could have a chance to purchase the junkion troop building set-not anything was said about the runamuck car .

I still think that FP sucks ass for using the excuse that they cannot afford to have anything remain...and that somehow justifies the free for all fire sale the dealers had...It might be great as a business model for them...but it screws the fans over that were denied the chance to attend saturday the opportunity to purchase that set of junkions.

Troop builders are never in any danger of not selling out...unless they want to make a troop builder out of the cybertron backstop mold...then maybe...otherwise who are they kidding? That is a lame ass excuse to fuck your fans over in favor of the dealers...Yes the dealers pay more to attend and rent a table space..but screwing fans over with no empathy or regard is not going to help their future business either.

 

There he is. A thread always needs a guy who has a better perspective on things than everyone else who has been posting and he's going to tell us all why he's right and we're wrong. Classic.

 

Pretty sure a lot of people are doing that here.

 

golden ticket had a limit of 6 on friday and regular primus holders they limit 2 on friday..

 

Hi fan! Can't fly or drive out on Friday? So sorry but we already allowed the dealers to buy unlimited sets so we just don't have any for you. Look at it this way! You don't have to wait in line for that set!

 

Of course it does. People are reacting to what they saw THIS year. You have every right to provide feedback about what you saw this year. But the club has to react to long-term trends and not kneejerk reactions. And in the same way I have every right to provide my feedback from what I've seen in the years I've been.

There are still hit or misses. They still have Cheetors. They made 500 fewer Octopunch/Spinister and didn't sell out. They didn't have limits last year and still took until Sunday afternoon to sell out.

Frankly, If you want to talk about putting attendees first then all the rage on these threads should be about improving the lines on Thursday and not sellout.

It took them almost a year to sell out of Razor/Elita. I'm not sure what you definition of fullness of time but if I was running the club it wouldn't be a year. There's a time value of money. Would you let me borrow $10,000 if I signed an ironclad contract to pay you back $12,000 in 20 years. That's a 20% profit but only a 1% return. Failures? Relatively: 1) Botcon 2005 boxset; 2) Airrazor; 3) Astrotrain; 4) Razor/Elita; 5) Rapido/Cindersaur; 6) Octopunch/Spinister; 7) Animated Cheetor. Almost one a year.

EDIT: 20 years might be too much. A one year example is would you run a business and let someone borrow $200,000 if they were ironclad to pay you back $202,000 in one year. That's a $2,000 profit, but it's bad business from a time value perspective.

Understood. You have priorities. Everyone has priorities. Priorities means you sacrifice one item for something more important. In this case it was the chance of missing out on the exclusives.

No argument about it. There are many ways the club could serve its members and attendees better. But sometimes it's best to respond with the stick and sometimes with sugar. All I ever see on here is stick, stick, stick.
And I still disagree that they should have blown out their inventory Sunday. Generations mold are great but not bulletproof. The 2010 Boxset proved that. Thank goodness the hated dealers bought up a bunch of those and ended up clearancing them at a loss.

I used to think that way too. But the more I talk to the dealers, the more I learn. These guys don't have it easy. They have to spend thousands of dollars to ship their items to Dallas, then they have to pay the club to get dealer space, are required to man their booths for 2 1/2 days, then they are making less money on items because they have to collect state taxes, and finally have to ship whatever doesn't sell back home. People rage at the dealers but imagine our collecting worlds with no BBTS, RK, TF Source or any other dealers.

Yeah, I know I can come off sounding like an ass. It's on purpose. Can you deny that many, many people come off sounding a lot worse then me when insulting Hasbro or Funpub? They are offended by the club and always have the great ideas about fixing things but are greatly insulted when the flaws in their ideas are pointed out. When I'm treated politely, I respond in kind. When I'm not, the same.

EDIT: FYI, the reason I came off sounding the way I did was that I've already suggested in several threads that instead of removing the limit on Saturday to Sunday the club should look at something like re-implementing limit once they run low. I've had ZERO constructive responses. I've only gotten a handful of people repeating, without any backup reasoning that "removing the limit from Saturday to Sunday won't make a difference. He telled me.".

 

Sorry, I got confused because you quoted n10zguy and his quote was obviously dealing with Runamuck (i.e. Thursday line, 100 for members).

For the record, Funpub had never officially said/excused what their stance is for doing what and how they do it. We can only grope and reason from out limited understanding of the business.