It's funny that people think "too bad you can't make it out on Thurs or Fri. It's your loss"*. This is supposed to be a fan club. They should be able to handle the business and the fan side a lot better. Everyone looking forward to Screw the Fan Con `13?

*And this doesn't include the Sat/Sun GA fans. Awesome that they had a chance to get the at con exclusives.

 

It seems FP panics on saturday that they havent sold out and start selling all the cases to the dealers. Im pretty sure if its a hot item, dealers would buy leftovers on sunday..

 

So who else is excited to get another shot at the headband?

 

I agree. Maybe increase the limits on Sat but a hot item will still sell out.

 

Funny, SDCC sells left over stock on HTS..They limited the Star Scream the whole time throughout the convention. Even if you you don't make it to SDCC you have a shot.

Yea its a pain in the ass, but it sure as hell is a better system.

 

I agree with this.

I'm also wondering what the rationale is behind considering the 2 and 3-packs of figures, as Pete states, "at show" only exclusives. There is nothing on the Botcon site classifying them that way. They seem to fall into the same category as the main box set - "Convention Exclusives". They obviously don't have any problem making the box set available to non-attendees with an increased price ... why should any of the other figure sets be any different? Why wouldn't the members who paid for the Iacon sets not have a chance to get a shot to get a set of the rest of the figures as well? Where is the line drawn?

I'm all for having some perks for the in person attendees - I see nothing wrong with that, but I do agree that there should be a way to get some of the other "convention exclusives" into the hands of members - especially those who have paid for Iacon packages. Yes the popularity of some of the older figures has not been there - but I also believe this is a product of the molds that have been used recently to create some of the exclusives. Classics molds and animated molds are vastly more popular than some of the molds the older figures were based off of. I'd be curious how fast "exclusives" would be gobbled up if they used the Bayverse molds. Ultimately, would it be a risk to hold back figures and make them available at the store? Absolutely, but if they are listening to the fans and making characters that the fandom is asking for, using popular molds, then why wouldn't they sell out - in person, online store, or otherwise?

The only chance non-attendees currently have of getting these figures is 1) knowing someone who is going (which based on this years experience doesn't seem to necessarily guarantee extras being available), paying an online retailer 80-90% more for the figure, or hoping that other fans who bought them to resell will at least not be out to take advantage of the other collectors looking for them.

The fact of the matter is, there isn't a silver bullet here - since anything put up at the online store will then face the same issues we go through when the annual club exclusives are put up (bogged down website, not being home when they were put up, being an international club member etc.), but I'd like to see FubPub attempt to do something to limit the 80-90% markups that most have to go through to get their hands on these - especially if members have been allowed to purchase a "non-attendee" set. There has to be a middle ground to allow attending merchants an opportunity to resell these and setting some aside for non-attendee members/new members that may be interested in signing up and purchasing leftovers at the club store.

Sorry for the ramble ....

 

i agree about the add on sets...the main advantage to attending folks toy wise has always been the "freebie figure" or attendee only figure they throw at you,

I personally think that if they listed the add on sets on the order form...and allowed folks to pre-order them with the set...this would take care of the whole night mare of having to get in lines for different figures...just get in line...get the stuff you ordered...DONE.

if people could pre-order and pick it all up at the time they get the box set it would take care of the clusterfuck of problems they have with lines...plus preordering stuff would allow FP to get the $$$ upfront and allow them to order clearly the amount pre paid for and then they would know exactly amount needed plus extras for exchanges.

 

What I think is needed is a bit of sanity. If I know full well that I have a line queued up and ready to come into the store and a couple dealers come up with what is, quite frankly, insane quantities they are requesting I think some brakes need to be put on. I do it myself all the time...sometimes comics get HOT and I get guys, often from other stores, coming in that want everything I have...I COULD do that...but then I risk disappointing my regular customers. So I quickly set limits. I'll sell you a couple, call me later to see if I have more". 9 times out of 10 the answer is "OK, that's cool, I totally understand". When purchases of 70-210 are being requested...and again, there is a line right outside the door watching it all...I think a managerial decision needs to be made before that first transaction is completed...my choice would have been along the lines of "Tell you what, I'll let you each buy 10 now, hit us up later to see what we have left".

 

That post needs a like button, Dragonclaw.

 

I LIKE the dealers, and if you saw my exchange with Pete I would actually like them to wind up with some at the end of the days. But these toys are not made FOR dealers. The fan club doesn't have a responsibility to the dealers other than providing them a space to sell...or at least, their first responsibility in the specific case of club souvenirs is to get them to the attendees, directly.

The club has a responsibility to the dealers to make it worth their while, but there is NO objective reason why the exclusives need to be part of the equation. Not from club members' perspective, and not really from the clubs' perspective either as long as they so sell out in the end.

I don't mean to suggest that this isn't a tough business, but getting scalped 3x on Saturday is THE PROBLEM under discussion, so let's talk about ways to fix it that involve everyone. I agree with you that mindless FunPub and vendor hate is counter-productive, for what it's worth (I guess if half the time I'm "white knighting" and half the time I'm being unfair to the club, I must actually be onto something here).

Again, the club has many responsibilities to con dealers, but their responsibility to get figures to their members and con attendees is explicit while the dealers' hope to get ahold of figures to sell is implicit.

 

soooo, uhh where do we buy this from?  

 

Looks like we're reaching a middle ground.

I too would have liked for more people, especially GA to have a shot at the exclusives. I would like the club to find a solutions that is the best of everyone. However, I still stand by my stance that what happened this year was a combination of circumstances. While the club should take a lesson from this year and keep improving next year, you can't really fault them for what happened.

More importantly, I would like the club to not do something like the Soundwave Headbands again...it was a nice idea but the execution...I still can't believe I bought one...I still can't believe people are buying these off of ebay after the reviews.

 

I can't believe this little thing is having reviews!

Why I caved and bought one I dunno, it will be nice to just have with the set. Glad though they are making a new run because this little rubbery thingy is just becoming absurdly polarizing.

 

It's the same order form, they don't print new ones for Friday and Saturday, so yes, they're still going to say "Limit 1"

As has already been posted, that has not been the case for a couple of years now. It's the same way at JoeCon. Limits on Thurs, adjusted limits on Friday, no limits Sat-Sun.

Personally, I don't think they should be catering to the walk-ins/GA. If they want an "equal" chance at all of the exclusives, they should buy the "big-boy" ticket that the rest of us had to buy. The fact that only one set was sold out makes me feel even less for the GA guys.

ANd this may not make the news, but the Junkions were not completely wiped out by the dealers. I was the fifth person in line Saturday morning, and they sold out to the second person. There were sixteen sets left when our line started.

 

I agree that imposing some limits to give Saturday attendees a shot at souvenirs will be nice. On the other hand there's reasons that people lined up for 3 hours on Thursday night to buy the souvenirs - no one wanted to miss out...if these souvenir sets can be readily obtained throughout the weekend then why wait in line for hours, right? There's never any gurantee that the souvenirs would be there by Friday or Saturday.

Saturday attendees didn't have to wait in line for 3 hours to buy toys, just my observation.

 

yeah but no one is forcing those dealers to be there...they are there to try to make $$$...just like if you grab a booth at a swap-meet and set up your wares at your booth...you are not guaranteed to make $$$...you are paying FP to have that space or area because of the presence of fans aka potential customers....

and i totally agree that they do have alot of expenses to incur to be there...but it still is not right that the dealers can buy unlimited add on sets before normal customers /attendees have a chance to get in the door saturday...

You are fucking the fans over in direct benefit to the dealers....

And said dealers are all charging out the ass for these sets now

FP acts oblivious to the issue but they are not totally stupid...partial yes not totally, they know how the game is played.

TFSOURCE , TOY ARENA, BBTS, etc...are all there to make $$$$ when they attend...it is not to make friends of fans...they want to squeeze as much $$$ out of customers as they can.

I just say make it fair for everyone...if you are inflicting limits on attendees then the dealers should have the same shit put towards them rule wise.

 

Except on Friday the lady behind the club counter told me a 'LIMIT OF 1'...So your saying that the club store employee and the order form were wrong?

As far as I know and told and from what I experienced first hand, Friday was still at 1X the limit.

 

The Lady was misinform because i was there friday morning when the club store open and was told the limit was double. Regular primus limt was 2 and golden ticket was limit 6..

 

First, We have to clear up who are the normal customers/attendees. Primus pack owners? General admission? Primus package owners had plenty of chances to get the items Thursday and Friday when the limits were still in place.

Secondly, about limits. Limit-wise, it's the same for everybody on every day except x3 for Golden Ticket. Being fair would not have to do with different limits but with when dealers are allowed to buy. The reason they are allowed to buy before everyone else is that they are required to be at their booths in the dealers room the same time that the club store opens. Maybe we can go back to the days of 08 and 09 when dealers were require to have their helpers line up for them? But, In this case, the GA and Saturday-morning Primus will still have been screwed.

So it's not about the majority of the Primus owner attendees. And it's not really about different limits. It goes back to it being about when to change the limits. I'm still not buying that lifting the limit Sunday instead of Saturday would end up in the same results. But don't yell at me. You don't need to convince me, convince the Club. Give them good reason for believing that lifting the limits on Sunday is okay instead of just saying IT-IS-SO.

Furthermore, I've asked this several times and nobody has answered yet. Botcon has been doing this for 2010, 2011,2012. This is the first time is has been an issue. An issues crops up for the first time in the third year. How is it people keep acting as if it's so obvious an issue the club should have been aware of and planned for?

Finally, and I'm not saying this is THE solution as I would still like to see the club try new ideas FOR FUTURE BOTCONS, but was it so hard to get someone to buy the sets for you. I bought a Junkion set for a fellow Texan at cost I left a note for months ago. I also did it for a small fee for another member who contacted me out of the blue. I couldn't do it for a fellow Houston fan-friend because he couldn't front me the cash and I didn't have $300 to spare. Once again, I'm not saying that this is THE only solution, only A solution.

EDIT: Doh! One last thing I forgot to address. Of course the dealers are there to make $$$. But the attendees are there are the dealer room experience. I enjoy being able to once a year see all the mountains of items, touch & feel a solid figure before I buy, eyeball paintjobs, etc. You have to make the convention attractive to both attendees AND dealers.

 

I would say the reason we've never had a problem before is that none of the dealers were making requests for the sheer number of exclusives in previous years. I'm certainly not begrudging the dealers wanting to make some $$$, but when dealers start requesting orders in the hundreds some red flags should have gone off. Hopefully it's situations like this that get changed. I hope they don't over-react and leave the dealers totally out in the cold next year, after all quite a few of them are friends of mine, I just think there should be some cap on the number of any exclusive a single person can get...that number can easily still be high enough to ensure dealers get quite a few and to ensure a sell out...but when 4 people manage to buy 20% of the entire run of figures right before the general public comes in I think that is an issue.