BBTS has gotten worse and worse and worse in terms of packaging. Nowadays you almost expect your package to come damaged.

I still order from them occasionally because of the preorder policy. If other sites don't get it first, then I use them. But if other sites get the stuff in stock, I cancel my preorder and go to other sites.

The last three shipments I got from them all were damaged. I also don't like how MP 11 was ordered at regular and they downgraded me to substandard. The only reason I am keeping it is because I rather have a substandard box at $200 then a mint box at $300.

If Captured Prey, Toy Jodo or AcesToystore had the no pay now preorder I would go with them all day and night long. It's just too hard to have the money now for a lot of the third party figures I collect.

The thing that sucks, is that I already let BBTS know about the packages constantly being damaged (not majorly mind you) and nothing was done.

 

This wasn't from Big Bad so it may not be as relevant, but I ordered one of the carded Go! EZ figures as part of an AmiAmi order last month. It arrived loose, bouncing around the box, because the bubble basically fell off the card. Either the glue wore off or it was never glued very well to begin with, but that was the first time that's ever happened to me.

EDIT: Now I'm forgetting too, did the recent carded EZ figures come taped to the card, like most Takara deluxes? If so, the one I got had no tape at all either so something weird happened, but yeah, that may not be the best example after all now that I think about it.

 

Every Takara deluxe I've ever gotten was taped, not glued.

 

Just as a counterpoint: I haven't had a single damaged item from BBTS (in the 10 years I've dealt with them which includes all the POLs that I've shipped this year)

 

Hm... guess glueless cardbacks happens now and then? IDK, this was honestly a first for me. Fortunately everything in the packages were fine outside some shelfware for a few of the bigger items.

 

None of my packages from BBTS have been damaged (though to be fair I didn't start buying from them til this past summer).

I've seen quite a few packages of the Generations Data Disks where the bubble plastic was loose, barely hanging onto the cardboard's bottom, enough to make me think its an issue with the glue being used.

 

Same, I've been buying from them for five years and no issues regarding damaging. I do typically make large PoLs of several items in a large box (or boxes), so I don't know if that has any effect or not. If some people have had experiences to the opposite, that's unfortunate, but I'd hardly start saying that everyone should "expect" to receive damaged stuff from them.

 

Yet for some reason they raised the price of Jetfire by $10 to $109. I was sort of interested in picking him up - don't have him in any good form. Just can't pay that price. Looking at eBay but that is always a crap shoot in terms of packing quality. (FWIW - $1450 POL from BBTS shipped just after Prowl dropped and everything was in great shape.)

 

I have been ordering from BBTS for the past 8 years and never had a damaged box. Their packaging is always superb too, with tight bubble wrap. The only problem
I've had lately is slow shipping. It seems to take longer to get confirmation of shipment.

 

Yeah, my fort max box was damaged. Then a TFC box was damaged so bad that the accessory was broken in the box. Also have 3 sperate MPs that have damaged boxes. The MPs are slight. Looks like another box in the POL bumped into it and dented it.

I will say they did replace my accessory. I just told them I noticed a trend happening. I didn't ask for a refund just cause of bruises on the boxes, but for the money they charge, I am expecting some better packaging. I wonder if letting a POL sit causes this. This has happened on all my POL orders that sat for multiple months.

 

Just to chime in: that's really unfortunate for those who have had bad BBTS experiences. I have only been buying from them for a year but have had nothing but stellar service in that time.

A month or two ago I bought a Dr. Wu Tyrant sword and noticed it had a small plastic piece chipped off of the hilt; understandable given how small and pointy those pieces were, but still a bummer. I sent BBTS a photo and they shipped me a new one for free with free shipping, and didn't require me to send the old one back either. Nice!

I count myself extremely lucky in this respect though as I have heard about a good handful of people that received real crappy shipping jobs.

 

Out of all the things I've gotten from BBTS I've only ever had once instance of a package arriving in anything but normal shipping condition. That was when I bought my two Tokyo Toy Show Darkside Optimus and Megatron sets from their Amazon store. Looked like someone took a box cutter to the shipping box and started slicing. Everything inside was fine because of all the bubble wrap, but sucks to here some of the stories people tell about bad shipping jobs they get.

 

Normally, I'd agree. For the longest time, they were top notch when it came to quality. Heck, you didn't need to buy collector's grade. Their standard was nearly perfect. And nothing's perfect.

As of late, however, their packages haven't been the absolute best quality. Their standard has become sub-standard. I had packages crumpled in one of the last orders. Both cardbacks and the boxed item. It was disappointing. I was happy to have the items, however, so I didn't bitch.

And everyone is entitled to screw up, we're human, it happens, but lately...more and more people are coming forward with complaints about BBTS. Including their customer service.

Just because people are die hard fans of BBTS, and that's fine, it doesn't invalidate what others are saying about them. While not all are legit, because some people are just whiny bitches, most of these complaints are legitimate.

With Joel getting shitty in publicized notes when talking about the competition and all the other stuff, plus they offer no perks...it's just kinda making me wonder what's going on over there.

I miss the old BBTS. I don't care about the flat rate shipping. It was nice, but they were so awesome it wasn't necessary. Now, they're not always awesome. I'm left wondering why I even try with them, sometimes.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a "diehard" fan of BBTS, just trying to counterpoint that not all is doom-and-gloom with them. I buy from them since they offer good service and mostly decent prices. That said, if I find a better deal elsewhere, I'm more than happy to spend my money at those other retailers.

 

Well there you go. I figured as much. Or figured it was the DOTM deluxes anyways. Thank you for the confirmation then.  

 

Just to chime in as well, I've been doing business with BBTS for several years and have never had a damaged package or any individual item with packaging that was less than pristine. And I've never had a problem with their customer service either. Out of the four times I've had to contact their customer service (two factory defect items, one case where the shipper lost a package, one vintage item missing a piece), they've taken care of the problems quickly and with no hassle. I've also never had my credit card information compromised with them, unlike one of the other major online sources of TFs. BBTS' shipping speed has slowed down a little recently, but I don't get too worked up about that; if I've had something sitting in my PoL for months, an extra week wait for it to ship isn't going to kill me.

The offers the vintage department makes when you try to sell them an item are absolutely ridiculous, though. Even if eBay started charging 50% final value fees, you'd still make more money selling there than selling to the BBTS vintage department.

It seems to be a recurring thing, for some reason. I remember when RotF first came out and roughly half of the Scout class figures I saw at retail had their bubbles detaching from the cards to some degree or another.

 

So is that 24 hour sale on the TMNT figures a good deal? I know nothing about them.

 

Problem is, all they want now is boxed and/or sealed specimens. No more loose figures, complete or otherwise. How many of us have enough boxed items laying around to make a big enough sale to be worth it?

I think that was a terrible idea, honestly. I could see TFSource doing more business because of this.

 

I have a lot but I would never sell them to BBTS

 

I have them, and they are pretty nice. There are 2 more, Rocksteady and Beebop that are supposed to come out. However, after that, it is unsure what is going to happen with the line.

They are now making reissue figures. So this classics/retro line seems to be in trouble. In the last 2-3 years, all they released is 6 figures in all.

As for the price. It's okay. Nothing special. I bet TRU will have a sale on these soon enough. These use to sell at $20 a pop, but these are now over 2 years old.