They were once my fav store to buy from. Cheap prices and the 3% discount was great. Customer service heavily influences who I buy from. When I got a warbotron figure with a crack waist, and they basically did nothing about it and said I SOL'ed... I never purchased from them again. Sorry for those having issues, hope he refunds or resolves them...
To be clear though, he was selling old stuff and what looked to be parts of his own collection. It was a far cry from the full professional setup that is usually there. I feel for the guy on a personal level, clearly things are not going well. But none of that is an excuse for the lack of communication.
I wonder if he had to get a storage unit or something for all the stuff customs wouldn't let through after last year and he was just trying to move what he could at the con?
Only if he had all the FT Hoodlums up for sale or something. Did anyone get to talk to him, ask what was up?
Dude, it's not about FT Hoodlum. If he actually had money to go to Toronto, then perhaps he could just refund some people.
Dude, maybe he already had things planned to go before other events happened. Maybe he thought it was worth the trip to liquidate more assets. Maybe it wasn't even him but someone trying to help him out. Maybe of all those people who were there and saw his booth and knew of the situation someone could've asked directly what was up.
But until you have answers for those suppositions, might as well question why he had a booth! I debated using blue text on this post.
So I got my XTB Neptune order from CP (great figure BTW). But my request to ship my 2 other stasis pod orders has gone unanswered after 2 weeks already. One of the figures is Crackup and still shows in stock on CP website. I wonder if he will process newer orders. I'm thinking of placing another order for Crackup and he sends it will cancel my payment (since I already had a paid pending order). Risky though as he likely won't even send the 2nd order out.
Hoozah! I think my saga with CP is near its completion. So as I posted previously, I had 3 separate orders with CP for XTB Crackup, Toro, and Neptune...all in stasis pod. Neptune was shipped out by itself about 3 weeks ago despite Crackup and Toro being in stock too. I messaged CP asking to ship the other 2 also but nothing after more than 2 weeks. I still had about $8 store credit left so decided to order something small (domain base claw arm) for $2.50 and shipping was $5. In the order message I requested that my order for Crackup and Toro be shipped. 2 days later, I get status order update to "shipped" for Crackup, Toro, and claw arm. I don't know if its a system issue where messages are not getting through but orders are getting through apparently. Sucks that I had to spend $7.50 on something I didn't want just to get my other orders sent but it was $8 store credit I likely would have lost anyways. Anyone still have pending orders that are in stock might consider this. Sucks you have to spend a few bucks to communicate with CP.
I'm not trying to speak for Orson and give out personal details, but I also want to give you guys some info. I think I can kind of "bridge the gap" here to give you guys some answer without getting too into personal things he wouldn't appreciate. First off, his stuff is still stuck in Canada, as it has been for what...2-3 years now? TFCon CA trips are simply about trying to offload all the stock that's stuck up there. If you saw his booth, I'm sure you noticed it was mostly (if not all?) old stock. That really hurt his business when it happened, as I'm sure you guys can imagine. If you're thinking "well how'd he have the money to go to TFCon? He should be paying us!", I don't think you understand that without doing shows, he can't *get* the money to pay people back. Shows are a major source of income for every small Transformer shop/dealer you can think of. After speaking to him about this thread (which he is aware of) at the last KY meetup , I honestly think he's just embarrased and overwhelmed. He had been running Captured Prey full time for a couple of years finally, but had to go back to work earlier this year. Captured Prey has been a labor of love for his for hell, what, well over 10 years, maybe 15? I think it really crushed him to have to go back (even though he loves his new job, for what it's worth). That entire time of running it mostly by himself, he's *never* had an issue like this. The market has gotten super competitive (how many online shops can you name? 5-10 before you have to stop and think, I bet). More keep popping up too. And that's super competitive in a market where margins were always razor thin to begin with. Being a middle-man for mostly third party import toys will not make you rich. Especially when Captured Prey was always cheaper, at that. I can tell you he hates how things have gotten (both from the business side, as well as his lack of being able to take care of or respond to customers). I think since he did not have anything positive to tell you guys, that he kept trying to fix it behind the scenes hoping that he'd be able to respond soon with good news, but it snowballed on him. Combine the financial issues with a botched pre-order or two that made things even worse for him (see: Doragon), I believe he just found himself in a situation where he had no idea how to respond to people. Again, 10-15 years of doing this (basically) alone, without staff to help out, and he got overwhelmed without anyone to help when it started going south. In short...the stress won out. At some point when you get so far behind on responding to people, that you give up. You take care of who can, when you can, as you can. Captured Prey is hitting the pause button, as is evident by the lack of new preorders in quite some time. He didn't have a lot of new preorders go up last year either, all things considered. I hope he's able to use this year to fix his financials, and fix some health issues, and ultimately find something that is sustainable so he can enjoy the hobby with us all again. Not trying to make excuses for my friend, just hoping you guys can empathize some at least. I wish I could give more specifics, but I'm trying not to cross a line and help out both sides. Especially on a forum where it'll live forever, heh. He's committed to doing what he can for those left waiting in a lurch, but you can't squeeze blood from a stone. As an ammendum...he almost died August 7th. He was in a nasty car wreck. Another case of I don't think it's my place to share details, but I will say he got out of it okay all said and done (and no other people/cars were involved either, thank goodness), but the CapturedPrey van (Vandal, as it was named) is toast. He's been using that van for 15 years. That's not going to help matters either.
Thanks for posting all of that. I also tried to help out early in the thread when it seemed like things might spiral out of control, but I couldn't get comfortable sharing personal information. Ultimately I decided I'd rather not offend Orson by overstepping, and bowed out.
Hey Zao - thanks for providing some insight into what has been going on. As the OP, I appreciate having some insight into the situation and the struggles that Orson has been going through. It "closes the loop" some for sure. My main reason for posting the original question here was first and foremost to make sure that he, as a person, was OK. It sounds like he has been going through a tremendous rough patch, and I think any one of us can empathize going through something similar in our lives, and having a business on top of that which the whole inventory in Canada issue definitely would compound matters. I am glad to hear he is personally ok and I hope that he lands back on his feet, regains his health after his accident. I also hope he can get Captured Prey turned back around. From a business perspective, I think how he has handled things since the beginning of the year has done him and his long time customers a dis-service. Hearing that he was aware of this thread and knew of the compounding issues but still did not provide any sort of communication or update is extremely frustrating. One of the things that drew me to CP way back was the communication and personalized service, so having that do a complete 180 in a very short amount of time is a really hard pill to swallow. I feel a post on the website, or in a forum like this would have gone a long way even if it was "Hey guys, not getting into specific details but here's the general deal ...". It would have at least let people know that he was aware and working on things the best he could instead of ghosting so many customers. Ultimately, how I feel doesn't change the reality of the situation. I am very appreciative for you providing a small window into the situation, and I think every customer here will have to take away from it what they can. I hope in time he is able to provide everyone here some sort of resolution. Despite my unresolved issues with the business, I know from a personal perspective that I am really rooting for Orson and CP.
So I got my remaining orders from CP. There was a hand written note from Orson apologizing for the oversight of not sending out all my orders together. He also wrote that things are a big mess right now but he's working towards taking care of everyone. Good luck to everyone else who has outstanding orders with CP. And good luck to CP/Orson.
I have a few preorders open but I do believe he will make right by everyone as he has shown a lot of effort to work through the issues unlike premium Collectibles collectables who I am in court proceedings with.
