Dude. Again, that's based on a controlled sample in a specific environment. None of us should assume that means every package we get is fine after 24 hours from when it shipped. Well, you could if you want to be careless and oversimplify. And it's not "my paper", it's a NEJM study.

You're wrong to claim that paper says the same thing the poster here said. It is wrong to assume that any packages delivered to you that took 24 hours to ship are going to be completely risk-free from the virus. That's not what the study's authors would want you to conclude based on their findings. It's a potentially dangerous oversimplification to assume that.

Btw, there are other studies that provide the range of temperatures and humidity levels where SARS-Cov2 survives longer vs dies more quickly that you could look into to educate yourself about whether packages being delivered to your door are going to need more or less lag time than average before they're reasonably safe to handle, which would be helpful regardless of the material-type surfaces.

 

Can't we all just agreee that we're fucked and we're all gonna die?

 

And all it took was a global pandemic that shut down half the world.

 

Dalianjj mentioned the factory is only at about 60% employment capacity right now (in the Chomp thread). I have two possible thoughts from that, though I have no actual knowledge if either one is actually true. The low workforce count increases the time it takes to produce things there, and thus the cost to get a window for low priority projects like "small" toy runs since they would rather have that limited work force working on major projects. Another possibility is the production run size has been reduced to get it done within their production window with fewer workers which would increase the cost per unit.

 

Hardly an expert but this was my line of thought as well.

 

Does ShowZ honor the price at $77?

As you can image, due to shut down related to COVID19, the prices of Sheridan and Huld are both increased by 30 yuan (~$5) if you buy in China, don't know why ShowZ and US retailers increase the price so much though?

 

I guess it's up the retailer to push the higher cost to the consumer or not. Either way their will be some unhappy customers regardless of who eats those costs. I understand things are tough right now but raising costs on your products is not a way to drive up more business, I highly doubt that Warpath will be the only figure with a higher price tag.

 

On the upside, any retailer that's honoring the original pricing for those who paid up before the prices went up, is doing the right thing even though it's going to cost them more of the already thin margin on this product.

 

I've never had them try to up a price after preorder was locked in.

 

Thinking on it for a moment, considering:

• The retailer is going to have to pay the higher cost on every unit they sell
  
• The majority of collectors have already made their pre-orders at the lower rate
• Retailers can't reasonably raise the price on those already set pre-orders
• They can raise the price for new orders going forward
• Since those future orders make up a small percentage of the total sales vs the existing pre-orders, if they raise the price, say, $10 instead of the $5 increase they're incurring, it helps balance out just a bit of the extra cost they're eating on all the existing pre-orders
• It might even encourage some late pre-order people to pre-order sooner in the future to avoid these sort of unexpected, unforeseeable price changes by the manufacturer that can apparently happen

tl;dr - Retailers are incurring extra cost for every unit but are doing what they can to protect their existing customers' orders by only raising the price on future orders.

 

All make sense. How pre-order works is a little bit difference when bought in China, not from China like ShowZ. I usually buy FT products by pre-ordering on Taobao with 10 yuan (~$1.5 USD) deposit but the final product won't be finalized until the product is released. To increase 30 yuan (~$5 USD) is definitely OK for me if it is what it takes to keep FT going.

The pre-ordered price in China is 420 yuan ($60 USD) so at $77, they probably won't lose a lot but may not make a lot of money either.

 

Should I edit my previous comments and change "your paper" to "the paper that you linked"? You knew what I meant, don't be so pedantic.

Would you be arguing this vehemently if he'd use the qualifier "probably" before "safe"? No, without sensitive equipment and the training to use it there is no way to guarantee 100% safety, and I'm not claiming the paper says your packages are fine in 24 hours (even if you ignore the 72 hours I quoted for plastic, or my repeated mentioning of the fact that the carrier could have infected it minutes before you received it). What I am saying is that, based on the evidence in the paper you linked, the interior of a package that took longer than 72 hours to go from the shipper to your door is most likely safe, and that extra caution is prudent for the exterior.

Don't forget that the initial viral load is a factor, too. But realistically we're not on a Transformers message board discussing a box of nitrile gloves overnighted to a hospital, we're talking about our toys. With packages from China taking two or more weeks to arrive, and orders from domestic stores likely taking more than 72 hours to arrive even before COVID-19 slowed most delivery services you are most likely fine to open your packages after they arrive, just be sure to thoroughly wash your hands after handling the shipping container.

Or put all your packages in a 14-day quarantine for all I care.

 

Finally--a place where I can read about viruses and incubation periods and communicability, instead of all that incessant Transformers chatter going on everywhere else in day-to-day life.

 

I’m trying to connect the dots. Are the other FT minis coming out in April as well?

 

There honestly wasn't a need for you to start arguing by choosing to wade in with pedantry to dispute and continue to be wrong about it since. I'll reiterate my original concern, which relates to erroneous information or conclusions being drawn regarding healthcare precautions. Specifically, what was being stated by someone that others were starting to mistake for an authority figure. Don't assume every package you receive is safe to handle just because it has been in transit for 24 hours. Period. If you feel like being careful about received packages, do so based on actual data, make sure you understand the specific conditions of the testing, and be sure to account for the set of variables at your location that may alter the timeframes listed. The rest of the pedantic blathering is completely unnecessary, tiresome, and driving this thread off topic.

Sheridan is up first, Hunk after that probably in late May or slip to June. The rest is TBD.

 

don't showz and bbts normally raise the price up a bit after early bird pricing? i know other stores do when i product is in stock or nearly instock especially with fanstoys figures

 

I'm not aware of any NA retailers that routinely change the price of 3P TF pre-orders. Normally, the price is the price. If BBTS does that, I've never noticed but I've also never ordered an FT product from them at the last minute.

 

I figured I should post this since I had previously responded. Arizona just went to gone to a Stay at Home order at the end of business tomorrow for non-essential businesses.

 

Doesn't affect online direct-to-consumer warehouses or businesses smaller than 10 staff. Most, if not all, of the online sellers are open for business. bbts, megalopolis, tfsource, chosenprime, toydojo, agabyss, etc are considered "essential" the same way Amazon is. The storefront to Megalopolis is closed, but they have compensated with free shipping to locals. I'm not in Texas, but I'm sure Toy Dojo is being careful with their storefront as well.

 

The essential services exemption does include shipping and mail, so orders will hopefully continue to flow.