Anyone else tired of the "you have to buy it now" culture that's developed?

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by TheBeastman, Apr 28, 2021.

  1. solarstorm

    solarstorm Well-Known Member

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    Preorders sell out in less than 24 hours and everything is scalped on day one of release.

    Things are definitely shittier and less enjoyable than it used to be.
     
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  2. Thundershot

    Thundershot Ratchet Fanatic

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    Oops. I meant to put “US” in my Skywarp rant. I know EU has it bad.... I feel for you guys.
     
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  3. F For Fake

    F For Fake Well-Known Member

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    I think this is how it is across many, if not all, collectible fields these days. I also collect hardcover comic collections, and it has gotten to the point where if you don't place your order at 3pm on tuesday when the books are released, there's a good chance you will miss it altogether. In the past you'd have months, even sometimes YEARS before stock would dry up, but over the last year or two, it's definitely become more a matter of weeks, days, or even hours. It's insane. There's a lot of money being poured into collectibles and hard assets these days, from comics to cards to our own beloved toys. That's a lot of competition for the same stuff.
     
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  4. imfallenangel

    imfallenangel Well-Known Member

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    There was an article in the last week about how much the "collectible" market has changed due to the COVID and people with disposable income (due to not being able to travel, eat out, etc.) are bored out of their heads and becoming a "collector" has been a go-to for many.

    Prices on so many things have jumped 100,200,even 300 % (and even more for some things).

    I gather that after this "phase" passes, we might end up with a lot of people liquidating their temporary pass-time.
     
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  5. ArrowHead

    ArrowHead Well-Known Member

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    Spector Studios recently did a great video on this. The short version is that adult collectors greatly overestimate how much of the toy market we represent, as well as our importance to the manufacturers.
     
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  6. imfallenangel

    imfallenangel Well-Known Member

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    I'd be curious to see that as everything indicates the opposite, at least for TFs (and SW and Marvel). I've rarely seen parents buy such, it's always adults that I can tell are collectors (I've ended up chatting it up with them many times), and even at the cash (TrU), the cashiers have mentioned collectors as being a fairly large number of their clients a few times to me.
     
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  7. B'Bantor

    B'Bantor Extra like OMG

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    He's right. I have a little 2nd hand toy store and speak from experience. Kids & parents indeed buy TF's, Marvel Legends, & Star Wars. Parents buy their kids $50+ ML figures & Transformers pretty regularly.
    Kids are aware of G1, MOTU & the like. They have the same internet access as the rest of us. They don't "only know Bumblebee."
    At first I had the typical collector mentality that kids don't really know about any of this stuff, and that they can't be discerning and will play with any colorful junk put in front of them, but they proved me wrong!
    isPlToNZFkgqsKhqd24cUPdGQS_Sfl4xYzqOsuavItQ.jpg
     
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  8. sikkusushotto

    sikkusushotto Well-Known Member

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    One day when 3D printing (of both plastic and metal) is perfected as a mass fabrication tool and items can be made as the orders come in, we will hopefully have a system where anyone can order anything from the entire Transformers history for reasonable prices and have it delivered shortly after. No more scalping, no more pressure to buy something immediately.

    Until then, we have to deal with the less-than-ideal situation we have. I wouldn't mind if Hasbro/Takara had a global (Pulse is US/UK only) webshop with sensible pre-order windows, sensible pre-order amounts as well as sensible availability durations. I wouldn't mind crowdfunding on smaller, more niche figures as well as long as the price is reasonable. As others have said, there is money to be made here if Hasbro can be bothered.

    Yes this is the best time in history in terms of information availability. I have saved so much money I would have otherwise wasted on sub-par figures thanks to video reviews. But things used to be much better. 10 years ago one could skip particular figures in a wave that were maybe 2nd tier (e.g. Siege Ironhide) and circle back to them later. These days? No chance unless you're willing to spend 50-100% (or 250%, Siege Ironhide) more. Order all the figures you want as soon as they appear or never again (Siege Irohide).
     
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  9. ArrowHead

    ArrowHead Well-Known Member

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    It's up on youtube, I will link it later if I remember.

    Personally, I would lend a bit more weight to the opinion of the guy who is designing and marketing these toys for the major industry players over the observations of a Walmart cashier.
     
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  10. ArrowHead

    ArrowHead Well-Known Member

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    Here is the video in question:

     
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  11. imfallenangel

    imfallenangel Well-Known Member

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    Well, I do take in consideration the pricing, the exclusives, the "special" versions, etc. and also those that are "voter's choice", the Unicron youfundme thing, and that I've seen interviews/articles where the Hasbro representative does state clearly that the collector's market is a reasonable section of the market and that they do "listen" to it.

    I also consider the different lines that plainly indicate what market that they are targeting, with Masterpiece as an example that is 100% dedicated towards collectors.

    I just don't assume either way, but observations do indicate a pattern.

    Edit: just saw that you posted the video.. thanks. I'll watch that as soon as I get the time.

    2nd edit: ok watched it and:

    1) the point is that action figures in general are part of the lower 20% of what most toy makers such as Hasbro sells.

    Ok... most people should already know this... it's a completely moot point in reference to this thread. We aren't talking about the whole of toy industry, we are taking about the Transformers lines ONLY.

    2) it's all about the share holders and making as much profit as possible.

    Again, someone would live under a rock to not know this, it's seriously bitched about in dozens of threads.

    So..........

    This video isn't worth much in terms of anything discussed here... TOYS are targeting children, of course, but TFs lines have been ever-changing and has been targeting the adult buyers and collectors more and more, as per my previous points. I'm sure that many parents will buy some, new and used, but overall, the adult and more financially capable audience has been mentioned by Hasbro in regards to TFs and a few other lines and why we get the reveals and special events, etc. No kid is going to be skipping school to watch those and jump on pre-orders that require credit cards and such.

    Let's be logical here.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2021
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  12. Nevermore

    Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

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    So a couple of months ago, I doscovered that the Quintesson Pit of Judgement set was listed at Amazon Germany, under the very helpful name "Hasbro E8852E480 Figur". So I clicked the "notify me when this is available" button.

    Last night when I returned home from work, I got a notification on my phone. Since the title was still "Hasbro E8852E480 Figur", I clicked it just to remind me what the hell this was.

    And I saw that "what it was" was "currently not available".

    So yeah, notifications work just fine.
     
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  13. hthrun

    hthrun Show accuracy's overrated

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    I'm holding out for now and waiting for the liquidators for the most part...
     
  14. BWfan86

    BWfan86 Well-Known Member

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    Thought this was referring to the deal with collectible figures (ex. Mps, figuarts) now essentially REQUIRING preorders months in advance with no preorder cancellations after a certain date. Which is relatively new over the past 2 years or so
     
  15. Strife

    Strife Well-Known Member

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    Alright good news everyone. There is a Hasbro Pulse Transformers Fan Event on Friday 5/21 at 11. They have given us five days heads up.
    [​IMG]

    So what will be announced? Well lets take a gander.

    Probably:
    SS86 Wreckgar, who leaked today.
    SS86 Slag, who leaked like 6 weeks ago now.
    Gnaw, who hasn't leaked yet.
    the Sweeps, which you can bet are just SS Scourge with a new head.

    And maybe Road Rage (Red Tracks), Artfire (White Inferno), and probably as promised last month, the next SG figure (either Jetfire, Starscream or Goldbug).

    No great mystery here folks. You now have 5 days (well 4.5) to decided based on the mountains of leaks or design of base molds, if you're going to be pre-ordering. Just to put your name on the list. You can REALLY decide later. But do you have enough information to at least say "ya know, put me down for that for now and I'll think about it"? Yes you do.

    You also have 5 days to get comfortable using Pulse on your phones so you too can do it in 3 minutes. And if Pulse is problematic, Amazon and BBTS will be up around 1 or 2 as well. Point is, you got options.

    So here we're going to break "buy it now" by mechanically executing the Pre-Order maneuver. The liability is on Hasbro's end, not yours. If they place orders for extras, they get left holding the bag. In my case, if they put up say, SG Jetfire up which will probably be the Siege Jetfire mold in Astrotrain colors I'm guessing, I will put in for that. But I gotta tell ya, I'm extremely mixed on the whole SG deal. They just aren't part of my collection right now. I canceled Blurr. Think I'm keeping Megatron though. So where does Jetfire fit in. Not really sure, but I got plenty time to figure out if he does - precisely 4.5 days + the 6 months before he ships.

    So set your iphone alarms.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2021
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  16. speculative

    speculative Currently under seige

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    I can see the logic in your logic. Mostly. However, I'll add one more feature necessary for your system to work well with all budgets: guaranteed ship dates, or at least "windows."

    I got all the Studio series wave 1 figures, because I preordered them "mechanically." I had until April to make a final decision whether I wanted to keep the orders or not. (Some, like Jazz, I was pretty excited about, but hadn't had a chance to truly make a final decision.) I also preordered a few Kingdom figures like Cyclonus.

    I budgeted the orders for April, because April was the ship date. What does Amazon do? (If you're on this forum you know the story. It's a frequent complaint here...) Bumps up the ship date all of a sudden and notifies me after they shipped one of them three months early. I was like, "Ok, most people are just starting to get these, I guess it's ok if this one comes a few months early."

    I didn't give it much further thought, because it was one figure.

    Fast forward to the following week, when I hadn't even had time to open the figure (because I was busy trying not to miss out on other preorders and upcoming figures and also having a job and a life) and all of a sudden I get a notification that two more figures had shipped, again, three months early.

    So, now I've got three figures that I shouldn't have had to make a final decision about yet sitting unopened in my house. These things have cost me money at a time when they shouldn't have, would cost me time and effort to return, and where's my remaining three months to make my decision? Meanwhile, I cancelled some other preorders, because at this point Amazon thinks I'm like a bank they can withdraw money from whenever it's convenient for them.

    Then, Jazz is suddenly reported to be more brittle than gold plastic. I start watching reviews and reading and before I can even go down that rabbit hole, Amazon ships me Jazz two months early at that point, as if to say, "We heard the news too, so we're choosing this opportune time to provide you with great service by unexpectedly shipping you Jazz two months early!" By this point, I'm just trying to store these things as the house gets more cluttered in general and these reason shipments aren't helping. I still haven't opened them which is stressing me since I should at least open them to make sure they're not damaged, in which case I should return them for a refund. However, I also don't want to open them, because Amazon's whirlwind of incoming three month early arrivals has distracted me from actually deciding.

    So, I end up with unopened boxes that clutter the house. Not providing me enjoyment, because instead of opening and playing with them/ displaying them/ deciding I don't actually want them and selling them, I have to spend yet more time dealing with future figures so that when they drop I can mechanically pre-order so that I don't miss out. After all, I'll have plenty of time to decide later...

    So, for me, the current pre-order system isn't just flawed, it's insane: It rewards vendors monetarily in relation to how much they inconvenience the customer, in direct opposition to rewarding them monetarily in relation to how well they serve the customer.

    So yes: I'm tired of this artificially - created buy it now culture that has developed. I'm now spending time figuring out how to not feed it, rather than spending that time glued to the Internet on the off chance I miss out on a pre-order...

    Edit: Don't worry everyone, I ate a Snickers and I'm ok now... ;) 
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2021
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  17. Strife

    Strife Well-Known Member

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    So I fully agree this sucks. I think there can be no denying that. I will say though if this presents a significant issue, go with a pile-of-loot style seller (specifically BBTS). That's just calibrating towards specific needs.

    I would say that every scenario offered is opened to exceptions. Given everything I've wrote, yesterday I had my Marvel Legends Lady Deathstrike Pre-order canceled by Amazon. Yikes. Sucks. But you know what? No big deal. Had one in on BBTS too just in case. Until Pulse does retailer of last resort, guaranteed fill with a specific delivery date, every proposal offered will be vulnerable towards canceled ordered, or early delivery.

    The only surefire way to get around that is to wait for it to show up on shelves and reactively purchase it. But that has pitfalls too. Retailers aren't interested in having the inventory that makes that reliable as it used to be for the most sought after figures. You are competing against the much larger pool of general consumers. A better example for this than Transformers is Marvel Legends because of the Build-A-Figures. You can reactively purchase almost any Wolverine. But Miles Morales? He's so popular with kids it's crazy Hasbro doesn't release five figures of him a year at this point. They easily could.

    So what's the problem with just opening them, finding the best one and returning the others exactly? It's stupid that it happened, but given that it already happened, the resolution is quite clear. Like where's the source of stress?

    So open them, and send back the worst one?

    This sounds like transposing something else onto this solution. You got caught in an uncommon cause where multiples shipped at once. Happened to me not long ago with Thanos. It's pretty lame, but returning took me 2 minutes.


    I really just don't see it. I see the exception biting you and I in the ass occasionally, rather than the rule. Generally, if I have multiple pre-orders in, as soon as I get one shipping notification, I cancel the rest of the pre-orders.

    I'm honestly not sure what you folks want retailers to do. Stack toy asiles like it's 1985... hell like it's 2000 again? They don't even do that to clothes and more prosaic items than a specific action figure. It isn't competitive for them amongst each other to do that. You to Best Buy, or Target and you ask for help for something you don't physically see, which is many things, they will always direct you to their website and often times do it right there with you. Like... this is commerce in 2021. The issue with Transformers is symptomatic of a real quarterly driven model of all business now days. You think it's any mistake Apple (to offer a big example) just doesn't dump all its stuff in September, regardless of product line? They're cycling you through and frankly, at some months in the year... good luck finding the item you want in the right color and/or storage size. Unless you are going for their most common product - iPhone, black, midsized memory - they'll tell you "we'll ship it to you next week".

    So is the point now to be against modern model of how businesses have found efficiency? This isn't apologist. It's recognizing that this is the kind of thing that changes over the broad strokes and there is no protesting it or forcing a change. It will organically change, in response to competition 10 years from now, as it did 10 years ago. And 10 years after that.

    I honestly do not understand how having a smartphone in 2021, that sends you a push notification that vibrates your phone when you get an email, and then opening a website to complete commerce on said smartphones constitutes "glued to the internet".

    A number of people in this thread have said that. The hell is this? Like no offense, but do a bunch of you all drive station wagons with faux-wood panels on the side too? Using the internet on your smart phone is how most of the human race uses... the internet! There are more phone internet users than laptop/desktop users by far. Its not unusual, or being glued to the internet. It's basic technology.

    For fucks sake I turn my sprinklers on with a smartphone app now and some of ya'll are like "I cba opening my phone to take 3 minutes to partake in my hobby". Gimme a break. I spent half the mid-afternoon checking my phone every 5 minutes watching how my Bitcoin holdings have been annihilated. It's just life in 2021 for the non-wood paneled station wagon crowd.
     
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  18. Foster

    Foster Haslab Victory Saber Backer #3 Veteran

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    I'm ready to buy this new Artfire the moment preorders open, and I have my phone set to notify me of new emails, like the one Pulse will send. It'll take like 90 seconds of my time.

    I'm much happier with this business model than the "1990s drive around for hours to Kmart/TRU/Kaybee and probably find nothing" nonsense I did back in the Beast Wars.
     
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  19. RodimusRex

    RodimusRex Well-Known Member

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    Even in that video, he acknowledges that a peg's budget is for 8 weeks and will sell to a collector in one day. He just argues that overproduction leads to clearancing that retailers and brand managers want to avoid. But without overproduction, you have no casual discovery.

    Let's remember that Spector/Toyguru is a partisan for made-to-order collectibles and it was a hallmark of his career.

    Meanwhile McFarlane is keeping pegs filled and going above and beyond peg budgets.
     
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  20. Strife

    Strife Well-Known Member

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    Frankly, I'm stunned they are including a Targetmaster. I really didn't expect that. I thought it was going to be a quick and dirty redeco release of Inferno. But that said, the WFC Targetmasters continue to suffer from having like, 2 molds available to it.