walkingturtles
Main Eventer
Joined on: Apr 22, 2018 19:54:00 GMT -5
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Post by walkingturtles on Apr 7, 2020 9:11:02 GMT -5
Do you think if they scaled back the number in a series from say 6 to 4. They could ship more of each. May take longer for certain figures, but for the obvious collector figures like a Neidhart, you can increase the Ringside exclusive figures.
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airbud
Superstar
"Attack me if you dare, I will crush you."
Joined on: Oct 6, 2005 2:41:33 GMT -5
Posts: 970
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Post by airbud on Apr 7, 2020 11:28:09 GMT -5
Do you think if they scaled back the number in a series from say 6 to 4. They could ship more of each. May take longer for certain figures, but for the obvious collector figures like a Neidhart, you can increase the Ringside exclusive figures. I would like to see them do that with Elite 77 with the Fiend. Everyone is going to want to purchase that figure. I’m sure it’ll be incredibly difficult to purchase at retail prices. Nobody is asking for another AJ in black pants. The entire set should be Fiends.
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walkingturtles
Main Eventer
Joined on: Apr 22, 2018 19:54:00 GMT -5
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Post by walkingturtles on Apr 8, 2020 11:26:44 GMT -5
Do you think if they scaled back the number in a series from say 6 to 4. They could ship more of each. May take longer for certain figures, but for the obvious collector figures like a Neidhart, you can increase the Ringside exclusive figures. I would like to see them do that with Elite 77 with the Fiend. Everyone is going to want to purchase that figure. I’m sure it’ll be incredibly difficult to purchase at retail prices. Nobody is asking for another AJ in black pants. The entire set should be Fiends. Mattel’s distribution practice encourages this terrible scalper market. WalMart and Target or not entirely blameless. They should offer online figures, under Mattel’s consulting. Hey Target, this Fiend figure is gonna fly, why not take 5,000 units for online. They will sell and what is left distribute among the stores. Instead of Mattel packing 2 to a case and let warehouses dish them out irregularly.
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Post by HandsomeHollywood on Apr 8, 2020 14:17:23 GMT -5
I would like to see them do that with Elite 77 with the Fiend. Everyone is going to want to purchase that figure. I’m sure it’ll be incredibly difficult to purchase at retail prices. Nobody is asking for another AJ in black pants. The entire set should be Fiends. Mattel’s distribution practice encourages this terrible scalper market. WalMart and Target or not entirely blameless. They should offer online figures, under Mattel’s consulting. Hey Target, this Fiend figure is gonna fly, why not take 5,000 units for online. They will sell and what is left distribute among the stores. Instead of Mattel packing 2 to a case and let warehouses dish them out irregularly. Distribution doesn't happen like that anymore though. Very little operates that way. Ordering, distributing and packing is all very streamlined and automated. Once the figures get to the store it's up to employees to put them out and that seems like where the problem may lie. How often do people try to ask stores what they have, only to have employees shrug or offer no help. Days are different now, you don't need to have a base knowledge of toys or what you sell to sell it in a big department store. It's almost more important for stores to make sure they just have shelves filled. They don't really care what they're filled with. Anyone who has worked retail in the last 10-15 years can tell you horror stories of planograms and corners cut to make sure the store looks like it has product more than they actually have the product. If there's anyone to blame here, it's the rise of automation and the internet, to a degree. The fact that The Fiend is very popular on these boards and that the preorder sold out quick on a niche item site is no indication of how much of a hit it will be in actual stores. If they just sent cases of everything popular on WF, there'd be Fiends, Roderick Strongs and Jeff Hardys hanging around unsold everywhere due to unbalanced distribution and over saturation. 6 figures a series is time tested and quite traditional at this point. If the cases were cut to a series of 4 with only popular characters that would probably have no effect on them being any easier to find. Scalpers will scalp, popular things will be bought up, you'll arguably have less of a chance at what you want. No matter the number per series, there'll always be at least 1 that's hard to find. Just a truth in collecting. Unless you ask PJ, he finds everything.
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popyduggan
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jun 24, 2010 5:31:32 GMT -5
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Post by popyduggan on Apr 8, 2020 22:50:24 GMT -5
it's so weird, we barely got any elites for a year and yesterday we(Walmart) got 5 cases of E65, the riser is loaded. it's kinda nice, because years ago this stuff used to have a saturation point and you'd get a fair chance at everything at retail but boy, has it ever been weak lately. I see people in my zone flipping Anvil that don't regularly sell wrestling figures, they must be in know that's something is shortpacked or "worth something" on ebay, it sucks. hunting shouldn't be two dorks with stock checkers racing to the pallet, that's no way to live, it's all fixed.
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Post by kingnothing ~ Hardwired... on Apr 9, 2020 4:09:26 GMT -5
I would like to see them do that with Elite 77 with the Fiend. Everyone is going to want to purchase that figure. I’m sure it’ll be incredibly difficult to purchase at retail prices. Nobody is asking for another AJ in black pants. The entire set should be Fiends. Mattel’s distribution practice encourages this terrible scalper market. WalMart and Target or not entirely blameless. They should offer online figures, under Mattel’s consulting. Hey Target, this Fiend figure is gonna fly, why not take 5,000 units for online. They will sell and what is left distribute among the stores. Instead of Mattel packing 2 to a case and let warehouses dish them out irregularly. Offering online isn’t as easy as everyone thinks. To do so, you have to have a TON of money and space. If for no other reason then to house the figures that are left after everyone cherry-picks the hot figures. RSC overnights first waves from China to counter this, as more people will buy a whole set at a higher price to be the first to get them. Those prices also counter the extreme sales they have during the holidays to move the not so popular figures. Mattel releases a wave that balances it’s budget; some figures with little deco to counter the ones with a lot. Unfortunately an entire wave of just one person would cost more and that cost would be passed along to us. See Defining Moments, UE, etc.
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walkingturtles
Main Eventer
Joined on: Apr 22, 2018 19:54:00 GMT -5
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Post by walkingturtles on Apr 9, 2020 12:04:57 GMT -5
Mattel’s distribution practice encourages this terrible scalper market. WalMart and Target or not entirely blameless. They should offer online figures, under Mattel’s consulting. Hey Target, this Fiend figure is gonna fly, why not take 5,000 units for online. They will sell and what is left distribute among the stores. Instead of Mattel packing 2 to a case and let warehouses dish them out irregularly. Offering online isn’t as easy as everyone thinks. To do so, you have to have a TON of money and space. If for no other reason then to house the figures that are left after everyone cherry-picks the hot figures. RSC overnights first waves from China to counter this, as more people will buy a whole set at a higher price to be the first to get them. Those prices also counter the extreme sales they have during the holidays to move the not so popular figures. Mattel releases a wave that balances it’s budget; some figures with little deco to counter the ones with a lot. Unfortunately an entire wave of just one person would cost more and that cost would be passed along to us. See Defining Moments, UE, etc. I don’t agree with the entire waves of one figure. I think the real issue is the access to store exclusives. It’s been so hit or miss. I never get upset not getting someone in the regular waves because that’s all available on RIngside. The issue is someone like Neidhart who I have never seen and probably won’t, along with other store exclusives. Make them available online too. End of rant.
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Post by kingnothing ~ Hardwired... on Apr 9, 2020 19:19:30 GMT -5
Offering online isn’t as easy as everyone thinks. To do so, you have to have a TON of money and space. If for no other reason then to house the figures that are left after everyone cherry-picks the hot figures. RSC overnights first waves from China to counter this, as more people will buy a whole set at a higher price to be the first to get them. Those prices also counter the extreme sales they have during the holidays to move the not so popular figures. Mattel releases a wave that balances it’s budget; some figures with little deco to counter the ones with a lot. Unfortunately an entire wave of just one person would cost more and that cost would be passed along to us. See Defining Moments, UE, etc. I don’t agree with the entire waves of one figure. I think the real issue is the access to store exclusives. It’s been so hit or miss. I never get upset not getting someone in the regular waves because that’s all available on RIngside. The issue is someone like Neidhart who I have never seen and probably won’t, along with other store exclusives. Make them available online too. End of rant. While that would be awesome, there would be less of a need for foot traffic into the physical location, which is what the stores with exclusives want in the first place. Which sums up why there are store exclusives in the first place. Mattel makes a decision on who would sell a ton versus who would sell to collectors only, and then the exclusive is created and split between the two major stores of Target and Walmart. To offer more exclusives online would require more cases of the wave purchased, or single cases of said exclusives, which would cost the buyer significantly more. Ever notice Target chase exclusives go up from time to time and they’re sold out in moments? That’s because only a couple cases are out online at a time. It sucks, but it’s what it is.
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Post by poindizzle on Apr 10, 2020 7:16:43 GMT -5
I don't remember which thread mentioned it but they said that the warehouses are being cleared out in the absence of new assortments coming in. I don't want to give credence to theories but yet I walk into Walmart the other day on a beer and snack run for Wrestlemania and they have a fresh case of Elite 67. Positively ancient now and never stocked at any store in the area that wasn't a Big Lots. Where is the sense in shelves sitting empty for half a year while there is product that old just backed up in distribution centers? Every square foot of every Walmart store is money and so is every square foot of every warehouse too.
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stick29
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Apr 6, 2014 8:40:46 GMT -5
Posts: 347
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Post by stick29 on Apr 10, 2020 7:39:32 GMT -5
I don’t think mattel are making it difficult. I think the world we currently live is extremely different then we’ve ever been used to.
But for the me the chase is what makes collecting. There is nothing that beats the feeling of when you finally have in ur hands a figure you have been after for months, here in the UK it’s getting harder and harder to get the figures we want and this current situation and pretty much put a stop to it all at the minute but again I’m looking forward to the next end, when I get back on the hunt
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Post by Raoul the Great on Apr 11, 2020 22:19:35 GMT -5
I think the biggest issue is the demise of Toys R Us (to every country except Canada apparently). Target and Walmart sell toys along with a heck of a lot of other stuff. Toys is just one department. TRU was all about toys and while figures were just one of many types of toys, they would all stock a wave of figures at near the same time... not always, but a lot more reliably than Targets and Walmarts. So now we have series that certain Targets and Walmarts either don't get or get one case of (NXT at Target especially). Good luck if you aren't standing there when it's stocked. Add to that exclusive sets to either store, which again they get erratically if at all. Worst of all are chases, most of which I never see in stores and when I do it's usually at Walmart.
However, here in Michigan I never saw a single Walmart here get the WWE Ghostbusters set, or that Fan Central series with Tozawa... and believe me, I hit a lot of Walmarts all over Southeast Michigan and a few farther up north.
I don't know of Mattel has bad distribution, or if it falls on stores to order them or regional distribution to stores or what, but having to drop $40-65 on action figures that normally cost $16-20 is ridiculous.
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Post by shanieomaniac on Apr 11, 2020 22:26:05 GMT -5
I, personally, am just endlessly frustrated that there's no Target anywhere near here. I believe the nearest one is 45 minutes away.
I mean, judging from some of the stuff I'm seeing about their selection, it may be a blessing. I'd be perpetually broke with the NECA figures.
But yeah. I don't have a chance at any Target in store exclusives unless they show up at Walmart.
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Post by Mongo Bears on Apr 11, 2020 22:36:31 GMT -5
I, personally, am just endlessly frustrated that there's no Target anywhere near here. I believe the nearest one is 45 minutes away. I mean, judging from some of the stuff I'm seeing about their selection, it may be a blessing. I'd be perpetually broke with the NECA figures. But yeah. I don't have a chance at any Target in store exclusives unless they show up at Walmart. I’ve got about 4 targets within a 15-20 mile range and I can never find any figures I want at them anyhow
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Post by HandsomeHollywood on Apr 12, 2020 0:21:16 GMT -5
I hate the exclusives. Im in the UK and I simply cant afford to buy them and I desperately want them. No fun at all collecting this mattel line and sooner they lose the license the better for me. Honest question, was jakks figures a challenge to obtain? Idk how distribution was around the late RA era. I can say in Eastern Canada the biggest positive about Jakks' time was that distribution was booming. I could walk into any store, anywhere, and 9/10 find at least something I wanted. Jakks were most likely overall cheaper in every regard to produce, so there was always stock everywhere.
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