|
|
Post by Flair Forever on Dec 4, 2023 13:51:13 GMT -5
Mattel needs to negotiate like Hasbro. Why cant mattel not have the store exclusives on their own website? Hasbro does. Ringside exclusives can stay how they are. Take target for example. The whole MMPR ninjeti line was target exclusive online and in-store. And it was also available on hasbropulse. You can't tell me similar negotiations can't take place. I won't hear it. So many logical solutions in your response. Mattel does not need walmart. They just need to rethink how they market their brands. Personally they should continue developing their online presence. I heard toysrus is making a comeback. If true mattel has a new partner soon. Walmart is just a placeholder. Their only exclusives should go online and retail should be their own future mattel store. Target is the only store that should keep their contract as they have done a good job getting people into their stores buying the product no matter the pricepoint. Having collected almost everything over the past 30 years i cannot remember a single exclusive found in a store in my walmart toy hunts. They just never make it to shelves and we know who gets them. Toysrus was slightly better but they too had their scandals of managers selling treasure hunts out the back door. Heck even target has the same problems. How many of you have ever found a hot wheels treasure hunt. In the late 90s you may Have had some luck until employees caught on. I know first hand how bad the situation became to this day. The one per case/box items created the toy hunt and exclusives killed it. There is no solution to the problem other than as you said, put their exclusives online in their own mattel store and in a hypothetical mattel brick and mortar store. . Hey I was mostly on the same page with you for a bunch of posts, but I have to disagree with you here..... Walmart is the world's largest retail chain. It's the largest retailer in the United States as well..... and 2023, it's still bigger than Amazon (look it up). There's no way Mattel could afford to lose Walmart as a partner. They are forced to wine & dine Walmart with cool exclusive toys that people can ONLY GET at Walmart. I have no idea how much of Mattel's revenue is earned through Walmart, but I'm willing to bet it's 30%-50% (if not more). No way could they just give that up. The distribution problem is a Walmart issue and it most likely has something to do with Walmart's huge size. They move so much product at such high volumes that mistakes get made, pallets go to the wrong place, not packed right, care isn't taken by the people responsible. It's just too big. And we've been told numerous times that Toys won't take any sort of priority in this massive process, that all goes to essential and perishable items (food, clothes, electronics, etc). They don't order enough wrestling action figures for the 4600 American Walmart stores. I'm betting they typically order one case for every store. And then some stores accidentally get shipped two cases. Or three cases. And so then some stores get zero cases. And sometimes the figures don't sell right away (we call them "pegwarmers". So the Walmart supply get backed up, that flow of product becomes log-jammed. When Walmart's supply becomes logjammed, they begin selling off pallets to discount retailers (like Ollie's or TJ Maxx) to clear up the logjam (while less popular products sit on their own shelves and collect dust). They also skip waves, since in Walmart's view, the product isn't moving fast enough. I have no explanation for the shoddy Walmart online ordering system, they sure should have fixed that by now, in the age of Amazon.... I suppose if they are depending on individual stores to fill the online orders - the problems I've listed above probably result in general lack of product (or lack of ability to FIND specific product). Target has gotten much better at this, partially due to the individual SKU system for the Legends figures..... and partially because they aggressively clearance out product before it sits too long..... Target has figured it out. Toys R Us is making a "comeback"..... they've opened two stores. Compared to Walmarts 4600, it's not even a fraction of a percentage. I do hope TRU returns full blast though! |
|
|
|
Post by ChuckPOORis55 Cody Gang 4 Lyfe on Dec 4, 2023 15:23:40 GMT -5
So many logical solutions in your response. Mattel does not need walmart. They just need to rethink how they market their brands. Personally they should continue developing their online presence. I heard toysrus is making a comeback. If true mattel has a new partner soon. Walmart is just a placeholder. Their only exclusives should go online and retail should be their own future mattel store. Target is the only store that should keep their contract as they have done a good job getting people into their stores buying the product no matter the pricepoint. Having collected almost everything over the past 30 years i cannot remember a single exclusive found in a store in my walmart toy hunts. They just never make it to shelves and we know who gets them. Toysrus was slightly better but they too had their scandals of managers selling treasure hunts out the back door. Heck even target has the same problems. How many of you have ever found a hot wheels treasure hunt. In the late 90s you may Have had some luck until employees caught on. I know first hand how bad the situation became to this day. The one per case/box items created the toy hunt and exclusives killed it. There is no solution to the problem other than as you said, put their exclusives online in their own mattel store and in a hypothetical mattel brick and mortar store. . - They are forced to wine & dine Walmart with cool exclusive toys that people can ONLY GET at Walmart. - I'm betting they typically order one case for every store. And then some stores accidentally get shipped two cases. Or three cases. And so then some stores get zero cases. - Toys R Us is making a "comeback"..... they've opened two stores. Compared to Walmarts 4600, it's not even a fraction of a percentage. I do hope TRU returns full blast though! Well the problem with the first part is that you can't actually get them at Walmarts. I have to buy them 3rd party because in the *5 Walmarts* in my city, I still don't see their exclusives in stores. Which plays into the second point, there's no way my 5 Walmarts are all ones that just happened to not get a pallet for nearly every single wave of their exclusives. Finally I have zero faith in any TRU reboot considering this is like the 3rd time I've heard this. |
|
arossi417
Mid-Carder
Joined on: May 30, 2022 2:28:28 GMT -5
Posts: 257
Member is Online
|
Post by arossi417 on Dec 4, 2023 15:39:08 GMT -5
Target has gotten much better at this, partially due to the individual SKU system for the Legends figures..... and partially because they aggressively clearance out product before it sits too long..... Target has figured it out. I think this is the most important point. Right now, Target actively tracks product at the individual level for Exclusives and can directly see how much business the collector is bringing to them. You're even seeing stuff like street dates enforced from time to time on product as well. Walmart, at least right now from what I understand, is simply in "throw a price on it and get it out on the floor" mode with worker shortages being part of the issue. There's no real way that they can address our concerns in the first place right now if that's how things are going. I take those dumb surveys they constantly send, but I doubt they care what the response on product is, as long as you signal that you'll keep returning to stores in the first place. |
|
|
|
Post by Flair Forever on Dec 4, 2023 15:50:37 GMT -5
- They are forced to wine & dine Walmart with cool exclusive toys that people can ONLY GET at Walmart. - I'm betting they typically order one case for every store. And then some stores accidentally get shipped two cases. Or three cases. And so then some stores get zero cases. - Toys R Us is making a "comeback"..... they've opened two stores. Compared to Walmarts 4600, it's not even a fraction of a percentage. I do hope TRU returns full blast though! Well the problem with the first part is that you can't actually get them at Walmarts. I have to buy them 3rd party because in the *5 Walmarts* in my city, I still don't see their exclusives in stores. Which plays into the second point, there's no way my 5 Walmarts are all ones that just happened to not get a pallet for nearly every single wave of their exclusives. Finally I have zero faith in any TRU reboot considering this is like the 3rd time I've heard this. 'Tis true..... some Walmarts seem to receive wrestling figures (at varying degrees of volume), and some Walmarts seem to get none, ever. There is one Walmart near me that is ALWAYS ALWAYS empty. I have to suspect it's got something to do with the individual store management, something in the inventory is preventing their system from sending figures and no one in the store has bothered to take a look at the empty shelves or try to fix it. |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,079
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Dec 5, 2023 15:20:37 GMT -5
Just a quick response, i wasnt referring to all their brands, just the wwe superstars line. Ofcourse mattel needs walmart to sell hot wheels, matchbox and barbies |
|
|
|
Post by kgchampion on Dec 5, 2023 19:43:45 GMT -5
Again everyone needs to read this and ask who is "responsible". Mattel is doing a terrible job getting wwe figures to walmart. Mattel is getting the wwe figures to walmart but they are not getting the product to stores. Mattel is not doing there job, walmart is not doing there job, or it be both. Distribution of wwe figures has always been not that great, overall. It does seems that it has gotten worse at walmart stores. So pegs at walmart stores are empty for months then they get overstocked with several cases of the same series. I think a solution might be to get mattel reps go to walmart stores, and assess the situation. An even better solution would be just completely switch over to a vendor model for mattel products at walmart and target stores. If mattel as a company wants to exist in the future and not die out or get taken over (hasbro) I think this is what they should do. Would love to hear what Action Figure Attack and MattelDesignTeam think about this. If you have a dedicated vendor i would think your sales would increase because there would be a lot less empty pegs. Would a small increase in sales at walmart and target stores not pay for the potential vendor's salary ? What bothers me most is that stuff gets put out sporadically and when there is a resupply it is put out by someone who in my experience can not even read english ( i kid you not ). So walmart is not hiring the best of the best. So it is no wonder that a regional manager has to put out missing stock. The best solution for mattel long term is to do what lego did; open up their own store. The mattel store in california should also be in every major city shopping center. Then when something is not in stock we know that mattel employees didn't have the fortitude to do an inventory check and replenish product before it got too low. Or... that there are supply chain issues. Product promised to be delivered by insert date not arriving on time for reasons a-z. I remember walking into toysrus stores and seeing the hasbro reps putting out new cases of star wars figures. Oh happy days. This is something clearly lacking today. Toysrus closing their doors waS a huge blow to collectors. Now we are all forced to get most of our toys online Walmart cancelling orders may simply be due to the fact that product wasnt available to be fulfilled. So the amount of preorders does not match what is in stock. The obvious question is why does the inventory not match the manifest. I have my theories but will keep that to myself. Btw i wonder when our friend paul will resupply his store?  Maybe in the 90s Toys R Us was good. But after Bain Capital took over Toys R Us, it went way down hill. In the 2000s and especially 2010s, the distribution was also bad. You’d see the same selection for months and months. Occasionally they’d get flooded with exclusives, but if those sold through, there’d likely not be a replenishment. I lived in Seattle in the 2010s and I’d do a loop of all the Toys R Us stores in a 1-hour radius every month or two. |
|
|
|
Post by Flair Forever on Dec 6, 2023 9:29:04 GMT -5
Just a quick response, i wasnt referring to all their brands, just the wwe superstars line. Ofcourse mattel needs walmart to sell hot wheels, matchbox and barbies In that context, I definitely wish Mattel would flex some muscle towards Walmart regarding their distribution of Walmart WWE exclusives, or just offer them the mainline stuff. The shoddy Walmart distribution has gone on way too long with very little to no improvement. Or, as some have suggested, have Mattel reps more involved in monitoring/stocking the Walmart stores. |
|
|
|
Post by legendsguy on Dec 6, 2023 15:16:35 GMT -5
I'm starting to think Amazon is almost as bad as Walmart. they literally have nothing .. rarely restock anymore new stuff. i saw Gunther and Bron a few times , but that's really been it for restocks in the last month or so.
Amazon used to be a pretty plentiful but over the last couple years has been a steady decline. Now its almost a wasteland for anything , no basics , no 2 packs, barely any elites.
Target is almost as bad if it weren't for their exclusive legends filling up their online portion and pegs at stores.
this really shouldn't be happening to all of these stores.. i can understand if it was just Walmart.
|
|
|
|
Post by Flair Forever on Dec 7, 2023 16:08:14 GMT -5
I'm starting to think Amazon is almost as bad as Walmart. they literally have nothing .. rarely restock anymore new stuff. i saw Gunther and Bron a few times , but that's really been it for restocks in the last month or so. Amazon used to be a pretty plentiful but over the last couple years has been a steady decline. Now its almost a wasteland for anything , no basics , no 2 packs, barely any elites. Target is almost as bad if it weren't for their exclusive legends filling up their online portion and pegs at stores. this really shouldn't be happening to all of these stores.. i can understand if it was just Walmart. It's the randomness of Amazon that I can't seem to grasp; There is/was an entire section/page on Amazon devoted to WWE Action figures, but it hasn't been updated on over a year (Elite 92 was I think the most recent set). I don't know how to find new WWE figures on Amazon, other than just searching randomly - then I'll have a buddy send me a link that Ultimate Goldberg is only $16 - but if my buddy didn't send me that DM, how would I have known? Search "Goldberg Ultimate Mattel" every single day until there's a sale? Oh yeah, and by the time I got my buddy's DM - the price had gone back up to $33. The Gobbeldy Gooker just magically appeared on Amazon - completely un-announced and unexpected, and people were just posting about it - if I hadn't seen the social media posts I wouldn't have known about that.... Can anyone suggest a good way to keep up with Amazon's WWE Action Figures? I like the figures and the sale prices, but damn it I have no idea how to spot them..... other than just spending hours doing random searches all day every day..... |
|
azraelms
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jun 26, 2010 8:41:07 GMT -5
Posts: 2,008
|
Post by azraelms on Dec 7, 2023 23:39:31 GMT -5
I'm starting to think Amazon is almost as bad as Walmart. they literally have nothing .. rarely restock anymore new stuff. i saw Gunther and Bron a few times , but that's really been it for restocks in the last month or so. Amazon used to be a pretty plentiful but over the last couple years has been a steady decline. Now its almost a wasteland for anything , no basics , no 2 packs, barely any elites. Target is almost as bad if it weren't for their exclusive legends filling up their online portion and pegs at stores. this really shouldn't be happening to all of these stores.. i can understand if it was just Walmart. It's the randomness of Amazon that I can't seem to grasp; There is/was an entire section/page on Amazon devoted to WWE Action figures, but it hasn't been updated on over a year (Elite 92 was I think the most recent set). I don't know how to find new WWE figures on Amazon, other than just searching randomly - then I'll have a buddy send me a link that Ultimate Goldberg is only $16 - but if my buddy didn't send me that DM, how would I have known? Search "Goldberg Ultimate Mattel" every single day until there's a sale? Oh yeah, and by the time I got my buddy's DM - the price had gone back up to $33. The Gobbeldy Gooker just magically appeared on Amazon - completely un-announced and unexpected, and people were just posting about it - if I hadn't seen the social media posts I wouldn't have known about that.... Can anyone suggest a good way to keep up with Amazon's WWE Action Figures? I like the figures and the sale prices, but damn it I have no idea how to spot them..... other than just spending hours doing random searches all day every day..... I don’t get it either. Even if someone posts in the Online Findings thread that links for X figure or Y figure are up, I cannot find them. |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,079
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Dec 9, 2023 14:52:56 GMT -5
Just a quick response, i wasnt referring to all their brands, just the wwe superstars line. Ofcourse mattel needs walmart to sell hot wheels, matchbox and barbies In that context, I definitely wish Mattel would flex some muscle towards Walmart regarding their distribution of Walmart WWE exclusives, or just offer them the mainline stuff. The shoddy Walmart distribution has gone on way too long with very little to no improvement. Or, as some have suggested, have Mattel reps more involved in monitoring/stocking the Walmart stores. Exactly and as i pointed out in another thread walmart charges more for figures in comparison to target. The star wars vintage collection figures from the same wave are 4$ more at walmart (16.99 compared to 12.99 at target). So mattel pressuring walmart on distribution is one thing but they should reign in their prices as well because it turns off collectors. The problem as you mentioned is that this distribution problem has been with walmart for over almost 2 decades. We are all sick of it. The hunt was never this difficult before for regular figures. Most of the exclusives walmart carry aren't even limited edition so there is no reason that people should end up leaving the stores empty 99% of the time. In the late 90s it was truly hard and most of us only had one shot at stuff back then but wwe figures especially are mass produced in comparison to mostly everything else that came out back then minus ep1 and ep2 star wars figures which they probably made millions of. I just hope mattel takes notes of our comments and thinks wisely long term as the prices alone will keep collectors from entering walmart. Hell one of the reasons i started collecting wwe figures again was due to the fact that i could pick them up for cheap at target. If it wasnt for that i would never even attempt to do it at walmart especually with how rarely they have anything new on the shelves. At target i can always find something i want. I collect many different brands so i say that as a multi-brand buyer. It is rare that i walk out of target emptyhanded whereas 9 out 10 times that is exactly what i do after leaving walmart as they rarely even put their overpriced stuff on sale. Collectors need to speak up or this will continue indefintely. |
|
|
|
Post by Flair Forever on Dec 11, 2023 16:16:11 GMT -5
In that context, I definitely wish Mattel would flex some muscle towards Walmart regarding their distribution of Walmart WWE exclusives, or just offer them the mainline stuff. The shoddy Walmart distribution has gone on way too long with very little to no improvement. Or, as some have suggested, have Mattel reps more involved in monitoring/stocking the Walmart stores. Exactly and as i pointed out in another thread walmart charges more for figures in comparison to target. The star wars vintage collection figures from the same wave are 4$ more at walmart (16.99 compared to 12.99 at target). So mattel pressuring walmart on distribution is one thing but they should reign in their prices as well because it turns off collectors. The problem as you mentioned is that this distribution problem has been with walmart for over almost 2 decades. We are all sick of it. The hunt was never this difficult before for regular figures. Most of the exclusives walmart carry aren't even limited edition so there is no reason that people should end up leaving the stores empty 99% of the time. In the late 90s it was truly hard and most of us only had one shot at stuff back then but wwe figures especially are mass produced in comparison to mostly everything else that came out back then minus ep1 and ep2 star wars figures which they probably made millions of. I just hope mattel takes notes of our comments and thinks wisely long term as the prices alone will keep collectors from entering walmart. Hell one of the reasons i started collecting wwe figures again was due to the fact that i could pick them up for cheap at target. If it wasnt for that i would never even attempt to do it at walmart especually with how rarely they have anything new on the shelves. At target i can always find something i want. I collect many different brands so i say that as a multi-brand buyer. It is rare that i walk out of target emptyhanded whereas 9 out 10 times that is exactly what i do after leaving walmart as they rarely even put their overpriced stuff on sale. Collectors need to speak up or this will continue indefintely. In the late 90's..... it was an entirely different ballgame; I remember walking into KB Toys & there was an entire aisle of JAKKS Wrestling figures.... And it was very random - we didn't have the Internet (well, it was in it's early stages, at least as far as using it to buy/track Wrestling Action Figures) - often we didn't know what new stuff was coming out until we saw in in the stores! I remember finding stuff in the KB Toys clearance bin that I had never even seen before! I truly had to choose which figures to buy and which ones to leave behind..... it was heartbreaking to only be able to pick 2-3 figures out of a whole new set that I had never seen before! I do remember that I passed on JAKKS Classic Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and that figure never got added to my collection. Fast Forward to 2023..... we see photos of prototypes for figures that aren't even manufactured yet.... we gripe about the wrong style knee-pads or torso choices..... we wait, wait, wait 6 months to 1 year for them to be available..... and everyone is drooling, waiting for these figures to hit the shelves (including collectors, scalpers, employees, and my LEAST-Favorite - "Employee-Scalpers."). So we race over to our nearest Walmart or Target..... and find nothing but empty shelves. Empty. Also in 2023..... we run to five different Walmarts hoping to find that singular "Chase" figure or a figure that was short-packed 1-per-case...... and we go home empty-handed..... only to see online that someone found 12 of them sitting on the shelf at an Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Southern Georgia........ I don't know about you guys, but I get really MAD when I see that! So we "suck it up" and just pay the $40-$60 per figure scalper fee to a dude that found 12 of them for $6 each at Ollie's or Bargain Hunt....... or we just don't get the figure. Honestly, these days - Ringside Collectibles is just about the best option to get the stuff that you need...... which is why it ABSOLUTELY SUCKS when Walmart gets these exclusives that nobody can find. My point is..... the weird distributions probably still went on in the 90's.... heck, maybe even worse...... but without us Internet Watchdogs, nobody probably knew about it. Ahh, the 90's.... when collecting was FUN...... |
|
ddt4thee
Superstar
Joined on: Sept 24, 2020 14:12:31 GMT -5
Posts: 589
|
Post by ddt4thee on Dec 11, 2023 19:41:06 GMT -5
Walmart sucks.
|
|
|
|
Post by J-MANN on Dec 11, 2023 20:13:48 GMT -5
|
|
Jackass Pacific
Main Eventer
WF 20 Year Member
Joined on: Dec 22, 2001 22:58:55 GMT -5
Posts: 3,289
|
Post by Jackass Pacific on Dec 11, 2023 21:34:44 GMT -5
Exactly and as i pointed out in another thread walmart charges more for figures in comparison to target. The star wars vintage collection figures from the same wave are 4$ more at walmart (16.99 compared to 12.99 at target). So mattel pressuring walmart on distribution is one thing but they should reign in their prices as well because it turns off collectors. The problem as you mentioned is that this distribution problem has been with walmart for over almost 2 decades. We are all sick of it. The hunt was never this difficult before for regular figures. Most of the exclusives walmart carry aren't even limited edition so there is no reason that people should end up leaving the stores empty 99% of the time. In the late 90s it was truly hard and most of us only had one shot at stuff back then but wwe figures especially are mass produced in comparison to mostly everything else that came out back then minus ep1 and ep2 star wars figures which they probably made millions of. I just hope mattel takes notes of our comments and thinks wisely long term as the prices alone will keep collectors from entering walmart. Hell one of the reasons i started collecting wwe figures again was due to the fact that i could pick them up for cheap at target. If it wasnt for that i would never even attempt to do it at walmart especually with how rarely they have anything new on the shelves. At target i can always find something i want. I collect many different brands so i say that as a multi-brand buyer. It is rare that i walk out of target emptyhanded whereas 9 out 10 times that is exactly what i do after leaving walmart as they rarely even put their overpriced stuff on sale. Collectors need to speak up or this will continue indefintely. In the late 90's..... it was an entirely different ballgame; I remember walking into KB Toys & there was an entire aisle of JAKKS Wrestling figures.... And it was very random - we didn't have the Internet (well, it was in it's early stages, at least as far as using it to buy/track Wrestling Action Figures) - often we didn't know what new stuff was coming out until we saw in in the stores! I remember finding stuff in the KB Toys clearance bin that I had never even seen before! I truly had to choose which figures to buy and which ones to leave behind..... it was heartbreaking to only be able to pick 2-3 figures out of a whole new set that I had never seen before! I do remember that I passed on JAKKS Classic Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and that figure never got added to my collection. Fast Forward to 2023..... we see photos of prototypes for figures that aren't even manufactured yet.... we gripe about the wrong style knee-pads or torso choices..... we wait, wait, wait 6 months to 1 year for them to be available..... and everyone is drooling, waiting for these figures to hit the shelves (including collectors, scalpers, employees, and my LEAST-Favorite - "Employee-Scalers."). So we race over to our nearest Walmart or Target..... and find nothing but empty shelves. Empty. Also in 2023..... we run to five different Walmarts hoping to find that singular "Chase" figure or a figure that was short-packed 1-per-case...... and we go home empty-handed..... only to see online that someone found 12 of them sitting on the shelf at an Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Southern Georgia........ I don't know about you guys, but I get really MAD when I see that! So we "suck it up" and just pay the $40-$60 per figure scalper fee to a dude that found 12 of them for $6 each at Ollie's or Bargain Hunt....... or we just don't get the figure. Honestly, these days - Ringside Collectibles is just about the best option to get the stuff that you need...... which is why it ABSOLUTELY SUCKS when Walmart gets these exclusives that nobody can find. My point is..... the weird distributions probably still went on in the 90's.... heck, maybe even worse...... but without us Internet Watchdogs, nobody probably knew about it. Ahh, the 90's.... when collecting was FUN...... we need something like kb toys again. but considering kids these days would rather play with their tablets and tiktok and ::hank hill voice:: their vidgya games instead of actual toys...i don't see toy stores making any type of big comeback any time soon. just imagine digging through those 3/$10 bins again! |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,079
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Dec 13, 2023 8:01:34 GMT -5
In the late 90's..... it was an entirely different ballgame; I remember walking into KB Toys & there was an entire aisle of JAKKS Wrestling figures.... And it was very random - we didn't have the Internet (well, it was in it's early stages, at least as far as using it to buy/track Wrestling Action Figures) - often we didn't know what new stuff was coming out until we saw in in the stores! I remember finding stuff in the KB Toys clearance bin that I had never even seen before! I truly had to choose which figures to buy and which ones to leave behind..... it was heartbreaking to only be able to pick 2-3 figures out of a whole new set that I had never seen before! I do remember that I passed on JAKKS Classic Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and that figure never got added to my collection. Fast Forward to 2023..... we see photos of prototypes for figures that aren't even manufactured yet.... we gripe about the wrong style knee-pads or torso choices..... we wait, wait, wait 6 months to 1 year for them to be available..... and everyone is drooling, waiting for these figures to hit the shelves (including collectors, scalpers, employees, and my LEAST-Favorite - "Employee-Scalers."). So we race over to our nearest Walmart or Target..... and find nothing but empty shelves. Empty. Also in 2023..... we run to five different Walmarts hoping to find that singular "Chase" figure or a figure that was short-packed 1-per-case...... and we go home empty-handed..... only to see online that someone found 12 of them sitting on the shelf at an Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Southern Georgia........ I don't know about you guys, but I get really MAD when I see that! So we "suck it up" and just pay the $40-$60 per figure scalper fee to a dude that found 12 of them for $6 each at Ollie's or Bargain Hunt....... or we just don't get the figure. Honestly, these days - Ringside Collectibles is just about the best option to get the stuff that you need...... which is why it ABSOLUTELY SUCKS when Walmart gets these exclusives that nobody can find. My point is..... the weird distributions probably still went on in the 90's.... heck, maybe even worse...... but without us Internet Watchdogs, nobody probably knew about it. Ahh, the 90's.... when collecting was FUN...... we need something like kb toys again. but considering kids these days would rather play with their tablets and tiktok and ::hank hill voice:: their vidgya games instead of actual toys...i don't see toy stores making any type of big comeback any time soon. just imagine digging through those 3/$10 bins again! Oh those were the days. So much good stuff. I still have the 3 for 10 stickers on a roll that i bought at a flea market. Collecting was fun then and noone ever left empty handed. The younger generations thinks we complain but really all we want is to share those good times with the younger collectors. We wish that experience for them. If they o ly knew how good things were then.sadly it will probably never come back as it was. I get lucky 1 out of about 20 visits to walmart and im beeing generous. Ollies is the new kbs for me but all they have is disney junk... |
|
grandmasterPRA
Main Eventer
WF 10 Year Member
Rise Above Being Boring
Joined on: Jun 12, 2002 17:51:32 GMT -5
Posts: 1,128
|
Post by grandmasterPRA on Dec 13, 2023 11:35:00 GMT -5
Pretty much everything has taken a turn for the worse when it comes to finding wrestling figures nowadays and it seems like it all happened within the last year or so.
Amazon - It used to be simple. I would have a link on my phone that would bring me to the Amazon search that included all WWE figures that ship with Prime and listed in order of release date and they were incredibly reliable when it came to stocking new series of figures. All I would have to do is check once in a while and I'd see new figures pop up and then I'd post in here for other people to know. Now, I haven't seen Amazon add hardly anything new in what feels like forever and their search results are also kind of all over the place. I can't seem to find a way to filter to just show WWE figures sold by Amazon that are in stock in order of release date. It gives me tons of "currently unavailable" results. There were several Elite series that I don't remember ever popping up on there. Figures that used to be easy to find, like Elite 102 Rhea Ripley, I think I saw on there once and never saw it again. Basic series 139 popped up on Amazon out of nowhere and Pat McAfee arrived at my door like 2 days later yet somehow both the series before that (137 and 138) basically don't exist. Never seen them in person and never seen them on Amazon or RC. None of it makes any sense
Ringside Collectibles - I usually never really shopped there cause the prices are too high. But I at least could rely on their end of the year sales to fill in some gaps from the year. They used to have like 30 pages worth of figures available for Black Friday. This year they had like 8 pages and the deals weren't even that good. They also have had several series that just have never showed up on their site. Their inventory is significantly lower than I have ever seen it.
Walmart - I used to be able to use Brickseek to see whenever they would get new figures in, then I would drive to the store and, without fail, there were the new series. Now Brickseek doesn't work anymore. Walmart's are all over the place with what they actually stock. Heaven forbid you even try to do a pre-order through them because you will never see those figures. Their distribution is a complete mess. My local Walmart's shelves are just littered with Top Picks and AEW exclusives. Sometimes they'll have like 20 of one figure alone (Saw that with Top picks goldberg). It's rare that I see a new Elite series actually on the shelf. The only time I had any luck was with that Greatest Hits series. I guess I had some luck with Ruthless Aggression but again, that was spotty. I never saw RA 2 but I've seen tons of RA 4. Hopefully I'll have luck with RA 6. It's just all over the place with Walmart and I can't seem to find any kind of pattern to it
Target - Somehow, Target has legit become the only reliable place to get figures from. They pretty much always come through on pre-orders and there is a way to at least track the inventory of their exclusives. They don't do much for me in terms of Main line Elite's but I have to give them credit for their Exclusives. But again, when you go to the actual store it is kind of a mess of figures and it's rare that I see any main line elites there.
It has really reached an all time low in terms of being able to find wrestling figures, which used to be the part that was the most fun about collecting for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by coldblooded on Dec 13, 2023 11:48:32 GMT -5
Mattel: Hey Walmart we got these sets of exclusives that we'd like to produce, what do you think?
Walmart: We like these, (MNW) and feel they might be a good fit for us.
Mattel: Awesome, for this particular set, we are looking at these potential lineups throughout the entire series runs plus more if successful.
Walmart: Looks good, we'll take them.
Mattel: That's great to hear, we will get the contracts up and running to sign the deal.
Walmart: Alrighty everything seems good.
Mattel: There's just 1 caveat though.
Walmart: And what's that?
Mattel: While you will have exclusive rights to these series, we would like to carry them on our official website mattel creations, that has absolutely zero competition with Walmart. After all why would we compete with ourselves lol
Walmart: lol
Mattel: The discount would apply to you guys and you can sale at the MSRP of 22.99 (elites) and 32.99 (ultimates) you will get that exclusive price, while we will carry the same figures but will charge 27.99 (elites) and 37.99 (ultimates) this way for every sale on our website, you will also get a percentage of sales to accommodate.
Walmart: hmmm we like free money! What can go wrong!? Let's do it!
Mattel: That's great to hear, pleasure doing business, as always.
Win win for everybody.
|
|
ddt4thee
Superstar
Joined on: Sept 24, 2020 14:12:31 GMT -5
Posts: 589
|
Post by ddt4thee on Dec 13, 2023 19:55:42 GMT -5
Walmart still sucks.
|
|
|
|
Post by J-MANN on Dec 14, 2023 16:10:02 GMT -5
|
|
