shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
|
Post by shaxper on Jul 27, 2014 20:48:20 GMT -5
Generally speaking, sending mass e-mails out to your customers complaining about the losses you'll take on your own stupid business decisions is not going to instill confidence in your company.
Somewhere, the ghost of Edgar Church is laughing...
|
|
|
|
Post by aaronkashtan on Jul 27, 2014 21:27:25 GMT -5
If Chuck isn't meeting his financial targets for Comic-Con, maybe it's because his back issues are highly overpriced. I was at Comic-Con this year and I spent less than $20 at the Mile High booth. I bought a lot more stuff at Tomorrow's Treasures, for example, because they had awesome deals on quality back issues. And anyway, like someone else already pointed out, back issue sales are an increasingly unimportant part of Comic-Con.
|
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
|
Post by shaxper on Jul 27, 2014 21:33:49 GMT -5
If Chuck isn't meeting his financial targets for Comic-Con, maybe it's because his back issues are highly overpriced. I was at Comic-Con this year and I spent less than $20 at the Mile High booth. I bought a lot more stuff at Tomorrow's Treasures, for example, because they had awesome deals on quality back issues. And anyway, like someone else already pointed out, back issue sales are an increasingly unimportant part of Comic-Con. Is anyone else as excited as I am to see Sir Tim Drake here?? |
|
|
|
Post by paulie on Jul 28, 2014 9:13:48 GMT -5
Ha, now Chuck is estimating he'll lose $10K at SDCC this year, and that this was his last SDCC. Oh well! -M We will see the price bump on the Mile High Website so he can recoup his losses in 3...2...1... |
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Jul 28, 2014 10:26:44 GMT -5
Huh. It never really registered with me that there were a bunch of toys that were only available at San Diego Comic Con. (Although I knew that people waited in line for hours to get stuff.)
That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Aren't toys expensive to make?
And I pretty much ONLY care about comics, but I'd like to go some year. There are always a lot of classic comic panels that interest me.
|
|
|
|
Post by MDG on Jul 28, 2014 12:06:52 GMT -5
Huh. It never really registered with me that there were a bunch of toys that were only available at San Diego Comic Con. (Although I knew that people waited in line for hours to get stuff.) That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Aren't toys expensive to make? And I pretty much ONLY care about comics, but I'd like to go some year. There are always a lot of classic comic panels that interest me. Some of this stuff--toys and figures--look great, but I have a bias against manufactured collectibles--that is, stuff made to be rare. It'll be interesting to see how well these things hold their value--especially for people who buy on the secondary market. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=comic+con+exclusive&_sop=16 |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
|
Post by shaxper on Jul 28, 2014 12:11:00 GMT -5
Huh. It never really registered with me that there were a bunch of toys that were only available at San Diego Comic Con. (Although I knew that people waited in line for hours to get stuff.) That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Aren't toys expensive to make? And I pretty much ONLY care about comics, but I'd like to go some year. There are always a lot of classic comic panels that interest me. Some of this stuff--toys and figures--look great, but I have a bias against manufactured collectibles--that is, stuff made to be rare. It'll be interesting to see how well these things hold their value--especially for people who buy on the secondary market. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=comic+con+exclusive&_sop=16 I find that most SDCC collectibles don't see massive price inflations. For example, I have my eye on that Infinite Gauntlet figure set, and $60 (the going ebay price) is not an unreasonable price for it, even if it were sold in stores. |
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Jul 28, 2014 12:16:37 GMT -5
Huh. It never really registered with me that there were a bunch of toys that were only available at San Diego Comic Con. (Although I knew that people waited in line for hours to get stuff.) That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Aren't toys expensive to make? And I pretty much ONLY care about comics, but I'd like to go some year. There are always a lot of classic comic panels that interest me. Some of this stuff--toys and figures--look great, but I have a bias against manufactured collectibles--that is, stuff made to be rare. It'll be interesting to see how well these things hold their value--especially for people who buy on the secondary market. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=comic+con+exclusive&_sop=16 I'm with you, and moreso I don't even get the logic here. Manufactured collectibles sold to comic shops are a way to get retailers to buy more books than they can sell. How does offering a toy once a year at a convention make money for the seller? Why don't they just sell it on line and sell more toys and make more money? |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
|
Post by shaxper on Jul 28, 2014 13:06:59 GMT -5
I find that most SDCC collectibles don't see massive price inflations. For example, I have my eye on that Infinite Gauntlet figure set, and $60 (the going ebay price) is not an unreasonable price for it, even if it were sold in stores. Yikes. That Infinity Gauntlet set jumped to $125 overnight. I withdraw my point. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2014 19:36:55 GMT -5
There's an Azog minifig on that list priced at $1500. From what I can tell it's identical to the one I got at Wal-Mart, except it's in a blisterpack and mine was part of an $80 Hobbit set.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2014 19:56:04 GMT -5
I'm with you, and moreso I don't even get the logic here. Manufactured collectibles sold to comic shops are a way to get retailers to buy more books than they can sell. How does offering a toy once a year at a convention make money for the seller? Why don't they just sell it on line and sell more toys and make more money? I think they're all about promoting their booth. They want the crowds around them, not the dealers. It actually doesn't make sense when you're talking money, because you're right. Instead of setting a price and selling it to the first 300 people who show up, they could make them chase variants, or even put them on eBay themselves and get those high realized prices. They could even save the money on a booth at Comicon and just have a larger online presence, releasing super exclusive versions of their toys year round, creating their own digital events. But shareholders like things done the old way, and I think Comicon is becoming a bit of a trade show for toy companies and movie studios. So shareholders like to see fans going nuts at the booth. Just thought of this, but I'm wondering if there may be some perk from SDCC themselves when a major company releases a convention exclusive? Possibly much cheaper prices on booths? Maybe premium billing on advertisements for the convention? A lot of people who buy tickets to Comicon do so for the exclusives. Hasbro having some hard to find toys at their booth probably benefits the convention promoters more than anyone else. So I'm wondering if a guarantee of limited editions from the likes of Hasbro gets them a kickback of sorts? That would explain why they'd rather sell the toys themselves at SDCC than have a retailer buy a hundred sets just to get a crack at the limited edition. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2014 20:04:21 GMT -5
A couple of things to consider, companies get more of the sale price selling directly to customers than they do selling at a discount to retailers or middle men distributors. Second, to compound that, exclusives bring people to the table where they will often buy other merchandise as well, which again has a higher profit margin because the company is selling it for full MSRP not the discounts to distributors and retailers, so they get better margins selling direct at conventions and better margins means you can make more selling less.
-M
|
|
|
|
Post by MatthewP on Jul 28, 2014 22:55:28 GMT -5
Another factor is that they typically charge more for exclusive items, so even though they produce a limited quantity, they can still turn a profit on them. And many of the "exclusives" are just re-colored versions of already existing items, so the extra production cost is probably pretty minimal on those.
|
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
|
Post by shaxper on Jul 29, 2014 11:03:53 GMT -5
I think profit at SDCC is measured more in hype/interest generated than dollars lost or made. If you don't offer a toy exclusive, you risk your toyline becoming irrelevant while the online communities go on and on about tracking down that elusive exclusive from another manufacturer.
My mind goes back to Matthew P. seeing an Action Comics #1 that was on display, not because it was for sale, but because it was going up on an online auction. Its presence was there to draw interest via the countless media sources (both professional and amateur) that were broadcasting and photographing from SDCC, not to earn a direct profit.
This is part of what Chuck is not understanding about what SDCC has become.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2014 14:25:15 GMT -5
If Chuck isn't meeting his financial targets for Comic-Con, maybe it's because his back issues are highly overpriced. I was at Comic-Con this year and I spent less than $20 at the Mile High booth. I bought a lot more stuff at Tomorrow's Treasures, for example, because they had awesome deals on quality back issues. And anyway, like someone else already pointed out, back issue sales are an increasingly unimportant part of Comic-Con. I got the newsletter over the weekend and couldn't help but chuckle at how the master has become the servant. Some simple facts for the Chuckster:- - Publishers are entitled to sell exclusive merchandise to the masses and not employ either you or your profit-margin as the mandatory middle men.
- It's ironic to describe fans as having avarice and greed when your back-issue prices reflect that in spades.
- If your seven booths offered nothing new and simply stocked the same material as your site, what was the incentive to shop there?
- Why decry exclusive variants when Mile High Comics issues its own exclusives? Couldn't an exclusive Mile High San Diego variant been the solution? Just think...5,000 exclusives at $10 per pop put $50,000 in your kitty.
- If the masses are not putting Mile High Comics as the must-visit booth, then it's time to rethink your strategy.
I'm not sorry for him. I haven't ordered a Mile High package in months which demonstrates the other choices out there are much better ones.
|
|
