Badcat Tiger I---$49.99 "special purchase"

[Panzer_M]

I have no beef with Badcat personally. If they offer things at prices I find fair I'll buy so long as they're remaining reputable. The key is getting stuff at prices I find fair... They can sell what they want for whatever they want, and if it backfires on them that's their deal. I will repeat though that I don't respect the price fluctuating/manipulating... Set a price, don't list MSRP's with it trying to hype whatever profitable price you're selling it for, and if you want to run a % sale sometime down the road go for it if you think it'll help move something that isn't moving quickly.

I will say I tend to avoid etailers who sell select items at inflated prices because they know they can... It's not Ebay, and thus I lose some respect and do tend to avoid those stores unless they run a really good sale on something I want. There was a store years ago, out of business now I think, that sold 1:18 stuff and they'd pick out the infantry riflemen and hawk them at an inflated price because, well, they knew people wanted more of those...

It was irksome and I avoided them unless they had to put something on sale pretty hefty to move it. I think I got a couple figures there real cheap that didn't move as well.

I think etailers ought to open dialogue with 21st to GET those more in-demand figures in, in a heavier bulk. 21st has the ability to alter case-ratios if they wanted to. Feedback from the etailer that the best army builders would make a nice solid case pack would benefit everyone involved, so long as the etailer/retailer in question wasn't gouging on those items.

Anyway, that's drifting a bit from the topic, just letting it be known that Badcat's doing their thing and they're entitled to. I'd recommend not perusing the boards though if the posts here are annoying though, as it's not gonna lead to good business. Take what you read here and build it into constructive criticism that can be used to benefit the store. That's my opinion.

When I did an externship for management with J.C. Penney's, I had a leather jacket thrown at my face after the Black Friday sales week... It had obviously been worn/used and was being returned, which I refused... It hurt to have it thrown at me, and my first instinct was to beat the ever loving (poo) out of the tool that threw it at me, but I backed off and politely told him he'd have to take his coat back and leave the store, but that he wouldn't be allowed to return a used item. He ultimately left, leaving the coat behind... He was mad, nothing I could do really, but punching him out was also not the route to go and would've lead to very bad press for the company. I just had to deal, despite how truly angry I was at the time.

Any other day, I would have simply stomped a massive hole in his head, but not that day when I was the company rep.

was it a nice jacket or a deuche jacket?

[Jesse James]

It was a lame attempt at a "hard" looking leather jacket from Penney's... And it was obviously worn by the person who now was trying to return it due to a "flaw" he claimed it had when he bought it.

At the time, I remember wanting to smack him around with the jacket as a bolo-type weapon because it wasn't anything special, and he was throwing a fit like a child over it. Whatcha gonna do though? It was the season where customers poo on everyone in their vicinity at retail, and it was far from my worst day dealing with the public that Christmas.

[coreystinson]

I think etailers ought to open dialogue with 21st to GET those more in-demand figures in, in a heavier bulk. 21st has the ability to alter case-ratios if they wanted to. Feedback from the etailer that the best army builders would make a nice solid case pack would benefit everyone involved, so long as the etailer/retailer in question wasn't gouging on those items.

This has been done before ad nauseum. The vendors aren't interested as long as they are marketing the same action figure assortment product to the major retailers (and they usually are). What passes for acceptable to the major retail buyers is not the same as for the hobby e-tailer stores and vice-versa. As the majors are fronting a big portion of the production run, they get their way.

There is also the "law of unintended consequences" when it comes to certain troop building type figures. It is a curious aspect of collector mentality that when certain desirable "troop builder" type figures are readily available (i.e. packed more heavily, ratio-wise, in a case) that collectors suddenly become less interested! In my experience the troop building desire has, within its matrix of motivations, the desire to troop build something that has some higher degree of perceived rarity (read: hoarding). This is especially true for the 3 3/4" GI JOE collectors who are guaranteed to behave in this manner each and every time. It's as predictable as clockwork.

[coreystinson]

Amen to that Pokey!

BCA priced the 1/32 planes at $22.99, then $24.99 and now they are at $19.99. Just keep it at one price and leave it at that. Moving the prices from something that is outlandish to something less outlandish just to make people feel like they got a deal just ticks people off.

Part of the reason for these changes is the various experimentation with free shipping / discounted shipping promotions.

And, that is as it must be. If a business offers "free shipping" they must make up that difference somewhere else, usually then in the price of the merchandise. I remember some Chinese vendor that took this to the logical extreme - everything was "FREE" but the shipping and handling was astronomical! Some of you guys may remember that vendor - I think they sold a lot of 3 3/4" / 1:18 scale military knock-off stuff for awhile.

I, personally, don't have the time, energy, or desire to constantly be running price gimmicks. I don't know whether this helps or hinders my marketing efforts from the consumer's standpoint.

[mikeg]

the higher gas goes, seems the better business will be for the online retailers, being one who likes to hit a walmart or tru every day or other day (for a very, very, very, long time)- I will probably begin to make a 1 or 2 hundred dollar purchase from bca every ONCE in a while instead of wasting gas just for the thrill of seeing something new.

[kimtheredxd]

Talk about price"adjustments" Way back when I used to work for the Navy Echange. Items would go on sale for say 25% off... But they would raise the price by about 30% then do the % of that price

[Jesse James]

The vendors aren't interested as long as they are marketing the same action figure assortment product to the major retailers (and they usually are).

That's the thing... 21st isn't necessarilly tied to the larger retailer in the same capacity that Hasbro is. That's a major problem, even admitted by Hasbro on the sly, that they're slaves to the big-box stores, though I'd say that generally applies to one over others... I think we can guess which it is.

21st, I would think by their nature as a private and smaller store with seemingly limited ties to major retailers, would be more interested in working out at least refresher waves of figures at a later date. Case-in-point, the D-Day figures from wave 1 that sold through quickly (the Ranger officer, the BAR gunner, etc.) would do well at a 2nd release... A case-pack to etailers with these desireable figures would be nice.

On the issue of the perceived rarity/hoarding, I can't help you there Corey... It's gonna happen, and it's a crapshoot as to which figures will surpass that possible snag. From my observation of this hobby though, Riflemen tend to just simply move when they're done well... It goes all the way back to the first series of XD figures really. Solid cases are death to a figure I think, and army builders aren't immune to overproduction, but I think putting some sort of refresher case would be a bonus to the etailer if the manufacturer is willing to work with them on it... I don't know if 21st is, but I'd think they'd be more likely to do so than a company like Hasbro as their fun parts are in a certain retailer's bench vice.

As far as running gimmicks... I don't know Corey, but I think setting a price and sticking with it is just more respectable from the consumer's eyes. If you want to run a sale that essentially would give free shipping (without pulling the ever popular "let's up the shipping then" trick some stores try), then that's cool... It encourages multiple purchases from people like me that put off buying some items because of less interest (Quad trailer for instance).

I made the mistake of going into management when I graduated, and quite simply a major lesson I've learned is people are often savy enough to know when a store's trying to get one over on them... K-Mart's a good example of this. They sell everything for 20% over any other retailer, but then run a 15% off sale trying to make you fee like you just got a bargain on a new toy...

The antithesis of that is Toys R Us and their current B2G1 sale where they're clearly in the height of a movie's release and its toy line's subsequent popularity, and they're just simply trying to beat their competition... Their prices are competitive, but they push it the next step to get the big sales push the other stores aren't going for, and for that I think they've made a successful move. At least with everything being sold out online, they seem to have done something right.

That's my $.02 anyway.

[olifant]

JJ, I like your comments on Hasbro and how they (must?) operate in the market place. The thing I don't get is that 21C has done some amazing recent things with figures-

-Dual packs of the ever popular SS troops
-Added bonus of fixed legs for the VN and DAK figures
-Movable neck

I think these things are pointed more towards the adult collector than the six year old who begs these off their parents at WM. The $1M question is why don't they release these to the e-tailers? I know I am dying to find these figures and would break the bank building my armies. It appears many others here are in the same boat: we can't buy what we can't find.

TKO, help us out here. If WM can't distribute these things please help to get them in the e-tailers hands.

Rant Off.

[Jesse James]

Agree, just not sure why they're not at etailers... WM maybe was the only place buying them, or maybe they were made for them specifically? I hate to use the term "exclusive" but that could have been... I never heard one way or another on the 2-packs if they were really being shopped around at Toy Fair or if they were simply something designed for their biggest retailing partner at the time.

The two-packs are outstanding though... They're value defined to me, at $9 a set.

[coreystinson]

21st, I would think by their nature as a private and smaller store with seemingly limited ties to major retailers, would be more interested in working out at least refresher waves of figures at a later date.

I am still waiting to see an assortment of figures that was also not released to Wal-mart or Toys R Us. Until that occurs, I do not buy into the "limited ties" theory.

Case-in-point, the D-Day figures from wave 1 that sold through quickly (the Ranger officer, the BAR gunner, etc.) would do well at a 2nd release...

I think you would find that the cost to fire up the production line to do a limited run of product, "make up cases" if you will, would push the cost of the figures beyond your desire to pay for them, at least in 21st's case.

On the issue of the perceived rarity/hoarding, I can't help you there Corey... It's gonna happen, and it's a crapshoot as to which figures will surpass that possible snag.

Exactly, it *is* a crap-shoot, which is why the manufacturers, to some extent, are afraid of trying to second-guess the hobby's motivations. Retailers are then left to price-adjust supply to demand.

Make-up cases are what Hasbro is doing now with 25th Anniv. GI JOE to keep certain things in circulation, but they're not putting them out fast enough to deal w/ the basic problem of feast or famine.

[Jesse James]

I think you would find that the cost to fire up the production line to do a limited run of product

Exactly, but the problem 21st is seemingly having is that they're "shutting down" without a plan... they crank out a single case assortment of one line and move on, so they should be planning ahead... And throwing a bone to the etailers with a refresher case wouldn't hurt anyone. Nothing Wal-Mart gets, just an etailer case for later-release after the initial 1st cases shipped to Wal-Mart stores (or TRU, or whoever the flavor of the month big-box store happens to be).

There's nothing to say the cases need to be limited or even made a year or more after the first releases... If they wait like that, and if they make them "limited", then obviously there's problems involved in production that are going to negate the benefits. It's poor planning.

The current model clearly isn't working 100% though, and that's a shame. I think it's working better with Hasbro's methods right now, but then again they're not shutting down production between figures for months at a time either.

I am still waiting to see an assortment of figures that was also not released to Wal-mart or Toys R Us. Until that occurs, I do not buy into the "limited ties" theory.

As for 21st's ties... Have there been direct discussions on case assortments that only the etailers would have access to with 21st? That's something consumers don't have knowledge on one way or the other, so I'm curious to know... If there haven't been, then there's nothing to say the ties to TRU/WM are limited or not, other than the fact WM's dropping a lot of 21st products and TRU just recently started to carry them in any capacity again.

Exactly, it *is* a crap-shoot, which is why the manufacturers, to some extent, are afraid of trying to second-guess the hobby's motivations. Retailers are then left to price-adjust supply to demand.

And thus we suffer, but there is past trend to look at, and 21st doesn't appear to do so... The Jeep driver from the BotB line sells poorly so when the D-Day line rolls out they pack in multiple very similar figures? That's not helping the matter...

Etailers are then forced to price adjust, consumers then aren't overly pleased with etailers all the time, or simply feel the price has jumped beyond the worth, etc.

To me, ideal would be the case of supposedly more demanded figures going to etailers while the broader assortment goes to the big box stores, but like has been discussed, there may be something impeding that... I wouldn't think it's the same level of pressure a company like Hasbro faces though, but who knows.