Badcat--BBI's new distributors

[dragon53]

From Badcat's blog:

" Blue Box Distributor Change Impacts Projects and Collectors

At one time, Blue Box Toys distributed a majority of the military toys themselves. This means they produced 1:18 and 1:6 items in China, imported them into the US, warehoused the merchandise, contacted retailers, then sold and shipped these military toys to various retail outlets throughout North America. The problem was that they didn't always do the greatest job of it. Retailers were more often than not surprised by new releases to the point where customers would occasionally scoop us! Yes, customers would call and tell us that BBI had new merchandise in stock and available to order wholesale. Not very efficient and kind of embarassing.

So to presumably to cut costs and gain some efficiency, BBI in North America is taking a new direction. They have approached small distributors and larger e-tailers/retailers offering them exclusives on new releases. The idea is to get the distributor/etailer/ retailer to front the money for the production of both new toolings and repaints (at least 3000 units each or so) then leave it up to the buyer to import, warehouse and distribute to other retailers (distribution is of course optional, as the buyer can keep all of them for their own retail purposes, if desired). For BBI this eliminates having to do the selling, the storing, and shipping of the goods to numerous accounts. Currently under this system, the 1:32 SBD and F4F are coming from Historic Sales, a distributor/etailer located in the Midwest. The new Me-109 will be processed by a small distributor in SoCal named LA CalTek who normally handles DiD figures in the USA. Merit Intl, another SoCal distributor, has carried BBI 1:6 and 1:18 scale for years (at higher wholesale than BBI, but traditionally a good back-up source) they may bring in the F-18 and F-16 in several schemes if the deal goes through. Bad Cat is also working on a couple of proposals but talks are currently stalled. Only the larger companies will be able to afford the fronting of the needed cash to spring large projects such as these.

What this diffussion means for the collector of 1:18 aircraft is less than certain. Their favorite retailer may or may not be able to get certain BBI items. With all the possible distribution sources for this merchandise it means that the individual retailer must establish a separate account with each and every distributor--sometimes easy, sometimes not. Where the process gets really, really sticky is when arch enemies in the retail world must become business associates as one party distributes/retails (sells) and one simply retails (buys). Imagine your business ordering from and sending money to, a competitor who tried to put you out of business last month! Then each and every order for new merchandise makes your competitor stronger, improving their cash flow and financial status. In addition, the distributor/etailer knows exactly how much the retailer is selling at any given time, very valuable information for a competitor to have, indeed!! Also, the distributor/etailer has first jump on sales, essentially filling the easy orders, aka "skimming the cream",--a lowly retailer will only receive his PO after the distributor/etailer has filled all his lucrative retail orders, receiving his old-news goods weeks later--a problem with the IXO line until recently.

Likewise, some companies simply cannot work together. We have competitors that steal our expensive, in-house produced photographs of merchandise, erase our copyright logo, then post the pics on their site, deliberately using our stolen assets against us to rob us of sales. Another etailer hired-away our outside website consultant to design a new website for themselves using the same host company as we do--the result is a website that looks remarkably like our Series 4 store. Even more unscrupulous is the Oregon-based etailer who actually lifted programming code from our site and infused it into his. We had fragments of our website imbedded in his site along with all our expensively derived tags and keywords! When confronted, this stooge had the nerve to accuse us of taking ideas from him even though our company name and pieces of our graphics were still fused into his code! We spend oodles of money on legal fees to keep these cyber criminals at bay. It's a safe bet that when our BBI exclusives arrive not every competitor out there will be stocked-up. And, there may be new releases that we'll not be privvy to. So as you can see, distribution will be uneven at best.

Finally, competitors working with competors aren't a good thing for consumers. Where competition thrives, consumers get good deals. Competitors working hand-in-hand invites price fixing of both the legal and illegal varieties. A distributor can legally say to any of his wholesale accounts, "you can sell this item for less than $60", for example, "but if you do, we won't sell to you anymore." This is bad medicine and it happens all the time. Known as Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP), it's simply plain-old price fixing in my book and morally wrong, but the FTC apparently doesn't see it that way. Competitors need to be competitors and not business partners. MAP is already in effect on a number of lines including Corgi, Franklin Mint, Hobby Master, and Century Wings, just to name a few. Individual distributors of BBI will be free to institute MAP pricing on their respective exclusives if they wish to do so.

In summary, the distribution decentralization of BBI military toys is probably not a great thing for the collector. Only the most weathly distributors, etailers, and retailers will be able to fund future projects. Competitors will be forced to work together to distribute product to the ultimate consumer which invites unfair competition and price fixing. In the end, products will cost more and be available in fewer locations.

We hope the folks at BBI read this blog and reconsider keeping their warehouse open for business. More even distribution will mean fairness to both retailers and consumers, alike. And in the end, this will increase sales and keep the line viable."

[VMF115]

I See the bad moon rising with this deal.

[General Blasto]

Now could this have anything to do like this with 21st C ???
I didn't read the whole thing, but a bulb lit up in my head about the need for EVEN distribution of product. It fries my fuse to see new 21st C item pop up in only one or two areas of the country and where down here we are one of the last folks to see new cool items that come out. I bleed to get my paws on new items thru Evil bay because it months and months before they ever make it down here. Some items NEVER made it down here too WM is taking FOREVER to move the platoon figures which are now rotting on the pegs for the last what, 6 months ?!? TRU hasn't seen new stock down here in months and months also So like, WHat's the deal I'll stop here before I really overheat Da General

I really feel that 21st and BBI need to offer direct sales to folks on-line
THey'd get alot of my $$$$ without paying out to the middle man

[dragon53]

GENERAL BLASTO:

Last year, I contacted Merit International and asked if the new 1/32 F-4J would be etailer-only or if it would be sold at ToysRUs, Target, etc. They offered to sell me one. I didn't buy from them because I knew I could get it cheaper at an etailer---which I did for $39.

[coreystinson]

Merit has always sold directly to the consumer as well, but the web store interface is crude and prices high. Their primary focus is wholesale.

BBI has long been considering this move. They farmed out wholesale of their 12" product exclusively to Merit a long time ago.

For some reason they continued to wholesale the 1:18 scale product themselves (with Merit also distributing). Often, it is/was a channel to dump excess inventory that did not go out to a major retailer.

[coreystinson]

THey'd get alot of my $$$$ without paying out to the middle man

Doesn't work that way Sir General. If they had to add an additional layer to their operations to provide retail mail-order services to the end consumer, final retail prices would be very nearly the same. It costs money, labor, and time to provide such services directly to the consumer.

[Stug45]

Now could this have anything to do like this with 21st C ???
I didn't read the whole thing, but a bulb lit up in my head about the need for EVEN distribution of product. It fries my fuse to see new 21st C item pop up in only one or two areas of the country and where down here we are one of the last folks to see new cool items that come out. I bleed to get my paws on new items thru Evil bay because it months and months before they ever make it down here. Some items NEVER made it down here too WM is taking FOREVER to move the platoon figures which are now rotting on the pegs for the last what, 6 months ?!? TRU hasn't seen new stock down here in months and months also So like, WHat's the deal I'll stop here before I really overheat Da General

I really feel that 21st and BBI need to offer direct sales to folks on-line
THey'd get alot of my $$$$ without paying out to the middle man

Very well said General.

[dragon53]

Themotorpool.com now carries BBI----the new BF-109 is listed for $53.99 pre-order. The Dauntless and Wildcat are also available.