This is what keeps me from buying from HK sellers. Might be faster, and sometimes cheaper...but if something is wrong with your figure, Sideshow is under no obligation to help you. And good luck getting customer service from the HK seller or Hot Toys directly.
I would say that asking for cash up front in exchange for deals that seem too good to be true could be a warning sign of a company in trouble, yeah. Everyone who pre-orders from them should keep a very close eye on those Iron Patriot orders that are supposed to arrive in March for $230. It's possible everything's fine and these are designated loss-leader products that get newcomers hooked and coming back to spend more, too. But people should watch closely. Then of course there's the whole thing with their website being wiped off the internet a time or two.
Yep these are all solid points. Trying to get a replacement from a Hong Kong seller would be a pain and they'll likely stick you with the return shipping fees which if it's a large heavy item is going to wipe out a whole lot of $20 previously saved here and there.I agree. And not only is Sideshow under no obligation to help you, but they would have zero reason or motivation to. Asking them would be pretty ridiculous.
Granted some of those HK sellers are decent with customer service; at least to the level of maintaining their business and trying to retain customers.
But I am more comfortable going through retailers that have a proper business relationship with the distributor and manufacturer. Plus a lot of the people that run authorized retail shops in the US are nice, hard working, and passionate about what they do.
They've really gone to bat for me sometimes in the rare cases issues arose. I want to support them even if it means paying a bit more.
Weeellll I wasn’t anxious about it until after I placed the order and they charged me the total cost up front, which it was not made clear they would do. Followed by them pushing Instagrammers to advertise a good deal on Goblin pre-orders that, surprise, also require giving them $385 up front for something they don’t need to deliver for 18 months.Very understandable. But the full upfront as I understand it (and could be wrong) was only if you wanted the sale price. If you wanted to do the installment plan with the NRD, then you couldn’t get the sale. So, with that, I don’t really see how it’s shady. You have the choice on how you wanted to order the item from them. And at the end of the day, for those of us that did order, decided the sale was worth the risk. No one is forcing us to order it from them just b/c they have it at a lower price. We saw the sale and tried to make an informed decision based on the information we had which is all anyone can do.
I mean no offense to anyone, but if you as a buyer already have a sinking feeling in your gut and are going to be anxious about it until it’s in your hands, then maybe it wasn’t a good idea to put an order in with TW to save some money? Might be a good idea to try to cancel if you can if it just doesn’t feel right anymore. As someone who’s ordered a bunch of KO Transformers and figures from different overseas sites including taking random chances on AliExpress when I’ve lost all hope for finding what I’m looking for, I just don’t worry about these things until there’s reason to worry. Now, if all of sudden there are the very obvious warning signs like what seems to have happened with that Nippon Yasan site, then yea, I would definitely start a claim to get my money back immediately. As it stands, ordering upfront with TW is no different than ordering upfront with my local shops here in Dallas, as they also take money upfront and offer absolutely no help when things go wrong
It might not be shady, but the Goblin example is definitely risky. A lot can happen to a "company" like this, which is probably a dude with a storage facility and web site. If he becomes unprofitable and folds up his tent in 12 months, no way anyone gets that $385 back. I have an Axel Foley preordered through them and honestly don't remember if I pre-paid or not. I mean, it's $160 so I'm not as concerned as I would be if it was pushing $400 bucks. I've ordered a few in stock items from them with no issues but again, not being shady does not equal not being risky.
I 100% agree with you. Just want to be clear that I am in no way saying that you or anyone shouldn't be cautious with them or any other site. The Green Goblin bit is a little sus considering how far out that release date is and I definitely think that's when common sense should maybe chime in over "oooo savings!" But, I guess for me, the difference is that this figure has had its first or second batches already released so it feels like less of a risk and more likely to come out around the expected date than Pre-ordering and paying full upfront for something over a year away if not longer from delays. At the end of the day, we all decide what risk we're willing to take. For me, this is the better deal as I plan on combing it with my regular Mark 85 and selling the parts I don't want. So, spending the least amount possible has been the goal, and I was willing to take the chance. Obviously, I want all of us to come out on top with our PO's shipping later this year. All I'm trying to say I guess is that I'd rather be cautiously optimistic since I have no reason to believe otherwise, than feeling doom and gloom about the whole thing wondering what the catch is
There wasn't a Paypal option during checkout for this Iron man figure, at least not for me.
That’s exactly it. In stock items, no problem. But I would advise against anyone being thousands of dollars invested in pre-paid purchases from a guy with a website and a storage shed, as you put it.
I just took a scroll through instagram where I follow a lot of hot toys photography pages, most of them are hong kong/asia based
Because TW is giving out free Hot Toys in exchange for promotion, like shown here: Toys Wonderland
Yeah it definitely has all the makings of a need-cash-fast scheme on TW’s part that raises a lot of questions as to whether it’ll catch up with them and get us all burned at some point. They’re not an official distributor which means the least they can possibly be paying for the figures is what they cost at the cash register in Hong Kong, Right? So are they obtaining their stock by other questionable means, or are they so desparate for cash-on-hand that they’re selling future pre-orders at a loss just so they have money today?
They probably dont accept anymore because of the Buyer Protection
I stopped buying from Toys Buying Agent when they got rid of the 20% down option, but when I was doing it, I basically looked at it as I was saving about 10% from buying domestic. I've really had hardly any issues with Hot Toys, so I figured as long as I came away with less than 1 problem figure in 10 I'm doing better. Most issues aren't full value problems either unless it's a headsculpt thing or something.
With NY it was probably the perfect storm with COVID, the only order I had I placed in late 2019, supposed to ship mid 2020. Shipping from Japan was halted then, so the order was delayed indefinitely. They were responsive for a while, but by late 2020 they just stopped responding to me. By then though the payment was over a year old, so paypal and also the card I used offered no recourse.
