Hot Toys Han Solo & Chewbacca re-release with poll.

[TonTon]

Obviously when I need to sell an item I would love to be able to get my money back but I look at it more as an enjoyment activity not an investment. If I have to sell and lose money that money lost kinda counts toward the enjoyment I had while owning it.

These are my sentiments as well. If I lose say $40 for something I got to display for 2 years. It's like I rented it for that time and got to enjoy it, which seems like a pretty decent deal.

 

[Megacolor]

Now a days on HT stuff you'll be lucky to make your money back. There are some exceptions tho. "Exclusive" don't really mean anything... its just something they slap on the box to sale more figures. I got flame on another thread by noob because I said "Exclusive" didn't mean anything to HT.

The more runs an item gets the cheaper it should be but not so with greedy HT.

 

[DarthAlias]

From reading these posts I see that many of you just don't understand what is the problem with re-issuing this kind of collectables and why it is bad for us collectors. So, let me try to explan the way I see it...

The price of these products is determined (or at least it should be) mainly by the edition sizes. Cost for each figure comes from design (engineering), licencing, and finally manufacturing. So, to calculate the desired profit, a company has to use a formula where edition size plays a huge factor. For example, if you were to produce a 1000 pieces, the price tag would have to be twice as high from what it would be if you produced 5000 pieces (I am making this up, but roughly it comes down to these numbers).

Generaly speaking, the problem with re-issuing is that we payed more for this collectable (retail) than we would have if the company decided to produce more from the start. At least this is the way it should be in the real world economics - price is always offset by the quantity produced. (That is why custom pieces are so damn expensive!)

So, like it or not you are paying for exclusivity and you should be aware of that. Otherwise I don't know how you justify these prices. If you don't care for this kind of "exclusivity", don't you think you are overpaying all this stuff?

If you think I am talking nonsense, just wait a year or two when the secondary market becomes so saturated and flooded with 1/6 scale and the prices tumble so hard we will all feel like fools for paying initial retail prices. If they continue this re-issuing nonsense, this is exactly what will happen.
I know, many will say "I don't care about the price, I collect for fun", but that is just to comfort yourself.
Just ask yourself - if you were promised a figure one year from now at 30 or 40% discount, would you buy it now without discount "just because collecting should be fun"? Yeah, right...
Of course, this hobby is a huge fun, but don't loose perspective of real world economics over it.

I missed out on many Hot Toys releases myself and I personaly have no desire that any of these I missed are reissued - I learned to live with it and have no problem with someone else owning it and not me. I would expect the same from somebody else looking at my collection. We don't all need to have everything. Be happy with what you have, and take comfort in the fact that what you paid for holds value in the future (no profit needed, just not becoming worthless in comparison to todays prices).

My oppinion - Hot Toys is making us all fools with this move...

I agree with you man. All the people here who cancel and reorder waiting for the $20 coupon fall into this. If we knew these would be around forever, why order now? If they are making them open ended, prices should drop not go up as they have been. Let's be real here, some just don't see what's really going on.

 

[evenflow]

Neither of those options really fit. I enjoy exclusivity but the re-relase has no bearing on my future purchasing. I will still buy what i like.

 

[hulk181]

Re-releasing a figure does not bother me. What would bother me would be if the new ones are improved and I'd have bought the original run figures.

 

[AIR]

Obviously when I need to sell an item I would love to be able to get my money back but I look at it more as an entertainment activity not an investment. If I have to sell and lose money that money lost kinda counts toward the fun I had while owning it. People go to movies, dinners, ect... and spend quite a bit of money for the enjoyment of it. At least with this hobby you have the item to continue to enjoy for as long as you want it and then you can get some money back to put towards something else you want. You can't do that with alot of other entertainment out there.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[koon]

They totally underestimated the power of the force. Everyone did. Mind you we're all squabbling for OT leaving TFA overstocked, so TFA will be under run when we catch up.

 

[Lejuan]

Not to worry Nathan, as soon as you've paid a cent over over fifty bucks for a man-boy doll you can rest assured you've got something pretty exclusive.

 

[irezumi]

So...Hot Toys has reached 400,000+ Facebook fans, i wonder if each fan has bought at least one $200 figure($80,000,000)then what if like me they fans bought seven ANH Star Wars figures($560,000,000) and that's just Star Wars alone. Cash cow indeed.

 

[Prime Clone]

Correct.

These figures are mass produced. They're not numbered editions or otherwise exclusive in my way, beside their price tag.

It has absolutely no effect whatsoever on John if Peter owns Chewbacca too.

"Exclusivity" probably wasn't the best term to use, "edition size" would have been better. And edition size absolutely determines resale value.

That said, I didn't buy these with the primary intention of reselling them, though it's nice to know they'll hold their value or appreciate. But it's also good for HT to make more money from their best sellers, as it might make them more willing to take a chance on other less certain properties in future.

 

[superado]

Does Hot Toys establish edition size? If yes, do they do it for all their releases? I pretty much buy HT for the quality and I don't recall ever coming across the issue of edition size. The only way I actually care about edition size is the mad rush for everyone to buy a set and me not getting in for whatever reason; I also get ticked off when there's a set I didn't really plan on getting, but which changes my mind later and the chances of me getting it are affected by its scarcity.

 

[nathan.never]

Not to worry Nathan, as soon as you've paid a cent over over fifty bucks for a man-boy doll you can rest assured you've got something pretty exclusive.

Not sure if I understand you...

"Exclusive" is not the word I like being used in this topic (I just went with the flow), that is why I put an apostrofe beside it.

I get that these are not exclusive items per say, but since these (retail) prices make them unavailable to the majority of people, some exclusivity comes attached with the price tag.

And this is why I believe that by this inflation of quantity (reissuing, new releases coming too fast), inevitabely comes a oversaturation of market and so Hot Toys has begun the process of bursting its own bubble.


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[rdean]

Not sure if I understand you...

"Exclusive" is not the word I like being used in this topic (I just went with the flow), that is why I put an apostrofe beside it.

I get that these are not exclusive items per say, but since these (retail) prices make them unavailable to the majority of people, some exclusivity comes attached with the price tag.

And this is why I believe that by this inflation of quantity (reissuing, new releases coming too fast), inevitabely comes a oversaturation of market and so Hot Toys has begun the process of bursting its own bubble.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exclusivity w/ HT and price have no correlation to each other...if you think that then you are sadly mistaken, and have bought that whole line of BS. Many people can and do buy these, they are not that expensive at retail, put them on the CC, flex pay, etc.. I feel sorry for those that overpaid, but seeing what the secondary market was doing was a lot worse IMO. HT listened to the market, and it's customers and adjusted to meet demand. Simple business economics and practices.

If you add 5,000-10,00 to the run or w/e and add that many new collectors the market for the hobby will grow, and the benefit of these figures holding their value, and not depreciating a lot, like most things, then it's a win-win. If they were # limited, etc... that is different, but they are already mass produced and nobody but HT knows how many are made. As I said in the other thread too, buy what you like, and enjoy them for what they are.

 

[rdean]

Obviously when I need to sell an item I would love to be able to get my money back but I look at it more as an entertainment activity not an investment. If I have to sell and lose money that money lost kinda counts toward the fun I had while owning it. People go to movies, dinners, ect... and spend quite a bit of money for the enjoyment of it. At least with this hobby you have the item to continue to enjoy for as long as you want it and then you can get some money back to put towards something else you want. You can't do that with alot of other entertainment out there.

 

[SilverStar17]

These are my sentiments as well. If I lose say $40 for something I got to display for 2 years. It's like I rented it for that time and got to enjoy it, which seems like a pretty decent deal.

Excellent way of looking at it.

 

[surfin4]

yeah but if they really were collectible and exclusive we would all be rich......but yeah this is good too

 

[GavilanOrd]

I've been collecting for several years now and have not sold one of my 40 some Hot Toys figures - I am not a figure flipper. With that said, if you say you don't care about the value of your figures, I just can't believe you're being genuine and re-issues affect the value of your figures.

Have I been screwed out of owning certain figures because of aftermarket prices? Of course! Do I get pissed at people who own The Joker 2.0 DX11 because I don't? Absolutely not and in fact, I would outright feel sorry for them if they re-issued it.

When you look at that figure, or statue, or collectible and know that's difficult to get now, you have that feeling of owning something special and rare. People like that feeling and I completely understand it. Does it mean they're greedy, selfish bastards because they enjoy owning something rare? Of course not.

Look, I don't like to see scalpers get rich anymore than anyone else but I have a hard time believing a large part of the Hot Toys community buys figures to flip them. They're like me, they buy what they like. If they sell and the price is high - great - if it drops, oh well but don't begrudge them the extra money because of supply and demand.

I simply don't think this issue is black and white and it'd be nice to see people admit that.

 

[Bjjer]

I've been collecting for several years now and have not sold one of my 40 some Hot Toys figures - I am not a figure flipper. With that said, if you say you don't care about the value of your figures, I just can't believe you're being genuine and re-issues affect the value of your figures.

Have I been screwed out of owning certain figures because of aftermarket prices? Of course! Do I get pissed at people who own The Joker 2.0 DX11 because I don't? Absolutely not and in fact, I would outright feel sorry for them if they re-issued it.

When you look at that figure, or statue, or collectible and know that's difficult to get now, you have that feeling of owning something special and rare. People like that feeling and I completely understand it. Does it mean they're greedy, selfish bastards because they enjoy owning something rare? Of course not.

Look, I don't like to see scalpers get rich anymore than anyone else but I have a hard time believing a large part of the Hot Toys community buys figures to flip them. They're like me, they buy what they like. If they sell and the price is high - great - if it drops, oh well but don't begrudge them the extra money because of supply and demand.

I simply don't think this issue is black and white and it'd be nice to see people admit that.

I mainly collect Marvel and to do so one must genuinely not care about value since most older Marvel figs value will drop as a new one is announced. I buy them knowing this and that my figs will probably be worth less than I paid. I buy them because I enjoy them as flipping marvel figs is an exercise in futility. A few of the Nolan figs have gained value and I thought Star Wars would too but the reissues kinda killed that but I don't buy too much from these lines.

 

[Racetrack]

True story - The 1:6 market used to use edition sizes just like statues. Then they figured they could quietly remove them and no one would notice and they did just that. If this had happened on a statue there would be blood!

 

[Prime Clone]

The edition size doesn't need to be public knowledge to affect prices. It all comes down to supply and demand.