Premium Format The Incredible Hulk The Avengers

[SolidLiquidFox]

Let's say you are a business owner supplying a product to customers. You have 1000 customers willing to pay you $100 for your product. How many do you make?

Non-collectible items? Your basic economics class will tell you to make 1,000. Meet supply/demand, avoid unnecesary overhead costs, etc.

Collectibles? that's a different animal. I think most of us that have been around these parts for about 6-7 years have seen Sideshow then and Sideshow now. We have seen how their market has expanded. We have seen edition sizes for exclusives go from 300 to 500 to 750 and up to 1250.

The point is that no matter what urge you have to make 3,000 Hulk maquettes with an open edition, there has to be some kind of restraint in order to keep your customer base happy. They are not just selling you polystone. They are selling you all the other stuff that comes with it: the way owning a particular limited piece of your favorite character makes you feel, the foder for discussion on different forums as you analyze something you feel fortunate to own and not many others own, etc. There are a lot of "feelings" involved in collectibles and "feeling" special is one of them. Open editions remove that sense of urgency to get something now from a large number of your consumers. Is that good business?

It's more complicated than making other products. I doubt there is this much passion and sense of community when you buy a pair of scissors, a pair of pants or some shampoo. How many you make depends on what product you are making.

 

[wanderlai]

If SS puts an ES of 3000...they will all sell. If they go open ES, I don't think they'll sell close to that. The mindset will change from I need to order one now, if limited ES, to I'll just pick one up later on. I'd rather know I'll sell 3000 now verses, maybe, in a few years, I'll sell 3000.

 

[dino76m]

Dont you love those one liners from ink, you are actually the one that's completely clueless based on all your responses regarding sideshow.

it's not rocket science, take a past known ES statue like the skaar, goto the thread, do a search for ordered and date filter to get the approx, there are also at least just as many on the forum who ordered but didnt post.

2% of sideshow's business will make 30 orders for the whole forum out of a 1500 es (ex+reg) assume 1500 is completely soldout. At least have some facts or knowledge to backup your snide responses instead of just pulling them out of....

taking the eg of skaar, u should know the reg is still available, and not sold out, even the much hyped Joker hasnt sold out,
its the ex versions which are selling out , about half of which will end up on ebay for 4-5 the original price.and therin lies the problems with set ES
In the end a serious collector could give up collecting alltogether becos he couldnt keep up with the releases which would bother sideshow more than those quitting because they cant sell their low edition for ex a profit.

 

[The Josh]

Worst case scenario its an open ES... It doesnt matter they will never make 5000 !!!! Sideshow is not a buizness like that.Same goes for the IM 1/2 that people were citing as exemple.Now, I agree it doesnt sell for much on the After market cause Sideshow is still producing some...But they will stop production eventually.But how many do you think they sold worldwide..???? Probably less than 1K. Now if you're in this hobby for the long run, you know even the open edition will dry and Sideshow will put an ES to them.Might take years but in the end, your collectible will gain value... Yes even a statue like the IM 1/2.Pseudo collectors today wants their statue to gain after market value immediately.unfortunately this isnt how it always work.
Hulk FTW.

Yeah, they know on these larger more expensive items the ES won't be that high even if they don't announce an ES. You can even go back and look at some of the original SSW LOTR statues that were open ES. We know most of them had smallish ES and still sell for a decent amount.

This forum amounts to about 2% of sideshows sales.

I'd say 2-5% at most is where we range in the % scale of sales.

 

[MasterSafara]

As long as SS continues to sell out their product they don't care if collectors can keep up or not. Behind you there's someone else. It's nothing personal. It's just business. Then when you have money again and get that itch... you'll be back for more.

 

[aslan_gfx]

From pics I've seen from SDCC it looks 1/4 to me.

Check out the size comparison Aslan made up earlier in this thread. Not exactly accurate but close enough.

this version is better Snoopy

 

[TheMovieManiac]

I'm officially done reading this thread. it's all speculation and turned into nothing but bickering. I'll check back tomorrow after I place my pre-order.... No matter the size or ES.

 

[traylorc]

The point is that no matter what urge you have to make 3,000 Hulk maquettes with an open edition, there has to be some kind of restraint in order to keep your customer base happy. They are not just selling you polystone. They are selling you all the other stuff that comes with it: the way owning a particular limited piece of your favorite character makes you feel, the foder for discussion on different forums as you analyze something you feel fortunate to own and not many others own, etc. There are a lot of "feelings" involved in collectibles and "feeling" special is one of them. Open editions remove that sense of urgency to get something now from a large number of your consumers. Is that good business?

Your argument is based on keeping the "customer base" happy. In my mind the real question is...do the bulk of Sideshow's customers care about the fodder of discussing their purchases on forum? Do the bulk of Sideshow's customers care about the fact they have that new Hulk maquette that their buddy was unable to secure? In other words, do the bulk of Sideshow's customers really care whether or not a product is offered with an open edition?? Or are the worries regarding open editions primarily a concern of the "super" fans who are willing to spend a large chunk of their disposable income on multiple SS pieces during a given year?

I have always been of the opinion that the folks on this board, who care about edition size, do necessarily make up the bulk of Sideshow's customer base. I have had conversations with multiple comic shop owners in various states who sell SS products. Every owner disclosed that the majority their sales are to more casual fans that occasionally pick up a SS piece. Most of the die hard collector fans, order straight from SS. I'm not claiming my discussions with these comic shop owners prove my point, but those discussions really forced me to question whether the die hard collectors truly comprise the bulk of SS customer base.

If the die hard fans do not comprise the bulk of SS customer base, then perhaps the open edition argument is not a relevant to SS as it is to the die hard collectors. It might make sense to utilize the open edition approach to sell as many products as possible, if the bulk of the customers are not worried about discussing what pieces they own on a forum, or declaring which products are '"grails", or declaring how that piece they bought a year ago is going for 4 times what they paid on e-bay. Understand, I am not knocking anyone who cares about such items. Obviously I like discussing some of the aforementioned topics as I am a member of the board. I am simply suggesting, Sideshow's business strategy may be evolving in order to leverage potential sales with their identified "target" audience.

By the way Fox, I don't want you to think I'm attacking you. I have enjoyed reading your last few posts on this topic. I just wanted to offer a different take on the subject.

 

[Mamba]

about 30% of the ex editions end up in a pure scalpers hand with no intention of keeping it, its easy money for them,

Where did you get that fact? Can you prove it?
Btw it's not always easy money, not all EXs are increase in value plus scalpers have to pay huge eBay/paypal fees.

taking the eg of skaar, u should know the reg is still available, and not sold out, even the much hyped Joker hasnt sold out,
its the ex versions which are selling out , about half of which will end up on ebay for 4-5 the original price.and therin lies the problems with set ES

So are you saying about 250 Skaar EX will end up on eBay for $1500 - $1900??? Really???

In the end a serious collector could give up collecting alltogether becos he couldnt keep up with the releases which would bother sideshow more than those quitting because they cant sell their low edition for ex a profit.

What about a serious collector who can keep up with releases who can afford to buy the statues they like at current price now but just want to have their COLLECTIBLES hold their values just in case they need to sell them? You don't think Sideshow care for us who falls into this category?

It's funny I've seen a posting from some people who support an open ES, but when they sell their "grail" statues for whatever reasons in marketplace section, they sell them at MARKET VALUE they don't want to sell them at retail price or lower than retail. Isn't that ironic? You guys want to buy LOW and sell HIGH

 

[MasterSafara]

That's one way to get ahead!

 

[JAWS]

Sooner or later SS will stop making them When that happens the value will go up. Happens all the time with DVDs and Blu rays when they go out of print. I sold a Zodiac Blu ray for 80.00 on ebay and saw then go for more. A mass produced blu ray that I bought for 15.00 sells for 80. Right now the Batman Anthology Blu ray is going for 70.00 to 100.00. I could have got that six months ago for 19.99. But it's out of print. So the value goes up because there are always those out there who missed the boat.

This is really strange IMO because everyone knows the studio will put them out again. Yet the people pay.

 

[JAWS]

this version is better Snoopy

 

[Arctic Beast]

Dont you love those one liners from ink, you are actually the one that's completely clueless based on all your responses regarding sideshow.

it's not rocket science, take a past known ES statue like the skaar, goto the thread, do a search for ordered and date filter to get the approx, there are also at least just as many on the forum who ordered but didnt post.

2% of sideshow's business will make 30 orders for the whole forum out of a 1500 es (ex+reg) assume 1500 is completely soldout. At least have some facts or knowledge to backup your snide responses instead of just pulling them out of....

 

[Shai]

Hulk Maquette FTW....

 

[SolidLiquidFox]

If the die hard fans do not comprise the bulk of SS customer base, then perhaps the open edition argument is not a relevant to SS as it is to the die hard collectors. It might make sense to utilize the open edition approach to sell as many products as possible, if the bulk of the customers are not worried about discussing what pieces they own on a forum, or declaring which products are '"grails", or declaring how that piece they bought a year ago is going for 4 times what they paid on e-bay. Understand, I am not knocking anyone who cares about such items. Obviously I like discussing some of the aforementioned topics as I am a member of the board. I am simply suggesting, Sideshow's business strategy may be evolving in order to leverage potential sales with their identified "target" audience.

By the way Fox, I don't want you to think I'm attacking you. I have enjoyed reading your last few posts on this topic. I just wanted to offer a different take on the subject.

I agree with you there. Their expansion is moving towards the masses and it remains to be seen if that expansion will prove too ambitious. The issue I have is in identifying the "casual" vs the "core". What percentage of people go to a comic shop (notice how the number of comic shops is decreasing rather than thriving) and as they are picking up their weekly comics and a possible action figure says: "That sculpt of X character is awesome! $725 with taxes and everything? yeah, I'll take that next week!!!". Sideshow keeps expanding like they truly believe they are recession proof. Open editions on certain items is proof that they are taking small sips of their own kool-aid when they experiment with open ES and change edition sizes as they see fit. I just feel that the inevitable market implossion seems imminent as people will eventually do an exodus as we have seen in other hobbies. May be not now or anytime soon. Eventually.

I take no offense by the way. This is a good discussion and I am open to a different take on this.

 

[greatwall]

True Hulk's fan do not care about open edition size, solid or hollow and price. Just bring it.

 

[nemenforcer]

I agree with solid fox, I have collected a variety of things for years and if u don't control the es u can kill the hobby

 

[Captain Spidey]

True Hulk's fan do not care about open edition size, solid or hollow and price. Just bring it.

Finally! Amen tot that!

 

[gagaliya]

I agree with solid fox, I have collected a variety of things for years and if u don't control the es u can kill the hobby

i have come to terms with this, i will only buy if it's not open es (hulk is the sole exception to complete my avenger set). So if sideshow makes more & more open es, i buy less & less new pieces. I have plenty on display & in storage to enjoy what I have already, and still plenty old statues with es on ebay i can choose from.

The one thing that i cant accept is them changing to open es after nrd preorders have been placed. That's committing product fraud, after taking our money.

 

[Darth Snoopy]

this version is better Snoopy

'Bout time!

True Hulk's fan do not care about open edition size, solid or hollow and price. Just bring it.

That goes for any collectible IMO.