Solving the problems of pre-orders
#1
Posted 02 June 2009 - 09:30 AM
1. Overall there is little confidence in the timing of delivery, and since pre-orders are not charged until the product is delivered, many are no longer pre-ordering because they do not want to be surprised by a charge during a month or time they were not originally expecting. In other words, we don't want to put money on hold indefinitely in this economy. If we are committing to a sale date, that is when we budget the money for.
2. Given that we cannot cancel pre-orders through some vendors should our circumstances change, we are also not willing to commit to a product prematurely. Many would prefer to make the purchase once the item becomes available.
3. It seems AA/DST is basing the success or failure of a line largely on the number of pre-sales...I would add the question...then why doesn't DST have these items available for pre-order on their website? They have done this in the past with BSG Tyrol? Is this to avoid conflict with vendors or are they not equipped to handle this?
4. It is possible as consumers we would be more willing to pre-order or commit ahead of schedule if we felt that the products were going to be released in a timely fashion or, in the case of the "figure of the month" suggestion, we were assured that there would be diversity in the product offerings.
Please feel free to correct any thoughts that I misrepresented and, more importantly, add your own to this thread. Maybe there is a way we can collectively come up with solutions or suggestions that will help AA/DST keep providing us with the toys we have such passion for.
#2
Posted 02 June 2009 - 09:56 AM
"I don't pre-order because my budget is tight and I need to know exactly when the item will come out. With your products that has proven difficult to know. Then I learn that the product I wanted is canceled because pre-orders were too low. Do you recognize this as a potential problem among numerous customers and do you have any plans to help the situation?"
I think they have said, time and time again, that they are working on decreasing delays. I don't have any kind of a spreadsheet or history of what products were delayed by what amounts -- maybe in fact the delays are getting shorter -- but my gut tells me there has been little improvement.
I may just have to accept things as they are. I could say a number of things, like "maybe Paramount should pull their head out and realize that DST isn't serving the license well enough", or "maybe DST should pull their head out and do some market research NOT based on pre-orders", and so on and so forth. But maybe the reality is, there really isn't a big market for these figures and maybe they really are doing the best they can with what little there is. Maybe I just have to accept that BSG and Stargate can drive new figure development, but Star Trek can't. And heck, maybe I should be happy about that, because it's saving me money... and space!
#3
Posted 02 June 2009 - 10:28 AM
#4
Posted 02 June 2009 - 10:39 AM
#5
Posted 02 June 2009 - 10:49 AM
#6
Posted 02 June 2009 - 11:25 AM
#7
Posted 02 June 2009 - 11:59 AM
It's like the franchise itself, Berman and co. had a good 18 years at the helm, after a while the freshness had become stagnant - along comes JJ Abrams and look at Star Trek now!
#8
Posted 02 June 2009 - 12:01 PM
#9
Posted 02 June 2009 - 12:16 PM
#10
Posted 02 June 2009 - 12:21 PM
#11
Posted 02 June 2009 - 12:23 PM
I can understand some items being risky but lets face it, the ships sell. Just look at ebay with $150 NX-01 and $80 1701-A WOKs. There is a demand for this stuff. They say it is hard to do more than one ship a year. If i were them, I would ramp up production and get three out at a time ( a year). I think there is gold in them thar hills and nobody is mining it. So I don't understand the need for pre-orders. People want the Defiant, the C, the DS7 and others.
#12
Posted 02 June 2009 - 01:24 PM
And don't they have the Terminator license too (for the earlier movies)? Who would not want electronic lights & sounds ground and aerial Hunter Killers?
#13
Posted 02 June 2009 - 01:32 PM
I know I would. I was so eager for the Playmates HK. Then it came out and it totally sucked. DST could have done a far better job.
#14
Posted 02 June 2009 - 01:46 PM
Exactly, a business needs to spend money to make money. Bottom line. I see DST only producing TOS items here and there but never anything else unfortunatly. I so wanted a Voyager crew but I don't see that ever happening.
#15
Posted 02 June 2009 - 02:07 PM
Sallah
#16
Posted 02 June 2009 - 03:34 PM
#17
Posted 02 June 2009 - 03:41 PM
All of the 5 comic shops around me have at least stocked Trek stuff, even though it's been in very small quantities. Everything seems to sell out, but they may have been able to sell more had they been given more input from the costumers. But they can only order what they know will sell, and they can't know if it will sell unless a customer asks for it...
Sallah
#18
Posted 02 June 2009 - 04:15 PM
#19
Posted 02 June 2009 - 05:26 PM
You sell preorders and are trying to get x y and z made. While you're working on them, the price of oil shoots up. Yes plastic is made from oil and so oil goes way up, plastic goes way up. If you make the product that you presold while oil was cheaper, while it is higher, then you would lose a ton and the more you sell of them the more you lose. So, while you're waiting, oil prices drop again, you hammer them out as fast as you can.
That my friends may help everyone understand some things better.
#20
Posted 02 June 2009 - 05:29 PM
You're right, it doesn't. It doesn't matter who buys the figures, online or B&M, as long as someone is buying them. DST doesn't care where they go, as long as they go somewhere. So it doesn't matter if New Force is the one buying 5000 figures or if it is 5000 B&M stores each buying one. To DST, it is the total number moved out of their warehouse that matters. They produce a certain number of figures in each production run and they have to sell a certain number of them to make a profit. So the important thing for them is to find people who want to carry the product: TRU, comic shops, online retailers, anyone. So it doesn't matter where you buy them, it's just important that you buy them so someone will want to carry them.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users