21 replies to this topic

[knightone]

Alright, many of you have expressed your displeasure at all the exclusives, especially the possibly ultra rare Troi variant. Some of you have also suggested a collector's program similar to what other companies have. So here is a poll asking about a possible DST collector's program.

[slayerone76]

I am a member of the Buffy's Collector Club. While we don't necessarily get the promise of every exclusive, we do get discounts on all merchandise offered in the BCC store. I love it!

I wouldn't mind something similar to the BCC for DST, but please lets remember what happend with the AA club ... what a tragedy.

[BStu]

I would point out that the Buffy Collector's Club is essentially a retail store. At least that was my understanding. Its just something Time and Space put together to brand their Buffy merchandise and try to capture a strong segment of the Buffy collector market. Not that this is bad. Seems like a solid win/win to me. But its a different beast from a DST run Collector's Club. I'm assuming this would be similiar to the old Palisades collectors club.

I'd certainly be open to joining, but I tend to prefer the Palisades model of a lifetime membership and then pay for the figures as you go. If there is a high annual fee, I would be expecting to get any exclusives they put out for free with the membership. This might make sense. After all, they know how many they need to produce that way, cutting down on costs and stock. As long as there was a guarentee of a certain number of exclusives, that'd seem fair enough and might actually inspire a greater committment to the brand for me. Still, I'd rather pay $25-$50 for a lifetime membership, get some odds and ends freebees with membership, and pay fair retail for the figures I want. But if that's a hassle for DST to maintain, I'd be open to other possibilities.

[slayerone76]

Yes, basically it is. We do get, for our $50 a year members fee, $50 worth of merchandise. This last sign up was the Library Playset, you can also opt in and get a $50 gift card to the store. The one thing I do like is that instead of $14.99 a figure, I pay $11.99. $3 is $3!

I'm not saying make it a store, but I wouldn't mind a similar set up where I pay a yearly fee and get merchandise for my money.

[knightone]

Right, my line of thinking is similar to the Palisades program and not the BCC.

In my mode of thought, if the membership fee is high, then members would be guaranteed all the special premiums for that year for free (besides membership, of course). This would be for all the lines, not just Trek. So a member would get Buffy/Angel, minimates, Stargate, Trek, etc. Whatever exclsuives are given away for any event. like the Troi repaint, FCBD O'Neill, Emery High cheerleader Buffy, and last year's holiday Willow. Also, there would be special give-aways exclusive to members of the club. Obviously, any retailer exclusives would not be included in this deal (although there is a pretty reliable rumor now that DST is doing away with the retailer exclusives) nor would any exclusives that were sold by anyone or ar any event. However, the program could give members a chance (or first chance, in many cases) at purchasing those exclusives that were not give-away premiums like Pilot Chair Kirk or the upcoming carded WNMHGB Kirk for those not able to attend the con. Kind of like how the Master Replica's Collector Society gives their members the first chance to buy each new release. This guarantees that you will receive each free exclsuive for free and be able to buy any purchaseable exclusives from any event without worrying about it selling out before a retailer or the DST site store has a chance to put it up for sale after the event.

The other option is the same or similar deal to what Palisades had. You pay a very small fee (either one-time or annually) or even no fee at all, but you pay for each of the available figures. This would be more cost effective for those that only collect a sinlge line from DST. Although the former structure would be more cost effective for those of us who collect multiple DST lines (Trek, Buffy/Angel, Stargate, and the upcoming Galactica line) and would want all or most of the premiums.

I think somewhere in the $25-$75 range for annual membership in the first structure I described would be fair. There would be, after all, not much more than half a dozen premiums per year on average. The membership fee would basically be able to cover the cost of production, shipping, and the cost of operations for the club.

I think either plan would be good and satisfy all the completists. It's would be easy enough to join and any cost would be pretty negligible for anyone who just has to have everything. It would be a small price to pay no matter what that price was, which would probably be pretty reasonable.

[Gothneo]

I'm not in favor of a yearly fee. If it were run like the Palisades Club, where you pay a 1 time fee... and get a choice of equivalent merchandise for that fee, and then have access to every exclusive they put out, I would be for it.

But paying a recurring fee each year? No. Even if it ment getting voucher for that amount. It forces me to purchase the items from that place only, which would just hurt retailers like New Force or AFX IMO.

Thus far most exclusives can be had from participating retailers, it's really just these last two that sound like they may be unavailable from retailers directly... and we don't know if that's true yet.

Thus I f I'm only going to pick up 1 or 2 exculsives from the club per year, then it needs to be a life time membership.

[knightone]

I'm not in favor of a yearly fee. If it were run like the Palisades Club, where you pay a 1 time fee... and get a choice of equivalent merchandise for that fee, and then have access to every exclusive they put out, I would be for it.

But paying a recurring fee each year? No. Even if it ment getting voucher for that amount. It forces me to purchase the items from that place only, which would just hurt retailers like New Force or AFX IMO.

Thus far most exclusives can be had from participating retailers, it's really just these last two that sound like they may be unavailable from retailers directly... and we don't know if that's true yet.

Thus I f I'm only going to pick up 1 or 2 exculsives from the club per year, then it needs to be a life time membership.

Well, the annual fee would also give you one of every free premium guaranteed. So far, this year, that's the Emery High Buffy, FCBD O'Neill, Tapestry Picard, Troi repaint, Jaffa Serpent Guard. That's five so far and the year's not over yet. You would get these for free, guaranteed, with the annual fee if such a club was in place. You would also be guaranteed the ability to preorder the purchaseable exclusives like Pilot Chair Kirk and the carded Pilot Kirk. You wouldn't be taking away business from New Force or AFX. They would still be able to have their own exclusives apart from and not available from the club and most of the items given by or sold by the club wouldn't be available to the retailers anyway in most cases or only available to them in small quantities in all the other cases. Quantities small enough to guarantee they could sell out quickly regardless of the existence of the club. The club also would not handle any of the regular release figures (not even the chase figures) as those can be foiund easily with the retailers and the DST site store.

The club is a good idea because it does not threaten or take away from any of the retailers and also guarantees that completiests will be able to get even the most exclusive of figures not available outside of the club and their respective event. There would also be special premiums and esclusives made just for club members. Even with an annual fee, it would be a good deal and hard to pass up. Either way, I think it would be a win-win scenario. Completists and collectors will be able to have an easy way of getting these exclsuive figures and DST not only gets praise instead of complaints for making them more available to loyal customers, but has another venue for promoting their lines.

And it would be far better than the Radicals club, which is random and unreliable. I have yet to ever receive anything from this club, not even the free gift that was promised for signing up. After all, that's what you get for a free service. If we paid an annual fee, that would go a long way into guaranteeing the service because the fee would pay for the operation of the program. Plus it would give us free figures. And nothing creates more buzz and good will than free figures!


I think the best plan would be to keep things as simple as possible. Free figures are free (with annual membership) and purchaseable figures for the club would be kept only to those figures purchaseable as exclusives at cons and other special events and would only be done through pre-order. I think this would be best as the more complicated you make something, the more that can go wrong. Simnplicity would also keep the annual fee as low as possible and that fee would, in turn, allow for more reliable operation of the club.

[Hirogen]

I like how Palisades did things by paying the one time fee and getting a free figure or two at start up, then being able to purchase exclusives with no fuss or muss.

[The_Donster]

Through my vote in K1

[Captain Kidd]

After what happend with the AACC I note sure. This is a great idea to get exclusives for us but the AACC was also a great idea then.

I voted Yes. However the club would need full backing from DST in order for this to work.

[The_Donster]

I'm not totally sure, but I don't think K1 is suggesting another AACC type club I think he's suggesting a DST ran CC. Trust me, no one wants to see another AACC debacle, as it's being referred to now More like the Palisade CC back in the day, which had alot less headaches than some of the other one's I've belonged to in the past...MAC, McFarlane, AACC, etc Luckily for the latter, we had folks like FHC who did his best to make sure product was shipped with the supplies he was given. Like I said, no one wants to see another AACC debacle(Fan ran CC), especially this fan

[pickard]

I like how Palisades did things by paying the one time fee and getting a free figure or two at start up, then being able to purchase exclusives with no fuss or muss.

Yeah, this'd be my preference.

I would never buy ALL the exclusives, so a club whose fee paid for all the exclusives would be too expensive for me.

A yearly (or lifetime) fee for entrance to the club to get the right to buy exclusives would be nice. Getting a figure with that fee might make sense, too.

[Gothneo]

I would never buy ALL the exclusives, so a club whose fee paid for all the exclusives would be too expensive for me.

That's my thinking as well. There is a G.I. Joe club that sells those exclusive 1/6 scale convention Joes. Basically the way it works is the first one you buy for the regular retail price, and a 1 year membership is included in that price. Anything you buy after that you get a slight discount on. In that case they only have a few exclusives per year, so It's likely that you'll only get 1 or 2. With DST you'd get more items per year and you buy the membership when there is an item you actually want, but not before.

[knightone]

Yeah, this'd be my preference.

I would never buy ALL the exclusives, so a club whose fee paid for all the exclusives would be too expensive for me.

A yearly (or lifetime) fee for entrance to the club to get the right to buy exclusives would be nice. Getting a figure with that fee might make sense, too.

Well, just to clear things up, an annual fee in the proposed structure wouldn't pay for all the exclusives for that year. It would pay for any exclusives that are given away for free like the upcoming retailer Troi and the Emery High cheerleader Buffy from earlier in the year. The fee would also pay for the operation of the club. Any convention or event exclusives would still have to be purchased, but they could be advanced pre-sold by the club to its members, guaranteeing that you will get one even if the supply at the event sells out (this would be done far enough in advance to make sure DST produces enough to make presells for the club as well as meet demand at the con or event).

As I mentione above:

I think the best plan would be to keep things as simple as possible. Free figures are free (with annual membership) and purchaseable figures for the club would be kept only to those figures purchaseable as exclusives at cons and other special events and would only be done through pre-order. I think this would be best as the more complicated you make something, the more that can go wrong. Simnplicity would also keep the annual fee as low as possible and that fee would, in turn, allow for more reliable operation of the club.

[DavAnthony]

I would be surprised if a Diamond Collector club turned into what happend with the AACC. I'm not sure what happend with that club, but I was one of the guys who waited for his exclusive Kirk for awhile.
It seemed there was very little support from AA with that club and it just seems to me that Diamond is just better structured, set up, etc.
Since I don't want every exclusive that come out. I'd rather just have to pay for the ones I wanted and I woudl definatley prefer they put a limit on purchases that way none of our Scalper "buddies" could jump in there and hog up the goods.
But if a membership fee was necessary I'd say $25 and below. Anything more then that would seem a little over-priced for me.
Dave

[VulcanFanatic]

While i would like to support a DST collectors club, i am not optimistic that there will ever be one. One reason is that DST doesnt even want to run their own forum, much less a club. AA runs the official forum that feature AA products, and DST does answer questions for a couple of forum fan groups, but if they started and Administered their own forum i would be more optimistic about a club forming. The AACC went down the tubes because Picard lost interest and moved on without making good on promises made, such as delivering membership kits and other merchandise ordered, and failure to deliver on new info from AA concerning their new products. Without leadership and motivation to deliver on their promises, no club will succeed. If DST decides to start a forum and a club and runs it the right way, it could be a great place to hang out and enjoy our hobby and learn about new things concerning their new products and be able to offer suggestions and opinions.

[knightone]

While i would like to support a DST collectors club, i am not optimistic that there will ever be one. One reason is that DST doesnt even want to run their own forum, much less a club. AA runs the official forum that feature AA products, and DST does answer questions for a couple of forum fan groups, but if they started and Administered their own forum i would be more optimistic about a club forming. The AACC went down the tubes because Picard lost interest and moved on without making good on promises made, such as delivering membership kits and other merchandise ordered, and failure to deliver on new info from AA concerning their new products. Without leadership and motivation to deliver on their promises, no club will succeed. If DST decides to start a forum and a club and runs it the right way, it could be a great place to hang out and enjoy our hobby and learn about new things concerning their new products and be able to offer suggestions and opinions.

Starting a club or program like this would be a completely different animal than a forum. First of all, both cost money. The difference is that the club would charge dues and fees and charge for purchaseable figures and a good portion of that moeny would go toward paying for the running of the program. A forum would still cost money, but it would be difficult, no impossible, for DST to ask for membership dues from people wanting to use it when there are free forums like the AA forum and this board as well as others. DST doesn't want to pay for a forum out of their own pocket. It costs money and it serves no purpose when there are other venues that are bacisally the same and they can also use for free to communicate with their customer base. We, the people who join the club, would pay for the operations of it with our membership fees. It would be a completely different situatiion altogether.

[VulcanFanatic]

I am all for a DST club, but im not paying a membership fee to recieve exclusives from lines i couldnt care less about, so i vote for a club with a small membership fee that would give me access to buying figures i want. If i cant have accesss to all of the exclusives i am interested in, then it wouldnt be worth being a part of.

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

I would want the same thing as VF, accepting that I would have to pay more for overseas shipping.

[FHC]

I think that is my line of thinking as well. I would not really be interested in a Buffy figure.