darkSpyro

My local TRU is starting to lose me as a customer. I went to get these 2 on Friday afternoon, and they were not out. I would have asked about them, but they only had around 2 employees working and they were busy checking out customers. I left, pretty confident that they simply hadn't bothered to put them out yet.

Was in the area on Saturday, so I stopped by again. Still not out. They actually had decent staffing so I asked the guy working the video game area. He told me Enigma was the latest release. I told him he was wrong, so he went to his manager and asked...manager appeared to be clueless and told him to ask a different employee. The other employee went to the back room and pulled them out. I asked him why they were not out on Friday like they were supposed to be? His answer: re-sellers.

My answer: stupidity. So instead of making money on these products which TRU corporate has managed to get exclusive release for a week or so, they just keep them locked up. The assumption that customers will just know it's available is stupid. Re-sellers are going to know and will ask. How did the guy even know I wasn't a re-seller myself? Sure I would have bought more then 1 of each, but why not just have a store policy to limit quantities per customer? If you can't keep your register people from selling quantities, then sure, have the figures in the storage room, but at least put a sign up so customers know they are in. At least have your employees know they are available for sale.

My TRU did the same thing. They know people that will simply buy it all up, and want to keep it for people who ask. Not bad in my book. Never EVER simply assume if it's not on the floor it's not there...I'd fail on 80% of my figure quests if I don't ask.

Store I went to had them out Friday and just limited one of each per customer....

Quote: stinkbomb29

Store I went to had them out Friday and just limited one of each per customer....

See this would be a better idea then not putting them out at all. TRU needs to sell their stock and stay in business etc.

It's a horrible decision. You can put it on the floor and limit 2 per customer (or whatever0,put up a sign saying to ask an attendant for the figures, or lock it up in the display case with the video games.

I only asked because I knew it had been released from reading on the website. How many other customers go to that effort? And again, I missed on Friday because there was no staff available to check the backroom. On Saturday, the first staff member I asked told me they didn't have it. I had to push him to talk to someone else. A customer really needs to all that effort? Even though I was confident that it was in their backroom, I was very much tempted to buy it from somewhere else (Amazon) once it was in full release.

I don't get resellers right now. Its such a poor investment, sure you can throw them up at a high price and return the ones that don't sale within a week, but the actual net profit is SMALL. Heck say you moved Enigma for $25 bucks, subtract the BOGO40% sale they had, that's $27.2. Say you sold one at $25 and the other at $22, eBay will take their 10%, Paypal will take their 3% (rough numbers), all in all its around 13%, so 47x13% =6.11 + Base cost(27.2) = $33.31 However to then move the product fast enough to turn aprofit, you most likely offer Free Shipping, for Enigma that's going to be roughly $4-5 (we'll go conservative 4), add in the box, paper, stuffing, and that bumps shipping to about $5-6 each, so cost then goes to $43-$44, when your actual sale was $47, so that's like $3-4 profit, not even factoring in the level of effort of tracking something you aren't playing, driving to TRU, etc.

Oh and that was with a sale. Somethign like Fling Kong and Flipwreck, who aren't as sought after as Enigma (hell my sister who isn't into video games saw the figure and said he looked cool, they knocked him out the park) and weren't on sale? You're good if you break EVEN. TRU should just put everything out when they first open. No limits. So long as they sell everything in their inventory - they shouldn't care much.

And the TRU near work STILL only had water traps HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Unreall

I guess it pays for their happy meal...dunno either.

So are Fling Kong and Flip Wreck being sighted in the US toysrus now? How about the yawn traps?
Is it only toysrus?
Toysrus is always out of the way but i'd like to stop by Bestbuy today.

Quote: Unreallystic

I don't get resellers right now. Its such a poor investment, sure you can throw them up at a high price and return the ones that don't sale within a week, but the actual net profit is SMALL. Heck say you moved Enigma for $25 bucks, subtract the BOGO40% sale they had, that's $27.2. Say you sold one at $25 and the other at $22, eBay will take their 10%, Paypal will take their 3% (rough numbers), all in all its around 13%, so 47x13% =6.11 + Base cost(27.2) = $33.31 However to then move the product fast enough to turn aprofit, you most likely offer Free Shipping, for Enigma that's going to be roughly $4-5 (we'll go conservative 4), add in the box, paper, stuffing, and that bumps shipping to about $5-6 each, so cost then goes to $43-$44, when your actual sale was $47, so that's like $3-4 profit, not even factoring in the level of effort of tracking something you aren't playing, driving to TRU, etc.

I've been saying this for years...

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: Unreallystic

I don't get resellers right now. Its such a poor investment, sure you can throw them up at a high price and return the ones that don't sale within a week, but the actual net profit is SMALL. Heck say you moved Enigma for $25 bucks, subtract the BOGO40% sale they had, that's $27.2. Say you sold one at $25 and the other at $22, eBay will take their 10%, Paypal will take their 3% (rough numbers), all in all its around 13%, so 47x13% =6.11 + Base cost(27.2) = $33.31 However to then move the product fast enough to turn aprofit, you most likely offer Free Shipping, for Enigma that's going to be roughly $4-5 (we'll go conservative 4), add in the box, paper, stuffing, and that bumps shipping to about $5-6 each, so cost then goes to $43-$44, when your actual sale was $47, so that's like $3-4 profit, not even factoring in the level of effort of tracking something you aren't playing, driving to TRU, etc.

I've been saying this for years...

Don't get me wrong, there IS a worthwhile reseller market - I did it for a while, which is why I know how slim the margins are (and why I don't do it now), and it really comes down to luck, either finding a super rare chase variant (and honestly if I did, I'd open i and keep it myself), or finding a 'lot' being sold by a parent who doesn't know what they ahve and list it as Buy Now. But buying stuff from the stores just doesn't work out in the scheme of things. I did the same thing with DI, and sure I made some GREAT money upfront on exclusive and rare power disc, but I now have like 4-5 almost full notebooks of powerdisc with no home and little to no resale value - that can't be returned because they are open.

right now Nintendo is pandering to the resellers, it seems intentional actually as the amiibos flat out suck and are worthless (shots fired) - I have like 7 or 8 of them, and they are just statues for the most part...so Nintendo is only making money in the US *reseller check #1* buy pushing out super small orders of sought after figures *reseller check #2*, and not re-releasing *reseller check #3*. Eventually though the Amiibo market is going to crash HARD.

People just don't get how to resell. It's luck and/or bots *shoes*
- Unreall

The Irate Gamer talks about the supply for resellers. Essentially, Nintendo underestimated and it isn't easy to just make more. It has happened before with other toys and can be sure to happen again. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdDBvVm8ZxU.

I fully understand they can't just wish up new figures, but this is what I see

Nintendo releases figures for SB like Captain Falcon (the one I want) and Falco and Ness.
Figures fly off the shelves.
Nintendo does more waves of unlreased SB figures.
Nintendo does REPOSES for Mario PArty.

Once they released reposes, they officially lost it for me, as just "limit to what they can get to stores". Oh, here is a 'Gold' Mario variant...yeah. No, I'm not biting.
- Unreall

It takes longer than you think to order, plan and produce/ship figures. Mario reposes for Mario Party were probably ordered before Amiibos even released in November. Manufacturing isn't quick, and sea freight shipping (the only way to do it cost effectively) is slow.

It took months to turn around a re-run of Marths (just happened in the past couple weeks), that is a good example of how long it takes from decision until it shows up on shelves.

Keep in mind, the figures that are hard to get are typically the ones you wouldn't think as many people would want. Put yourself in Nintendo's shoes, deciding manufacturing runs. Ok, who do we print tons of? Mario and Link. How many of those guys from those Fire Emblem games and Wii Fit Trainers? Eh, not so many. It goes against all sane logic.

Then you add in whatever figure they make less of is instantly going to become more rare. Make a ton of Marths and less Donkey Kong and now stores have to discount Marth and fans are like "where are the Donkey Kongs?". Resellers, collectors and speculators are dominating the market right now (as opposed to average consumers), and they intentionally go after whatever is less common, exasperating the rarity. If it is rare, everyone wants it, if it is easy to find, no one does. The only way to fix it quickly is to flood the shelves and overwhelm demand/destroy perceived value and popularity - and why would Nintendo want to do that? It is a slow process of upping production numbers slowly until the speculation craze wanes - do it too fast and you shoot yourself in the foot, too slowly and fans get frustrated and give up.

You're assuming I'm a bit slow in the head.

If they ordered REPOSES, then there was an expectation of sales reaching a certain point. I'm the idiot with two King Koopas/Bowsers. I can FULLY understand and appreciate trying to balance what's on the shelf verse what to make order, but you said it took months to re-order Marth. It's May, most of the figures were sold out in 2014. That means they've had 6 months. If it takes 6 months for a SMALL order to come in, then there are manufacturing issues that you need to work out. It woul be different if we were talking a large full scale release like the launch of say DI3.0, it makes sense for that. It makes sense for it to take several months to get in new Toads, I wouldn't expect to see another Toad on the shelf until the Summer, that makes sense. The fact that its so hard to find anything wave 1 related that isn't a Mario Party figure speaks to them just honestly having NO plans to re-release those figures. It serves them better to not release them. It keeps interest high, so people will swallow up more 'pretty much useless statues', either for resale, or because they don't know if they'll see them again.
- Unreall

Just picked these up at Gamestop...they just got them in today. TRU was a bust for me.

They are showing up in GameStop now. My local manager let me know when they came in and put one of each on hold for me to pick up last night.

There really is no reason to get insulting because I found a hole in your logic. They ordered reposes because it was for a new game that happened to include characters that were also in Smash Bros. - except for Toad. They wanted it branded for their big new game, as the Splatoon kids packaging is branded for that.

A "small" reorder? Practically every retailer is getting 2 or 3 per store. Do you have any idea how many retailers there are in the US that sell Amiibos? And they are also re-printing other uncommon figures like Villager and some of the store exclusives. Yes, they could rush some in production and get them over here in large numbers post-haste if they opted to lose money on this. They are $13 figures, not a whole lot of margin to go blowing trying to make sure some scalpers (let's face it that's mainly who got them) have more stuff to sell for 10 times their value.

Yes, they have some issues to work through, but I just don't think people understand what they are asking them to do. You want them to sacrifice their profit margin in order to flood the market and harm their brand. Look at Infinity figures, well overstocked in practically every store - no trouble finding anything. Great for fans, but TRU now has an entire row with pegs completely stuffed with figures that aren't selling - and come 3.0 I'm betting TRU factors that into their initial orders.

In regards to the Amiibo's, from my perspective at least, the surplus figures that we have now are the same surplus we've had for months. So they do have replacement stock but it's the wrong replacements. I see everyone griping about the same missing figures while I keep seeing waves of Marios, Luigi's, Bowsers and Links. Hell I think Yoshi and Peach just got a price drop at a few retailers. To the best of my knowledge, the ones people have wanted for months and haven't been able to get are still the ones we can't get almost half a year later...that's nut to me...and apparently most others as well.

Personally I only want the F.E. characters so I have yet to be able to purchase one. I don't even have a WiiU and am hoping they'll have some kind of functionality in the new F.E. IF game coming out next year. I guess if they don't then I'm not really out anything. Also with Lego Dimensions coming soon I'm not hurting for things to buy. So to sum up Nintendo, those sales and marketing divisions over at Activision, Disney and Lego thank you for keeping the money in their pockets .

You can now order fling kong and Flip Wreck on toysrus.com but you have to type their name in.
I'm still waiting for Gnarly Barkley and the Yawn Traps but I do have one of each character now.


On the topic of Amiibo's
I think the worst thing Nintendo EVER did in terms of Amiibo's was tell people that if they don't buy them now that they probably can't expect to see them again.

Fire Emblem is NOT this popular in america to sell out like it has been. but it's ticked me off that while i'm not trying to collect all the amiibo's I just simply want the characters that I actually want.
But I haven't had ANY luck in getting the Fire Emblem characters. I'm worried that i'm going to be the idiot who buys Lucina, Zero Suit Samus, Ike, marth, Captain Falcon, Robin and Palutena for 30 bucks each. I'm sure Gannondorf (however you spell his name) won't be hard to find.

^$30 each for those figures is actually pretty good right now sadly lol. I think I paid roughly $25 each to secure them early and avoid the headaches.

I was wrong and openly admit when erroneous.

The issue with Amiibo quantities are driven by a conservative CONTRACT. It's not ability, the actual contract has things frozen/slow. Once the contract expires, most likely closer to November/after a full release, expect to get hit with a huge restock of all the hard to find stuff.
- Unreall

Quote: Unreallystic

I was wrong and openly admit when erroneous.

The issue with Amiibo quantities are driven by a conservative CONTRACT. It's not ability, the actual contract has things frozen/slow. Once the contract expires, most likely closer to November/after a full release, expect to get hit with a huge restock of all the hard to find stuff.
- Unreall

Ok, who did Nintendo sign a contract with that restricts production? They're selling them at pretty much all major retailers, so it doesn't make any sense that the retailers forced Nintendo to sign a contract stating they wouldn't produce more than "xx" of each figure.

-Doug

It's a contract with the manufacturer. Think how Apple gets everything...well most of their stuff made at Foxxcon. The contract was for 'X' units by 'X' dates. Usually things like that cna be ammended, so Nintendo is still partially to blame, but my original "Nintendo is the EVIL!" quotes were erroneous.
- Unreall