darkSpyro

Hi

I have been obsessively hunting for Skylanders during the past two weeks and during that time have been constantly lurking on this forum. There seem to be a lot of great people with a strong passion for Skylanders and I want to thank you all for helping me track down the Skylanders missing from our collection. At the very least it is comforting to know that there are many other people dealing with the same frustration caused by empty shelves (except of course, for the dreaded starter packs) in the Skylander section of our stores.

That being said, I noticed a frequent theme running through the posts. I wanted to give a different perspective on this theme. We are all dealing with the same situation and it seems many of us are casting the scalpers or "evilbayers" as the bad guys of our story. If that is the case then we have to make room for another evil doer in this drama. Activision. Or as I will call them for the rest of this post, Activillians.

I realize that emotions are running high and we feel like scalpers are taking what should rightfully go to the kids and fans of this game. We feel the scalpers are scooping up what little stock there is and making it unattainable for many of us. We feel violated. Those greedy little buggers have stolen our precious Skylanders solely for the sake of lining their pockets. We feel they have taken advantage of our passion for this game. Opportunistic thieves!

Maybe, but the reason people are able to do this is because the Activillians have created a gigantic shortage. The supply is way below the demand. The Activillians are the reason Skylanders are being scalped. The reason Skylanders are selling for five times their retail value is because they are a scarce resource. A scarcity caused by the manufacturer, not by the scalpers.

A product is worth what consumers will pay for it and what the owners are willing to part with it for. Scalpers are getting what we consider to be ridiculous prices for these things because that is what they are actually worth. How can we expect to pay the retail price for these things when the shortage caused by the manufacturer has caused the value of the toys to skyrocket. We are having a hard time paying retail for Skylanders because they are not worth retail price; they are worth far more than retail. And the only reason they are worth way more than retail is the tremendous shortage caused by the Activillians.

It is silly to expect people not to sell something for what it is worth. As soon as the supply meets or exceeds the demand, the value of the toys will fall. There is only one party that can do that. There is only one group responsible for creating "evilbayers." There is only one dark force causing our children's tears. There is only one wicked organization stirring a deep and powerful discontent within our very souls. There is only one bad guy in this story. THE ACTIVILLIANS, who are purposely and maliciously depriving us of our right to Skylander happiness and are obstructing our path to Skylander nirvana.

Well I come back here from time to time to see if there are any updates on the release of the remaining characters and to my surprise there is absolutely nothing concrete (NOT). It doesn't matter anymore because my kids proclaimed that they are done with this game. To describe my kids as hugely disappointed would be an understatement..........so go shove your game up your a** Activision.

Tonight, we dine in Hell! TO ARMS MEN! Storm Castle Activision. *tightens abs*

Eh. I dont blame Acitivision. I dont understand how they can't keep up with demand (shouldnt wave 3 have been made like 2 months ago and just waiting to ship out if they had a mid january release date?)

I cant imagine them purposely wanting scalpers...if that was the case theyd just release a few and raise the prices lol.

Quote: GameMaster78

Tonight, we dine in Hell! TO ARMS MEN! Storm Castle Activision. *tightens abs*

^ this! FOR GALLIFREY!!

Quote: ialexonline

I dont understand how they can't keep up with demand (shouldnt wave 3 have been made like 2 months ago and just waiting to ship out if they had a mid january release date?)

if the Chinese factories cant produce faster, they cant.... how about that as a reason.

It's obvious that all the figures are hand painted. HAND PAINTED FOLKS. No two figures are exactly the same as far as paint application. Higher quality = slower production times. Still hard to say if the delay is deliberate or that the popularity has overwhelmed the initial orders and they're scrambling to get more and holding back everything until they can catch up?

Ialex, see that's the thing.

They lied to people. They created a shortage, but blamed the shortage on popularity.

They didn't create wave 3 until recently, because they were scared to go past wave 2, because the game could have flopped. Want to know how I know? Check the molds.

Look at your character poster for the game. Look at Double Trouble's staff. Now look at an actual pic of him in the triple pack. His staff is totally different and in a different positiion.

Look at Slam Bam on the character poster. He's a solid blue, but seethrough on the toy.

That means they changed since the first figures they displayed.

Quote: ialexonline

I dont understand how they can't keep up with demand (shouldnt wave 3 have been made like 2 months ago and just waiting to ship out if they had a mid january release date?)

If they knew Skylanders would be a smash hit, they would have done this. They did not, however, so they were hedging their bets. If the game flopped, they wouldn't be in the hole with millions of figures taking up space in their warehouse. If the game succeeds, people will wait, because, well, they HAVE to.

Quote: GameMaster78

Ialex, see that's the thing.

They lied to people. They created a shortage, but blamed the shortage on popularity.

They just didn't thought that the game would be that popular. They didn't created this shortage on purpose. It was just a "safe" way to release the game, to manage the expenses in case the game wouldn't work. But the game did work, a lot more than expected.

Why would Activision create a shortage? It's not good for them, while the customers can't find figures, Activision can't sell them. The players move on as they are angry about the shortage.

The scalpers don't give money to Activision as well. While Cynder can be sold for 200 bucks on eBay, Activision still sold the figure for the retail price. No win for Activision here.

I'm pretty sure they are still dealing with Chinese companies to produce more Skylanders, but this shortage can't be fixed in one week.

I don't see Activision or the "scalpers" as villains. I just view them as people making a lot of money. And a number of us are either patient little consumers or very impatient ones.

And there are a LOT of impatient consumers, stopped playing Skylanders and the series all because the toys aren't out yet like they expected instead of being patient.

Here is an article, by the way, that shows that the toys were only hand-painted in limited quantities, before they went on to be mass produced at a toy manufacturing company. If they hand-painted these things, spots like the bottom of Stump Smash's trunks would be swirled like the top is.

http://www.timeforkids.com/new...kylanders/24012

Quote: kappapopm

Quote: ialexonline

I dont understand how they can't keep up with demand (shouldnt wave 3 have been made like 2 months ago and just waiting to ship out if they had a mid january release date?)

if the Chinese factories cant produce faster, they cant.... how about that as a reason.

And aren't most things made in china?

I don't like the scalpers, but I don't blame Activision. Sure, maybe they could have tried making more toys or sending more at a time or something, but they didn't intend for there to be a shortage. They just underestimated how much people would love the game and would want more characters, like many people have said. Now that Acti knows how popular the game is, hopefully they will make make more and fix the shortage, but like Reimu posted, its going to take a bit of time.

Activision is not the bad guy here. They are a business hedging their bets on a video game. If the executive board knew in advance that the game was going to be this popular, they would have over produced the figures so that they would make more money. The resellers on ebay are also not the villian either. If people are stupid enough to pay these outrageous prices on ebay, then why not take advantage of that? If I can double my money in one weeks time, why the fig not? I don't know of any other LEGAL (no ponzi schemes please) investment one can make that will double your money in one weeks time.

No, the real villian in this whole mess is the people willing to spend gobs of money for an $8 toy. If no one was willing to spend the money, then the resellers wouldnt buy up all the stock at the stores. If the resellers arent buying up all the stock, then parents and kids alike could find what they wanted on the stores shelves.

I have resold a total of 4 single packs of figures and have made a decent profit from it. I have taken that profit and put it aside to purchase the new figures whenever I can get my hands on them. I found a store today that had 2 three packs and an adventure set in stock. I purchased one of the 2 three packs with the sole intent on reselling it. I know I will be able to double my money on this and this allows me to have more money in the "skylander pool" so that my kids can have more figures. Do I consider myself evil, nope. I didnt clean out the store. I am using the money I make to help my kids get enjoyment from future skylander figures. Critisize me all you want, I am not the evil one here. The evil people are the ones paying gobs of mad fat cash for these cheap toys.

Nintendo did this with the Wii back in 97. I spoke to the video games buyer at a large supermarket who told me that Nintendo were deliberately holding back stock to create a 'must have' aura that will eventually mean more sales. They didn't care about eBayers selling at higher prices as it was still their product, they got the original sale and inflated prices created bigger demand.

Genuine shortage or not, it's playing out nicely for Activision.

Now that Activision can clearly see the demand they've created for their product, I'm sure they'll be cranking out more figures. The ebay sellers aren't the bad guys. It's the people willing to pay their overinflated prices that are encouraging it