State of Sideshow: Edition Sizes, Market, Future concerns

[moyiori]

Figured as the discussion's about this is buried within statue threads, maybe just have a thread about it.

Questions such as

Should Sideshow start making just one version rather than collectors/exclusive.

Should they cap the statues to either Made to order or just say no more than 2 thousand of one statue if its that popular?

My statue that cost 500 is now worth 200 bucks !?!?!

Are customs/fan art killing the price of licensed pieces ? Or are licensed pieces just dooming themselves by producing to much?

[emceerice]

Good topic.

ES are definitely too high. I think customs force companies like sideshow and xm to up their game with their dynamic concepts and designs. The fact that customs are rare and only available to the “secret” group, those “in the know”, adds to the allure.

[Augen]

1. I understand the thinking by companies. EX drive collectors. I've seen statues where the EX sells out very quickly after PO goes up, while the regular is available for a while after released. Without an EX I know a lot of people sit back and watch to see if they can get deals through first or third party sites.

2. Can see other companies do this, ensures no issues with inventory costs. The downside is as a collector can mean spending 1.5-3X the original cost if you missed the window. It is a question of cost certainty versus potential growth. How much money do you leave on the table if you make 500 of a statue that would have sold 1000, 2000, or even 5000 had you made that many? Tricky balance.

3. Anything is worth what two people agree it is worth. Some statues lose nearly all value becoming glorified paper weights, while others can net a collector a nice chunk of change. I would caution anyone against getting into any collecting on an investment basis. If statues continue to fail to hold value I see many collectors holding off and buying second hand as the market corrects itself.

4. I don't think so. it is really hard to find customs for 90%+ of collectors as you have to know someone who knows someone. if we're the core, that audience is the core within the core.

In terms of producing too much, companies chase demand. If people want Batman statue #138 more than characters not yet been done that is where they will go. I don't blame them, I just hope is space for lesser known characters.

[chronos1919]

ES are definitely too high for most pieces. There are also far too man players in the market now though some are more difficult to get in certain regions because of their lack of a distribution network.

My main concern for the future is the sustainability of the hobby. Market saturation doesn't bode well. There's a good chance that the demand will die down as people get burnt out and the comic book craze that movies have reinvigorated dies back down. I'm curious who will be left standing though and what the prices will look like by that point in time.

[moyiori]

Even tho dynamic concepts/designs are cool, they tend to take up more space. Also if it ends up costing more people are quick to dump on it, especially if there is one misstep.

Some customs are very cool, and they are a huge pain to get in these secret groups, you have to really work it to get in. Plus i am finding the more you look at the customs, some of the details tend to be off, but the concepts are good. But very few look clean and crisp to a finished licensed piece.

[supermetroid]

On one hand it seems like SS is price gouging because they have a monopoly on the 1/4 market, on the other hand they keep upping the prices at a tremendous rate and keep selling. At the end of the day it's supply and demand and as a company they prioritize money and profit. All I'll add is that if the 1/4 market was open to XM and P1 region free it would be a much different picture.

[Mister H]

Originally Posted by chronos1919

I'm curious who will be left standing though and what the prices will look like by that point in time.

If that happens, I'm betting that Iron Studios is still around. They don't crank out a ton of statues and the ones they put out are very high quality and look great.

[Augen]

Originally Posted by chronos1919

ES are definitely too high for most pieces. There are also far too man players in the market now though some are more difficult to get in certain regions because of their lack of a distribution network.

My main concern for the future is the sustainability of the hobby. Market saturation doesn't bode well. There's a good chance that the demand will die down as people get burnt out and the comic book craze that movies have reinvigorated dies back down. I'm curious who will be left standing though and what the prices will look like by that point in time.

It could shift. I'm curious about Asian market and how we may see more anime inspired statues in favor of DC/Marvel.

Oddly, comics as the core aspect are selling rather poorly these days. Can have a movie make a billion dollars, people buy merchandise, including a statue, but won't shell out $4 a month for the comic stories.

When "Black Panther" was doing so well at the cinema (at was the number one movie in the US for 2019) the comic was shipping 25K, with no signs of sell outs.

It doesn't surprise my Fiege was shifted to take over that as the man knows how to package and sell super heroes to the masses.

[craigcliff1]

statues, shipping, taxes are just too much now. Yes many, many more collectors from when I started, but so much money each collectors has to put out now. With say shipping for say 5 years I have spent many, many more thousands then I did 10 years ago, then with statues I had to get repaired, and cheated on ebay I am out another $4,000.. Then to get 1/2 what I paid when I sell a piece. Its not enough to just get 1/2 what I paid its the dollar amount, when I would get a PF for $200.00 and say get $100.00 on resell that stunk, but the pay $550.00 on up and get 1/2 that it super stinks.

I figure from getting cheated, shipping, repairs I am out an extra $7,000 this decade

[chronos1919]

Originally Posted by Augen

Oddly, comics as the core aspect are selling rather poorly these days. Can have a movie make a billion dollars, people buy merchandise, including a statue, but won't shell out $4 a month for the comic stories.

When "Black Panther" was doing so well at the cinema (at was the number one movie in the US for 2019) the comic was shipping 25K, with no signs of sell outs.

It doesn't surprise my Fiege was shifted to take over that as the man knows how to package and sell super heroes to the masses.

Comics are much harder to market now that we have so many venues for entertainment. I heard about a recent X-Men run that I wanted to read and went to a comic store to purchase it. The issues were $5 each, and it would have been $60 for complete run. Which wouldn't have been possible anyways, as they were missing key issues yet had stacks and stacks of those that were available. Not to mention that every book now seems to have 12 variant covers to further muddy the waters. I even checked online to see if I could buy them digitally. They were priced the same as the physical copies and didn't have the latter six issues available.

My wife found a comic she was interested in and showed me what she thought was a complete set of issues. I looked through them and showed her that she had a mixture of actually three different mini series and some variant cover duplicates mixed in. It's too confusing for people that aren't invested in comics. Add to that the creators constantly rebooting and retconning the series or universe and them generally being a departure from the movie universe that's popular right now and it's easy to see why they're in decline.