Is the Hobby at an all time low?

[mva5580]

I get what you're saying (and don't entirely disagree with you) but making 4000 of something for the entire WORLD is still pretty limited. Also if they were making 1000 (or whatever,) I imagine the prices would be even higher. All businesses have that fine line to walk between how much it costs to produce goods and the maximum amount they can charge for them to keep people buying.

I think an issue (and they're all guilty of this, but I think it's the biggest problem with P1 right now) is they're just making so, so much stuff. All of these companies are pumping out piece after piece after piece and inevitably the market is flooded. But not only do you have the appearance of a flooded market, but your customers are just constantly in "tease" mode and waiting and waiting and waiting for things they've seen revealed that they want, but in the mean time multiple other things have been teased that they want too. So you're just constantly in this pick and choose state, wondering if something else will be revealed that you like more, and the process starts over again. I know in every market there are new things released but it's just unique in this hobby in that you see something in 2018 (or earlier), it goes up to order in 2019, you have it in late 2020, but something was teased in 2019 of the same character you might like more. It just gets a bit frustrating after a while. And that's not even getting into your interest waning because of how long you wait for something.

I know that's long winded, but that's easily my biggest frustration with this hobby. I'm not saying there's some really easy way around it, it's just the thing that gets a bit old to me. Which is I guess why I have my eye on certain things right now and once I have those, I'm pretty much done. This isn't a ride I want to be on for the long haul.

[Atrana23]

This is how bubbles burst. Comic companies upped prints, then cover variants, then special items. Then boom it falls apart. I never understood the EX bs. It's just a way to continue the mirage of exclusivity. I mean you are getting the same damn thing just make one ES. But SS knows 2500EX and 4000 regular is an easier sell than 6500!!! Ha. Sorry for the numerous post but this thread got me thinking.

[mva5580]

I've thought like that about the 2 different editions for quite a while too. I mean there is such a small difference between the 2 (in Sideshow stuff at least, P1 tends to offer a lot more when it comes to 2 different versions) but I mean seriously if the ONLY difference between the 2 Wonder Woman's is some $15 skirt.....why. Just sell 1 version.

[Gothamite]

Exclusives exist to get people to buy directly from Sideshow so their profit margin is higher.

[Atrana23]

Originally Posted by mva5580

I get what you're saying (and don't entirely disagree with you) but making 4000 of something for the entire WORLD is still pretty limited. Also if they were making 1000 (or whatever,) I imagine the prices would be even higher. All businesses have that fine line to walk between how much it costs to produce goods and the maximum amount they can charge for them to keep people buying.

I think an issue (and they're all guilty of this, but I think it's the biggest problem with P1 right now) is they're just making so, so much stuff. All of these companies are pumping out piece after piece after piece and inevitably the market is flooded. But not only do you have the appearance of a flooded market, but your customers are just constantly in "tease" mode and waiting and waiting and waiting for things they've seen revealed that they want, but in the mean time multiple other things have been teased that they want too. So you're just constantly in this pick and choose state, wondering if something else will be revealed that you like more, and the process starts over again. I know in every market there are new things released but it's just unique in this hobby in that you see something in 2018 (or earlier), it goes up to order in 2019, you have it in late 2020, but something was teased in 2019 of the same character you might like more. It just gets a bit frustrating after a while. And that's not even getting into your interest waning because of how long you wait for something.

I know that's long winded, but that's easily my biggest frustration with this hobby. I'm not saying there's some really easy way around it, it's just the thing that gets a bit old to me. Which is I guess why I have my eye on certain things right now and once I have those, I'm pretty much done. This isn't a ride I want to be on for the long haul.

You can't say 4000 is limited then have a demographic of 7 billion!!!! You can't compare numbers and use the world as a value. That's dishonest. If you were correct then any item SS has upped in ES would be sold out by now. Thanos perhaps their best statue ever took forever to get there and good luck trying to sell if need be. Iron man Captain etc. None of them will sell out. I saw one idiot trying to sell the Iron man maquette collectors edition for 700 not even realizing the EX was still up for less. Ha. It just shows you that dwindling are the days you can expect to recoup money when exchanging pieces in the collection.

[mva5580]

I wasn't intending to say that their demographic is the entire world's population. I'm just saying that if you're taking the entire world into effect, their audience is bigger than 4,000 people. Like I said I think the bigger problem is making too many different products, not necessarily how much they make of each of them. Although yes there are ES's that make you wonder why they made that decision. Some I think are too small, some I think could be bigger. But whatever.

They're a business, the goal is to make money. Sure, everything they make could have an ES of 1,000. Or whatever. But at what point are you limiting yourself as a business because you have the data to show that more than 1,000 people want to buy it? So you either make those 1,000 more expensive, or you make more statues. And yes.....inevitably prices go up AND they make more statues. And they're going to keep pushing those 2 things until the data tells them it's not a good idea anymore.

Consumer frustrations are understandable, but company objectives should also be understandable. It's business.

[grphyx1]

Originally Posted by mva5580

I get what you're saying (and don't entirely disagree with you) but making 4000 of something for the entire WORLD is still pretty limited. Also if they were making 1000 (or whatever,) I imagine the prices would be even higher. All businesses have that fine line to walk between how much it costs to produce goods and the maximum amount they can charge for them to keep people buying.

I think an issue (and they're all guilty of this, but I think it's the biggest problem with P1 right now) is they're just making so, so much stuff. All of these companies are pumping out piece after piece after piece and inevitably the market is flooded. But not only do you have the appearance of a flooded market, but your customers are just constantly in "tease" mode and waiting and waiting and waiting for things they've seen revealed that they want, but in the mean time multiple other things have been teased that they want too. So you're just constantly in this pick and choose state, wondering if something else will be revealed that you like more, and the process starts over again. I know in every market there are new things released but it's just unique in this hobby in that you see something in 2018 (or earlier), it goes up to order in 2019, you have it in late 2020, but something was teased in 2019 of the same character you might like more. It just gets a bit frustrating after a while. And that's not even getting into your interest waning because of how long you wait for something.

I know that's long winded, but that's easily my biggest frustration with this hobby. I'm not saying there's some really easy way around it, it's just the thing that gets a bit old to me. Which is I guess why I have my eye on certain things right now and once I have those, I'm pretty much done. This isn't a ride I want to be on for the long haul.

Originally Posted by Atrana23

This is how bubbles burst. Comic companies upped prints, then cover variants, then special items. Then boom it falls apart. I never understood the EX bs. It's just a way to continue the mirage of exclusivity. I mean you are getting the same damn thing just make one ES. But SS knows 2500EX and 4000 regular is an easier sell than 6500!!! Ha. Sorry for the numerous post but this thread got me thinking.

Originally Posted by mva5580

I've thought like that about the 2 different editions for quite a while too. I mean there is such a small difference between the 2 (in Sideshow stuff at least, P1 tends to offer a lot more when it comes to 2 different versions) but I mean seriously if the ONLY difference between the 2 Wonder Woman's is some $15 skirt.....why. Just sell 1 version.

Originally Posted by Gothamite

Exclusives exist to get people to buy directly from Sideshow so their profit margin is higher.

[DPmaster]

Over 4000 people paid $1200+ for Thanos on Throne (not to mention the people who are currently paying a premium for the EX). No way is this hobby at an all-time low. Everything is higher including demand and price. Only way this hobby slows down is if people all of a sudden start hating all the comic book movies coming out and in essence, stop watching them. If San Diego Comic-Con ever becomes niche again and is no longer mainstream, that's when you know this hobby is at its low.

[built2shred]

The number of people who collect statues based on movie/comic books is very small compared to the world population... It's probably like 0.000001% of the population...

Some collectors want to have semi unique items within the collector community... not really the worlds population... I personally like what XM is doing with their MTO system.. Gives us low Edition Sizes plus XM doesn't have to store anything long term like SS does..

[Zombiez]

For us to really know if this hobby is at an all time low or high i believe we would have to know the profit margin on these statues.