You almost had a good formula in 2019 almost. Good hindsight would be, "maybe, after placing an order on our site, we don't make them travel to SDCC just to confirm an order they've already placed and just make sure everyone that ordered before the show gets a set in October. I mean, they clearly wanted what they ordered but since we didn't tell them what the exclusive was until well after the show sold out and people would have to scramble to get arrangements made to even get in the door to ge to our booth, maybe we could do better."
What you all did, in hindsight, was just produce an apparently small number of sets, make the ordering process a jumbled mess using a new market system no one was familiar with. Give no clear instruction on how to use it and set the number of sets per purchase at a point that cleared your inventory three times too fast.
So, yeah, your [as a company] hindsight ain't worth much. Sorry that you're the voice taking the flak but them's the job, right?
Here's a suggestion, as soon as you decide on what it is you want to promote at SDCC, post images of the set. Build a little hype for it and get people excited. A month or even six weeks before the show, take orders. Then, in October, ship out the orders to people who placed them.
If you really want to add a perk for those actually traveling to SDCC, which is insane to me because convention exclusives only alienate the majority of the fanbase who can't attend, maybe offer a small discount to those who show up at your booth.
Another idea is just do away with a Convention exclusive altogether. The inherent flaw with all exclusives is that SDCC tickets go on sale in what, August of the year before? And they sell out stupidly fast. Most people either know they are going or accept that they are not. Many months later and, usually, less than a month before the show, all these companies come out with their exclusives.
As a result, people wind up having very few means of obtaining them short of fighting over the scraps leftover or buying on the heavily exploited aftermarket. All of which creates a false demand for products and often hurts those that are collecting to actually want to own something.
--You know, I actually thought, "huh, with the convention not happening, maybe we'll all get a chance to own whatever is sold at a fair price." In hindsight, I wa horribly wrong.--
You can, instead offer, some sorta Mattel/Mega[dot]com direct to customer sets that we can, again, place preorders for over a set period of time and months later receive. You get your orders in and no one misses out. If you have a set number you need to make to make it profitable, produce those extra sets and sell them on your site of choice as a last chance before they are gone forever.
I know, there are bound to be some behind the scenes details that will need to be worked out to make this idea work but I don't think it is impossible. As I keep saying, that Battle Bones set was almost there anyway in regard to a made to order concept. The only flub in that plan was the mandatory attendance to SDCC. Eliminate that one step and you'll be that much better off.
So here's my suggestion:
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Yan_MCX
- Community Team
Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:48 am
It's not an SDCC exclusive if you don't have to go to SDCC to get it.
Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:08 pm
This topic should be under "General Discussion", it doesn't really belong under "Ask Mega Construx".
Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:46 pm
When the thread you were complaining in gets locked so you make a new thread to continue
Fri Jul 24, 2020 2:38 pm
Yan, buddy, how many other items are offered as "SDCC" exclusives without having to attend? EntertainmentEarth and BBTS had a whole page of them.
Meet me halfway here and take a suggestion for what it is and I'll do the same. You want to sell a product, I want to buy it. I can't imagine that I am the only one not in a capacity to travel to California on a last minute whim nor have I the luxury of buying tickets on the gamble that six to eight months later, you'll offer something at the convention let alone something I want to buy.
Read the words not with hostility but as a suggestion that may prove to win for both sides. You, the company, had a good plan with the Battle Bones set. Then, for reasons beyond my knowledge, you made it mandatory that people attend the show just to secure a preorder that they had already placed. That one useless step made a good opportunity and experience for both the seller and the buyer a hassle that kept people who wanted the set from buying it at a fair price.
There's no reason to not adopt the same selling method for any set you may chose to offer in the future, omitting only the need to travel to San Diego which is expensive and not readily an option for a lot of folks.
And, yes, I am asking you to read what I type so there is no better forum. And no one else need bother read this topic than you and me.
But I bet, if you ask people to be honest a lot more would rather buy a set that is a MegaConstrux store exclusive than have it labeled an SDCC exclusive.
Meet me halfway here and take a suggestion for what it is and I'll do the same. You want to sell a product, I want to buy it. I can't imagine that I am the only one not in a capacity to travel to California on a last minute whim nor have I the luxury of buying tickets on the gamble that six to eight months later, you'll offer something at the convention let alone something I want to buy.
Read the words not with hostility but as a suggestion that may prove to win for both sides. You, the company, had a good plan with the Battle Bones set. Then, for reasons beyond my knowledge, you made it mandatory that people attend the show just to secure a preorder that they had already placed. That one useless step made a good opportunity and experience for both the seller and the buyer a hassle that kept people who wanted the set from buying it at a fair price.
There's no reason to not adopt the same selling method for any set you may chose to offer in the future, omitting only the need to travel to San Diego which is expensive and not readily an option for a lot of folks.
And, yes, I am asking you to read what I type so there is no better forum. And no one else need bother read this topic than you and me.
But I bet, if you ask people to be honest a lot more would rather buy a set that is a MegaConstrux store exclusive than have it labeled an SDCC exclusive.
Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:40 pm
The staff will lock this thread if they decide it's necessary, they do not require your input on such matters.
Fri Jul 24, 2020 9:08 pm
No, they don't. But you can't stop me and it's not against the rules. So nah, I'm going to speak my mind.11Survivor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:40 pmThe staff will lock this thread if they decide it's necessary, they do not require your input on such matters.