Preordering Anime Figures is Starting to Feel Pointless.
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- čas přidán 17. 04. 2023
- Oh boy I sure do love buying anime figures, but do I really need to preorder them? Most of the time, I'd say no, but let's talk about that.
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All four figures I pre-ordered last year went immediately into the AmiAmi Sale 😂 4/4 man, I felt so stupid
We'll be dumb together, that'll surely help the pain
But when you don’t pre-order them, they are sold-out upon release and if you want to buy them you’ll have to pay double the price on the after market. At least that is what always happen to me. Also, another thing that will happen to me is me finally making the decision to pay the ridiculous price and then a month later a second wave is finally re-released at regular price.
@@mrdude88 same. Been there done that haha.
@@mrdude88 Or just buy second hand. They're a lot cheaper, especially when you're in Japan. Really cheap for pristine condition.
@@zoinksscoob6523 I haven’t lived in Japan in over 4 years. But even when you buy it second hand, people still charge a lot for it. Like on Ami Ami in the preowned section, figures are expensive.
I feel like the main reason this is happening is thanks to how crazy the prices have gone up in the last year. Doesn't matter if you live in Japan or not, figures that used to go for 20k now go for 30-40k, even with the currency exchange being favorable for us here in the west, we are still seeing figures costing up to 100$ more than what they used to, add the increases in shipping and its getting harder and harder to justify getting them. Like, I pre-ordered Schwarz when her PO started, yet last week I cancel it, as I realized that the cost of the figure+shipping+taxes would be around 500$ USD for me. I sat in front of my PC and went "Yeah, she looks great and I do want her... but fk it man, 500$ for a 1/7? I just can't justify it." Like that, people pre-order less or cancels more, stores end up with a lot of stock, and lots of stock means lots of discounts to free warehouse space.
With inflation having gone nuts and still not having calmed, it's no surprise.
I can definitely relate, especially with Figma figures. Decline in quality and amount of accessories but their prices hike like crazy. The same amount of money that can snag you awesome Figma with lots of accessories in 2015-2017 would only get you basic ass figures with just a couple of alternate hands and probably 1 or 2 accessories.
@@fz_dracohart1255can relate, back in pre 2010 or so, figma only cost around 3k yen, i somehow even got sale in animate HK with haruhi, nagato, and saber figma only costed me like 150 hkd each (like less than $15 maybe).
Even when i last buy figure around 2015 iirc with ano natsu kanna figure made by ALTER, its like 7-8k yen for 1/6. Nowdays even "simple" 1/8 (without much ornaments or stands / background) can cost like 20k+ yen, not to mention shipping.
Its just not affordable anymore for lot of ppl.
I think its because of a bunch of new people getting into the hobby and placing massive amounts of pre-orders. The pre-order button is so easy to press and doesn't require money upfront at the Japanese stores. Tons of pre-orders are probably getting cancelled or left unpaid. The ridiculous amount of delays have actually made stop caring about some of the pre-orders I placed as well making me instantly sell it as soon as it reaches my door.
Easiest way to burn out of the hobby honestly, but the feeling of having to catch up with everyone else is not something I can really understand.
The other problem is, its not easy to sell away unless dirt cheap or got lowball by buyers, at least that's the case in my country... buy is easy, sell is hard.
@@Megamibunny Mercari is only for Japanese and their locals. And eBay collects high commission after sales haha. Maybe that is also why items there are so pricey.
If you see this, hopefully this bit of info will shed some light on what's going on. The reason so many figures are going on discount as soon as they release is because the majority of these figures are products that went into production during COVID (I know it's a bad excuse to use in 2023) so all these manufacturers are releasing the final product in the quantities that is industry normal (total Preordered units + 10%). Because of the insane anime boom and the collectibles market boom that happened during 2020 to mid 2022 you had retailers across the globe that were placing orders for scale figures for the intent to have active stock (In the past store mainly carried only what was preordered plus 1 or 2 extra units). On top of that manufacturers and distributors increased their quantity minimums, so retailers went from being allowed to order maybe 1 unit or half a case (3 to 4 units) to 1 to 3 case load just to qualify for an order. This bloated the preorder numbers for everything. Then, on the manufacturer's side, you had the suddenly super popular anime influencers who, out of thin air, had 10,000 to 100,000 followers showing off their "collection" of scale figures. What really happened was the major manufacturers (Bandai, Freeing, FuRyu, Sega Goods, Ect...) where propping up influencers to artificially push this market that really wasn't there causing many new anime fans to want to be a part of the in thing and thus they too ran out and placed preorders like crazy, again, inflating preorder numbers for products they really didn't want. In the end, what this created was the perfect storm of tons of product in the market, and retailers, both large and small, were the ones left holding the bags and trying to scrape by because while customers can cancel a preorder, retailers can rarely do so unless you have amazon level power. Ultimately, none of this would have been so bad if the big bad global recession didn't hit in 2023. Once, the recession hit, it was over. When belts need to tighten the first thing that people cut from their budgets is fun. The entire Collectibles industry is on a major decline. Nothing is actually moving and retailers are trying their hardest to get rid of what they have to both make back the cash they had to use to pay for these preorders and to make space for the next set of orders they are beholden too. One of the best tells in the Anime collectibles industry that things are bad is when Master Grade gundam kits go on sale for 30% to 40%. the wholesale margin (Discount off of MSRP) for 90% of all GUNPLA retailers is 38%. If someone is selling it at a 40% discount you know things are bad and there are a lot of retailers that are starting to offer MGs at 40% off. Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it sheds some light for you.
As far as I knew, the shipping part started getting super expensive around 2021 due to the pandemic when supply chain issues started happening and we still haven’t recovered from that. Shipping out of country was always going to be expensive but back in 2020 it was relatively cheap to obtain figures with as little as 7 to 10 bucks for shipping sometimes. It seems now the minimum is 20 bucks for shipping which is insane
It seems this is the growing consensus in the community. I do like what you said about supporting an IP by preordering, since I tend to collect a lot of male figures. I need to let them know there are people who care haha 😭
Male characters probably need the most support in this industry honestly. Still slim pickings in 2023, crazy stuff
literally its so important, the life line of series literally depends on the spending from fans, if you like a series thats lucky enough to get a figure keep supporting it :(
Yeah preordering feels like a slight rip off sometimes but then there's those moments when I don't preorder a figure and it doubles or triples on the aftermarket. feelsbad
Yes this, happened to alot of us I bet. Looking at you >> Megahouse Portrait of Pirates.
this
That’s their marketing strategy though. Get you to impulse buy because it might not be available down the line or might go crazy in price. Every market does this.
I check AmiAmi's pre-owned bishoujo figures daily, and over the last six months, the page count has grown from 50 to 100 to now over 300. Some collectors are offloading older figures from older titles, and others are skipping popular figures, so that they hit the bargain bin hard. It's a deluge.
Every time I check the preowned section and see one of the figures I own at half the price I die a little bit inside, but hey when I do find a figure I want it's usually a good feeling lol
@@ZuccoFigures Yeah, that part is painful, particularly given the youthfulness of most of my collection and that I prepaid on many to avoid currency price risk (often at places non-cancelable). But the vast majority are binning right now, so that's simply how it is.
Over 550 now, crazy.
Yep and the amount of notices I'm getting from MFC for figures for sale on my want list is daily. There's a figure on my bookmarks with Amiami that pre owned was 17,000jpy and just recently changed to 10,500. It's not selling so I'm waiting for it to drop further. Other problem with pre order now is, what will be the postage costs when it arrives?! Scarey thought on 1,/4 scale.
9 months in the hobby and still learning lol
Won't be pre-ordering much anymore because I realized they go in stock a few days after release anyways and sometimes I lost interest.
You made a lot of good points .
As he mentioned, it does depend, though. If 18+, probably better not to wait. Otherwise, and especially if broadly available pre-order at many sites, you doubtfully need to PO.
Limited figures are also better to preorder
Sup fellas. Just chiming in to say a couple of extra things. I'm glad alot of you are already leaving me comments whether you agree with me or not. While I may not always express my thoughts in the perfect way, I do wanna stress that these are just one guys opinions and I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with me, unless it just makes no sense or something lul. I think one point I wish I remembered to talk about was the fact that some companies are just more strict than others when it comes to available stock once released. I made quick note about that at the end, but ultimately it's impossible to know exactly how every release will turn out.
Another thing, I'm actually using a new camera and mic. I definitely don't know how to use this new camera yet lol, but I think it looks a little better so far. The Lina Bell Roll footage was actually new and I think it's pretty noticeable there despite kinda just placing her on the rotating table and turning it on. The mic is one of those Rode VideoMic GO II's that you place on the camera and while I don't think it sounds as good as my old one, I tried to edit it in post to be fairly close to my usual videos. the benefit is just so that I don't have a giant mic in my face which will come in handy for unboxings, but yeah that's it. Thanks for checkin the video out!
6:16 Yeah that's so true. Almost nobody really cared about the new Albedo bunny from Freeing (probably because of the high price). However, right after people found out that you can take her clothes off, sales skyrocketed and it was sold out everywhere within a week.
lol, that's funny
I agree with all the points you made, and nearly everyone who posted comments.
Shipping, taxes and service fees are through the roof. I want to support companies that make quality figures I like and shops that sell them - even mail services and couriers that deliver them to our doors (minus the insane brokerage fees on every package) - having those parts of the equation undefined with most retailers just makes the pre-order route that much less attractive. How much will we pay in addition to the prices of the goods listed? Will figures come in oversized boxes that make certain shipping methods unavailable for certain destinations? Can certain figures be combined? Will they even release on time? It is much easier to determine those parameters after the products are out.
Most market players don't reward us for placing pre-orders anyway. In fact, you risk account termination if you cancel pre-orders regularly with certain players. And occasionally, the final products diverge wildly from those shown in the pre-release photos, so we are taking risks there as well.
With all things considered, if we can get the same figures for 1/4 or 1/3 off their original retail prices two months after release, plus having additional datapoints to make more informed decisions, why wouldn't we? From nearly every viewpoint, not pre-ordering figures is the right way to go.
I’m the same. I found myself holding off on preordering and making like a calendar of release dates so I can check back for sales and pre-own listings.
Also find my collection changing drastically. I prefer original illustration designs and more thematic than just buying a character from a show I like.
With that in mind, im more open to selling a figure to make room for one I like way more now.
Thanks for making this video as it highlights one of those annoying things about the hobby as you're right there are a lot of figures that you can find authentic and new on the aftermarket for less than retail very shortly after release these days.
There are more reasons to pre-order beyond FOMO. For one, it's so much easier to keep track of everything as most online shops let you consolidate your pre-orders by month, making it far easier to budget for as well (delays notwithstanding).
Having to keep track of release dates yourself and having to prioritize X figure instead of hunting down Y figure when you have Z amount of extra cash gets mind-bogglingly hard to juggle and plan for when you have a ton of figures on your want list. Not to mention, buying each figure individually when you see them pop up means that shipping costs are also going to add up.
I've been collecting for over a decade, and I've always budgeted a fixed amount of cash for monthly pre-orders and some extra cash for those figures that slipped through the cracks in the event I ever do find them on sale.
...oh, and there's also the fact that you don't actually have to pay for pre-orders in advance, so you don't lose anything in the event anything happens to the store or order, and you can bail at any time you want (depending on the store).
I totally agree with this! Pre-ordering anime figures can be tempting, but it's important to be patient and wait for them to become available at a lower price. Sometimes, pre-ordering can lead to disappointment if the figure doesn't meet expectations or if there are delays in production. Plus, waiting allows you to save money and make a more informed decision before making a purchase. Thanks for the great advice!" 💯👍🏻
I consider a pre-order a win if I can secure cheap shipping prices. Examples would be Good Smile Global $18 shipping, TOM free or discounted shipping, and cheap Amazon JP shipping (although Amazon JP seems to have increased shipping costs recently). Chances are that the figure msrp + cheap shipping is less than the cheap figure aftermarket price + full shipping cost. Maybe this only applies for larger figures, but this is how I cope with the reality of the hobby 😅
Of course, seasonal coupons and points also help pull the trigger early
Recently started using Otakumode myself during their Spring Sale. They seem to have pretty good prices for certain figures I've realized
@@ZuccoFigures It's spotty, yeah. My telltale sign using TOM has been whether a figure is listed as shipping from Japan or the US. The US warehouse figure listings are always marked up very high
Been thinking this for a while. Funny enough I remember seeing people get downvoted for bringing this up in the r/AnimeFigures subreddit like a year ago, lmao. Sooo many figures stay in stock for months now or they’ll just straight up bin nowadays 😕
One of the worse feelings is seeing a figure that you preordered being heavily discounted or in preowned for a cheaper price 🤕 I know people try to use the “you shouldn’t care about the cost if you genuinely wanted the figure” argument, but it’s exactly like you said, I would simply prefer to get figures cheaper if I can 🤷🏽♀️
I’ve noticed that the pages in Amiami’s preowned section have grown to the 350ish range. In the past, I remember it normally being under 200. I contributed this change to rising shipping costs but I guess it no longer being necessary to preorder (for the most part) is a big cause for this as well. I’ve cut back on my 2023 preorders because of this. Most of my preorders are either rereleases, Native/BINDing/NSFW figures, or are of IPs that I would like to support (like Nana and Tokyo Revengers)
Even FREEing 1/4s are easy to find in the aftermarket now (unless they pull an Albedo, lol). The only figures that seem like they’re still worth preordering due to fear of a high aftermarket are from stuff like Azur lane and Native/BINDing.
Figures are way too expensive now to simply "not care about the cost". I wouldn't be buying the figures if I didn't want them, so yeah I don't really understand that argument either.
Azur Lane has been sorta hit or miss lately. I put two examples in my video of Azur Lane figures that have dropped alot after price, though I can recall times where it was impossible to find certain figures from the series for reasonable prices. Maybe the hype is dying down, or perhaps companies like Alter are making more to meet demand?
A point about GSC releases, you did mention that the 2k yen flat shipping might be a reason to preorder. But I find that a lot of figures sold by GSC drops in price post release, so your savings on shipping will usually be negated by paying the full listed retail price since they don't offer discounts. I suspect that they also tend to overproduce as their figures always seem to be readily available months after release.
That's true, but its case by case of course. Most of the time when I'm preordering through GSC, it's because the figure is limited anyway so the other sites aren't likely to discount them as much if at all
Great video man. A year ago I never would have thought so many Alter figures would be available on preowned, and for cheaper! It's a terrible feeling knowing you could have saved money. I imagine a lot of people like me skipped out on buying good food or other luxuries instead of securing the preorder that you did. Instead of eating so many saltine crackers and cupped ramen I could've AT LEAST upgraded to pizza rolls lol.
It surprises me how cheap Alter figures get considering their reputation, and I have a few coming up that are making me sweat a bit lol
Really enjoyed your commentary on this because I was having a similar thought and have been limiting my pre orders because I have seen so many on amiami where they have bargained binned
My 2 years of experience (new scales only, no pre-owned) has taught me that some brands are still worth preordering. Spiritale, shibuyascramble are two that come to me. Also some scales are exclusive to certain shops which make it difficult to decide. To a lesser extent, max factory, alter tend to go out of stock faster too. I swear(hope) furyu's scales that are coming out in the future with them >25k yen prices are ALL gonna bargain bin.
I bought the Spiritale Mai Sakurajima Chinese dress on pre order, it’s already down 20%. I love the figure, but every 5 like that could pay for the 6th…
Thank you for your point of view as someone who is collecting (for more than ten years), it is nice tor hear some positiv words about the hobby, especially in recent times.🤗
It feels refreshing. 😁
Valid points. Another point is the quality of the figures, I like to see some "real" pictures instead of promo pictures to decide if the figure is worth my money
Congratulations on 7k subs!! You're awesome, Zucco! Keep up the great work.
Y'know I'd expect the Radio Eva figures to skyrocket in the aftermarket (which is why I POed), so hearing and seeing that they've dropped for the first time is shocking to say the least. I haven't bothered to check cause yeah I'm not looking for the resale value either, but it really does make you second guess and just wait;; I feel cheated lmao
I have to imagine the radio eva figures will EVENTUALLY go up in price, but right now theres alot to go around to meet the demand.
I think the cost and overall oversaturation of releases are making customers cancel/skip more figures, its just crazy how expensive 1/7th scale figures can be, not to mention the oversized boxes that surrounds the figure. This year alone has multiple releases of Azur Lane figures and re-issues of previous figures, it eventually becomes overwhelming. More often than not- the figure gets delayed and eventually starts to overlap making the monthly bill extremely high. I can see why some figures drop in price- people just don't want that figure anymore and start to cancel them, then the figure just sits on the shelf on sale.
I definitely feel this. I’ve started to feel less stressed about preordering stuff nowadays, like I’ve seen figures I paid 15k go for 8-9 k in the preowned section , could’ve easily saved so much money just buying it like that 😭 even if they’re 3-4k off it’s still cheaper. I’ve started to skip preordering figures that go way over 25-40k now cus I know they’ll either bin/be cheaper I preowned or be in stock for a very long time even after release.
100% agree! I've basically felt continuously stupid for pre-ordering figures ever since the end of last year. Starting with a few of my November pre-orders, except for 3 figures (Amakuni's Ai Hayasaka, Kadokawa/Strongers Lena Milize and Spiritales Toga Himiko) all of the figures I've gotten either binned soon after release or are still readily available everywhere and end up being less than retail when they hit AmiAmi pre-owned.
Even Nendoroids regularly end up going on sale, no matter if its a niche or popular series. & it doesn't even make sense to order Nendoroids with GSC exclusive bonuses anymore, 'cause they just switch up "pre-order bonus" to "online order bonus" after release. I was heartbroken when I missed the Bojji & Kage Nendoroid with the GSC bonus cause the pre-orders were sold out so fast, then I got him for less than his pre-order price and the bonus included a while back.
I've been really hesitant to pre-order anything more than I currently have, and I even already cancelled a few. Recently I've had a hell of a lot more trouble getting other merchandise (even just something like an ID pass case or a postcard set) if I don't pre-order it.
Yeah, havent preordered a figure in a couple of months now, and ive noticed some of the ones i had my eye on have hit the bargin bin/have been easily available
I think its telling that that all my preorders are basically just re-releases of figures that were very expensive on the aftermarket. Aside from that Bunny 1/4s. The non bare leg ver. of popular characters rarely go down in price.
Honestly it's pretty great that so many rereleases are happening, though the few older figures that I've been holding out on are nowhere to be seen lol. ONE DAY FOR SURE!
@@ZuccoFigures I'd die if some of those older Danganronpa figures finally got re-releases.
I’d say pre-ordering is not completely useless yet, at times you still see a figure everyone wants and sells fast causing the aftermarket price to go up, but generally I tend wait until it’s in stock or wait to get a good deal pre-owned
Interesting video. I've not been collecting figures for a long time, but I still have my old collection. I stopped buying at around 2015. Visited Tokyo in 2009 and had to buy second suitcase to haul everything home with me ( in boxes), so I was really quite into that hobby at some point. Eventually, I just looked at my collection of around 200 figures and was like: "yeah, this is enough", and I haven't bought a single one since then. I wasn't aware that the price situation has gotten so out of hand, these days. I was pretty happy when I found a bunch of rare figures in Tokyo at the time, most of which were out of production, but I don't think I would get into it again. I still marvel at the new releases on websites, but I have just grown out of the hobby a bit.
I started collecting scales in late 2011 as well. Whenever I looked back, I was like “wait, how did I afford those Alter and Kotobukiya scales back then” and they were always under 8K yen 😂 I grabbed few F:Nex and Myethos ones when they were around 15K but the only scale that I was considering on grabbing is LycoReco Chisato from GSC because of her 13K P/O price on AmiAmi.
I’d been only grabbing kuji,nendo,PUP and few prizes these days.
I remember when GSC's Godoka was the BIG figure that costed like...12k or something and AmiAmi offered discount shipping because of how big it was. It's hard not to miss those prices
@@ZuccoFigures Oh yes, the biggest purchases back then were GSC's Madokami and SHMonsterArts King Ghidorah for me. Apart from some rare Medicom RAH figures, almost no Hot Toys level prices even until late 2010s but almost everything surpass or on same level as Hot Toys now haha.
The problem with the preorders is that they get full quick, but little by little people will start cancelling them because of financial problems (myself included). So those cancellations end up taking space in their warehouse, and they reduce the price to get rid of them.
I feel the only things I need to preorder are the Kotobukiya and Max Factory Pokemon statues. Those are pretty consistent on being more expensive in the aftermarket.
I've been guilty of cancelling preorders so I can see that adding to the bargain bin.
I absolutely agree it’s incredibly common for lewd, cast-off, 18+ figures to explode in the aftermarket and they are always a preorder for me, even if there are a few that tank in price. I have been done dirty 99% of the time when I wait for release on these figures. I’m trying not to preorder anything else unless it’s a provisional preorder.
Thanks for sharing! I've actually been preordering more from GoodSmile US because the shipping is lower, plus I can cancel easily. I was already being selective with my preorders, but I think I will be even more cautious now so I can save money on the after market.
Most importantly, congratulations on 7K sub and to a lot more!
All the excellent points aside, you just showed me how low the baltimore dropped and I probably have to get it - I like and hate you hahah (just kidding, please don't change your format). I always appreciate that you provide factual examples to illustrate your points and not basing off anecdotal or hearsay
On this topic, I owned Hokusai and Reisalin that have dropped in prices. Don't regret it one bit since the figures were excellent and I definitely want to support the IP/characters. But I will probably be more conscious with the new POs and see if I want to wait it out.
Personally, I think it comes down to an increasingly saturated market, over supplies, and people spoilt for choices on the same character and wanting to get only one (thus waiting it out).
I also think the reality remains that figure-collecting with quite a number of hobbies gained traction during the covid period when people have disposable income (I am one example) and some of these who started during these periods probably had to stop/reduce their spending when IRL matters hit.
I think for Hokusai and Reisalin, the prices sorta even out unless you go surface mail. those figures are fairly expensive shipping wise, but it certainly shows a trend that figures lower in price to accommodate for the pricey shipping fees
Collecting figures in 2023 is hard(if you want to save as much $ as possible). It is not a stable market, and while there are some trends in which you can predict(like not preordering Demon Slayer figs), most of the time it is hard to tell whether preordering or waiting will hurt you or not.
Nice commentary! I think the only other reason I would still preorder is to lock in current yen-USD conversion rates as it's a bit unknown if this will become less favorable over time, so I would preorder only where I can pay upfront. Of course, that pretty much locks in the order with no cancellations possible in most cases so I only go for those figures that I really want. Of course they could still bin to the point of canceling out any exchange rate savings which will be sad so yeah really trying to limit the POs to the must-haves. It's also hard to gauge how much a figure will keep spiraling downwards in price - I've made some orders on amiami for pre-owned figures in A-B condition that were at decent markdowns to make sure I got them before they sold out only to find that a month later they're still around and the price is even lower. :P
There's a few figures I wish I could lock in. One in particular has been delayed so many times and its like a 46000 yen figure which is way over what I normally am willing to spend and the shipping is gonna be rough when the time comes. If I could pay for it right now I absolutely would
Found another Awesome Channel! Subscribed!
I notice that too, figures are going on sales often. I wish I could buy all the sale figures that I want, but
I decided to only buy NGNL Scale figures and Nendoroieds to minimize the money that I spend on figures. (still expensive) 🤣🤣
It's rare to see NGNL Scale figures to goes on sale or have cheap pre-own figures.
Baltimore and Sirius by Alter, while I am very happy to have them and would buy them again if I needed, seeing the pre-owned A/B prices made me clutch my pearls and gasp 😱 I could've bout another figure with the difference!
I do feel somewhat reassured buying new that if there's an issue I can negotiate an exchange at least.
New sub and new collector here. Great video! Really made me rethink about pressing the "check out" button for my POs especially now that the buying high has died down in me.
Yeah, I've been thinking about this topic a lot the past few weeks while cleaning up my POs. Got rid a lot of them thinking I'll be able to pick them up cheaper after release (either new or preowned). Luckily most figures I've gotten in the past few months haven't dropped too much in price, so I haven't been upset about my Day 1 purchases.
In the past few months, the number of preowned bishoujo anime figures number to about 6000-ish, as well as the figures are generally in stock on their release dates. Also, I’m running out of display space😅…
I just bought that exact ryza fig recently for 17k+ on ami. Was super glad when i saw how much she originally sold for. I had to double check the rating, it was B. She arrived pretty much new w no flaws or defects surprised it wasnt B+. Sometimes missing out on preorders isnt a bad thing. Sometimes
B just means it was open before and the difference is abt 10% in price. From what I understand, amiami doesn't have a plus minus system in store. Nt sure if the website deals with it differently
12:03 It's not about "supporting the industry" anymore. They are trying to milk out our money as much as they can. Every manufacturer has increased their prices tremendously, especially companies such as Megahouse, Furyu, etc who list their new figures for stupendous prices. And I highly doubt that this extra money is going to the workers who do the hard labour work. When i started this hobby I also liked the idea of supporting the industry, but now they want you to spend 25k Yen without shipping on a mediocre 1/7 scale. No thanks, I'd rather wait and buy the figure if the price dropped at least 30% or don't buy it at all anymore. Don't feel bad for these greedy companies or "the industry", because they tried to turn our genuine passion into a money milking machine.
We'll we're definitely reaching a point where more and more people are starting to get tired of the prices, so maybe the high prices will start to trend down, if even a little. I think the companies that you mentioned probably wont, but GSC and Kotobukiya for instance have tried to keep things as fair as possible imo
Like your Trials of Mana figure, I also preorderd a couple of figures to show the manufacturer: "Hey, more of that, please!" For example the Vulcan Science Officer from Kotobukiya, because I would love more western IP figures from them (and maybe give me a cute Borg anime waifu...please?!)
Agree, only pre-ordering when it is a figure i really really want and the price is right. The previous 7 months i have only done 1 pre-order in Japan. I have skipped on a few figures due to their price, hoping to get them for lower later. Like new Kotobukiya Rapthalia, 25K yen is too much, or S-Fire Rem, also 25K Yen. I know figures for these characters have dropped in price before, even the cheaper ones have gotten a good discount before. So i'm anticipating on that.
I don't use sites like Amiami but often Amazon has sales too.
And ofcourse for resin statues i pre-order, they are very hard to get afterwards. There is the disadvantage of living in Europe and having to pay taxes and customs on everything, customs getting more expensive every year. At this point it's becoming less expensive buying resin statues compared to some new 1/7 scales from Japan. The base price for statues including taxes. And for Europeans shipping the statues isn't bad either, express shipping from Japan is more expensive. Statues shipping with train from China to a warehouse in Europe in just over a month, also no customs and the risk they mess up your order. That's why i'm stopping ordering from Japanese shops except AmazonJP. Having to deal with customs is terrible.
My entire collection is bargain bin… it makes me happy when a thing I think is gorgeous is in the bargain bin. The green gworl I have and she’s beautiful… and I literally paid like 70 bucks (the same price I paid for a prize figure when I didn’t bargain hunt) I don’t watch a ton and play a lot of games so when I think is cute I pick her up… and I’m loving the price drops right now!
Hehe personally all the series I collect skyrocket in the aftermarket so I don't leave it to chance! But I understand this isn't the norm for everyone! 😅
One piece certainly seems like a series you can't sleep on in terms of figures
Not gonna lie, I had around 20 figures pre ordered for this year but have had to cut that down by more than half because of the shipping prices being so insane. Now most of my preorders are coming from goodsmile mostly because of their 20 dollar shipping
I learned the hard way to take the collecting slow🤣
Ugh same XD I placed most with ami ami…I’m trying to take my cancellations slow because of account penalizations. I regret not moving to gsc global sooner T-T
Omg I just got a wall scroll that 2000 yen and a figure 14k yen that weight lightly and the shipping was 32k yen and lowest was 15k yen
@@Terugumi Yup that is were most of my preorders where from too. Basically started cancelling one every week until no I just have one with them and all the others with gsc global
I think cost is the main reason now for the excess stock and pre orders being canceled. At least for me here in UK. I think you forgot to mention import tax to pay also. I've noticed over the last year that a lot of pre orders you'd think would be closed on popular mainstream figures, are not. Some were for a while and then I think people starting to cancel not just due to figure/postage costs but because the reality of,, can I warrant spending so much on a piece of plastic with the cost of living rising to ridiculous levels? Previously being in management in retail for 21yrs, i can assure you that some price hikes are pure greed. Why do you think so many new manufacturers have appeared if costs are so high and materials hard to come by? Amiami recently sent me a real nice email about how sorry they are of the poor customer service I received recently over a delayed damaged parcel. Quoting all I'd spent etc etc. It was basically what I had told them when struggling to get them to put in a claim for me! I told them I'd shop elsewhere. I have canceled a couple of figures but not for that reason. Add to that my pre orders aren't increasing. I think they have finally realized the market has peaked and unless they start treating customers with more respect all their new massive profit margins they've earned over the virus period will come crashing down. Mark my words this is the turning point. 🎉 Hopefully.
Yeah I forgot to mention import tax as I don't have to deal with it, but I imagine thats a killer for some people. I think alot of people are just waking up from the whole FOMO deal that grew rapidly during the pandemic. It's just impossible to keep up with these figures and by the time some of them come out with all these delays, it's pretty easy to lose interest completely. Those prices are a real wakeup call lol
Well, I like more nendoroids. I would say the behavior is different. They already add pre-sale discount. If it sold very well, you will find it at a high price later, but only a little. If it's the first series that sold out, I'll recommend it until it's re released.Also they are way cheaper than those XD
i havent ordered figures in awhile. the only one i pre ordered for next year and other then a pop up parade one that is coming out as well is the only scale figure it has and the main series in ending in japan pretty soon. so i had to get her and i dont think its having things after pre order. so ya there was no way i wouldn't get her. it was a few months time pre order. rozemyne from ascendance of a bookworm figure looks gorgeous
Yea there’s some things I’ll definitely preorder, one was Semiramis from Phat Company, because I couldn’t find that figure many places. I ended up ordering it from big bad toy store (CZcams doesn’t like me capitalising that name for some reason) but had to pay $399 for her.
And then I’ll preorder some resins, like the Claymore busts from Figurama, because I didn’t preorder the Claymore statue and it sold out.
Great video! I mostly agree with the PO's being less than necessary. So many of my PO items drop in price soon after release. Maybe not One Piece stuff though lol. I'm one of those people who cancel PO's pretty regularly though so maybe I'm the problem. On AmiAmi, If the release dates of too many items has been changed in my monthly order, in addition to the shipping cost increases recently, I tend to just cancel 1-2 items that I know will have larger boxes or cost the most and re-order them later or on a different site. I always pay for my monthly AmiAmi once I get my invoice though, so hopefully they won't cancel my account...
I made a small note at the end of the video cause I forgot to really talk about specific companies outside of a few +18 ones, but yeah Megahouse and their one piece figures definitely feel like a "just preorder it" type of deal
Not just pointless, a waste of time and money. Almost everything is getting delayed 3-4 months minimum, and shipping is ridiculous. Months that only had 2-3 figures pre-ordered, now have 6-8 figures. On top of that 3 figures that I paid full price for last year, are at least 8000 yen cheaper. 2 months later. So close to canceling 50% or more of my figures.
One of my orders from February was refunded this past week from AmiAmi. I waited 2 months for them to ship it surface premium. And since then the shipping became 500yen more. They refunded me over $4's like wth. From Feb to now the exchange rate changed and I lost $40's for their f**king bullshit lagging shipping times, over 4 f**king dollars. So done with AmiAmi after this. And I still have 30-40 figures with them.
I just started collecting this year and learned pretty early on from other collectors to “always preorder” for better prices. Now with videos like this and personal experience from scrolling through and buy from AmiAmi preowned, I figured those videos must be a bit old and catering to the hobby as it’s been in the past. Every figure collector with a CZcams channel always used the expression “figure collecting is not what it used to be” and that honestly got me worried maybe I got into it to late. But I think I’m doing well and my collection is growing with 20 figures and plenty on the way. I’m so glad even if I missed out on a lot of great figures and great prices in the past, I can see all kinds of new figures and can still save with preowned :)
Things changed alot as the hobby grew, but there's plenty of opportunity out there to keep the hobby more affordable. Part of me likes the thrill of finding deals since that's all I do when it comes to video game collecting lol, but there's still a risk with certain figures that actually do skyrocket on the aftermarket. Usually theres a reason for it though (+18 figures, characters that exploded in popularity after the figure went up for order, etc)
Hi, i was wondering if you ordered from meccha-japan before and what was your experience like? Thanks!
There is one more advantage to NOT pre-ordering. Reputation & issues.
Japanese figures in general tend to match the promos but you'll always have the odd one out. An example is Koto's Street fighter Mai & The GSC wei wuxian. It's a gamble but if you wait a bit you can learn more about the actual figure and if there are any issues with it.
That's very true and is definitely something I should have mentioned in the video. The community really comes in clutch when it comes time to actually seeing how a figure turns out
Yeah one incident came to my mind. Square Enix FF7 Remake Tifa. She looks dead awful when released, watched review online and luckily I cancelled my prorder before it reaches me, dodged a bullet there.
@@namicarrot198 Square Enix figures specifically made by Square are very rarely worth it. they are pretty notorious for their poor quality and the only reason people buy them is due to the fact that they don't give out their big properties like Final Fantasy to other manufacturers.
@@ZuccoFigures That's my first time getting figs from them haha. Lesson learnt! Yeah I would've known that they keeping the license to themself. I've been wondering why no other manufacturers releasing FF figs.
So I just looked at the figures I got from last year and this year, there are indeed some price drops, but nothing as dramatic as you are seeing, more like 10-15%. And the overall tendency is still an increase, mostly because a few appreciated close to 50%. It's definitely less than what it used to be, as I used to see some double in price, there aren't any of those anymore, at least not for the ones I bought. As they stand now, I don't think the overall increase would even cover shipping cost, and that's with me always going for the cheaper surface mail.
So I would say yes, the trend and factors you are mentioning are definitely a thing, but you might be personally experiencing the worse end of it. Or me the better end of it, I'm not sure. But at least for now, pre-order all would still work better for me. I mean research the potential increase/decrease tendencies and pre-order some and not others might work better but... it's not really worth the effort for the marginal amount of money that would save me.
If anything, my biggest hits last couple years are with some re-releases, which tanked the value of my existing figures, some of which I picked up at significant mark up in the after market. It's not a big deal in that I don't plan on ever selling my figures but as far as technical discussion of "losses" go, that's where it is, not my new figures.
On another note, I never understood why delays would cause payment issues. If and when that happens, if you just set the money that you would've paid aside, you would have no problem paying for the figure when it does come out, even if it is alongside a dozen so-delayed figures in a single month, because you would have money set aside for all of them.
Now, there was one person who mentioned somewhere that his money was in the form of "spend it or lose it" monthly allowance limit or something to that effect, so he can't set that aside. So actual reasons exist, but that can't be the case for most people, right? So what, do people just go and spend the money they would have when there is a delay or something? Because that's just bad financial habits, you can't blame delays for that.
Personally, I've cancelled a total of 3 figures out of over a hundred, all of them for a particular reason and not just simple change of mind. One was because there was a, IMO, new and better figure of the same character in a similar "theme", I cancelled it and bought the new one from the same store. The second case was because another store put up the same figure for a LOT cheaper (like 20-30% and it was a very expensive figure so that is a lot), so I switched. And finally, the third is where the store tried to upcharge me for shipping, which technically made sense(and in some other cases, I did pay). but I pre-paid for the figure before the yen drop and the shipping difference is less than the price difference (so if I cancel and rebuy, I'd pay less than what I originally did in total). That was just not ok for me, so I cancelled and bought it elsewhere.
Overall, I prefer to scrutinize the decision before ordering, so that I won't regret it. Because as you said, cancellation can cause problems, and I prefer not to be the causer of problems. This have led me to regret not placing a pre-order two or three times, which required aftermarket purchase(and in one case, at quite a significant markup), but I feel better about this overall.
Yeah at the end of the day this is just my experience and everyone will be different depending on what type of figures they buy. When it comes to the whole delay and payment issues, what you are saying is logical, but often times people just don't budget that way. When figures keep getting delayed, sometimes you just get that desire to fill the void with something else, which leads to impulse purchases. I'd like to believe I don't overspend too much, but I'm definitely guilty of buying extra stuff when it's a slow month. It's totally on the individual, but the entire hobby kinda preys on people wanting to add new things to their collection, and when that's just not happening, bad choices happen.
My shipping from Amiami is almost always like $70 Cad 😅
For scale figures I almost only preorder on other sites that I can pay ahead on or that are rereleases of other figures that have ridiculous aftermarkets
The Radio Eva Asuka got me so bad. I saved at least on the Tokyo Mew Mew Ichigo during that hobbysearch sale (and even then she went down ANOTHER 1.8k yen on a second sale lol), but that Asuka hurt because I paid AmiAmi price+ the DHL shipping, idk why I spent so much on her when I'm fully aware of these current tanking times for really popular figures, I just really hoped that specific Asuka art got a figure and forgot to cancel the pre-order and wait and see if it went down. I always use surface as well, except for the few times DHL is cheaper or a 15-18usd diff.
I didn't lose too TOO much since hobbysearch charges the tax and their shipping is a bit pricier (I generally ship several items I can only find on AmiAmi like misc merch too, never a lone figure), but it was still like.. 35-40usd and if you want to buy a lot of merch or figures, it adds up. Eventually you could've saved enough for a figure if you just waited 1-3 months lol.. I've decided that if I don't like the price, I don't pre-order and wait and see how much I want it around release. If the figure doesn't go down to a price I like/is more fair for the scale and quality I just don't buy it, period. If it's something I truly want I'll bite the bullet though.
Think a lot more people started collecting figures due to the pandemic. I started to make income for figures etc. a bit before the pandemic and ALL the figures I wanted since I was in middle school and high school slowly went up by 50-100%+! I kept a list showcasing AmiAmi pre-owned condition+ pricing and how many times a figure I wanted popped up so I've seen how most figures went up, even really old ones. Thankfully I got most of my early 2000s grails, but holy heck.
I'm slowing down a lot since the aftermarket fluctuates so much and I just don't think the prices on most figures are worth it nowadays. I'm just not paying an average of 180-200usd for a normal 1/6 or 1/7.. more so if it'll go down to 130-160 shipped :c
I try to not pre-order anymore from AmiAmi, I mainly cancel misc. items sometimes, but end up buying something more expensive like a figure instead of an acrylic stand etc., I have a list full of figures I will def. get and some I will get if they go down 3-6k yen, but my actual orders are like 8 figures, including 2-3 nendos. I have very few ordered scales.
Edit: My current biggest gripes are overpriced figures and poor quality control, I think the only company that HASN'T had a figure during the pandemic with QC issues has been Flare, but even GSC has had mishaps due to having to produce more figures. My Mia Karnstein has some of the most amazing quality and paint job+ details in my whole collection (and I have some 300+ figures of all scales, companies etc.), and it's probably because not many people ordered her and then we have the Black Rock Shooter figure that is a lamp and its poor QC.
So not only are we paying 50-100%+ more, we're getting worse quality sometimes.
I learned from Square Enix years ago (when they started making smaller and more expensive as well as worse figures), to not trust advertised photos x'D Half the time they tank as well so I buy them then.
12:12 Exactly, I agree, same strategy here. You could changue the word "figure" for "stocks".
This is exactly like the stock marcket works, you need to adapt your strategy to the current market and always reduce your risk.
great points. I just kinda find this ‘hobby’ mindset thing annoying. Meaning, I’m not really a collector, I just like a few characters. I’m even pickier about the company. Aftermarket lurking takes time and with different shops and their policies. I also hate to support releases that have preorder bonuses or exclusive shops, really nasty sell tactic. I’m also wary of shops that ask for payment in full months before release as you lose your protections with bank..but I’m more open to down payments. It’s a gamble.
Yup. Almost every single scale figure I got dropped in value very quickly in the past year. I really felt stupid because of that... Maybe a fifth retained or increased their value. 😭
The only figures I preorder now are the action figure brands like SHFiguarts and Mafex. They almost always skyrocket after release! I hate the 20-100% markup US stores put on them too.
I do wonder if over time with preorders if people stop preordering that manufacturers will cut back production which will then mean future figures will sell out due to more limited supply.
I’m not sure if the reason for the abundance of figures after release is due to manufacturers producing far more or if it’s reduced demand. It could be a bit of both as well
If you wait and buy a preowned you can probably get a figure 10-30 usd cheaper then the pre order price a few weeks after they ship. Not only that you get the huge benefit of reviews of the figure afterwards.
this was a good video reminds a lot of being patient and not instantly getting pre-orders since cancelling them is also bad for our accounts
Been collecting since 2008 lol. Due to not really having the space I have to be super picky since around 2018. The last newer release I got was the Nagisa Furukawa nendoroid which was in June 2018 release looking back. A few friends got into collecting post covid and I was really surprised to hear about the prices and how much new releases were now. I pre-ordered the Klonoa nendroid which is the first time ive pre ordered a new release since 2018 and was really surprised with the difference.
I can see why a lot of retailers have went more into prize figures rather than scales as theyre often the same scale but slight less detailed and a fraction of the price
After 2 years of collecting, I have 0 PO for 2023. I love to have a "smaller" collection and only order figures I am 100% sure I'll keep. No impulse purchase, no half thought PO. And tbf I feel so much better with this mindset of less is more. I currently have 10 scales, 3 non scales and 2 nendos. Never felt better than after my downsizing.
The only exception I would consider PO-ing are Freeing Bunnies (not the bare leg) bc they rarely tank.
I truly hope that this "oversaturated" market will end up in more diversity (older licenses, less popular/newer anime, etc). Holding on for a Claymore figure or Akame Ga Kill, etc
Honestly I'm thinking about risking the after market for the Illya from princess connect by Wing.
The figure is retailing for a crazy amount and other figures from the series have dropped post release.
The only thing worrying me is that because she has such a premium price tag the manufacturers may not make too much stock which may make her rare.
I wish I could give you advice for that one, but it's a hard figure to read due to how expensive it is while being limited. Might depend on how many stores are actually carrying it if its worth risking it or just getting the preorder in
It’s the same thing for Hot toys these days, no one preorders anymore 😂 but it seems stores (sideshow) are seeing this « trend » and are also evolving, by having a lot less hot toys available for preorder. Unless it’s a ruse, I suppose retailers don’t want stock just sitting around 😅.
In the case of resin statues, I guess it depends on the edition size. Lately the company sideshow put out a 1/4 scale poison ivy, people didn’t preorder her because we were use to sideshow having edition sizes of 2000/5000 per statue. To our great surprise sideshow only made 250 pieces of her. Now everyone wants to preorder her, but it’s sold out and her price doubled on the « aftermarket » (she isn’t even out yet) (ebay) 😅
I always try to pre order because in germany customs can be a real pain (above 150€ is 23% taxes plus 6 euros handling fee from DHL). Any there are pretty much no stores that sell item after the pre order period that undervalue. the only one that comes to my mind is Solaris Japan and their prices are horendus. I mostly use Big in Japan, Yorokonde (Local Shop), Amazon Japan and even Solaris Japan if it financially makes sens.
I feel this. I made too many preorders on Amiami, couldn't keep up with all of them, and they ended up suspending my account after canceling 4 figures that I didn't even want anymore. It's really inconvenient and bothersome having all these figures just constantly being delayed or releasing a year later. I'm glad they closed my account because it made me realize how much more convenient it is to stick to buying them after they release. Unless the figure is limited, there really is no urgency otherwise since there's always a surplus of figures right after anywhere. You could buy them whenever you want and not have any of the pressure or commitment involved in having them pre-ordered.
I'm a newbie to the figure hobby and my collection just comprises of three miku prize figures and stuff but I've gotten into the habit of preordering them because for some reason the prices on some are raised significantly after they are released T_T
It would help if Japan would resume all shipping methods to all countries again and if they removed the 10% JP sales tax for overseas orders.
Slowly but surely....
To be fair, you should not really consider second hand figures as a competition for a price. Only properly in stock. Still an interesting point, I wonder if the current price levels are essentially a price gauging, to see how much people are willing to spend. And afterwards the price reduces towards something more realistic. If that is true then it's worrisome. One thing that you seem to omit is that preordering is not only about ensuring obtaining, but also a simple convenience to not need to track a figure anymore, which may be rather annoying to do when there are many of them, and the release dates are getting moved and moved. Speaking of which, none of the figures I pre-ordered that were supposed to be released in Q12023 - were. And some already moved to midsummer. That feels like the biggest issue, that I cannot at all control the scheduling. What if I am gonna miss a payment on amiami, or it will arrive while I am not able to receive anything...
I get what you mean and it's a valid point, but often second hand figures in japan are in like new condition anyway. The savings often outweight whatever slight issue there might be, but I know there are some people who don't like to buy anything other than new figures so I should have maybe mentioned that more.
True, keeping track of everything can be a bother, but considering that you mentioned all these delays and not being sure if you'll miss a payment, it seems like not preordering figures would be to your benefit and just buying them when they release would be better. I think MFC has a way to remind you of when figures are coming out or at least get alerts for certain things, but I haven't used that feature in awhile
@@ZuccoFigures Yeah, given all those delays I am re-assessing. I have not bought pre-owned from amiami, so have no history of that. But I did get a figure with a head nocked off from ebay:). Not used MFC too much, but one thing I know for sure that they ONLY started onboarding some chinese figures. Genshin figures like Ninnguang or Ganyu were added just days back. Still no Arknights nor GFL. My confidence in MFC is rather low for that, Arknights is my biggest position.
@@dirnaras2887 Regarding MFC, GFL is going to be allowed in a couple days and given Arknights popularity, it'll likely get added within a month or two.
Most of the scale figures I bought lately the average was 20000 yens + 30€ of shipping, which is still cheaper if I buy them from shops in my country kinda baffling, but I'll follow the advice and wait a bit just in case.
You are right I'm going to check my Pre-Orders and cancel some of them, sadly I have FOMO with anime figures being someone from South America and the complications that I have in the past when I wanted to buy a figure. I think I still going to Pre-order the big Arknights figures like Skadi, Schwarz and Ch'en, I don't know what do you think?
Man this is why I always wanted to have a figure collector friend :c
European speaking here, problem with preorder is organising grouped shipping. Official stores like Amiami have fantastic prices in preorders but man "when it's recieved we ship it" like oof... And second hand on this website is not easy to shop.
Wayyyyyyyyyyyy better to bundle up second hand on stuff like Solaris and reduce value for taxes.
I feel that too i am starting to look at my preorders on amiami and i'm like i wish i could just a major cancellation on them as i feel like it's becoming more pointless to preorder when they all just end up on after market or on sale a week or month after they release.
You CAN cancel your pre orders on Amiami
@@angelmakima yup but it’s base off how much u spend
@@angelmakima Oh i cancelled some i try and only do 1 cancel a month, i don't wanna get banned XD
@@celestenightingale I cancel like 20 figures each month, they don't recommend we do it, but you'll be fine, I've purchased a dozen figures from amiami and canceled dozen, so far no probem 👍
@@angelmakima Thanks so much yeah i went through my preorders and realized i didn't really care for like 10 of them now
Ayy you made the video. Thanks for talking more, you always have very useful information every month or so.
Thanks for checking the video out. I probably could have fleshed this out a bit more, but I also wanted to make a shorter video for once that got most of my points across lol
Well one thing I can guarantee is that you will be able to preorder Mio's scale figure without worry. It is definetely not going to tank ;)
Also thank you for presenting Riesz's figure. I knew about the Bring Arts action figures but totally missed and didn't know about the scale figures. Will prob get Riesz now and maybe PO Angela. Not sure yet given your solid arguments against PO, but Angela is more popular than Riesz, so.. there is a risk of missing out..
Limited space and money helps decide to preorder. If I love a character and I love the figure, preorder. USA stores usually put the shipping cost on the figure prices so I just order from Japan. Also USA gets a later release months later.
What about 'limited' tag, which too often appears on preorders nowadays? Shops changing strategies... well in the end of day, I am also waiting & doing so from this year onwards. We will se, what future brings.
I mention that briefly, but limited are "usually" safer to preorder, though sometimes it just means a specific store is only carrying it. Almost all of Amakuni's figures are limited to AmiAmi for example, but are often found for sale after the release date and even have dropped in price afterwards. It all varies so it's best to look into the each situation individually and go from there
Yeah so many companies so many good figures hitting at once makes it hard to choose what to get and what not to get. I am going to limit my 2024 pre orders from what I did in 22 & 23
When it comes to extras or pre-owned figures in general, what are good places to get them knowing the quality will still be good? AmiAmi seems like a good one. (At least from what I can tell.)
AmiAmi, Mandarake, Solaris are all good and usually tell the condition of the figures. Places like Yahoo Japan and Mercari JP are great for harder to find figures but you'll need a proxy to use em, and honestly don't sleep on user sales from places like MFC/Reddit/Facebook. Even Ebay and Mercari US can have deals, but of course you'll have to be a bit more careful with ebay. There's also jfigure which is legit(not jfigures with an s, so be careful cause that place is a scam)
I actually Stopped watching anime related content for a few years now cause most of the CZcamsrs who cover dont really hit me, but you're hella chill man. While i dont collect personally, this was a good watch. Keep it up 🍺
In regards to Trials of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 3, its actually available to play in the Collection of Mana for Switch! I was SUPER hyped when it released back in 2019.
Totally agree with the Riesz figure tho, she's easily my favorite in my collection atm.
Cheaper! Wow! I guess it's really that different, As a figma collector, you either pre-order it now and still get the figure in a discounted/reasonable price or buy it post release/second hand and suffer a high chance it has insane markup lol!
Yeah even though I only have a few figma myself, it seems like every time I've had interest in one on the aftermarket, it was noticeably more expensive lol. Can't wait for Samus from Dread to finally come out btw, she looks sick
I missed the bunny Scathach figure and then they just ended up rerunning it again for cheaper. There really isn't much point in playing the preorder game anymore - if you want a figure, you'll probably find it selling for cheaper on the aftermarket or on a rerun. Or even just on sale at a retailer
In my case most of the figures that I bought and some that not know about when they released, always tend to be out of stock after the preorder time, that's why I usually buy them at that time, the figures that I see now people are reselling a lot are the bunnies, but funny enough people do not buy the bare leg versions that much.
Your videos always give me such a surge of serotonin
I feel like it depends on the figure as well- if it's a super popular series that is going crazy rn then pre-ordering is probably okay cos it can go up later
I don't really know much about the anime merch collecting scene but this video came on my recommended, i think since I was looking at AoT and Jojo figures recently. Are the good smile/figma ones any good? I never realized some of these were so high price
Good Smile figures are for the most part good yeah. They have alot of different products but the price usually reflects the quality. Figma are solid as well though I find them to be a bit pricey for the size
i don't preorder a lot, and what i do is what i'd consider less represented IPs that are popular but never get scale figures. so yeah i do want that security that i am going to even get one. could i save money if i risk aftermarket, probably but again i don't order alot, maybe 3-5 scales a year, and i have the money set aside to do that. if i was ordering a ton of figures every year i'd probably be more inclined to try and get figure costs down and look around in aftermarket
Same tbh, I only order about 1-2 figures a year max so I put all my attention into that, I'm pretty meticulous when it comes to the figures I want, the character, pose, paintjob and brand are huge deciding factors. In a way its helped me curb the costs if I were to say, order 5-10 figures a year.
Yeah, pre-order burn out is real. Unfortunately as you stated, most R-18 figures sell out & increase in value in the after market. I've missed some Q-Six figures & now, who knows when I can get them & for how much! Lol I know Freeing has been doing bare-leg bunnies, which is an option. Although a lot of times, the fishnets look nicer. I'm surprised Binding has been doing different color releases too. Which was nice for me.
The only figure I can recently think of that dropped in price fairly quick after I got mine, was the Wendy Crawford by A+. It wasn't significant though. They even dropped a 2nd & 3rd color variant. I got the green one too.
Perhaps I need to utilize a rating system too. I've got way too many on pre-order. As you stated, release dates change, most are delayed anywhere from 1 to 3 quarters. Depending when all the dates collide, the lower priority orders will have to be cancelled. I just need to gamble, which figures can be picked up later & for a decent price.
I should have probably stressed how different types of figures or characters/series trend up more than down, because the last thing I wanna be is misleading. Not saying you are telling me I am, but its just a thought I've had after reading all the comments. Ultimately this is just an opinion based off of my own experiences so and I thought it was an interesting topic.
A rating system is a good idea, if I had alot more preorders I'd probably do it, but I've been pretty controlled lately so I'm feeling nearly everything I have on preorder is something I plan to keep