Toys / Toy Collecting

The Cost of a Customer

By Hervé St.Louis
December 16, 2003 - 13:21

This is a rant, so skip ahead to avoid it. Some very screwy games are being played by Mattel, DC Direct, Toy Biz, other vendors, distributors and retailers on the back of customers. All of the folk above rely on the customer for their living. Yet is seems that they respect them less every day. There's something wrong here and if their practices are not corrected, they will kill the golden goose.

I wanted to buy the DC Direct Beast Boy action figure, but the company made it difficult for me to justify the purchase reasonably. I'm looking for the Spider-man Classic Daredevil action figure. All the folks who tell me they got it always relate some Dickensian story explaining how they did. Let's focus on Mattel's Batman and Superman Set that was hard to get, when it shouldn't have been.

Several Mattel sets have been near impossible to obtain by fans. Mattel shorts packs comic book friendly toys with the rainbow coloured toys geared for kids. People are hunting these. Scalpers and retailers are making good money on the back of the customer. In all of this, I can guarantee you that consumers are less than happy. People should not have to hunt for toys. If you do, I'd suggest you stop.

Mattel made a big splash announcing the convention exclusive Batman. Fans bought the idea and anticipated a special toy. Some people got depressed because they couldn't get an affordable Batman. Then, Mattel released the ultra rare Zipline Batman in retail stores. People hunted the thing. Auction sites got richer. The problem is such that it seems that many people make a living being toy scalpers.

Mattel quietly released the new Batman figure supposed to be unique to specialty stores. It turns out that it was the Zipline Batman without the props. Now people who hunted the Zipline feel screwed. A long time ago, I took a position that affects the web site's reviews. If I can't find it in a comic book shop decently, I will not buy it. It almost happened with the Batman Superman Set. The rip off goes on.

I remember Diamond listing this set at $25 USD months ago. My regular comic book store - which shall remain nameless, decided that it would sell me this set for $50 Canadian. I know that Canadian dollars are low, but the actual price is closer to $35. I told the store clerk that he could keep his figures. I'm telling you folks, even when you want the thing, don't buy it if you're about to get screwed. Send them a message.

Apparently, the demand was so high that the store owner thought he could jack up as if he was on an auction site. The price he set was the same people get when they purchase DC Direct two packs. Something is wrong. Mattel is not DC Direct. The only place I have seen similar mark ups is on auction sites. My figures were on a reserve list. I follow toy news and boards. Yet, he tried to pay his kids' college with me.

What annoys me, is that some good parent will buy this set for his kid at this price. He won't suspect a thing. If it's a not a well meaning parent, it's a fan returning or someone who has seen some Marvel-based movies this year and wants to try comics and toys. These are the folks who get screwed. If you're reading this, you can probably find a better priced set, just like me. But the regular guys can't.

When vendors like Mattel, distributors like Diamond, retailers like the nameless guy and those auction site scalpers who sleep at Toys R US screw people, they hurt people who might get caught a second time, but not a third time. There's never a third time. They usually leave. Many people whose job is to sell toys are now acting like comic book publishers in the crazy 1990s. Don't they remember what happened?

Any quick gain is lost when the customer doesn't come back, when action figures are short packed or vendors offer new figures with repaints fans already own, like DC Direct's Teen Titans Four Pack. This helps retailers as opposed to the final customer. There is a problem. Even if retailers are happy at making a quick buck, they won't be when people start boycotting them.

Retailers complain that customers don't buy. So vendors adjust and introduce those anti consumers' practices to keep them on a leash. Perhaps if retailers, especially comic book stores, made their place inviting and consumers friendly in the first place, they would get better results. There's no magic to selling. When one has the customer in mind from the opening of the store until it is closed, things work.

When quick schemes are used, they are in bad faith. The bad eventually returns and worsens. If your customer is happy, there's no problems. To make the review of Mattel's Batman Superman set possible, I had to go to a store where prices are usually higher, but where cheap tactics are not used. I did not pay $50 for something that cost less than two dollars to produce in China. Rant over.

Read related reviews such as:

Beast Boy
Batman and Superman Two Pack
Starfire
Raven
Losing Interest in DC Direct

Action Figures

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12