Slave IV

Don't take anything I said personally, lol! I never said Greed did not exist before capitalism but capitalism definitely encourages more greed. As for stepping your game up, I mean those F5 and cart navigating skills! I've missed out on a couple preorders lately and every time I go through a preorder madness, I learn little things that help me possibly be successful the next time. Of course, there is always luck involved as with any "game". I've never blamed anyone for my missing out on a preorder although I did want to destroy NY for that crap they pulled with carjacking my ass and saying they were sold out only to have the item I had in my cart relisted for higher by the time I finished reading their email. I'm very happy that they seem to be doing something to stop that from happening now. As for communicating with Bandai, doesn't hurt. Maybe they will listen like they did with MB Eva but in the end, it will be about their own bottom line to make that decision and no matter how we feel about it, Macross doesn't have much financial pull in the retail world compared to a lot of other properties that Bandai produces.

That seems like a completely reasonable deal at this moment. Congrats!

It is annoying that we can't buy what we want when we have the money to do so. But this has always been the case with relatively low volume niche items since as long as I can remember. It's just a different ballpark now but same game. In the whole scheme of things, I think this is still better than driving hundreds of miles across towns to try to find something and still never see it.

Yeah, it sucks. NY does though. I never have to login there because I'm always logged in.

Yeah, the cockpits definitely seem too small and my first impression is that no way a Zentrad fits in there. The only gripe about the figures is they don't come with Zentrads that fit inside but in reality, it's not a big deal because I always display with cockpits closed and in action against VF-1s and Destroids. There are varying sizes of Zentrads though so they could possibly fit the smallest specimens.

In the whole scheme of things and toys you can get at various prices, the Glaug is absolutely worth more than $100 to me. Keep in mind that original price was around $100 or more shipped and that's what I got mine for. No way I would let go of mine for $110, that's for sure. It's probably worth closer to $200 to my personal collection. I'm actually surprised that the price is basically still MSRP. This is another one of those cases where the price stays the same or even drops and then when all the initial stock disappears, it could climb fast (like the Regults).

Hell yeah! That is a great pickup for that price! Congrats!

Greed is the result of capitalism. You can't say you love capitalism and then blame people who are capitalizing on the market when it doesn't work out for you. People love blaming anything but themselves when something doesn't work out. Just step your game up! If you really want to blame anyone, the only ones to blame are the retail shops who should be providing a good service to their customers. That includes websites that can handle the demand when needed. So far, only NY seems to be doing anything to address that matter.

I won't alter it at all. You deserve credit for thinking of and making it. Thanks!

LOL! great take on the wallet busting GIF! Mind if I share this around?

Again, I'm not going to get into that too much here but greed is the capitalistic way. There is no scenario in capitalism where you can fault someone for trying to maximize their profits unless they are breaking some law to do so. Even with the price hikes, as people have pointed out and I also noticed, the NY prices are still usually below secondary market prices.

Stop telling Bandai to raise prices!!! The reason they can have lower prices is because of their competitive advantage of being a larger, multinational corporation with a lot more resources that allow them to produce more items at a lower per item cost than Arcadia. This type of economy has a lot of issues I won’t get into here but as long as we are using it, we should let the good parts about it play out. Bandai’s job is to produce and distribute their items to retailers. It’s the retailers job to provide a good experience and deliver these products to the end consumers. Any issues with the market should correct itself if each part does their job well. Right now, based on the last year of experience with all the shops, it seems like NY is the only shop trying new things to make it better for all of us. Don't get me wrong, I was ready to throw NY on a pitchfork and wish them to Hell like many people after the last few items I mentioned in the last post but now I’m seeing the changes they are making might be for the better.

I think that’s a pretty accurate guess. I think they typically save around 50% of popular items to sell later. Cases like this where it is a practical guarantee, they probably bump up the number a bit. Really great point! What they are doing is actually a deterrent from scalpers buying up all their stock. Raising the price and requiring up front payment definitely makes unattractive to someone buying just to turn a profit. Despite all the complaints about NY, even by me recently, they seem to be the only store actively making changes to their practices and website with the intent on improving the overall market and experience. Some of the changes might be initially more infuriating but with some adjustments and better understanding of how they work, they might end up truly being better. The last few pre-order madness items were nightmares at all the stores (DX VF-1J, GoLion, MB Zulu) but I took those experiences and it worked out for me this time at NY and the whole process went by a lot smoother. Bottom line is how many people here got an order in with NY without any site crashing or errors at checkout compared to all the other shops (not counting AJ)? I’m thinking more were successful at NY compared to all the others combined.

Nice!

Regarding the whole business aspect and Bandai, here is my take: I don't think it's an example of Bandai being bad at recognizing demand. I think it's just another case of limited resources for a company that makes thousands of products with varying degrees of profitability. No matter what anyone thinks, these are still high end niche markets and relatively, there are not many people who want to spend around $200+ on a toy robot. Some of those who do want it and are pissed that they haven't been able to get one should blame retailers with inadequate online store programming and themselves for not being on the ball enough before they blame Bandai...IMO. Also, I will reiterate that I don't think Bandai is miscalculating anything...at least not by as much as we all hope to think. They are an international corporation with bean-counters whose calculations are most likely telling them it's more profitable to produce other items instead of more of these high end niche items. It's great for business when all your high end items sell out instantly and you have no extra stock clogging the shelves. Each unsold SOC or DX item costs more to make and to store because of the size and parts count. Selling more small, cheap items at a higher margin means more profit and less potential loss. It is simple, ruthless business just as people are hoping for but some people seem to be letting their own desire for Macross toys cloud their thoughts on how business works. It's all about the bean counters! Regarding the demand for Max's SDFM 1A: The success of the DX 1J - The overall satisfaction reported with it being regarded as the best overall Valk made to date and the first new design in about a decade all make the appeal greater to collectors and scalpers. The SDFM Max 1A has not had a quality release since the Yamato days. Max is probably a lot of people's favorite pilot since he was THE MAN and like me, itching to get his original Valk. We've seen several versions of Hikaru's 1J released in recent years...1/60, 1/100 (2 types), 1/48. Max's 1A hasn't been released in any form by anyone reputable (Yamacadia/Bandai) for 10 years.

Hell yeah!!! AJ was definitely the easiest now but all thanks to @Valkyrie23 just now. NY ended up a bit cheaper still but AJ will deliver faster and I'm good now. These preorder nights are more exciting/nerveracking than any rollercoaster ride, lol. Thanks!

Yeah, it seems YMMV. All I know is I've been refreshing pages on four different devices for all the major retailers and I came up with nothing until NY.

So after all the waiting and wheel of death, seems like NY was actually the easiest to get an order from this time. Man, that was INSANE!

WoooHooo AJ listings lowered to 32,970

Just go to nippon-yasan.com and you will see what I'm talking about at some point tonight.

LOL! NY already has the waiting list to visit their site going.

Cool, thanks!

Hmmmm interesting...What thread? Link? Thanks!

Nice pickups! The middle one is especially key to have.

Lol, buying it for sure.