TRU Distribution: Are we helping or hindering?

[MisterPL]

In this age of automated stock replenishment, when we proxy shop for fellow collectors outside of our area, are we not affecting what gets allocated to stores?

I can't help thinking that if a collector scoops up product for themselves as well as for one or two others that TRU will register that as a significant increase in demand at that store (200-300%) and restock accordingly in the future.

That's fine if TRU orders for Minimates continue to grow overall but if not then they're shifting inventory from a relatively low-selling store to one that has artificially higher demand.

Don't get me wrong; I'm all in favor of this community helping each other out. I'm just concerned that a lack of patience may be adversely affecting how much product is getting to your nearest brick & mortar TRU. I like helping other collectors and getting help when needed but I prefer to be able to walk into my nearest store and buy them myself.

Thoughts?

[TM2 Dinobot]

Honestly, and y'all are going to hate this, the Minimate backs that suffer the most are the ones that don't have Spidey in them. Spiderman and Wolverine are always the first to go, while the other stuff languishes. Just having that sticker doesn't help. I'm still flooded with waves 14 and 15. Spiderman? He's gone. The rest just stagnates. DST needs to be smart about their characters, and stop pandering to the fans. Kids want Spiderman and Wolverine and the Avengers.

My ¢.02 worth.

[Shanester]

I have also thought about this MPL. I think it has to play havok on stock estimations, but so do scalpers in general.

[monkeycrumb]

I respect your $0.02 Dino, but it's not the kids that have kept this line alive for this long

I (think?) I still collect Star Wars 3 3/4" figures. The majority of what I see anymore is rehashes of the same characters over and over. Anything new I snap up (even though that barrel is pretty well scraped!) But collectors left in droves for many reasons, but the inability to buy new characters is a huge reason. Regardless on people's opinions on the Clone Wars TV show, people really liked the figures (I liked both!), but the line quickly devolved into repainted clones and rehashed main characters. And then that line died.

I totally agree we need to keep Wolverine & Spidey in circulation, but do you really think they need to be in *every* pack?

I think DST has done a remarkable job in keeping a good mix of fan-favorites, necessary team-mates, and the big sellers available. The only mistake they admit to was limiting Hulk-Buster Iron Man as an exclusive. But how many of us would get bored and potentially leave if ALL we got was the same 10 characters or so refreshed all the time? Or was forced to buy a rehash with every pack?

I still think the Mirage & Magma and Rictor & Boom Boom TRU packs were great and necessary. Online, they're sold out. Sure, they're still easy to find at retail. But once they hit clearance, they will definitely not last long. Multiple waves in TRU's minimate history have hit clearance, yet we have wave 16 coming up! Those packs might not have been a hit with the kids, but didn't nearly everyone who bought the New Mutants 4-pack or the X-Force packs buy these to add to their teams?

But the point is, those 2 were shorter packed than the Spider-Man and the DareDevil 2-packs, so for every 2 Boom Booms, that's what, 3-4 of each DD & Spidey that sold out? That's not bad at all. TRU still needs stock to hang on their shelves. And packs like those make the collectors happy. I know every one of us here have checked off many characters from our wishlists since joining the forums here.

I have also thought about this MPL. I think it has to play havok on stock estimations, but so do scalpers in general.

Aside from WD, are minimates heavily scalped? Some TRU exclusives maybe, but not all. I just know other lines that are scalped suffer when the stuff is returned to the store after the scalper can't sell them, that leads to pileup.

I really would love to think we have a real effect on TRU's re-ordering system, but my massive purchases of Calico Jack failed to make series 2 materialize

[groundhog7s]

Honestly, I think our community is way too small to really affect the overall picture. Along the lines of what Shane said, I think scalpers would throw things off more than we here do. Having said that, most the people here that pick up stuff for others do it consistently (as do scalpers) so it really should balance out consistently. Or I'm just full of crap.

[Politician]

I should post this in the TRU 15 thread too, but one of the girls at my local TRU told me her coworker scoops up minimates and Marvel/Star Wars exclusives, anything that he thinks is worth something and he sells them online.

He also returns stuff he can't sell, which is probably why my TRU is backed up with Wave 13 and 14. So wave 15 literally might pass me by unless I pay the markup on ebay :/

[Shanester]

I have also thought about this MPL. I think it has to play havok on stock estimations, but so do scalpers in general.

Aside from WD, are minimates heavily scalped? Some TRU exclusives maybe, but not all. I just know other lines that are scalped suffer when the stuff is returned to the store after the scalper can't sell them, that leads to pileup.

I really would love to think we have a real effect on TRU's re-ordering system, but my massive purchases of Calico Jack failed to make series 2 materialize

Well, we are talking about TRU here and yes, I do think the TRU exclusive Minimates are the ones that get scalped.

[MisterPL]

I was going to point out that scalpers (reportedly) generally return whatever they can't quickly sell after skimming the market. How much that affects restocks depends on secondary market demand, which is kinda silly since the product should still be available at retail anyway. (PATIENCE.)

And this is all assuming that TRU's process is perfect and in great working order. We know it's not. Series 14 and 15 having the same product number couldn't have helped get product to this collector sooner, not when my pegs are still laden with Series 14, and at clearance prices.

I'd still like to see TRU offer pre-orders online and offer to ship to stores for free (maybe with a minimum dollar order). In the meantime I hope my patience pays off in the long run and inventory ends up shifting back toward my local store because as it is, 'mates are showing up two months after others and my store isn't even eligible to receive sets like Battle Beasts, possibly due to the low volume of sales at my store.

[WookieFodder]

I have 3 TRUs that I can drive to, really 2. They are always out of minimates now. The store that is furthest away from me is the only one that ever gets boxsets.

Walking Dead is gone, ASM mainly gone, Universal Monsters gone. All I ever see is Vehicles, X-Men First Class, Street Fighter Vs Tekken, and the Rhino Wave. Even Halo is mostly gone now. The 2 Comic shops I go to don't have most minimates anymore. So does that mean sales are good?

[monkeycrumb]

I have also thought about this MPL. I think it has to play havok on stock estimations, but so do scalpers in general.

Aside from WD, are minimates heavily scalped? Some TRU exclusives maybe, but not all. I just know other lines that are scalped suffer when the stuff is returned to the store after the scalper can't sell them, that leads to pileup.

I really would love to think we have a real effect on TRU's re-ordering system, but my massive purchases of Calico Jack failed to make series 2 materialize

Well, we are talking about TRU here and yes, I do think the TRU exclusive Minimates are the ones that get scalped.

I don't disagree with you, it's only the degree of how frequently they're scalped.

Here in LA, the exclusives (except WD) have all been easy to find, and I'm frequently in competition with the scalpers who resell to the dealers at Frank & Sons and Big Lou's collectible shows/stores. Collecting any other line is frustrating in LA because of these people (many of whom simply buy them to resell direct to the dealer for a paltry % markup), so ML & DCUC were always frustrating to collect around here.

I know any TRU exclusive minimates are the first to go, but they aren't being snapped up en masse by the local resellers here. I don't follow the ebay scene so I'm not aware of how prevalent it is.

If it's an issue here, they must be getting returned pretty quickly. I know there are other collectors in my area.

I think for sales in LA, it likely goes Collectors - Kids - then Scalpers (again, except Walking Dead!) in terms of who buys the most.

[Shanester]

I have a situation here where there is a comic shop only a couple of blocks from my closest TRU. If you go in and find the Ex's gone, odds are you can go to the comic shop and find them at a premium. They do it with Star Wars figures and Marvel Legends & Universe figures, also. I never even considered the option of returning unsold items. That takes all the risk off the scalper. What a racket!

[hellpop]

I've often thought about this, but from the other direction: if we get TRU sets via trade, and then they show up in our local store, are we insuring that this wave will pegwarm? I think that pople sometimes panic a bit too much during the first few weeks that Minimates begin to ship, and I'm sure that some of us end up going the trade (or, worse) the eBay route for things that show up on the pegs before too long.

[Hawkeye's Junk]

Not sure it matters, I find all the mates. Now, I have to hit a couple TRUs in the area. Some get waves and some dont. That's what confuses me. The rictor wave and Crossbones wave never hit one store but it gets all the box sets. The stores that got the Rictor and Crossbones wave never get boxsets. That's what confuses me.

[Donny B]

For a slightly different perspective (that is, it's not about desperation, but rather convenience) ... My closest TRU is a half hour drive away, and I don't have a chance to get out there too often. I prefer to use TRU's website if I can't make it to the store, but if they don't have what I'm looking for, then a trade here on the boards is a convenient option. Shipping usually evens out better than gas costs for me, so getting a hookup from a fellow board member when I'm needing it (I *think* wave 15 is the first time I've actually needed a hookup for a currently released set) just works out better.

Granted, that's my specific situation. It may or may not bear any weight in the bigger picture of this convo.

Side question: what's the time frame for 'panicking'? I'm assuming a month is still inside that purview, yes? so where's the line? 3 months? 6? and I promise, my question is out of genuine curiosity...

[TM2 Dinobot]

This opinion is always unpopular, but I still maintain scalpers make up less than 1% of the less than 10% of the collector's market. The rest are kids. That number may be slightly higher with Minimates due to LCSs, but not by much in my experience. Years in the TF fansdom has taught me that people who can't face their own emotions need someone to blame, so they trot out "Scalpers" as a scapegoat that appeases their tiny egos.

Which may have just thrown my entire argument out the window, because this place totally isn't like that. And if Shane says scalpers in his area, I trust him on that. In may area it's kids. Though I have to say for the past 6 months no one is buying anything. At all. :/

[Politician]

This opinion is always unpopular, but I still maintain scalpers make up less than 1% of the less than 10% of the collector's market. The rest are kids. That number may be slightly higher with Minimates due to LCSs, but not by much in my experience. Years in the TF fansdom has taught me that people who can't face their own emotions need someone to blame, so they trot out "Scalpers" as a scapegoat that appeases their tiny egos.

Which may have just thrown my entire argument out the window, because this place totally isn't like that. And if Shane says scalpers in his area, I trust him on that. In may area it's kids. Though I have to say for the past 6 months no one is buying anything. At all. :/

I totally agree with this, but in some instances it's scalpers, and in my case I was flat out told by a TRU employee that another employee scoops stuff up for resale.

[buttheadsmate]

Based on what I read with great interest on this forum in various threads.........random thoughts....

There over 850 TRU stores in the US (fact) & I would doubt that every store could receive a case of each (for example) Marvel Wave as it is released (my opinion) because I doubt that there are sufficient production levels to do so . I conclude that many TRU stores never receive a case at all & from what I read very few stores ever appear to have more than a case or two .....I concede that I don't know if some have more than this .

'Exclusive stickered' sets sell out from TRU stores to whomever gets there first whether they be committed fans or scalpers...that's life !

Different Marvel waves appear to have the same SKU number which would IMHO defeat the object of having any SKU at all!

TRU.com is where the 'hooverers' get their 'multiples' ......I refrain from calling all purchasers of multiple Minimate sets 'scalpers' .....I am a hooverer I am not a scalper . You can be a hooverer without being a scalper but I'll concede the effect on the inventory of TRU.com might be the same. This of course happens in the stores where the results are devastating for Average Joe, especially when less than three cases of a new Marvel wave arrives. I can point you in the direction of most of the Minimate ebay sellers & it's not rocket science to figure who buys from TRU.com (inventories of 12 or more exclusives) & those who might only scalp the stores (6 or less) . OK I know you might drive a train through that latter comment but I'll stand by my logic.

Box sets at TRU . Recently I noticed a shift in the content of a Minimate non.TRU/LCS standard box set case ......from 12 to 24 , although this isn't yet the norm IMO it isn't a great idea for a store.... any store....dipping its toe in the Minimate market.

TRU.com openly encourages hooverers to buy more than $80 worth of 'mates because we they then get free shipping .....often I get close to $70 worth of Minimates (2 sets of 4) that I actually want & then add 2 more 'exclusives' which I didn't really want which in essence are costing me what I would have paid on shipping . The result is 2 less for somebody else

Edited April 13, 2013 by buttheadsmate

[hellpop]

I also don't think scalpers are really a problem with Minimates. There's not a wide enough collector base to drive sales up enough to make it worth their while. I don't think there's been a TRU set (outside of the Walking Dead) that's been hard to find in years. The truth is- and I know this won't be a popular opinion- it's not particularly hard to buy Minimates from Toys R Us. Is it always easy? No. But it's not hard. The vast majority of TRU stores carry Minimates, and while not all of them carry every line or wave (certainly frustrating), they are hardly a rare item. Also, they are stocked on TRU.com, which makes them much easier to acquire then other collector-driven lines. I'm sure there will be many "I never saw [fill in the blank] at my TRU" posts in response to this, and I feel for you, but one individual's experience does not define the majority's experience. Minimates are well-stocked in most TRU locations across the country, and supplemented by TRU.com. That's really quite good for a niche of a niche of a niche toy.

[monkeycrumb]

Hellpop is right.

Scalpers exist, nobody is denying that. But their % of the problem in finding stuff at retail is small. Some scalper in *your area* might be buying up everything to resell on ebay, but that still doesn't affect things overall on the national or international level.

How many kids are buying this line? I would love to know the answer. But again, I suspect the percentage of kid-sales to collector-sales is much different compared to lines like Transformers.

BHM pointed out there are only 850 US TRU stores. Do we really think there are less than 850 cases made? I get your point, BHM, but I see multiple cases at all the LA area TRU's and other places I visit around the country. Plus, there's still TRU online that gets several cases itself. Yes, not every store gets even one case, but I would still be surprised if overall less than 850 of each case is made.

One way we can figure that out, if anyone has the number handy - how many LCBS Walking Dead series 1 cases were there? Because Zach stated there were far more of WD TRU series one cases made.

But really, I think the real kicker here is the re-use of the same SKU for each Marvel series. I think that's contributing more to the distribution pattern at TRU than anything.

[TENIME_art]

Every store I've been to in the last few months is still choking on clearanced Amazing Spider-Man packs.

[Shanester]

Every store I've been to in the last few months is still choking on clearanced Amazing Spider-Man packs.

Same here. ASM and the X-Men FC stuff.

[Shogi]

Surprisingly Spiderman is fairly rare around my area. Between two stores I think there's only 5-6 2 packs and none of them with the Lizard (I was looking for one last month)

Xmen FC are still very plentiful though and Captain America sets are barely selling even at $4 clearance prices (It's basically just Bucky sets now)

[Nessex]

Outside of Spiderman, the ASM designs were not very toyetic. My local toy shops are still full of all sorts of ASM merchandise (this is not just a Minimate problem, the MU & ML scale toys are stagnating too).

Unfortunately it seems that a cast of civilians & a coatless, deep greeny-brown man-lizard don't make for toys that children 'must have', and SM himself is a figure that all children already have.

[The Geohound]

I have no access to a TRU at all. The closest one is a few hundred miles and not worth the drive. I have a friend who lives in another state and he lives right near a TRU so I have him get minimates for me. When new ones show up he picks up at least one full set for me, more if I know people here need them in which case I offer to help out. Generally though, new sets don't show up until moths after they initially get released. So we wait a while and if nothing has been bought then I just have him scoop up the rest of what's left. This has only ever applied really to marvel and universal monsters though as just about everything else goes out like mad. So then I sit and waits months at a time for the next time he comes here to visit and brings me piles of two packs. Even with us buying just about everything, that TRU has never gotten a box set and they never got battle beasts, which sucks because I want a moose. So I honestly do not know what goes into determining what TRU gets what and when. Their system is entirely faulty.

[DaveOMac]

MY TRU have the usual clogs of unwanted figures but for the past few years they have carried every wave and recently in the past year they get them before TRU.com, they used to get them up to a month after the website, which had me ordering more online than in store. I've since switched back to in store purchases to support the store.

MY TRU has done well with minimate sales, especially Ghostbusters, the manager told me they could never keep a wave in and was constantly requesting restocks.

The only series they skipped were the Battle Beasts, never saw a single pack. I'm not surprised as the MAX line and Calico Jack didn't do well either, I really think I was they only one to buy those before being clearanced.

I don't think our buying pattern affect them that much even if we pick up for buddies, employees there have told me they get whatever TRU sends them and they can only request restocks. I don't know how often they update case shipment based on restocks but unless you are wiping them out of every figure each visit I don't think we are hurting them.

What I would love is for TRU to feature minimates in an ad or special. They are an exclusive line and should be given as much of a push as the GI Joe Kreos or other exclusives they have. Every young kid in my family I've introduced minimates to has loved them, especially the Halo and Iron Man figures. I just think TRU needs to advertise them more. Hell Kreos have a sub section on the website, at least give minimates their own.