Toys R Us to allow preorders for "collector's figures"

[karamazov80]

Just saw this news on Toyark. Here is the story:

Anyways, TRU's(at least my store) are going to be taking preorders/reservations for collector's oriented figures(like Neca, DC Direct, Diamond Select, Mezco, etc). I don't know any specifics, but apparently it's going to start soon...and is sort of like preordering games through them.

There is a sidecap at the end of the GI Joe/Collector's figures aisle...and there will be a small display with tickets/cards you can take to the cashier an do it like a regular preorder.

How many figures, what figures, and specifics are unknown to me. But be on the look out for it.

From:

http://www.toyark.com/tru-starting-preorde...s-figures-6986/

Figure it is worth discussing because the poster mentions Diamond Select Toys as being one of the companies with pre-orders allowed. Apparently you will use tickets like they do for video games, you bring them up to the counter to pre-order, and they hold them for you when they arrive.

Still not a lot of news. Might not even apply to Minimates. And even if it did, it might just impact stock that would come to the store anyway, instead of meaning they would order enough stock to fulfill pre-orders. If the former, getting there in time to pick up a pre-order would essentially be the same as getting there first to pick up an item when it is put on the shelf. . .

In an ideal world, I would be able to go there and pre-order 10 of the Molecule Man/Spiderwoman sets or whatever, and get them all. Anyway, potentially relevant news.

[Dio]

But what would stop scalpers from doing the same? =/

[karamazov80]

If this actually happened, I figure 4 or 5 of us could buy enough for all forum members who needed the exclusives, and scalpers would be a non-issue for us, anyway.

[cdubya]

But what would stop scalpers from doing the same? =/

Perhaps a limit, but this could impact legitimate collectors that buy multiples (for themselves or friends)too. The bottom-line in business is sales, and I honestly believe that DST, TRU, whomever, could care less who gets these as long as they sell through and achieve positive numbers. While this is interesting news, it doesn't sound any different than ordering directly from Diamond Previews (provided you have access to a comic shop) unless the majority of these are TRU exclusives or unless they are using this system as a means to gauge how many of a certain product that they need to order for each store. It will be interesting to see how this comes together.

I'd like to see something similar to Wal-Mart's (though I kind of despise them) program of being able to order on-line and pick-up the items from your nearest store. Of course, this only works if you have a store near you (and a credit/debit card). Besides, some people actually enjoy the "hunt".