Why not pre-orders?

[BCI Guy]

I luckily got my BC and TJ with 15 minutes to spare, but what an awful system that seems to be getting worse by the month of late.

For people that don't want subscriptions, and for everyone that wants bonus figures, pre-orders make so much sense.

I understand they need to know production numbers well in advance for manufacturing, but I'd happily pre-pay for figures 6 months out, just to know that I'm 100% getting them.

And its not really like your money would be 'tied up' for 6 months. If you pre-ordered everything, you'd still be paying for a months worth of figures at a time - you'd just be getting different figures than what you paid for in each month.

[robaczek]

I already asked that question weeks ago in 2.31 WTFWTK so still waiting for their answer but this is my thought exactly - give ALL the fans chance to buy and produce the amount that we paid for 6 months in advance plus some spare for those who join the line late or want to buy few more or simply didn't get the chance to pre-order + for returns. I really don't understand WHY Mattel won't allow us to HELP them make MORE MONEY!!!!

[Count Marzo]

Sign me up as well. It's the only logical way to fix this problem.

[Teacher of Madness]

Absolutely a great (not new, but great) idea. This would involve pre-planning and having DR keep track of TWO lists of people though.

[vadersfist]

If we pre-order on the bonus figures, then the subs like myself WOULD have gotten the BC cause my TJ is already coming to me since he was on the sub. I think BC SHOULD have been on the sub as well as all this.

[Matt79]

I totally agree!

A preorder would make ordering from Mattycollector so much easier and less frustrating. (For both sides!)

[Mike Bock]

I have no idea why they haven't used this from the start!

[Stella_Steve]

I have been saying pre-order all along. A subscription is not a answer to a pre-order. I DO NOT WANT ALL the figures. I don't have room for all of them, nor do i have interest in all of them.

I think pre-sale should go the first week of each month. Each person may pre-order ONE of each. After that week... the ebayers and the customizers and the people who want several can fight it out for the rest. That way everyone who wants one for collecting can get one.

[BCI Guy]

Absolutely a great (not new, but great) idea. This would involve pre-planning and having DR keep track of TWO lists of people though.

Totally not a new idea - I've brought it up before myself. I just wanted a thread with "Pre-Orders" in the title.

[SCB]

Because their idea of pre-orders are the subscriptions.

[Darkspecter]

I agree. It's been brought up many times, and I'll continue to agree everytime!

[MrRoboto]

I understand they need to know production numbers well in advance for manufacturing, but I'd happily pre-pay for figures 6 months out, just to know that I'm 100% getting them.

And its not really like your money would be 'tied up' for 6 months. If you pre-ordered everything, you'd still be paying for a months worth of figures at a time - you'd just be getting different figures than what you paid for in each month.

There has to be a way to implement a system like this or similar to it, i'd be all for it - but as it is, i'm sure they have their reason why it can't be done.

[BCI Guy]

I think pre-sale should go the first week of each month. Each person may pre-order ONE of each. After that week... the ebayers and the customizers and the people who want several can fight it out for the rest. That way everyone who wants one for collecting can get one.

I think that would help some, but probably not nearly enough. If figures are selling out in less than an hour they just aren't making enough. If they did pro-orders BEFORE manufacturing, they'd have a much better idea of how many to make, and they wouldn't have to worry about overproducing.

That way people could order as many as they want. 5, 10, 100. It doesn't matter because Mattel would already have the money for all of them before they made them.

Then they just make enough for the subscriptions, for the pre-orders and a smallish overage for people who want to order on the actual day.

[Reboot]

I have no idea why they haven't used this from the start!

Because then they couldn't artificially hype sellouts to point up the "heat" of this line.

What they miss is that this "heat" has burnt a lot of people over these last couple of months, and more and more aren't going to come back to get burnt again.

By the end of this year, I wouldn't be surprised if the sellouts were tailing off BECAUSE of that, even if they never increase production...

[byinfernoslight]

Preorders seems such a simple idea to implement, I really can't understand why it isn't done. Why not take orders for someone like Gygor now?

[Heidi]

Sign me up too. This topic has been discussed many times on these forums, but now's a good time to discuss it again.

Heidi

[DetectiveFork]

Because their idea of pre-orders are the subscriptions.

I think you're right.

It would seem to make sense that Mattel should offer pre-orders for certain figures way in advance and base their product orders on that. I suppose there might be a problem in that they would need to do that WAY ahead of time and it would be before they're ready to show off the product.

But still, I would think pre-orders would lower Mattel's risk considerably by letting them know how much to order; give them an opportunity to make a ton of cash based on all the people that obviously want these toys; and - by golly - actually create a lot of goodwill within their customer base.

[Count Marzo]

If I couldve paid for Trap Jaw as soon as they revealed him and said what month he was coming out, I would have waited til the end of February for him and they could have had kept my money for 8 months, I wouldn't care one bit. So much better than this HOPE to be at your computer at 12 noon EST AND HOPE that you can even process the order.

[Stella_Steve]

I think that would help some, but probably not nearly enough. If figures are selling out in less than an hour they just aren't making enough. If they did pro-orders BEFORE manufacturing, they'd have a much better idea of how many to make, and they wouldn't have to worry about overproducing.

That way people could order as many as they want. 5, 10, 100. It doesn't matter because Mattel would already have the money for all of them before they made them.

Then they just make enough for the subscriptions, for the pre-orders and a smallish overage for people who want to order on the actual day.

I heard they couldn't do it that way with the way the production runs. By the time they would have a figure to show us (proto or pre-produced) , they would allready put the figures into production. At that point they can't reduce or increase without it costing more. I understand that.

I think the only way they could produce a number based on pre-orders would be to have us pre-order based on a sketch or a rough proto. Then people would be angry if it didn't turn out how they wanted it, and want their money back.

[Jay Bell]

I want preorders too. I'll never buy a sub, but would end up successfully ordering more figures (which means more money Matty) if preorders existed.

[byinfernoslight]

Subscriptions don't solve the problem of, eg, Trap-Jaw, selling out so fast. Trap-Jaw is essentially two characters so a lot of people who only want 1 of most characters are going to want 2 of him. Just imagine how fast the sell out is going to be for something like Horde Troopers! Pre-orders solves this as you can make exactly the amount people want of each character.

[Count Marzo]

Here's an even better idea for those that get screwed by the site trying to order them in the 10 minutes they are on sale for...

Let us pre-order the re-issues of these guys NOW. You can have my money now, produce them and ship them to me when they are done, dont care how long it takes.

I know we shouldnt have to bend over backwards like that as consumers but this is how much I love MOTU and this particular line.

[Reboot]

I think the only way they could produce a number based on pre-orders would be to have us pre-order based on a sketch or a rough proto. Then people would be angry if it didn't turn out how they wanted it, and want their money back.

No doubt though (to cover their ASCIIs if nothing else), they would have a big "FINAL PRODUCT WILL VARY FROM PICTURE SHOWN" in that instance.

And really, how is that any different from the Moss Man fiasco - where it was shown in time for people to order the 2010 sub (to induce them to buy the sub), and the final version bears only a limited resemblance to it.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

I luckily got my BC and TJ with 15 minutes to spare, but what an awful system that seems to be getting worse by the month of late.

For people that don't want subscriptions, and for everyone that wants bonus figures, pre-orders make so much sense.

I understand they need to know production numbers well in advance for manufacturing, but I'd happily pre-pay for figures 6 months out, just to know that I'm 100% getting them.

And its not really like your money would be 'tied up' for 6 months. If you pre-ordered everything, you'd still be paying for a months worth of figures at a time - you'd just be getting different figures than what you paid for in each month.

I very much agree! It would make things much easier.

Anyone interested, see this poll that I started sometime back regarding this:

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...d.php?t=170323

[Thatman]

I have no idea why Matty can't or won't do it this way. This constant frustration is impossible - and their only solution is to give us a "buy everything we choose to make next year" option, or a "take your chances" option.

Either way, that's a pain in the butt.