Does Fear Drive Sales?
Yesterday we saw the 50th Anniversary G.I. Joe sets go up for pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store. As the day went on, fan response went from happiness at the chance to pre-order the toys to despair that the vehicles were gone. As of this writing the 50th Anniversary Sets at Big Bad Toy Store are down to the action figure sets; even the single Nights Marksmen two-pack is no longer available.
What caused the near-instant sell through of those G.I. Joe vehicle packs? In my opinion, it was fear that led to so many of us — I pre-ordered before even posting here at battlegrip.com that the toys were available — to pre-order as soon as the toys were online. But what sort of fear could drive sales?
- Fear that the toys will be snagged by scalpers when the 50th Anniversary G.I. Joe line is released at ToysRUs.
- Fear that those same scalpers will then list the toys for double, triple, or even quadruple the MSRP.
- Fear that these will be the last of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe toys for an unknown period of time.
- Fear that collections will be left with gaping holes.
- Fear that something cool will be missed.
All of these and likely more are what led to the rapid rate of pre-orders at Big Bad Toy Store yesterday. The emotions of buying and selling are well-researched by marketing executives and professionals around the world, and watching the hisstank.com forum thread yesterday told me that the most hardcore of the collectors were definitely being driven by emotions.
Word is Big Bad Toy Store is trying to secure more of these toys, but unless Hasbro massively over-produced their 50th Anniversary G.I. Joe sets I don’t think there will be many sets available. ToysRUs should be interesting to watch — especially when they release the toys for sale online —
and ultimately all of this may be a way for Hasbro to then go to other big box retailers and say: “Look, G.I. Joe fans are numerous and ready to buy. You should order more toys.”
Regardless of what happens next, I find myself paying more and more attention to events like this and wondering just what’s causing all of us (myself included at times) to pre-order things without seeing reviews or getting more information.
As I think about this more I want to ask all of you:
Did you pre-order any of these when they went online yesterday?
Yep, I ordered the two two packs. It was really just so I could finally get that beautiful Lowlight figure that I missed when the 30th/POC line was out. The eBay prices for that figure alone are around $50, so it wasn’t too shabby to get four really cool figures with tons of gear for thirty bucks. And, yes, I was driven by fear to place the order without much thought. I’m not looking forward to Hasbro’s G.I. Joe hiatus, and this may be the last (or one of the last) opportunities for a long time to get my hands on retail-priced product. It will be kind of fun, however, to have some time to catch up and fill in some holes in my Classics Joes collection. I guess time will tell how expensive that will be…
@rosewater – “And, yes, I was driven by fear to place the order without much thought.”
I am betting someone could craft a fairly impressive psychology paper on how fear of missing out drives product sales across several markets.
It’s kind of terrible how our hobby, something that is supposed to bring joy to our lives is dictated so much by fear. am not collecting Joes, so I wouldn’t need to pre-order — but had it been something Transformers or MOTU related I very well may have had to do so. I agree with all of the bullet points you listed, I think they play a big role in the mentality of the collector. If you see something you automatically feel as though you have to buy it because you’re afraid you’ll never see it again… and you’ll end up having to pay 2x-4x times what it’s worth retail.
I think fear was a big part of what has kept me subscribing to Club Eternia on Matty Collector. I guess too many “what-if’s†— What if I can’t get one day of sale, what if Scalp-or buys ‘em all up and I have to pay through the nose. What if the sub exclusive is really cool and I’ll be left with that gaping hole?
@PrfktTear – “I think fear was a big part of what has kept me subscribing to Club Eternia on Matty Collector. ”
For me it was a combination of “easier to subscribe” and “fear of missing a figure I really wanted” that finally drove me to subscribe. Easy was a huge part of it, though, because dealing with the mattycollector.com site on launch days was a huge pain.
I’m not looking forward to the SDCC exclusives. A purchase experience should never be a pain for the customer.
I’m what you could call a “Matty Apologist” — and I generally want about 90% of the figures they release, so a sub makes the most sense in terms of convenience, still each year as July approached I was always hesitant to renew for yet another year not knowing what was in store.
The SDCC exclusives on the other hand — yes, let the dread begin. My friend/mule already put out the e-mail taking requests. Luckily I don’t expect to have too many wants. Other than for that dumb Imp magic box, I really could just wait to order the Filmation Hordak from Mattycollector.
I waited about 15 minutes after getting the BBTS announcement to order. Picked up everything except the Wolf set (which is too much like the original for me to want another.) I do doubt how easy these will be found at TRU especially since I still want a TRU exclusive TMNT classics Bebop and Rocksteady and have never seen them in stores. Shouldn’t they be easily available especially if they’re exclusive to your store?? Plus the BBTS price was really good if you were picking up everything. So you better believe I pre-ordered! (I did the same for GI Joe wave 3 half a year ago, which only now is being seen at Tuesday Mornings for $5. sigh.)
@Jonny – “Shouldn’t they be easily available especially if they’re exclusive to your store??”
I think part of it is fear on the part of the retailer: Fear of being stuck with product. It’s possible they look at prior sales numbers and then order less than they did last time in an attempt to not clearance the product.
Limitations on customer purchases would help. Limit two per customer or something. But that’s probably more trouble than it’s worth.
I didn’t preorder any of them yet.
In the big picture, I think it’s a combination of fear and uncertainty. MattyCollector seems to have made fear and uncertainty the basis of their marketing strategy, which is a shame, since the MOTUC figures are pretty good.
@Yakkotank – “MattyCollector seems to have made fear and uncertainty the basis of their marketing strategy, which is a shame, since the MOTUC figures are pretty good.”
It’s possible that fear at Mattel is what leads the company to inspire fear in collectors. I honestly believe that the line’s sole reason for existence is to protect the IP/trademarks and to be used as a basis for a feature film. Bargaining power, if you will, with studios as they point to the line and say:
“Look, it’s so strong that fans pay X on eBay for one action figure!”
My greatest fear is that the Wave 2 Lady Jaye/Baroness 2-pack will sell out within minutes. I keep checking BBTS compulsively so I don’t miss out. I wish it had been Part of Wave 1 just to get this over with. Really, the very limited nature of these toys and the scalpers that prey on them have taken a great deal of fun out of collecting. It’s more of a chore babysitting sites like BBTS for that narrow window of availability.
@Kevin – “Really, the very limited nature of these toys and the scalpers that prey on them have taken a great deal of fun out of collecting.”
I remember feeling this way during Hasbro/Kenner’s mid-nineties Star Wars launch. Scalpers would get to the stores and pick the pegs clean, leaving behind the unwanteds and making some of the action figures tough to find.
As the boys’ toys section of stores shrinks the whole “hey, this is supposed to be fun!” part of collecting action figures swerves more and more from the fun side of the scale to, as you say, the chore side.
I’d say that fear drives sales for me as far as pre-orders go. I pre-ordered because I fear I’ll never see them in the store. I’m not going to buy something I don’t want to keep the line going.
I do find that I purchase more 3D Blu Rays new than I would otherwise, for the fear they stop making them (hoping my tiny purchase goes towards more titles being released in the future)
@Vincent – “I pre-ordered because I fear I’ll never see them in the store.”
Almost feels like there should have been a poll with this post, or a poll over at the hisstank.com forums.
You know, I wasn’t worried about not being able to find them. I just pre-ordered so I wouldn’t have to drive to the suburbs for them. I’d rather have stuff delivered to my front door than spend my free time driving around for it.
@Compulsive Collector – “I’d rather have stuff delivered to my front door than spend my free time driving around for it.”
I do sorta enjoy searching stores, but I can totally see where you’re coming from. For me to hit every potential TRU in the Austin area would basically be one Saturday out of my life.
I actually believe “fear” in the sense you describe has been a major part of Hasbro’s marketing plan since the talk of “hiatus” several years ago. It’s the only thing that I think explains some of the DUMB choices they have made over the years. I also think it’s why some waves are so hard to come by (thus driving collectors to rush to the next wave, but it keeps backfiring as Hasbro really overestimates the market). It’s pretty clear that some items are produced with greater quantity than others (even in the same line, Take Pursuit of Cobra for example)