The San Diego Con

[Louis Kazagger]

Shoot, we came so close to getting a look at the real Ken Lilly. Here's a pic of the Palisades table at the Sandy Eggo Convention, littered with the Invisible Fozzies. Looks like Fozzie is the same price that VC Beaker was in Chicago. Is that Ken in the background, hole puncher in hand?

http://216.127.66.72/a/albums/album66/abc.sized.jpg

(courtesy of the figures.com website's report on the SDCC)

If anyone on the forum actually attended the show, feel free to share your impressions with the rest of us.

 

[Louis Kazagger]

Here's a better look at an Invisible Spray Fozzie in his packaging, courtesy of an ebay scalp... uh... er.... seller.

Remember, don't buy this guys, I'm sure Ken and Palisades will come through with exclusive Fozzies for us through the collector's club at delivered prices that no one on ebay would want to match.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1755143975

Looks like a magnetic hat to me. Did Ken ever confirm for us if Fozzie's hat was magnetic?

I'm still amazed that they were able to get Fozzie, his duckie, and his packaging designed, tooled (for the duckie), mass produced, painted and shipped to the con in, what, a little over three weeks?

 

[Louis Kazagger]

Hmmmn, looks like we got the first ebay guessing game production run quote on Fozzie. One seller says only 1,000 Fozzies were made for the convention. I'm sure that's not the case, since Palisades brought 1,500 VC Beakers for the Chicago con and sold out (not including the bagged errors they sold on the last day). Since San Diego is a bigger convention, I'm betting they brought at least 2,500 Fozzies.


Now, if you want to talk about hot convention exclusives limited to 1,000, that Mattel He-Man exclusive for the show is selling for mad money on ebay, ranging from $80.00 to $315.00! Which is especially frightening because there's only one seller on ebay that has a picture of it, and I don't see anything different about it except maybe a different colored sword (but I'm no he-man fan, so what do I know). I doubt there are any of those left in the morning!

 

[grail]

i don't remember, can you leave comments on an ebay auction?

i'd love to see Ken or Mike email one of these idiots and ask..."so, where'd you get that number exactly?"

 

[Aerosmith]

You must really enjoy talking to youre self. j/j

 

[Louis Kazagger]

Aerosmith: Yeah, blah, blah, blah, just my stream of consciousness onto the page, waiting for somebody to jump in. I'm all caught up on the topics I usually read, and I got bored refreshing with no new comments, so I went looking for something to do. Definitely less activity here with Ken away.

Grail: I think they can email the seller, but they can only leave comments on the seller's feedback report if they buy something from them.

 

[grail]

that's what i thought, but i was too lazy to check...still, i'd love to see what the seller says when they realize that the email they just got ends in "@palisadestoys.com"

i hate dealers...

 

[Walterfego]

Unfortunately they probably wouldn't care too much. As long as they keep selling the 400 figures they must have picked up. Good lord! I think this guy may have called in the cousins to help him get some of these!

 

[Louis Kazagger]

I don't hate ebay dealers, per se, but they're not my favorite people either. Especially the dumb ones.

Just to play devil's advocate here though, Ebay is probably one of the better things to happen to the hobby because it helps keep these exclusive products accessible to completists. And the pool of sellers is so big that you can actually get a better deal on ebay in most cases through the competitive nature of it, than if you called a toy dealer who buys ad space in one of the toy trade industry mags and asked him for a price quote on an item you saw in his ad. I also love the fact that if I'm looking for something, I can pretty much find it at my fingertips in cyberspace on ebay, instead of waiting years for it to turn up at a local toy show or flea market, etc.... So the sellers are a tool, and it's kind of like saying you hate your hammer. Which you may, when you whack your thumb with it (or a deal goes bad on ebay).

I think most of these guys you see selling Invisible Fozzie, or San Diego He-Man, or short hair Cordelia or whatever aren't truly dealers. Most of them are small number feedback guys, probably average joe's like you or me, who're trying to turn a few quick bucks to pay for their convention tickets and expenses I'll bet.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We're so lucky to have Palisades and the collector's club on our side. I don't think Mattel gives a flip that people are turning around and selling that rare He-Man for hundreds of dollars and that the collector' are getting gouged. We'd be in the very same boat, climbing over each other's backs, bidding up auctions to make sure we secured one of these for our collection. I'll be sure to have Ken and the Palisades staff on my Christmas list this year. I think the difference is that Ken is a collector himself and he knows what not being able to get an exclusive is like first hand (from his Simpsons collection).

It's just too bad that there are people out there who don't know about the club yet, and they still have to resort to ebay. Still, with all of us here taken out of the bidding pool, that helps keep the prices down on ebay, and there are enough of them out there that people will probably be able to snag them for around $25.00, which ain't bad compared to He-Man.

 

[Walterfego]

Louis - Very good post.

I use eBay quite a bit, but mostly for selling personal items that I've collected through the years. I admit that I also sold my extra VC Beaker upon my return from Wizard World Chicago. At the time I was selling it to save the money for the San Diego exclusive, which I thought was to be the Animal figure at that time. I was not able to attend this year and new that it would be the only way for me to get ahold of it. Then a week later I learned of the Collector's Club and found out I wouldn't need to worry about it. I think it's like you said, if more people were aware of the club then it would only drive the resell value of these figures on Ebay down. Already with all the people here that have signed up I'm sure that it's going to be felt at least a bit when all of these Fozzies get posted next week. My hope is that some people are in for an unpleasant surprise.

I do think however that the gouging may be self inflicted. I know that I do it to myself. I had the chance in Chicago to pick up the Dr. Teeth repaint, which I told myself I would if I could find it for $30-$40. It was the only one I saw all weekend and the guy wanted $75 for it. This was on Friday. By Saturday morning it was gone. Now going by Ebay standards recently that price would've been a steal, but for me it was still way outta line. However I then laid down $300 for a signed framed poster at an auction the next day. Now to somone else they may view that as gouging as well, but for that item the price fit for me.

I think the problem we run into is print runs. The fact that the Dr. Teeth is limited to 500 (or so) makes it so the people who think it's worth the high prices to pay for it outnumber those who don't or can't afford to pay those prices. Once you get along the lines of VC Beaker (at least 1500) the prices start to drop after those who HAVE to have it right away at any cost get theirs.

I couldn't agree with you more about the fact that we are the luckiest fans ever by having the people at Palisades that we do. My wife and I are both in our mid 20's and my wife owns/opperates a small comic/music shop. We've had the store for 7 years and I've been working in a comic shop since I was 12. In that span of 13 years I have never seen a company as dedicated to their fans as Ken and the guys at Palisades. I read this site and read their posts and realize that these guys are here to get imput and feedback. These guys really do care what the collectors want. They listen to our complaints and take our suggestions. It's fantastic and refreshing to be honest with you. The club factor only makes it all the better!

BTW....we sold out of all of our 1st shipment of Muppet figures! We just got the playsets yesterday and they're getting good buzz as well. Thought it might be nice to know that even those not fanatically obsessed with the Muppets think it's a hight quality product.