The Energon Pub

It's the evolution of business, my friends. e-Commerce is the way of the future. I feel more and more people are willing to pay 10-20 for shipping now than trekking out to a store and pick up TFs. A lot of the time, especially at my local TRU, they don't even have what I want in stock when I get there.

I just ordered a case of Prime Voyagers from BBTS: the one with Ultra Magnus, Skyquake, Thundertron and Optimus. It won't cost much more than buying them at retail, and I won't have to run around all over town looking for these figures.

GuyIncognito wrote:I just ordered a case of Prime Voyagers from BBTS: the one with Ultra Magnus, Skyquake, Thundertron and Optimus. It won't cost much more than buying them at retail, and I won't have to run around all over town looking for these figures.

Hmmm...I've been strongly considering doing the same thing! I've been looking all over for Dreadwing with no luck at all. I've literally looked at 11 different stores with multiple trips to half of them. The amount of time, frustration and gas I've spent should definitely justify purchasing the case just as GuyIncognito did!

Just to confirm, Dreadwing (and Skyquake eventually) is only 1 to a case right? This should make them just as rare/sparse as the RID Vehicon, which again justifies ordering online!

I never did (and still don't) shop stores for TF's. All of my purchases are online. The only thing that has changed recently is that I use ebay a lot more simply because I've been catching up on lines I missed, so a lot of that older stuff can't be found anywhere else.

There's one downside to buying online, particularly when it comes to preorders. As Tom Petty sang, the waiting is the hardest part. I've got three shipments that I'm waiting for, and it's killing me! It's awesome to come home and find a package on the doorstep, but the waiting sucks. There's something to be said for the instant gratification of walking into a store and buying a figure.

GuyIncognito wrote:There's one downside to buying online, particularly when it comes to preorders. As Tom Petty sang, the waiting is the hardest part. I've got three shipments that I'm waiting for, and it's killing me! It's awesome to come home and find a package on the doorstep, but the waiting sucks. There's something to be said for the instant gratification of walking into a store and buying a figure.

Yeah, ain't that the truth. But man, once I get a big box from BBTS after shipping my POL, especially if I've let $1000 worth of TF's or so stack up before shipping, it's just like Christmas morning. Toys coming out of my ears all waiting to be opened up and played with .

I've been buying TFs since nearly day one, but my purchasing dropped off substantially during G2. I didn't really transition from being a kid who bought toys into a toy collector until the mid 1990s, just in time for the Beast Wars renaissance of the the TF franchise.

There was no great resource at that time for buying toys online and most non brick and mortar collecting was done through usenet trading or auctions. So my life was consumed by daily phone calls and trips to toy stores in order to stay on top of shipments -- often to little effect. I even went so far as to work part time at a toy store, just to have a shot at keeping my collection intact.

What made collecting TFs around that time so pleasant, relative to Spawn, Star Wars, and a number of the more popular "collector" lines, is that with patience, you would ALWAYS come across Beast Wars toys. The supply was good, the short-packing was minimal, and by-and-large, the collectors (and scalpers) stayed away. The only rare items were inadvertent packaging variations or the occasional running change in paint applications on a particular figure.

Of course, things became more complex as time went on, and the point where the Japanese Beast Wars lines split from the U.S. ones was a watershed moment for me in terms of a need to explore other alternatives to collecting. But even for a long while thereafter, it was a pleasure to collect a toy franchise that would almost invariably make its way into brick and mortar retail outlets.

These days, I venture into stores mainly out of habit. BBTS gets most of my business, because the thrill of the hunt has been replaced by the stress of collecting toys that never show up in stores.

I prefer finding figures in stores because there's that little high you get when you find something you were hoping for or didn't expect, but this year, with the horrid distribution and cancellation of several figures I wanted (FE's and PRID Breakdown), I've found I'm buying more and more things online. My latest order, or pre-order rather, is MP Optimus. Not that I wanted MP Thundercracker, but there's only one TRU near me that has him, so I'm not taking my chances with the ever popular Optimus.

Saves gasoline and spares me the frustration of trekking from place to place, knowing I have a very high chance of leaving empty handed. But it is a bit of a buzz kill.

Megatron000 wrote:It's the evolution of business, my friends. e-Commerce is the way of the future. I feel more and more people are willing to pay 10-20 for shipping now than trekking out to a store and pick up TFs. A lot of the time, especially at my local TRU, they don't even have what I want in stock when I get there.

That's mainly the reason why I gave up shopping in B&M stores 2 years ago. Stores are out of touch and distributions are spotty at best. I only purchase online now. I am surprised that Hasbro has changed their business model and offer more Transformers from their online site.

One case of FoC figures delivered off BBTS would cost me about $170 Australian Dollars. If I were to walk into my local Target, that case would cost me close to $220. so for me it's a no-contest really. I still frequently vist traditional stores, but being on a budget like most of us are, I'll always be sourcing the cheapest way to purchase my Transformers.