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So basically they've extended this to August for the SDCC exclusives. Sounds good to me!

Emerje

Emerje wrote:So basically they've extended this to August for the SDCC exclusives. Sounds good to me!

Emerje

Ooooh, I didn't do the math on that, even better! They are actually making a reasonable case for me to re-up in 6 months.

Automatic Premium Membership would've been a nice perk to extend to those who backed the Haslab Unicron. If not all 12,000 or so, at least the first few hundred backers.

I've seen very lttle advantage to being a pulse member so far.

Asepticon wrote:I've seen very lttle advantage to being a pulse member so far.

Let's break this down...

I have more often than not cancelled orders on Pulse because Amazon gets them quicker -- see Siege Thundercracker. And often Amazon posts earlier ship dates on pre-orders -- see Earthrise Wave 1. And most recently, my brick and mortar stores have gotten them even earlier than that!

Pulse offers no availability advantages *for regular retail figures.*
Pulse, however, is an exclusive vendor to quite a few figures -- Toy-accurate Reflector, Star Convoy, the Seacons. You can theoretically get them from other online retailers, but at a 10-20% markup.

Pulse is slow on regular retail releases, but is the best option for imports or its own exclusives. So it's a wash.

Pulse shipping is trickier, because it ultimately depends on your purchasing habits. If you're disciplined with your purchases, you can make the $50 free shipping work for you. I don't know how that works with pre-orders with varying release dates. That could be a deal-breaker. If you're an impulse shopper, especially with the Generations Selects figures, then the free shipping won't work for you at all. I'm in the latter category. I tend to get randomly overwhelmed by FOMO and then rush to buy a figure.

Note that their regular shipping prices are downright usurious. $6 on orders under $50!!!!

Free Pulse Premium has been a huge boon for me all in all, but I don't know that I'd actually pay for it. If I could curb my bad habits and if the pre-order policy allowed for combining items to meet the $50 limit, then I might just well do without it. And if I really did the math, I'm betting that ordering through BBTS or TFSource using their Stack or Pile of Loot system would still be cheaper than either the $50/year cost of Premium or their ridiculous shipping prices.

Moxietron wrote:if the pre-order policy allowed for combining items to meet the $50 limit.

I'm pretty sure this is the case. I believe the qualification for free shipping is at the time of ordering/pre-ordering.

That is what has me leaning away from paying for premium when it runs out. I think I only ordered 1 or 2 things on their own that wouldn't qualify for free shipping.

Did anyone else take the survey Hasbro sent out on Pulse Premium? My stand out talking point is that they asked about the possibility of comping the sub based on purchase amount. That is if I understood the question correctly. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'd spend any more at Pulse than I already am even with that carrot dangled in front of me.

I know there are other benefits for the premium sub, but honestly I've only ever used the free shipping. There are just so many options out there to get free or reduced shipping as is.

There were several other questions about other perks and importance of other perks, but none of them really speak to me.

In the free form questions I mentioned that a standard % off discount or exclusive sales would be a nice perk.

What was your take on the survey or Pulse Premium in general?

Copied from Transformers Generations SELECTS Series Discussion

aronjlove wrote:In that thread they don't seem to understand that free Pulse shipping over $50 is for pre-orders as well, does not matter the release date. I've cancelled then re-ordered an item that ain't shipping for months just to make the current order hit $50 and haven't had a problem yet. Personally, there is no way I would go anywhere else for Selects, as the markup can be ridiculous. No idea how much a Premium Sub to Pulse would be worth though, only time I wanted it was when they had the time-based NYCC pre-orders and Premium subs had 8 hours or so before everyone else.

Shipping is my make or break more often than not. $50 min eh? That's not bad, but even Target ships free at $35. Still way better than some of the online only retailers like TFS or TCP, which ship free at $150. BBTS is my dealer of choice with their $4 flat rate shipping.

I agree on Selects, Pulse is the best place to nab those and where I've gotten all of mine that were not exclusive to other stores. The one exception being Cromar that I got from deep discounts at an absolute steal. Cromar was never on my radar, but I have a hard time walking past crazy deals.

Free shipping and Black Friday were really the only good benefits. None of the other stuff like early access to exclusives or seasonal discounts (aside from BF) really happened, at least not for Transformers. I answered the poll saying spending $50 should qualify a person for free Premium.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Free shipping and Black Friday were really the only good benefits. None of the other stuff like early access to exclusives or seasonal discounts (aside from BF) really happened, at least not for Transformers. I answered the poll saying spending $50 should qualify a person for free Premium.

Emerje

The random pricing errors were a nice "perk"

I should have screen capped all the questions, but the question about SDCC stuff seemed as if it was worded interestingly. They already post all their 'Con exclusives on Pulst right? I feel like I read the question as if they were talking about back stock or left overs or something other than the norm.

I was pretty brutal in my responses

I qualified for the free Premium membership in 2019 because I ordered the Selects Siege Megatron on the first weekend of Pulse's launch. Since then, I have taken great advantage of my membership, primarily as it pertains to free shipping. In all honesty, I haven't ordered a ton of Transformers products from Pulse as they tend to hit brick-and-mortar retailers near me a bit sooner, and I don't have as many concerns about not being able to find specific characters from a given TF assortment. But I do collect a lot of Marvel Legends, and I occasionally cherry-pick from Star Wars Black Series, so I enjoy the certainty of getting the toys I want on pre-order versus hunting doggedly for them in stores without paying the shipping fees other online retailers would charge. I've probably ordered upwards of thirty figures from Pulse in the last year. And considering Pulse has an extremely wasteful practice of fulfilling pre-orders piecemeal, my Premium membership is saving me even more money when they insist on sending me four or five separate packages from a single wave of figures. I think I could easily meet the criteria for a "free Premium membership at XX-dollars spent" upgrade, but even the $50 annual fee would more than likely pay for itself.

On top of that, my membership got me entry to the Pulse booth at last year's Comic-Con, and I was able to grab an item that there's no way I could have otherwise acquired for a reasonable price...especially since the online "Early Access" sale for SDCC exclusives was a royal cluster.

carytheone wrote:I feel like I read the question as if they were talking about back stock or left overs or something other than the norm.

That's how I interpreted it as well. I think the phrase they used was "off shelf". They probably have a few figures that they squirreled away for replacements and parts that are just sitting in a stockroom somewhere similar to the sales Fun Publications did with BotCon and JoeCon exclusives before closing.

Emerje