SpaceCowboy

Going back to the topic of making a bot...my guess is that the amount each person would have to pitch in for a bot would be as much if not more than just paying the mark up that some stores and scalpers already put on the items.  At least the first time.

I do think a decently trivial bot might be possible with something like the python Selenium library.

I'm not sure I buy the whole "poor Bandai, they can barely make a profit at the numbers they are producing and any more would be a loss."  We all loved getting cheap yamatos on sale months after release due to being shelf warmers - that is a very clear case of over production.  But most of what Bandai is selling sells out within minutes.  Not even hours or days.  It would be really interesting to know the minimum increments they could go up.  Maybe they produce 5000 units and the next smallest amount they could produce would be 10,000 and really they have demand for 7000.  That sucks, but that's the only situation I can really understand it not being profitable for them. 

I also don't buy that "well, they don't care about the US market", because if resellers in Japan buy it for resale in the US, Bandai doesn't really care, because the  first point of purchase was from Japan, so to them, it is just stock that was bought in Japan.

I think more likely is that Macross makes up such a small percentage of their revenue stream that if they leave a bit of money on the table, they don't really care as other properties such as Gundam, DragonBall, etc, dwarf Macross and it makes more sense to concentrate on them.

But they really do suck all the enthusiasm out of collecting these multi-hundred dollar, fragile, display pieces.

Quote

The retailers aren't having problems selling all the Macross pre-order units they have so they don't really have an incentive to agree to this offer. Unless, the people agree to buy other stuff that aren't flying off their shelves. 

True.  The real problem is Bandai.  If they would up their production runs or simply have multiple windows to guage true demand, I don't think the problem would be nearly as bad.  I've said it before, feels like they are leaving a ton of money on the table.

HardlyNever speaks truth.

I'm not a web developer, but I am a programmer, and I think most people grossly underestimate the cost of custom programmed software. 

Just counting unique replies here (not the lesser number of who said they would contribute), you are collecting a bit over $100.  $100 buys practically nothing in terms of programmer time.  An hour or two maybe?  If you increase the price, look for some people to drop out or take their chances in preorder madness.

Taking HardlyNever's word at face value, multiple bots would need to be created, one for each major site you want to hit.

Your best bet is having a programmer on this site do this for themselves and just share with you, or try to go to one of these sites and say "look we have 20-30 people that would order from you if you could gaurantee a preorder without the madness" and see if they would play ball.  That sounds more interesting to me as well.

Just putting a warning out there you get what you pay for.

Yeah, I'm curious how it works.  I disassembled the whole thing so that the screws wouldn't rust.  The disassembly + reassembly + masking + repainting was a bit time consuming, but a fun little exercise.  I'm curious if just a 4 hour dunk could remove most of those steps and make it a lot less painful.

From my experiments (I was using really weak pharmacy hydrogen peroxide), the peroxide stripped the paint, but this might have been due to the duration (I left it outside for like a month since the concentration of H202 was so weak).

However, I whitened two old jetfires.  Within a few years you can already see the yellow returning, and they have mostly been in a dark cardboard box in a bedroom (air conditioned) closet.

It's fun to try and it does amazing results at first, just be aware it is unlikely to last long.

You think so?  I have a 3D printer and I've looked at laser scanners (this was a year or so ago), and at least on consumer grade, the precision isn't there for submillimeter accuracy.  I've also printed friction fit parts and the difference between loose and tight can be like 0.25mm.  I use calipers to redesign broken parts and I usually have to trial and error print to get the fit correct.

I'd just be surprised if laser scanners could get that, but maybe a professional/expensive laser scanner could get there...Just saying these are high precision parts to get the types of allowances these toys have, even the KOs.

I have about half of those Star Trek Micromachines - they work great as stand ins for the Fleet Captains board game.

Yeah, I just picked it up at target for $35.  Jesus this thing is huge.  I may have made a mistake.  I blame you Slave IV...

However the idea of him doing battle with my 3.75 inch figures is very appealing.  Looks like he could eat them with ease.

:O

I must have this.

Hey Slave IV, i think i have that same dino, it has a button to push to open the mouth, right?  How did you get it to stay open for the camera?

This is also a dead give away:
" Private Feedback - This member, mayuancheng26888, has decided to make his/her Feedback comments private. Feedback can still be left for this user and the Feedback ratings left are shown above in summary format. Learn more about private Feedback. "

Meaning - he's gotten so much bad feedback he's just hidden it.

I got taken by a few Chinese scammers.  How to spot them - only purchase from accounts that have near 100% satisfication.  99%-97% can be okay PROVIDED they have tons of feedback and most/all of the negative feedback isn't recent.  Second, don't purchase from accounts that are less than a year or two old.  Finally - any time an item is marked down amazingly low, take it with a grain of salt, ESPECIALLY if it is coming from China.  Even KOs have a general market value that you can suss out by seeing what reputable chinese sellers are selling it for (see the first two hints).  So if you see a Figma KO selling for roughly $30-$50 from most Chinese sellers, and suddenly you find one for $8, chances are, that is a scam.

Every time I go to ebay to buy a KO, I'll sort by price, and end up skipping the first page or so as most of those are from accounts less than a year old selling at unreasonably low prices compared to what it should probably be. 

Yes, you can generally get your money back, but considering it might take weeks for an item to arrive stateside, then weeks of trying to "resolve" the problem through ebay, then for ebay/your CC company to investigate and determine, yes this was fraud, it's best to try to avoid all that hassle to begin with.

 

Re: Marvel Legends Classic Hulk
Are we talking this guy?
http://marveltoynews.com/sdcc-2019-exclusive-marvel-legends-vintage-hulk-figure-revealed/

@tekering

Apologies if you've already gone over this - but I'm going to be getting some extra space in a new house and I'd like to get some glass display cases (perhaps with lighting) - where did you get yours?

Also, is that diorama completely custom?  That looks freaking amazing....

If you were on the fence on the Valkyrie Factory VF-1S Roy, it is currently on sale at 15% off on Show.Z

https://showzstore.com/valkyrie-factory-1-60-vf-1s-macross-arcadia-compatible_p0290.html

$110 

I got the Rick with strike parts a while back, and I think it is pretty well done.  I saw one review have problems with some pieces (the head cover) snapping.  The chest plate on mine was very tight, but I loosened the screws holding it in place, and that seemed to fix the problem.

I was very much on the fence on buying a Roy, but decided I have enough valks I don't need a second KO as well.

TWE - Timed Web Exclusive, I believe.

Thing is, people treat TWE as if you won't have problems with them.  I believe the VF-31A was a TWE (which is why it was the only time I've ever ordered 2 of something, thinking it was a safe deal), and it took NY literally months post release to ship my product.

Re NY:  I think they raise the price incrementally during the preorder phase to account for the difficulty in obtaining the item once it is released.  So every "wave" they do, they just assume it will cost them more to obtain the same item.  This also might explain why it can take so long to fulfill a difficult to get item.  They are only willing to take so much of a loss before they decide to just wait for the price to go down.

For fulfillment, from the VF-31A debacle, it does kind of look like a first come first serve, but it also looks like they try to fulfill all singles first, earliest orders first, then all doubles, earliest orders first.

3 hours ago, Tenbatsu said:

Wow, another 40+ units at NY. They are really good at procuring, I think they have sold at least a thousand VF-1S.

I don't think they procure all of those.  I think they "sell" how ever many they think they will be able to get their hands on later, and just bet that they can get it cheaper than what they are selling it for.  VF-31A fiasco seems to indicate they sell more than they are alotted then they have to scramble to find stock from other retailers.  Even though the VF-1S is available from them right now, after the VF-31A, I'm reluctant to put a preorder in there.

I don't mind paying up front, but I dislike that they will only refund store credit if they aren't able to meet their end of the bargain.  And there is no timeline for when they have to meet their end of the bargain.  You could get your VF-1S 2 years later and they will consider that they have fullfilled their obligation.

What is a legit place that even has them at markup discounting NY?

Was replying to Gerwookie - but yeah, I'd be fine with up front payment as well.  I learned about this sale 5 hours after it happened which was about 4 hours and 59 minutes too late to do anything about it.  I sort of want a VF-1S Hikaru but now I'm left out in the cold.  

What I don't get is that is exactly what preorders are for.  To gauge interest.  I have a hard time believing the parts have already been manufactured and they can't set a number based on how fast preorders sold out.  VF-1S doesn't ship until November.  

I didn't even realize they were doing the 1S already.  I thought they just had the VF-1J and VF-1A announced.  Is the Roy preorder date announced yet?  As much as I detest this preorder madness, I'd likely try for him.   Still convinced Bandai enjoys leaving money on the table with how many they produce.  

"I will probably spring for the Bandai DX 1/48 VF-1S Focker, though. Gotta have at least one of those."

You and everyone else in the 30 seconds that it is available for pre order. 

The whole "we aren't their market" doesn't hold water.  As far as Bandai is concerned their product is being bought.  Perhaps it is being bought by retailers to resale in regions that Bandai doesn't sell directly too, but the product is still being bought.  I understand that the production runs might be in increments of the 1000s and they don't want to overproduce and have overstock that then takes money to store.  However, with Max and DB Super Broly, both items sold out in the matter of minutes.  If they were to open further preorder windows with changing quantities available they could produce to nearly at demand and take all the money the scalpers are making for themselves and give their fans a better price at the same time.  These products are 6 months out or more.  You could even have the additional preorder windows simply mean you get your products a bit after everyone else.  If the preorder was selling out in days or a week, it might not make sense to open it again, but when it is selling out in minutes, I have to think you are leaving N multiples of the amount you are producing in cash on the table.  Hell, you could even sale from your own website, and have a counter for "how many unique ids visited this after it was sold out" and get a sense of demand.  The way they do it makes no sense, and turns people off to collecting.