[ SECRET POST #2546 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2546 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 054 secrets from Secret Submission Post #363.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. http://i.imgur.com/xl36Cu3.png

[morieris]

I know how you feel - almost. I live in the boondocks where we got ONE of EACH FCA girl at our Target. Someone I knew got them, in early November, and we didn't get anymore until about last week. God forbid you know the DCPI and have to explain to someone who works there who you're looking for, and yes I know it says you have this doll in stock, but they share the same damn number (& I don't blame the employees so much as Mattel for not labeling individual dolls separately & the fact that the employees have bigger things to worry about in their lives)

We have a shitton of Jane at Tru and Justice. We have shittons of every thing everyone else wants, but not a damn Cerise for me. But I have to stop and think about people in other countries who are still waiting on Picture Day.

[(Anonymous)]

Check Wal-Mart for Cerise. I saw her and Blondie last week at my (in the middle of effing no-where) store.

[morieris]

I actually did yesterday; We still haven't gotten any EAH at our Walmarts...which is weird, because they've advertised them for about a month now.

I ordered her from Justice two weeks ago, and they just shipped her Saturday.

[(Anonymous)]

I find being in a community can help. There are a lot of collectors in those states that are willing to buy and send the doll to you at little to no extra cost other than what the buying and sending cost.

But scalpers have been the bane of MH since the start, really.

[morieris]

This is true. Especially for older dolls - some people in a LJ comm I'm in have offered W1 Basics for only 30$. While that's a little more than retail, for something not made anymore, it's pretty good. I got a Signature Abbey for only 20$.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel you :( On a related note, videogames in Europe are often like that, with the difference that when they're not region-locked sometimes you can import them from the US and there's a chance that the final price will not even be that inflated; when they ARE region-locked, though, you often have to wait for months for them to be available while you're missing out on the fandom, and when they finally get out prices are often directly translated from dollars to euro, so 60 dollars is 60 euro which is actually more than 80 dollars and you often have to wait some more that prices go down and by then the fandom is dead and...

The unfairness of things being released at different times around the world :(

[elaminator]

:( You don't have any friends who live in any of the states that get the dolls early? If you do I bet one of them wouldn't mind sending them to you.

That sounds extremely annoying, OP. IDK why they wouldn't ship them everywhere at the same time.

(I don't collect the dolls, but I think some of them are pretty cute. Probably would've bought one this Christmas if I'd had time to shop.)

Secret 2 - Monster High

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is a line-up of profile pictures of characters from the "Monster High" brand of dolls.]

I hate that some states get these dolls weeks to months before other states. It just doesn't seem fair that I can't buy the ones I want because our stores don't sell them yet, but people in other states can get them now and sell them for twice the price. I don't see how it would be difficult to have them all sold at the same time. I don't even live in the middle of nowhere, I'm in a fairly big town and no place within fifty miles even has the ones I want. It just doesn't seem fair. All I wanted was a Jane Boolittle for Christmas, but I can't get one even though I saw people have had her since freaking Thanksgiving.

[sootyowl]

Wow, that's a really shitty doll distribution move. I don't own any of this dolls, but if I was a collector, I'd think this was unfair too.

Maybe try ebay? People might have them there at (hopefully) decent prices.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe it's a importing/customs problem between states?

Or someone out there is laughing evilly and twirling mustaches as they arbitrarily mess with some customers for kicks idk

[(Anonymous)]

There is no customs between states for these types of goods. The only goods that are controlled in that way are things that could carry insects that could damage crops. Plants, fruit, veggies, etc... those have special rules on how they move state to state for good reason. But states don't give a damn about plastic dolls.

Most likely this is done because of poor distribution networks or spotty demand in those areas that don't get the dolls right away.

[(Anonymous)]

From a marketing perspective, I wouldn't be surprised if this were an intentional move to raise value to the audience. This is the case particularly around the holidays as parents are waiting eagerly to get their children the toy they've been whining for.

It's a good, strategic move. It just sucks you happen to be on the other end of it.

[silvereriena]

That sucks, OP. :T Is it possible to maybe order them online or would it be too expensive with shipping?

I've seen people take photos of their MH dolls, and they just look GORGEOUS. If I weren't jobless at the moment I might try to start collecting them.

[(Anonymous)]

You sound American :P

(Only because most of the world is resigned to at least sometimes not always getting the latest big thing at the earliest opportunity. You sound... surprised.)

[(Anonymous)]

It might not be a statewide toy conspiracy. Many years ago, my mom was buying Star Wars toys for me, and there might only be 1 or 2 Leias in a giant box of toys. If you didn't get there immediately, they'd be gone.

Call the store, or go there and ask someone in the toy department when they get the shipments from that vendor, or when they get MH toys in. If you can, go there first thing in the morning--if you get there early enough, they probably won't have even stocked the shelves yet, and the MH dolls will still be in a box in the aisle, and you can pop it open and go through it, looking for the one you want. And there may only be one in the box. I don't know enough about the show to know how popular (or not) the one you want is, but it could very well be the case that she's just hard to come by in general, and the people who have her have gotten lucky, or know when the toys come in and have sniped her.

That specific toy being made scarce everywhere by the vendor makes more sense than the guys in shipping going, "Well, this one's going to Wisconsin, better make sure there's no Janes in it!"

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a toy hunter who casually collects MH and honestly, I find the weird distribution adds to the thrill of the hunt. We had Gigi waaaay before everyone else in my area but then she disappeared for AGES. Of course, during that time I decided I wanted her to add to my small collection. She finally showed up again today and it made my day to snatch her up!

Distribution is a funny thing. When I collected G3 My Little Ponies, there was a set that included Cherry Blossom and Shenanigans. No one could find them anywhere! They were the rare ones in the box. I was in college at the time in a small mountain town and our nearby Target and Wal-Mart had nothing. Imagine my surprise when I went grocery shopping at Kroger and who was sitting there? These two rare ponies!

I personally think weird distribution adds to the fun! But that might just be me.

(I would kill for s Signature Abby though and I fear for the second hand market so I do feel for you there)

[blunderbuss]

Wow, OP, a few months? Try many months or YEARS with a huge price mark-up, if they're made available at all, or dealing with huge international shipping fees if they deign to ship to your country.

Honestly, listening to Americans complain about having to wait a little for products is like listening to a rich guy with a fancy car complain about the upkeep costs. You're a lot better off than everyone else OP.

[callmewing]

Welcome to toy distribution and the suckitude that comes with it! 90% of the time you can blame the stores for how much they order and stock. (The other 10% is the odd case of case breakdowns and shortpacking screwing over certain fans of certain characters.)

That said, if online retailers are an option, BigBadToyStore has a Jane doll in stock. (I don't go to Monster High so I don't know if there's other versions that you may be looking for.) Not sure how the price is compared to brick and mortar stores, but BBTS has hella nice service and it's better than paying scalper prices.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly OP? It's a crap-shoot on distribution.

I work at a Target along the east coast in a podunk town, and we ended up getting FCA dolls as SOON as they came out. And this was a case of Honey 2x, Clawdia 2x and Elisabat 2x. And not a day later, we got in TWO Scaris Deuces. I wanted to cry, because I know how rare the boy dolls are but I have neither the funds or the space to collect any MH dolls :(

[otakugal15]

Ugh, I know. I'm DYING to get Cerise Hood and Viperine, but they have yet to hit TN stores. :C

Though we do have Jane and the Art Class dolls, which surprised me like all get out. AND we got Honey fairly early. O_o However, I have yet to see any of them since I bought them, so...
Either we've been getting really REALLY limited stock and I got lucky, or Scalpers have come for them.

I know some parents who go after them, but when I went in one day inquiring about Scarah, one of the cashiers said there was a lady who bought a boatload of them, so, most likely my stores have been trolled by a fucking scalper. B/