There are a couple of reasons why this year's exclusives all sold out and are up on ebay.
2002 - Crimson Set
1) low quantity produced of actual crimson color sets (the fuschia set..well that's another story)
2) caught the community off guard
3) army builder set
4) no additional souvenirs except HISS that was attendee exclusive
This set was something different at the time, but in my opinion is not that great. That's why the prices for these are high
2003 - Operation Anaconda
1) can't recall the official number of sets but I think loose sets were 350
2) bonus souvenirs caught community off guard
3) HISS 2 limited to 350 and Firefly 2 pack 500 sets
4) no extras showing up on ebay from Asia
The box set was availalble at the club store after the con, but all souvenirs sold out on Friday. However, the cool air viper was available for the longest time.
2004 - Dreadnok Rampage
1) they increased the amount of sets and bagged sets
2) figures were flooded all over ebay from Asian sellers and still are
3) the set was not an army builder or desireable one for many
4) bonus souvenirs increased to 800 sets and they were lackluster
This is where the troubles began for the club. They would have to haul back a ton of unsold stuff that just took up storage space which has a cost associated with it. The con set and figure exclusives are still at the store.
2005 - Mars
1) awesome set with probably the same number of boxed sets as the year before
2) good exclusives
3) again, all available on ebay from asian sellers
4) they had to roll out a blue deck to get rid of the stock of tiger rays and at a price of $75
Community gets used to not rushing to get all pieces as they are widely available, with the exception of the sky hawks which I think sold out at the con. Club again has a huge amount of stock that sits in storage.
People who are on the fence can always pick up stuff at a later time or those who may not have the funds right away can do the same.
2006 - cobra's Most Wanted
1) Club increases the amount of exclusives to 1000. If they have not sold out in previous years, why do this?
2) the set was also lackluster as were all the exclusives in my opinion. they could have done a lot more with mortal, slaughter. the renegades were technically all identical.
3) figures no longer appear in mass quantity from Asia
Everything was available after the con. Slaughter eventually sold out because many had to get 2, one signed to keep MOC and one to open.
Also, wrestling fans wanted one.
The community continues to see that they can always pick things up later.
2007 - Anniversary set
1) good set
2) lowered the number of exclusives
3) no figs from Asia
4) no tanks but figs available
5) Piper fig
again, Piper sold out because everyone wanted one signed and MOC and one to open.
wrestling fans wanted a fig of one of the coolest wrestling characters.
Since the tanks were not available more people scooped up the 2 pack. That with the fact that the quantity was lowered.
The club realizes that in order to sell through everything, they have to lower the number of sets and exclusives.
They also realize that in order to get rid of vehicles, include a figure (which I think is genious on their part). That's why the club still has a ton of warthogs.
2008 - Headhunters
1) army builder set with fan favs.
2) decrease in sets produced
3) decrease in exclusives
4) no figs coming out of Asia
5) new character and mech for exclusives.
Now all hell has broken loose as all exclusives sold out. Even the box sets might be on their way to doing the same.
To sum it all up, the club is first and foremost a business. If they do not sell through all their exclusives, there is a monetary cost in continuing to store everything. They don't want to over produce and be stuck with items for years (like we see with what's still available at the club store). So they look to produce an amount that ensures nothing to take back as we saw with this year and the 2003 exclusives.
Obviously for the fans this sucks, as this leads to scalping. Not everyone is going to be able to get them, afford them, or willing to pay the price. The club can only do so much to stop people from buying multiples, but really do they care? As long as everything sells out, they made their money and don't have to take anything back to store.
If they go back to producing 1000 sets for each exclusive, they'll go out of business. As they'll sell maybe 2/3 of them and have the rest sit in storage for eternity.
They could have held some for non atendees, but they want to give people attending...well a reason to attend. It forces people to attend.
I'm sure the club can do many things to improve their image, but they need to survive as a business. They've made many mistakes through out the years, so the fans ahve to suffer. I won't defend the club. However as a business, I can agree with what they have to do.
I attended the 2004 and 2005 cons, which were a blast. During those years, the figs were all still easily attainable post con. So no need to hook anyone up.
It's true that there didn't seem to be a whole lot of helping hands to hook up everyone up this year. It could be that the people thay normally help out didn't attend or some people wanted to grab as many as they could to resell on ebay or recoup the cost of attending the con.
If someone has a chance to make a buck, they will. I don't blame them at all because that's the kind of society we live in.
Whatever the case, it seems the pandora's pox has been opened and from here on out that's just how it's going to be.
Sorry for the rant.
