[TheBlueMarvel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

Possibly, but if you look at what you've just said, the market isn't untapped. It's out there spending its' money, just not always in traditional retail modes.

The easiest way I can put it is this: Most collectors only have so much money to spend on toys, and most of them spend that money year after year, whether on mainstream retail, kickstarters, ordering stuff online, auction sites/secondary market, subscription services, or otherwise.... (Usually a combination of all of the above).

Introduce enough new cool stuff...and there simply isn't the money out there to sustain it. For example, I dropped a lot of cash on kickstarters this year...a grand total of two of them. If next year there are three or four cool action figure kickstarters, I'm either going to have to get considerably less of each, or decide which ones I'm going to support and which ones I won't. In the grand scheme of things, that's just moving money around, not actually bringing more/new money into the market. If you're hitting an "untapped" market you'd have to be bringing more/new money into the hobby as a whole.

You've shifted the conversation slightly. I was not suggesting that the market was "untapped" for producers of toys, it was the retailers to whom I was referring.

The market is untapped for a retailer by virtue of the fact that adults are buying these toys in venues other than "brick-and-mortar" (store fronts). From a retail-marketing perspective: if it's selling "anywhere", then it can sell "here". The non-traditional modes of purchase you alluded to represent potential dollars for any traditional retail franchise. The major challenge for retailers becomes one of how to direct traffic through their doors.

There are a number of methods retailers can (and do ) employ to achieve this feat. Collectors are already well familiar with store exclusives, so that's one tried-and-true technique. Retailers could win back some online shoppers with clever pricing incentives to off-set what online shoppers may pay in shipping/handling fees (not to mention most items cost the same or more on sites like eBay - online isn't cheaper in most situations as it pertains to collectable figures) and the convenience of not having to wait for delivery is an obvious boon to business. Thinking out of the box; retailers might approach some of these successful Kickstarter campaigns and negotiate second runs with limited numbers (a spin on the exclusive concept). Update/Edit (added bits)Although it wasn't a Kickstarter, I'd like to see a re-run of Four Horsemen Studio's initial Gothitropolis line. The Gothitropolis Ravens line, which was a Kickstarter, wasn't really my cup of tea. I wasn't aware of Gothitropolis Scarabus until it was too late, missing out on getting a number of figures that I'd like to own from that line (Anubos, Horos, Thothos, and Nergall). In this scenario, I'd actually represent new business for both the producer and any retailer that could work out a deal of this nature.Update/Edit(end) There are ways all of this could work. It just takes a little thought and a little understanding of how the field has changed.....

All that said, I'm an pretty unlikely advocate for retail since I buy almost everything online.