MR CE's

[Montagar]

Originally posted by tripoli@Feb 16 2006, 09:25 AM
"MRs plan - and it's just a plan (I've no idea if it will work or not) - is that by only selling LEs from their website for retail you won't see these crashing LE prices that we've seen of late, so there will be a real differential between the LEs and CEs in terms of price."

If MR is planning to drop their sales distribution with the LE's to Sharper Image, QVC, FAO,  and others, then yes, you won't see the drops except on ebay with the secondary market.
If they cut out that distribution nodes,  they must feel they can afford to take the sales drop with the added income selling direct will give them.  Icons tried this as a last ditch effort to keep afloat and it was another nail in their coffin. 
Generally the sales tactic works if you are big enough and the demand is strong enough.  Its a gutsy move.  Some distributors are wary to add a company back on if they have been dropped like this in the past, caused a drop of product loyalty which is hard to re-establish.  Some collectors like the hunt for a bargain and some just cannot afford the purchase without the discounts they find.  If they base this on the strength of the franchise license, they have to realize that leaning on that strength instead of their own can backfire on them both for sales and with the view from the licensee.
If MR is basing this decision on the fact they think the CE's will be strong enough to keep their distributors market going, in my opinion, they are screwing the pooch with that marketing decision.
It will be interesting to watch how this all falls.

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From what I understand, MR will only be selling Star Wars LE items exclusively, all other moive items (LE or not) and Star Wars items such as studio scale (even if it is LE), CE, Force FX and certain helmets as well are and will still be available to resellers.

 

[tripoli]

That would make sense, there is no way distributors could stand on the ce's alone.

 

[Gigatron]

Honestly, I hope they revisit all of their PT sabers (at least) with the CE line, and at a reasonable price point (between $100 and $125).

Why? I can't afford $369 for a pretty paper weight. For $100, I don't feel so bad about picking it up and "playing" with it. I'd like to have full size PT sabers to display with my full size OT sabers. Right now, my collection is full size OT and .45 PT. And if I could get affordable full size PT, I might just purchase .45 OT.

-Fred

 

[Sporak]

I'll add my voice to the pro CE camp...I think it's a great thing for everyone to be able to afford these sabers...3-400 dollars is just too much really...all metal, all gold or all jello...

Sure I have some of these LE's all metal and love em...but I do feel the price is and always has been too high.
Simply out of circumstance was I able to aquire a few of these...if I had to build my whole collection with them though...well, I never would have.

The CE's let collectors in all price ranges afford an official prop thats been researched off of the real props in most cases..and even though made of "some" resin parts is still accurate to the filming prop.And in most cases...MORE accurate than the all metal props...

I think it's a great thing.

Man, you can't collect props as an investment...you've got to want the pieces for what they are...

I have tons of "collectables" that no one wants that SHOULD have gone up in value...but haven't. That's not the point though...

I mean if you want to collect for increased value..collect gold coins instead.

 

[jordankarr]

Look I am still up in the Air about the CE's. They are a great Idea in the mass market stand point, but thier current Suggested Retailer price is just too high for Resin and aluminium. For 199.00 I could almost have a nice custom saber machined from some of the guys out there.

Granted, I think MR is shooting themselfs in the foot by trying to float their majority sales of LE items themselfs, but I honestly think they should keep their retailers in the LE loop and set guidelines on how low they can mark MR products down too. That would prevent the rock bottom market prices we see some of their select items going for. No product can be lower then say 25% off of MSRP.

I know in the CE line if it was priced right around 130 or 140 an item I would pick up a Qui gon, Dooku, and probably a EP2 Windu sabers, just to have some of the harder to find sabers in my personal collection. But at 200 a pop, I might as well pay an additonal 150 for the LE and be done with it. I also feel they need to be a bit speedy with the CE line development, they cant sit on their behinds on the CE qui-gon and think well we can put another out in 6 months and people will gobble them up. They need variety ASAP if the line is to succeed.

I know a 130 to 140 is priced near their FX line but lets be honest here the FX line needs to drop to around 89.99 Retail. At that price, its still more expensive then the Hasbro Kiddy saber, but still with in a respectable price for the quality. (Yeah I know thats a pipe dream, as LFL controls MRs prices)

plus its been stated already, but if for 120 a pop I can get a saber that lights up and look similar to what we have seen on screen, then why should I pay 80 dollars more for a static resin/aluminium saber that does nothing but sit there.

So I guess its time to start buying up MR stuff before it gets scarce if they go under because they could not figure out how to market their products to the masses.

 

[tripoli]

"So I guess its time to start buying up MR stuff before it gets scarce if they go under because they could not figure out how to market their products to the masses."

It depends. If they are in a strong fiscal position and or are not dependant on that franchise to keep financially afloat, itÂ’s worth a try fiscally for them to see if they can make a higher profit. If they are in trouble, itÂ’s the most foolish thing they can do right now.

"Those who do not from history are bound to repeat the mistakes of history"

 

[Montagar]

Originally posted by jordankarr@Feb 16 2006, 06:31 PM
Granted, I think MR is shooting themselfs in the foot by trying to float their majority sales of LE items themselfs, but I honestly think they should keep their retailers in the LE loop and set guidelines on how low they can mark MR products down too.  That would prevent the rock bottom market prices we see some of their select items going for.  No product can be lower then say 25% off of MSRP.

MR already had pricing guidelines for their products but I can only imagine that it was almost impossible to police it. IIRC it was something like no more than a 6% discount for the first 6 months that a product was available for order.

MR recently eliminated that policy and I am assuming it was because of the LE distribution change (although as I noted above the distribution change does not affect studio scale or non-Star Wars items).

 

[tripoli]

Then what MR needs to do is draw up a business plan that allocates all the expenses to the point they know what they need to sell at what price to make the intended profit.

Then just sell them and let the market determine the final consumer price.

They get their pre-determined profit at the wholsale price sold and whatever happens afterwards happens. They keep saying they are selling collectors pieces but they don't want them to sell in a collectors market with varying values. Then they say they want to protect the consumer by regulating the final selling price.

Either it is a collectable piece that can flucuate or its is not. They need to be consistant and make up their minds.

Saying they are going to control the prices by selling the LE's themselves is bullcrap. The secondary market will still determine a value on them. The only thing that does is cuts out the middle man distributor so they can make a better profit at the initial sale on that particular line.
And if they want to make a line that is cost effective for the average consumer then they definately need to lower the price on the ce's. How many LE collectors hear from the average person "You paid how much for that piece of metal?"
CE's are still being made for Star Wars collectors, but its an inert play piece made of much cheaper materials. The sales you get from the average person at Best Buy on the mini line is NOT going to happen with the ce line. The average consumer won't pay such prices for a pretty piece of plastic.

WHO'S the target consumer, what are you selling and what is it in relation to the bang for the buck to other like items on the market? If they are not willing to honestly answer those questions and look at the intended consumers audience out there MR is going top experience rought times with these lines and its consumer base.

 

[Montagar]

Originally posted by tripoli@Feb 17 2006, 09:39 AM
Then what MR needs to do is draw up a business plan that allocates all the expenses to the point they know what they need to sell at what price to make the intended profit.

Then just sell them and let the market determine the final consumer price.

They get their pre-determined profit at the wholsale price sold and whatever happens afterwards happens. They keep saying they are selling collectors pieces but they don't want them to sell in a collectors market with varying values.  Then they say they want to protect the consumer by regulating the final selling price.

Either it is a collectable piece that can flucuate or its is not.  They need to be consistant and make up their minds.

Saying they are going to control the prices by selling the LE's themselves is bullcrap.  The secondary market will still determine a value on them. The only thing that does is cuts out the middle man distributor so they can make a better profit at the initial sale on that particular line. 
And if they want to make a line that is cost effective for the average consumer then they definately need to lower the price on the ce's.  How many LE collectors hear from the average person "You paid how much for that piece of metal?"
CE's are still being made for Star Wars collectors, but its an inert play piece made of much cheaper materials.  The sales you get from the average person at Best Buy on the mini line is NOT going to happen with the ce line. The average consumer won't pay such prices for a pretty piece of plastic.

WHO'S the target consumer, what are you selling and what is it in relation to the bang for the buck to other like items on the market?  If they are not willing to honestly answer those questions and look at the intended consumers audience out there MR is going top experience rought times with these lines and its consumer base.

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IMHO, I think MR has looked at the success of Sideshow's LE's and decided (to a certain extent) to emulate their distribution strategy. Sideshow has a very, very limited reseller/distributor network and because of it you don't see their items showing up on the secondary market at prices that are lower than what a dealer could sell them for.

United Cutlery is a perfect example of this, since there are two resale pricing levels (one for dealers and one for distributors, with the distributor price being lower), you find distributors emptying their stock to the public at prices that are the same if not lower than the price that a dealer paid for the same item.

Sideshow has done a good job of controlling the secondary market pricing using this limited reseller/distributor strategy and therefore keeping the LE's from falling below a certain price point, giving the appearance of the collectables retaining their original value. I could be wrong, but I don't think I have seen much complaining from people about having to purchase most of the Sideshow items directly from Sideshow and at their "MSRP". I think that MR is attempting to gain that kind of control when it comes to certain Star Wars LE items.

The SW CE is somewhat of an attempt to give the reseller/distributor market something to fill the gap that is left by the new SW LE plan, but unless the dealer cost if low enough to accommodate selling these CEs for a low enough price to really generate demand, I don't think it will have the desired outcome.

I base my MR strategy assumptions partially on the fact that they have already attempted to emulate Sideshow's open-ended/TBA LE edition sizes.

 

[tripoli]

That would be a decent stratedgy if they had the large customer base Sideshow has. But with the limited numbered editions and one franchise versus what Sideshow does, I have my doubts that it would work and rather that it might backfire poorly for them. Given the added recent problems of quality control and trying to suddenly commit so many products to the limited customer base in so short of a period of time, cutting out distributors is a text book formula for failure. Adding a poorly priced product to correct for that is heaping one mistake upon another.

In business, one or two small mistakes won't ussually hurt you. But a bunch of small ones that add up to a huge one or two can kill you. Hope that will not be the case.