No, I understand the concept of signing someone like Gretzky entirely. You paid through the nose, so you need to use him as much as you can. The Team Canada figure is fantastic news. But....
Too many Gretzky's and they've already made a very serious error they may not be able to recover from. The Kings Gretzky is littering pegs here like nothing ever has before. It's already marked down at Walmart ($10 vs regular retail of $13.92 there) but won't be marked down at the other major retailers, all of whom charge $15.95. Walmart will drop it to $5 shortly (has in some places) but even then, I don't think they'll all go. Between two Walmarts here there are easily 100+ of that damn figure. Oh, you can still find blue Oilers Gretzky's as well sitting at $10 (remember, that's a sale price for us).
I don't think the next Kings Gretzky will sell well either. Oh sure, the variant will go, but that's it. This is just a regular Kings Gretzky, not some memorable moment with a unique pose either. Then two more Gretzky's? What, Blues and Rangers??? Big whoop, variants sell, regs sit. And this is a place where Tie Domi didn't sit this long. They overproduced, retailers know it, collectors know it, casual buyers know it and are pissed off because they paid more than they should have. It's killing the case market for small retailers.
I completely understand, but why is TMP doing the same thing that killed SLU's that the MAN himself criticized?
I also understand Orr and Howe not being available, but it's not like there are no other legends in hockey that could be made. The new lineup, minus more Gretzky's is great. And there are hundreds of other HOFers and nonHOFers that would more readily be bought at regular retail. All I'm suggesting is they should have spread it out more. I already know of retailers that refused Legends I because they knew how many Gretzky figures would be in it and just how poorly they'd sell. Sorry, but TMP made a huge gaffe.
With respect to Orr and Howe, indeed, they may never be made. But my biggest fear is not that they don't get made because they don't sign with TMP or are too expensive. My biggest fear is that interest at the retailer level is dead because they have too ******* many Gretzky figures being sold below cost or hanging around for months and months. And that's what I see happening.
Remember, there is a market in the US for these, but Walmarts in major centers up here order 30-50 cases of these. That may be nothing compared to US Walmarts, but it is still a very significant component of the hockey business for TMP. I live in a small town by US standards, a hair under 700,000 people. We have six Walmarts - 180-300 cases. We have six Zellers stores (kinda like Kmart/Target), 4-5 cases each so 24-30 cases. We have six superstores, 5 cases each - another 30 cases. We have two TRU who carry about 10 cases each, so 20 more cases. High end estimate is 400 cases for a small city. Anything in the US compare to that on a per capita basis? Nope, not a chance in hell, not with hockey. That doesn't count small communities or smaller stores either. The US is huge, but hockey is Canada.
If I'm a casual buyer, I walk into Walmart, see a cool Gretzky figure and drop $15 on it after taxes. Two months down the road I see it for $5 or less
Guess what I'm not buying at full retail next time.
And no matter what McFarlane may think, the average person does not collect these things like hockey cards. They're too big, hard to move and more expensive, relative to Todd's card collecting heyday.
