Author Topic: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive  (Read 29507 times)

Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #30 on: January 6, 2016, 11:40 AM »
An interesting discussion about wanting to get foot traffic in the store, but the exclusives just don't work well out my way in SoCal. Here are two examples:

1) We never got wave 2 and the only reason I got wave 3 was because the Hasbro rep at my closest store found two cases sitting on a shelf in back that was not designated for stocking.

2) Monday took my out of my usual area and I stopped in a Walmart in Redondo Beach to check it out. The SW section was gone! They reset with one peg for SW. It was labeled Rebel Assist, had the two newer rebel figures on the peg (TFA packaging,) AND it was in the middle of the die cast section.  ??? I asked the toy person with the scanner in the action figure isle where the SW section was and she said, predictably, that they weren't carrying SW anymore. Now, you and I have heard this every year from WM since 1996. It's never true. This does't happen ever at Target.

WM is such a bad choice for exclusives for SW. At least where I live.
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #31 on: January 6, 2016, 11:52 AM »
Just an FYI that I moved the "I hate the fact that Walmart is carrying these" / "I hate the fact that Walmart.com is not carrying these" discussion over here to clean up the Wave 3 thread a bit.  Feel free to continue bagging on Walmart here as needed. ;)
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Offline JediJman

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #32 on: January 6, 2016, 04:00 PM »
My point was that Walmart (or any other retailer) isn't signing up for these exclusives just to sell the items themselves.  They could care less about you and your ability to easily get these through a nearby store or online.  The strategy is to to use these sales to drive traffic (online or in store) in the hopes that shoppers scoop up a bunch of other stuff in addition to the exclusive figure. I think that's far more likely to happen via in-store purchase than online, so there's plenty of rationale  for not putting them on the website from their end.

I feel for people that can't easily get to a WM and are frustrated that they're not available online, especially after WM stated they would be.  But people also need to realize that retailers don't care about making sure you get your figure for your collection.  Walmart can't seem to keep even the repacks on the pegs, so the smarter decision is to make sure stores have ample supply before making them available online.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #33 on: January 6, 2016, 07:01 PM »
I can't honestly think of any retailer that wouldn't garner some kind of complaining.

I love EE, but seriously they're going to charge more and that's going to raise dander.  Or they'll be highly limited.  Or they'll force you to buy by the case including repacks. 

Amazon...  They'll put stickers on the boxes and people will bitch.  Or they'll charge too much.  Or they'll charge too much then drop the price and people will bitch they did that then.

Target...  DPCI trick will get used, stores get cleared out, individual UPC's won't be used and people will bitch there's held up replenishment because of the DPCI, blah blah blah.

TRU...  Price, availability, stockroom scalpers, whatever...

The point I am making here, is nobody would do this perfectly and Hasbro Toy Shop is NEVER an option.  If it were Hasbro would've used it by now I'm afraid.  They don't.  I'm sure they have a good reason for that.

Hasbro heard NOTHING but complaining that there was only 5POA.  Then they put out a SA 3.75" line for collectors, but it is exclusive for a variety of reasons.  They then hear about how that's stupid and blah blah blah... 

There is no "win" here.  The only "win" is that there's some SA main characters for the 3.75" line, and that makes me happy as a guy who isn't into 5POA and really only wanted SA or near SA with the line.

I got Poe out last night, and opened him, and he was a blast.  I had fun posing him, and loosening up his joints carefully, and getting him all cool looking and hanging out with some X-Wing pilots...  I had fun.
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Offline Rob

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #34 on: January 6, 2016, 11:50 PM »
I think Walmart was always far more interested in getting that collector foot traffic into the stores, rather than making this exclusive subline easy to acquire online.  I know that I made plenty of trips to Walmart without being successful getting any Black Series 3.75" figures of the 6" Battlefront Shocktrooper.  Those trips numbered at least 10 to 1 in terms of number of trips to the number of times that I was able to get the figures.  WalMart is playing those odds that in those trips where you don't find the exclusive you may buy something else.  And it does happen.

Well that's great for some, but ten trips to Walmart for me is like fifteen hours in the car.   Not happening... The fact that they don't put them online after saying that they will makes me less likely to favorably consider Walmart for other things at times when I'm maybe in an area that has a store.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #35 on: January 7, 2016, 12:05 AM »
And that's the crossroads of collecting...  It's either worth it or it isn't ultimately.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #36 on: January 7, 2016, 12:08 AM »
Well that's great for some, but ten trips to Walmart for me is like fifteen hours in the car.   Not happening... The fact that they don't put them online after saying that they will makes me less likely to favorably consider Walmart for other things at times when I'm maybe in an area that has a store.

So you're not going to make any trips to Walmart to look for these because they're so far away.  But those rare times when you are near a Walmart and might need something else they carry and may have stopped in, well now you may be less likely to do so.  I feel like they're going to be okay with that. 
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #37 on: January 7, 2016, 09:18 AM »
I think Walmart was always far more interested in getting that collector foot traffic into the stores, rather than making this exclusive subline easy to acquire online.  I know that I made plenty of trips to Walmart without being successful getting any Black Series 3.75" figures of the 6" Battlefront Shocktrooper.  Those trips numbered at least 10 to 1 in terms of number of trips to the number of times that I was able to get the figures.  WalMart is playing those odds that in those trips where you don't find the exclusive you may buy something else.  And it does happen.

Well that's great for some, but ten trips to Walmart for me is like fifteen hours in the car.   Not happening... The fact that they don't put them online after saying that they will makes me less likely to favorably consider Walmart for other things at times when I'm maybe in an area that has a store.

Then this is the sort of instance where trading pays off.  I've traded/bought/sold with people on this board and others.  Sometimes the deal pays off in your favor, and sometimes you're helping someone out.  Hopefully, you find someone cool to trade with on a regular basis so that if something like this does come up where you don't have access to a particular chain, maybe your regular trading connection does.

Case in point?  I had a tough time tracking down the WalMart exclusive Black Series 6" Battlefront Imperial Shocktrooper.  I've got plenty of WalMarts near me, but I just could not find this particular exclusive.  Lo and behold, one of my regular trading guys kept an eye out for me and picked one up for me.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #38 on: January 7, 2016, 01:41 PM »
Well said Nick.  I did the same thing with these.  Ended up trading some of my wave 3 with Indysolo for wave 2 figures he found.
Climbed a mountain & never came back. I will not quit & I always fight back 
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Offline indysolo007

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #39 on: January 7, 2016, 01:43 PM »
Which was a godsend because wave 3 still hasn't shown up in the Boston area! But we had Stormtroopers a plenty before Christmas.

Offline Dave

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #40 on: January 7, 2016, 02:22 PM »
I agree with pretty much everything stated.  Walmart is trying to drive foot traffic, and Walmart sucks big time.

My biggest gripe with Walmart getting Star Wars exclusives is the randomness of how they run their stores.  A good example is the Battlefront Stormtrooper and the rumors that only 25% (or whatever) of the stores received this.  If it weren't for the good karma of Star Wars traders (thanks JediJman), I wouldn't have this.  I've never seen this in stores.

You don't get this randomness with Target, TRU, or even Kmart.  Every store gets at least one case of an exclusive, and are rarely all that hard to track down with a little bit of persistence.

I'm fine with Walmart not offering their exclusives online, although its annoying when they say they will and they don't.  I just wish that with a reasonable amount of effort I could track down their exclusives.  There really shouldn't be an excuse for getting an exclusive without enough stock to satisfy demand.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #41 on: January 7, 2016, 04:19 PM »
I think you hit on something there Dave with the bare minimum product idea.  I know that close to half the Wal-marts near me supposedly don't even have the Black Series figures in their Planogram.  Some local collectors have taken to buying up the leftovers from a participating store and dumping them off at non-participating stores to drive faster replenishment.  I never see an issue like that with Target or TRU, and there are 50ish Targets in the local metro versus maybe 10 Wal-marts.  Not offering up at least a minimum amount of product at each store kills shopper interest and minimizes their return for having an exclusive in the first place. 
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Offline Rob

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #42 on: January 8, 2016, 01:18 AM »
And that's the crossroads of collecting...  It's either worth it or it isn't ultimately.

Yep, and the main thing is the promise of online availability that never materialized.  So from that my main thing was a simple wish that Hasbro would give these to someone else, where I'd be able to get them without tons of driving, or begging for favors.

Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #43 on: January 8, 2016, 09:03 AM »
On a positive note I have a set of TBS wave 3 figures that I just picked up this morning for anyone who is interested, please send me a PM if you are, thanks.

Update: The set of Poe, Rey & Finn are now claimed...
« Last Edit: January 8, 2016, 02:04 PM by Pete_Fett »
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Black Series 3.75" Is Now Walmart Exclusive
« Reply #44 on: January 15, 2016, 09:40 AM »
Walmart is in the news today.  CNBC is reporting that Walmart is set to close over 250 stores globally, and over 160 of those stores are in the US.  This move is meant to consolidate stores that are close to other Walmart locations, and trim some stores that are underperforming. 

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/15/wal-mart-to-close-269-stores-as-it-retools-fleet.html
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