What did these things cost? $49.95 or something like that? Any CA state taxes to add to that? Then what were tickets to WWLA? $35 for three days I think? So if I had gone, the bust would have cost me $85 or so?
The reason I ask is I'd like one of these and recent auctions have ended fairly reasonably compared to a total of $85. I never could have got down there, so not much of a difference to me.
Yep - $50. Not sure if they tacked on sales tax or not, but they did in San Diego though, so I'd guess probably. That puts it at about $54. And since you pretty much had to have the weekend pass to get these, tack on another $35 in secondary costs if you'd like ($8 for parking as well 
). So yeah, I'd say getting a bust for $80 - $90 is certainly fair and reasonable. It's just when they start approaching the $150 - $200+ range that it starts to look a little ugly. Considering most of these busts have a starting price of $130 - $150, you can see what the true intention here really is though.
What Dave points out is true. I heard and saw a few things at WWLA, and have since discovered from talking to some other local collectors, that there were some people who got away with quite a few busts - more than their alloted two. I know someone who got FIVE (he won't tell me how). Some people were even buying multiple weekend badges to grab a couple more (since the badges were getting punched). The same dealers, vendors and media who got first dibs Friday night also wound up getting first dibs Saturday morning before the doors officially opened at 10am. That's why they only had a small handful of them left at that point, despite cutting off sales late Friday evening.
It's all rather shady. Just give the fans a glimmer of hope of obtaining one. Give them no shot at all, and you'll hear gripes for the rest of the year. If they had just given a few hundred away on Saturday morning, but sold out before I got to the front of the line, I'd probably just be blaming myself for not making the extra effort to get there a little earlier to have a better shot at one.
I think people just want to see some type of indication that some thought was given on trying to distribute the busts "fairly". Show the fans and collectors that you could absolutely care less who gets the busts, and that you just want to get your $50 per 1,200 busts as quickly as possible, and you're going to see some pissed off collectors out there. Understandable.
But Brent's point is a reasonable one - finding a bust under $100 isn't all that bad, considering the various costs involved in actually attaining one. But getting one for the $50 actual cost would be even better though...
I think based on the fact that someone sold me one for cost $50 that they didn't add in sale tax to the bust.
Matt's post about people who had extra passes just incase Wizard would punch them points out something which hopefully gets improve before any other events but I doubt it will. My only experince I have with a SW Con was C2 and there I seen people in the Fan Club line that had a weekend pass plus the three different passes just incase they punched holes in your badge as you got a Sacul figure. Hopefully the people who run C3 next year will have a better way on getting out the exclusive stuff so everyone has a chance to get they limit amount.
