Are you forgetting about the typical army builders-yeah those are not that uncommon either they pick up SEVERAL of the figure and at times buy up all of them in the store-where's the casual kids getting that one?...?Unless you don't count these as collectors
Of course I'm not forgetting about army builders, I am one. I'm also someone who shows up at target at 8am each morning when they're expecting stuff, and at least a few times a week when they're not. And when I can't be there, I have friends who go for me (Then I hit other stores for them). We're a big network up here.
Anyway....I'll use the SA clone as my perfect example. They've come in many case assortments, but generally those were two per case. Now, for the first few weeks they were out, if I saw one I'd buy it. If I saw 2 or 3, I'd usually by a couple and leave one. I was clearly the collector there clearing out all that stock, and if the Target employee had decided to ignore the clearly posted rules about not checking stock and gone into the back for me......I could have got like 20 of them at one time. If they had 10 cases, that's all of them. What if there were two people like me in this town? Yikes.
Now...eventually, hitting many Targets, TRUs, Wal Marts, etc....I was able to get about 40 of these puppies. That means there are 20 cases worth of other figures I left there.
Who bought those? , I sure didn't need another "Exploding Body Grievous" or "Anakin duel" etc, etc.
My point is...yes, collectors generally buy one, maybe two of everything. If it's an army builder they buy more. But once they have those figures...(Usually packed a couple per case, unless it' s one of those cool cases with nothing but new ones)......the other 6 or 8 figures sit on the pegs.
Who do you think buys those? I mean....who's buying Darth Vader right now? Who's buying Yoda? R2? You think it's people like me?
It's not.
It's the parents that took their kids to see the movie.
It's the kids who are in the aisle and begging their parents for one.
it's the guy who saw the movie and wants 1 or 2 figures for his desk.
No one army builds with Yodas. No one I know anyway. And collectors don't need 17 of them.
So all those "leftover" figures get bought by someone. The majority of the figures in the case. Maybe that first week collectors buy them, but every other week until their gone....it's other folks.
That's what I'm saying.
