Preordering Anime Figures is Starting to Feel Pointless.

Oh boy I sure do love buying anime figures, but do I really need to preorder them? Most of the time, I'd say no, but let's talk about that.

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[lmvr-ecgr]

All four figures I pre-ordered last year went immediately into the AmiAmi Sale 😂 4/4 man, I felt so stupid

[taigaaisaka]

I feel like the main reason this is happening is thanks to how crazy the prices have gone up in the last year. Doesn't matter if you live in Japan or not, figures that used to go for 20k now go for 30-40k, even with the currency exchange being favorable for us here in the west, we are still seeing figures costing up to 100$ more than what they used to, add the increases in shipping and its getting harder and harder to justify getting them. Like, I pre-ordered Schwarz when her PO started, yet last week I cancel it, as I realized that the cost of the figure+shipping+taxes would be around 500$ USD for me. I sat in front of my PC and went "Yeah, she looks great and I do want her... but fk it man, 500$ for a 1/7? I just can't justify it." Like that, people pre-order less or cancels more, stores end up with a lot of stock, and lots of stock means lots of discounts to free warehouse space.

[roltnergalex]

If you see this, hopefully this bit of info will shed some light on what's going on. The reason so many figures are going on discount as soon as they release is because the majority of these figures are products that went into production during COVID (I know it's a bad excuse to use in 2023) so all these manufacturers are releasing the final product in the quantities that is industry normal (total Preordered units + 10%). Because of the insane anime boom and the collectibles market boom that happened during 2020 to mid 2022 you had retailers across the globe that were placing orders for scale figures for the intent to have active stock (In the past store mainly carried only what was preordered plus 1 or 2 extra units). On top of that manufacturers and distributors increased their quantity minimums, so retailers went from being allowed to order maybe 1 unit or half a case (3 to 4 units) to 1 to 3 case load just to qualify for an order. This bloated the preorder numbers for everything. Then, on the manufacturer's side, you had the suddenly super popular anime influencers who, out of thin air, had 10, 000 to 100, 000 followers showing off their "collection" of scale figures. What really happened was the major manufacturers (Bandai, Freeing, FuRyu, Sega Goods, Ect...) where propping up influencers to artificially push this market that really wasn't there causing many new anime fans to want to be a part of the in thing and thus they too ran out and placed preorders like crazy, again, inflating preorder numbers for products they really didn't want. In the end, what this created was the perfect storm of tons of product in the market, and retailers, both large and small, were the ones left holding the bags and trying to scrape by because while customers can cancel a preorder, retailers can rarely do so unless you have amazon level power. Ultimately, none of this would have been so bad if the big bad global recession didn't hit in 2023. Once, the recession hit, it was over. When belts need to tighten the first thing that people cut from their budgets is fun. The entire Collectibles industry is on a major decline. Nothing is actually moving and retailers are trying their hardest to get rid of what they have to both make back the cash they had to use to pay for these preorders and to make space for the next set of orders they are beholden too. One of the best tells in the Anime collectibles industry that things are bad is when Master Grade gundam kits go on sale for 30% to 40%. the wholesale margin (Discount off of MSRP) for 90% of all GUNPLA retailers is 38%. If someone is selling it at a 40% discount you know things are bad and there are a lot of retailers that are starting to offer MGs at 40% off. Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it sheds some light for you.

[tyosh]

I think its because of a bunch of new people getting into the hobby and placing massive amounts of pre-orders. The pre-order button is so easy to press and doesn't require money upfront at the Japanese stores. Tons of pre-orders are probably getting cancelled or left unpaid. The ridiculous amount of delays have actually made stop caring about some of the pre-orders I placed as well making me instantly sell it as soon as it reaches my door.

[Nikencycollects]

9 months in the hobby and still learning lol
Won't be pre-ordering much anymore because I realized they go in stock a few days after release anyways and sometimes I lost interest.
You made a lot of good points .

[senor]

6:16 Yeah that's so true. Almost nobody really cared about the new Albedo bunny from Freeing (probably because of the high price). However, right after people found out that you can take her clothes off, sales skyrocketed and it was sold out everywhere within a week.

[MyFictionalChaos]

As far as I knew, the shipping part started getting super expensive around 2021 due to the pandemic when supply chain issues started happening and we still haven’t recovered from that. Shipping out of country was always going to be expensive but back in 2020 it was relatively cheap to obtain figures with as little as 7 to 10 bucks for shipping sometimes. It seems now the minimum is 20 bucks for shipping which is insane

[sasamiadachi]

I agree with all the points you made, and nearly everyone who posted comments.

Shipping, taxes and service fees are through the roof. I want to support companies that make quality figures I like and shops that sell them - even mail services and couriers that deliver them to our doors (minus the insane brokerage fees on every package) - having those parts of the equation undefined with most retailers just makes the pre-order route that much less attractive. How much will we pay in addition to the prices of the goods listed? Will figures come in oversized boxes that make certain shipping methods unavailable for certain destinations? Can certain figures be combined? Will they even release on time? It is much easier to determine those parameters after the products are out.

Most market players don't reward us for placing pre-orders anyway. In fact, you risk account termination if you cancel pre-orders regularly with certain players. And occasionally, the final products diverge wildly from those shown in the pre-release photos, so we are taking risks there as well.

With all things considered, if we can get the same figures for 1/4 or 1/3 off their original retail prices two months after release, plus having additional datapoints to make more informed decisions, why wouldn't we? From nearly every viewpoint, not pre-ordering figures is the right way to go.

[Actar_Raikit]

There are more reasons to pre-order beyond FOMO. For one, it's so much easier to keep track of everything as most online shops let you consolidate your pre-orders by month, making it far easier to budget for as well (delays notwithstanding).

Having to keep track of release dates yourself and having to prioritize X figure instead of hunting down Y figure when you have Z amount of extra cash gets mind-bogglingly hard to juggle and plan for when you have a ton of figures on your want list. Not to mention, buying each figure individually when you see them pop up means that shipping costs are also going to add up.

I've been collecting for over a decade, and I've always budgeted a fixed amount of cash for monthly pre-orders and some extra cash for those figures that slipped through the cracks in the event I ever do find them on sale.

...oh, and there's also the fact that you don't actually have to pay for pre-orders in advance, so you don't lose anything in the event anything happens to the store or order, and you can bail at any time you want (depending on the store).

[ZuccoFigures]

Sup fellas. Just chiming in to say a couple of extra things. I'm glad alot of you are already leaving me comments whether you agree with me or not. While I may not always express my thoughts in the perfect way, I do wanna stress that these are just one guys opinions and I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with me, unless it just makes no sense or something lul. I think one point I wish I remembered to talk about was the fact that some companies are just more strict than others when it comes to available stock once released. I made quick note about that at the end, but ultimately it's impossible to know exactly how every release will turn out.

Another thing, I'm actually using a new camera and mic. I definitely don't know how to use this new camera yet lol, but I think it looks a little better so far. The Lina Bell Roll footage was actually new and I think it's pretty noticeable there despite kinda just placing her on the rotating table and turning it on. The mic is one of those Rode VideoMic GO II's that you place on the camera and while I don't think it sounds as good as my old one, I tried to edit it in post to be fairly close to my usual videos. the benefit is just so that I don't have a giant mic in my face which will come in handy for unboxings, but yeah that's it. Thanks for checkin the video out!

[DT_Perigee]

I check AmiAmi's pre-owned bishoujo figures daily, and over the last six months, the page count has grown from 50 to 100 to now over 300. Some collectors are offloading older figures from older titles, and others are skipping popular figures, so that they hit the bargain bin hard. It's a deluge.

[AVLadle]

Great video man. A year ago I never would have thought so many Alter figures would be available on preowned, and for cheaper! It's a terrible feeling knowing you could have saved money. I imagine a lot of people like me skipped out on buying good food or other luxuries instead of securing the preorder that you did. Instead of eating so many saltine crackers and cupped ramen I could've AT LEAST upgraded to pizza rolls lol.

[_keru]

Yeah preordering feels like a slight rip off sometimes but then there's those moments when I don't preorder a figure and it doubles or triples on the aftermarket. feelsbad

[harmonyswind]

It seems this is the growing consensus in the community. I do like what you said about supporting an IP by preordering, since I tend to collect a lot of male figures. I need to let them know there are people who care haha 😭

[Msis]

I’m the same. I found myself holding off on preordering and making like a calendar of release dates so I can check back for sales and pre-own listings.

Also find my collection changing drastically. I prefer original illustration designs and more thematic than just buying a character from a show I like.

With that in mind, im more open to selling a figure to make room for one I like way more now.

[authorRisenfromash]

Thanks for making this video as it highlights one of those annoying things about the hobby as you're right there are a lot of figures that you can find authentic and new on the aftermarket for less than retail very shortly after release these days.

[PebbleSonaa]

I totally agree with this! Pre-ordering anime figures can be tempting, but it's important to be patient and wait for them to become available at a lower price. Sometimes, pre-ordering can lead to disappointment if the figure doesn't meet expectations or if there are delays in production. Plus, waiting allows you to save money and make a more informed decision before making a purchase. Thanks for the great advice!" 💯👍🏻

[funnysunnydaze]

Been thinking this for a while. Funny enough I remember seeing people get downvoted for bringing this up in the r/AnimeFigures subreddit like a year ago, lmao. Sooo many figures stay in stock for months now or they’ll just straight up bin nowadays 😕

One of the worse feelings is seeing a figure that you preordered being heavily discounted or in preowned for a cheaper price 🤕 I know people try to use the “you shouldn’t care about the cost if you genuinely wanted the figure” argument, but it’s exactly like you said, I would simply prefer to get figures cheaper if I can 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’ve noticed that the pages in Amiami’s preowned section have grown to the 350ish range. In the past, I remember it normally being under 200. I contributed this change to rising shipping costs but I guess it no longer being necessary to preorder (for the most part) is a big cause for this as well. I’ve cut back on my 2023 preorders because of this. Most of my preorders are either rereleases, Native/BINDing/NSFW figures, or are of IPs that I would like to support (like Nana and Tokyo Revengers)

Even FREEing 1/4s are easy to find in the aftermarket now (unless they pull an Albedo, lol). The only figures that seem like they’re still worth preordering due to fear of a high aftermarket are from stuff like Azur lane and Native/BINDing.

[senor]

12:03 It's not about "supporting the industry" anymore. They are trying to milk out our money as much as they can. Every manufacturer has increased their prices tremendously, especially companies such as Megahouse, Furyu, etc who list their new figures for stupendous prices. And I highly doubt that this extra money is going to the workers who do the hard labour work. When i started this hobby I also liked the idea of supporting the industry, but now they want you to spend 25k Yen without shipping on a mediocre 1/7 scale. No thanks, I'd rather wait and buy the figure if the price dropped at least 30% or don't buy it at all anymore. Don't feel bad for these greedy companies or "the industry", because they tried to turn our genuine passion into a money milking machine.

[nayelisamantha]

Really enjoyed your commentary on this because I was having a similar thought and have been limiting my pre orders because I have seen so many on amiami where they have bargained binned