Well we just heard that our original Big Bang Theory Latest Release was allocated from 120 boxes (10 Cases) to just 3 boxes.. Seems like now that Cryptozoic has everyone going to it's Distributor and Dealer List we'll be not able to carry any Cryptozoic Products.. It's liable to put us out of the business altogether. Sure they would sell us all the products nobody wants but anything that's good we get slammed on allocations. Not cut a little but extremely. We have always bought directly from Cryptozoic but were forced to go through third parties. Sorry to rant here everyone..
I sure did miss everyone at the Fall Philly Show but my Grandson had his 1st Birthday that weekend! BJ, John, Monica, Chris, Sherri, Tony, Harris, Mr and Mrs T, Kevin, T Bear, La La, Brian, Derek, Tom, Tom Jr, Michael B, Rob, Denise, John W, Steve, Sean I missed seeing you guys.. All you other guys ya know I missed you too! My fingers are just getting tired so I'll email you later.

The biggest effect this will have is that now those distributors who get this product directly from CZE will require their buyers to purchase other products to ensure their allocation of certain products. Sets like BBT and The Walking Dead will allow distributors to force people into buying products they don't necessarily want in order to get those other products.

No, the biggest effect it will have is that the box price will go up faster and higher than previous BBT.

This may seem like a silly question but would a dealer usually pay the same prices for all Cryptozoic non sport boxes from the distributers, or are the bigger licences more expensive from the start?

The reason I ask is that for example most Cryptozoic boxes on one online dealers site are listed around the $63.00 mark (some a touch lower) but jump to the walking dead season 3 and presell is $100.00 per box.

I seem to remember reading that when the restructuring was announced that the authorised online dealers were being encouraged not to go crazy with the prices they charge but obviously if the original cost is higher on these hot titles then it all makes sense.

Aaaa.. They big problem is the so called Crypto "Authorized Dealers" which number around 4 also sell Crypto Products on Evil Bay. Why wouldn't you allocate and hold them back from everyone else for a higher price that can be gotten online.. Also Chuck is Dead On that other dealers are forced to buy products they don't necessarily want. I have cancelled my accounts with my distributor because of this practice. I also am interested to see what kind of product that Crypto will put out with the BBT since none of the main cast members have returned their autograph cards for distribution. Allocation could very well be a mute point if the premium cards turn out to be lesser known characters-except Leonard Nimoy.

This is great news for collections of other Crypto products as surely dealers who are forced to buy products they don't want in order to get Walking Dead and BBT will be quick to dump those products at significantly reduced prices! I've already seen Psych boxes under $40!

Yes, before I get flamed the tone in that that is tongue in cheek. . . the results are accurate though.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
This is great news for collections of other Crypto products as surely dealers who are forced to buy products they don't want in order to get Walking Dead and BBT will be quick to dump those products at significantly reduced prices! I've already seen Psych boxes under $40!

Yes, before I get flamed the tone in that that is tongue in cheek. . . the results are accurate though.

I really don't think Cryptozoic cares a less about the non-sport trading card dealer network.
They seem to cater more to the collector than dealer- and even at that not so much- not that I am complaining- after all, I am a collector and not a dealer.
However, that said, I do feel bad for my regular dealer. When he was direct with Crypto, he was able to get allocated quantities of Big Bang and Walking Dead based upon the entire production run. Now, he faces allocation based upon what the 1 or 2 direct dealers he now is forced to deal with are allocated themselves- sort of like being allocated on an allocation. Plus, at least one on-line "direct retailer" will sell for the same price to anyone- whether or not you are a dealer with a resale license.
Additionally, I never see anyone from Crypto management ever dealing with the public on anything. They are very unresponsive to e-mails to them and will never, ever return a phone call placed to them. You will never see Scott at a show like you do Tom from Breygent or Steve from Rittenhouse. Plus, the folks that do represent them at shows are not very friendly or informative- at least not in my eyes. When I see Tom or Steve at shows, they are willing to talk for however long you want about their products and give you promos of all their upcoming titles freely. When I stop at the Crypto table, I get the feeling they are annoyed by me and just want to hand me a promo and have me walk away. Again- maybe that is just me.
I think their decision to forgo their dealer network for this new system will ultimately hurt them as my dealer is not getting hardly any Big Bang and will not be ordering huge quantities of the lesser titles just to get allocated a decent number of Big Bang and Walking Dead.
Who knows- it will be interesting to see what the future holds.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Roswellian,

I know he is gone, but when Kurt was with Cryptozoic, he was very hands on and knowledgeable about the product line at shows. A super e-mailer too when I had questions. Of course it has been 4 shows since I was at the Philly show (so that is 2 years of change) but they were not always hard to talk to at shows.

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski:
The biggest effect this will have is that now those distributors who get this product directly from CZE will require their buyers to purchase other products to ensure their allocation of certain products. Sets like BBT and The Walking Dead will allow distributors to force people into buying products they don't necessarily want in order to get those other products.

Isn't that what Cryptozoic said would not happen? Here are two quotes from Scott Gaeta a few months back:


"We have never nor will we ever bundle titles to force dealers to take titles they don't want, to get hot stuff. I hate this with a passion.

We don't let dealers cherry pick us and take away boxes of the hottest titles from dealers who are regular customers."


And those statements were made back to back. So...what is the actual truth? I'm thoroughly confused by this whole thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:

Isn't that what Cryptozoic said would not happen? Here are two quotes from Scott Gaeta a few months back:


"We have never nor will we ever bundle titles to force dealers to take titles they don't want, to get hot stuff. I hate this with a passion.

We don't let dealers cherry pick us and take away boxes of the hottest titles from dealers who are regular customers."


And those statements were made back to back. So...what is the actual truth? I'm thoroughly confused by this whole thing.

When I read those two statements they seem slightly contradictory. . .

I've heard from multiple dealers that they have been told they need to buy everything in order to be able to buy Walking Dead and Big Bang. That edict came down from a distributor (no idea which one(s)), not Cryptozoic.

quote:

Originally posted by Roswellian:
Additionally, I never see anyone from Crypto management ever dealing with the public on anything. They are very unresponsive to e-mails to them and will never, ever return a phone call placed to them. You will never see Scott at a show like you do Tom from Breygent or Steve from Rittenhouse. Plus, the folks that do represent them at shows are not very friendly or informative- at least not in my eyes. When I see Tom or Steve at shows, they are willing to talk for however long you want about their products and give you promos of all their upcoming titles freely. When I stop at the Crypto table, I get the feeling they are annoyed by me and just want to hand me a promo and have me walk away. Again- maybe that is just me.

Scott was at the Philly show when the company first formed. Also, Miranda is usually pretty cool with posting on message boards about stuff. While she's not there all the time, she does show up occasionally.

I can't speak on their email or phone policies. I know I can talk to and get responses from George regularly (he's typically at the Philly show), but I also do work for them so I need that line of communication.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:

Scott was at the Philly show when the company first formed. Also, Miranda is usually pretty cool with posting on message boards about stuff. While she's not there all the time, she does show up occasionally.

I can't speak on their email or phone policies. I know I can talk to and get responses from George regularly (he's typically at the Philly show), but I also do work for them so I need that line of communication.

I have been to several Philly shows now.
I have meet many Crypto folks- Kurt, Scott, Jenna, Miranda and George. Kurt was, by far, the best of the bunch. I miss him.
Besides Kurt, and again this may just be my observation, none of the other folks really seem like they like or want to be involved in this hobby or that show. They seem very disinterested in it all.
Crypto should take a page from the other manufacturers book- like Tom(Breygent) who posts images of almost every sketch card that goes into his products as well as provides details about short printed inserts and gives out almost as many promos for each products as cards in the base set for those products and like Steve(Rittenhouse) who now has Wantlist Wednesday to help collectors obtain a card from their wantlist free of charge and who has consistently answered any and all questions asked of him via the ScifiHobby website discussion board. Two gentlemen who really care about the hobby and those involved in it. In my opinion, Crypto has yet to show they have such a commitment to the hobby as these two gentlemen have.

Without knowing what policies wholesalers use, I think that Cryptozoic using wholesalers should work out better for retailers who order non-sport product. If you order your Topps, Breygent, Rittenhouse stuff from a single source they can see your ordering patterns and hopefully when it comes to 'hot' items they look to customers who support the hobby, not just Cryptozoic product. Although maybe I'm just a dreamer..

Hey Guys.. Everyone's responses are awesome.. This new type of allocations is going to spread more and more with what I believe that it will hurt the Non Sport Market in all aspects. We all have feelings about Premium Packs, Sticker Autographs and such but this will impact all of us with not being able to get out favorite releases and driving them through the roof cost wise. I personally don't like being strong armed to take product that I don't have an interest in just to be able to get releases that I want. Who's got that kind of money? We go from many dealers be able to buy Cryptozoic Releases directly and offering some competition among then keeping prices as reasonable as possible to a few dealers and a couple distributors controlling the market and prices.. No competition there keeping prices in check. Now Crypo does set the allocations- The Couple of Dealers and Distributors do! Rittenhouse, Topps, Breygent and Pannini don't allocate releases but they offer them to everyone and when they are sold out, they're sold out. Now with GTS it doesn't matter when you ordered if you didn't buy tons of other releases your allocated next to nothing. Again, I apologize to my fellow card talkers but I'm mad. How many more ridiculous practices will it take to destroy out beloved hobby for everyone. Inkworks and Razor dealt a serious blow to our hobby with what they did. I was in this for the long haul but now after collecting cards personally for 52 years and a card dealer since 1978 I question if we'll see it go the way of the Sports Cards-Oblivion...

I would just like to be able to pre-order one case from a reliable source without the price being jacked up to secondary market levels already.

Well something bad is going on in the way non-sport card cases and boxes are being distributed these days. Not being a dealer, I can't speak to all the ins and outs of working with the various distribution networks. I only know what I know from a buyers stand point and that usually revolves around two things:

Can I find what I want?

How much will it cost for what I want?

I had ordered 4 boxes of Grimm from my LHS, now Grimm is a Breygent product. The store was supposed to get in 8 boxes. Know how many he got? One, and it was mine. The distributor blamed allocation.

As to the idea that dealers are going to have to buy all products to get the hot ones, that will be reflected in price increases on those hot products because they have to make up the wasted money on products that won't move or have to be significantly discounted.

I see these as being bad signs for collectors both ways, less availability of product and higher prices when you do find it.

This may be a dumb question and I know hindsight is always 20/20, but why make the poor-selling sets in the first place? I don't mean to come off like an expert (which I certainly am not) but I don't think it's that difficult to judge which sets have a chance to be good sellers and which do not.

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
This may be a dumb question and I know hindsight is always 20/20, but why make the poor-selling sets in the first place? I don't mean to come off like an expert (which I certainly am not) but I don't think it's that difficult to judge which sets have a chance to be good sellers and which do not.

I know an uncle who would like to take this up with you.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
This may be a dumb question and I know hindsight is always 20/20, but why make the poor-selling sets in the first place? I don't mean to come off like an expert (which I certainly am not) but I don't think it's that difficult to judge which sets have a chance to be good sellers and which do not.

I know an uncle who would like to take this up with you.

I know and I don't mean to be so ignorant. I just find myself too often wondering "Why make that set?". I apologize if I offended anyone.

You certainly have not offended anyone, I think everyone on this forum has thought "why make this set" about a card release in the last two years . The reason it's hard to judge what makes a good seller is that everyone on this forum had this thought about different card sets .

In the last six months alone I have seen releases I thought would be surefire winners flop and others I just could not see the appeal in do well .

Personally regarding Cryptozoic I am happy if they carry on doing what they are doing as I have no interest in their big sellers but am picking up some of their lesser titles which I do like for about a third of the original price.

Having said that it's clearly not good for the hobby as a whole. Hopefully common sense will prevail in the end but I'm not holding my breath .