quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
The thing I am missing here is this. If the company has a product which is in such massive demand that it is being allocated all over the place why not just double the print run and then everybody can have what they want and the company makes twice as much money.

quote:

Originally posted by Byrna:
Finally got around to reading this thread and I will absolutely concur with what TWS originally posted.

My distributor, who does NOT sell to the public has carried Crypto's gaming products for years, and then carried their nonsports. My distributor has 3 warehouses. They now cannot get Crytozoic product.

Now, running a full-time business, I have many customers who preorder thru me. I base my buying decisions mostly on their preorders. And I generally guarantee my pricing.

So...when I was allocated on the first BBT albums from 1-1/2 cases to 1/2 case - I had to go out and pay $50 each to a distributor who had gambled (not having preorders)..and I still charged my customers the $28 I had originally solicited with. I took a beating on that. But my business relies on my regular customers - not ebay to whoever has the most money, but to folks who buy from me day in and day out.

Now, I can't guarantee them anything. I've been told I have to order album by the case (of 10).
Great, so if I only have orders for 3 albums, I have to eat 7 of them?? And, I'm allocated to who knows what on product. Do I end up with more albums than boxes? Do I end up with one case instead of four? Which one of my customers do I screw over..or do I have a raffle??

This is insanity. My customers are very UNhappy. I'm very UNhappy. And I guarantee you 98% of my customers are not going to go to eBay to spend $100 on a box of anything, never mind $150. They will quit first. They've done that before with other pricey product.

They will be unhappy. I will lose business.
Crypto will eventually lose business. They're already losing album business because dealers can't simply pick up a 1/2 dozen or so...

And though I used to carry all of their products, even if only a small amount if I didn't have overwhelming orders - I will be damned if I'll do that any more. I can't and won't support them if they won't have policies that support me and my customers. Bad enough that they started out not giving dealers promo cards to give to customers who were interested in their product. But now they don't want to deal with dealers at all. Not in email, not on the phone....

Have a problem with their product,and want to take care of it for our customers - no way can we do that any more.

From my business viewpoint, it's arrogant and nasty. I've never seen a company so unwilling to hear/deal with what customers and dealers want. It's all bean counting.

AND NOW they want dealers to place orders thru a couple of distributors WITHOUT HAVING ANY IDEA AS TO WHAT IS GOING TO ACTUALLY BE IN THE PRODUCT.

The solicitations for many of their series are due this month - and I have no idea what I might be buying, if I buy it. Never mind how much I might get of it.

You know, autos and costumes to be announced, place your order now.

IMO, Crypto does not understand nonsports cards.
It is NOT anything like gaming cards.

And it is ONLY dealers that carry their product to their customers. Dealers who break the product. Dealers who presell the product. And dealers who 'eat it' if a series doesn't sell.
As we all know, comic stores carry very little nonsports, and generally don't break it.

This comes on top of Upper Deck not selling to dealers who don't have brick 'n mortar stores.
And brick 'n mortar stores are NOT supposed to sell sealed product to us dealers. How many brick 'n mortar stores sell nonsports cards?

Geniuses, all of them.

Byrna
B&B Grrrl AF & Cards

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
It is still an impressive auto line-up with 6 of the 7 main cast signing

quote:

Originally posted by Tattoox:
I disagree. Every box/case sold is $. It is proven the market is there. CZE is not making more money by allocating. I doubt people would be complain this much about lesser known/popular actors or lower odds at this point. Just look at Bowen Designs for example. They played games with collectors. Then raised prices to compensate for lower sales. They us to sell 5000+. Now it is around 1500.

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Bartowski:
This new policy is pretty silly though. I was fortunate to get 2 cases of BBT season 5 at decent prices, and I'll be able to get a case of TWD Season 3 part 1 and one of part 2 for decent prices, but I do purchase a lot of product from the same person so I was able to get decent deals, but I really can't imagine what the people who only purchase these products will do because it will just be difficult for them to get them.

quote:

Originally posted by Batman:
Does anyone know if these are still on schedule to be released tomorrow?

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Crypto shouldn't be outsourcing distribution to third parties that are shutting out formerly regular customers on hot products. But they did.

Success can kill a company just as easily as failure if it's not handled right.

quote:

Originally posted by TWS:
I hate to see this thread go into the past on Card Talk but I have one final comment regarding this. When I first started this comment I got a few emails from Cryptozoic questioning what had happened and a couple emails and a phone call from GTS Distribution questioning my posts. I explained how myself, other collectors and dealers felt about the ridiculous allocations plus the termination of all Cryptozoic Dealers in favor of the few "Special Dealers/Distributors". They seemed interested for the first day but now they just want the thread to die and go away.. It's not going to help the problem at all but I see many collectors and dealers leaving the hobby out of frustration and disappointment.

quote:

Originally posted by TWS:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Crypto shouldn't be outsourcing distribution to third parties that are shutting out formerly regular customers on hot products. But they did.

Success can kill a company just as easily as failure if it's not handled right.

Well said Raven... The former Cryptozoic regular customers are shut out of all their Products and not just the hot ones.. Playing damage control right now with everyone who hoped we could get them a box or so of the Big Bang Theory and The Walking Dead. They're taking this business and their other business elsewhere because we can't get anything. Guess we'll be going out of the trading card business. We had just started rebounding from what Inkworks did to the hobby when everything was dumped on the market and their cards tanked. I already miss breaking boxes.. Thanks for everyone's support on this.. The emails and posts are Phenomenal. I really appreciate it..

quote:

Originally posted by TWS:
I hate to see this thread go into the past on Card Talk but I have one final comment regarding this. When I first started this comment I got a few emails from Cryptozoic questioning what had happened and a couple emails and a phone call from GTS Distribution questioning my posts. I explained how myself, other collectors and dealers felt about the ridiculous allocations plus the termination of all Cryptozoic Dealers in favor of the few "Special Dealers/Distributors". They seemed interested for the first day but now they just want the thread to die and go away.. It's not going to help the problem at all but I see many collectors and dealers leaving the hobby out of frustration and disappointment.

quote:

Originally posted by snoopy351:
I still can't believe all the doom and gloom talk here. I was direct with Crypto; now I go through GTS; absolutely nothing has changed (so far) for me.