Should Pokémon delay Shining Fates in the EU (and UK F for Brexit)?
Asmodee the UK’s only official distributer and largest player in the distribution game in the EU. They have today announced that they will have 5% of their requested order from Pokémon for launch with no eta of future waves. Which is getting flown in to ensure that there is at least some product for the release date.
Surely there is no benefit to anyone to release a product with only 5% of what stores have asked for? The only benefit is those who are looking to flip the product for extra money.
Out of interest what is the supply looking like in the US does anyone know?
So the logic is that because it will be harder for you to pick it up at MSRP that no one should be able to?
Delaying the release does nothing. People will still want it. Whether or not it’s delayed in the UK, you’ll see a lot of people paying extra to import it. If you don’t want to pay the scalper/import premium then you can choose to personally delay your purchase of the product. I’m not sure why you’d encourage turning away the 5% allocation just because other people would buy it and resell it higher to people who are happy to pay extra.
Stores were allocated only 5% of a set that will fly off the shelves.
Delaying a popular set so that people solely buy it online abroad instead would be terrible for your local game store’s ability to pay rent. You won’t have to worry about paying MSRP anymore when there are no retailers left open to offer a suggested retail price.
That’s the thing can you buy it online aboard? Surely stock is extremely limited worldwide.
One local games store has posted on Facebook that he’s getting less than 3% of what he’s asked (No tins or Pikachu v boxes) and customers have already started asking for refunds after he sent them messages warning that they won’t get there product at launch. Another has posted they are getting less than 1% with no ETBS. Local Games Stores are getting the worst end of it. This 5% is leaning very heavily towards the big supermarkets and online giants like Chaos Cards. That ain’t going to help them pay rent.
With my local store being shut for most of last year (and still forced to be shut) and now facing the possibility of not getting any stock. How is that helping them knowing that the big supermarket down the road is allowed to stay open and will have stock on day one with the first person walking is allowed to buy the whole shelf? With that person then inflating prices and selling to the local community on Facebook taking away sells from local games store.
They delayed the Vivid Voltage Premium boxes until March ( I know not a whole delay on a set). Digimon has delayed its release because of the pandemic.
Anyway looks like they are delaying the launch until March 1st looking at some sites and sources.
I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at here or how it relates to the points I made. I don’t agree there’s a “problem” when these sets are released in a limited way, just as there’s no problem when japan releases a limited promotional product.
I did use the phrase “pay extra” but it was probably the wrong choice. I only meant with respect to MSRP which is a completely arbitrary price. If we say MSRP on 1st ed base booster boxes is $100, it’s odd to think people are paying 4000% “extra” for boxes today since there’s a shared understanding on that item that MSRP doesn’t matter. That’s a bit of a tangent. To answer your question, the basic rules of supply/demand that are taught in econ 101 are the model for understanding what people will pay for an item. An equilibrium point between what is available and how much people want it determine the value/price of an item. So no, there’s probably no demand for modern product at 100,400,800% over MSRP. If there was, there would be murders happening in Walmart aisles to get the product only to enviably increase the supply on the secondary market and the extra supply would decrease the price.
A good point. You would assume the big guns have also increased there requests.
From my understanding its more of logistical issue rather than a massive supply shortage. Pokémon USA gave Asmodee an estimate of supply. Asmodee then hit those numbers on the 18th December and declared sold out to there customers. Majority of that is currently being shipped over and will arrive in 4 waves (apparently). The 5% Asmodee are getting is having to be flown into the country at added expense.
Why not just delay the launch by a few weeks. Allow the sea freight to catch up as much as possible. Have a better supply and a clearer picture for consumers. I know seaports are rammed.
If I remember correctly Champions Path had two waves for first run of ETB’s and collections boxes.
1st Wave: Majority of requested allocations arrived for street release
2nd Wave: The next arrived in October
Shining Fates
1st wave: About 5% which is being flown into the EU/UK
2nd/3rd/4th wave: seafreight no eta
I know we’re in the mist of a pandemic and the logistical challenges are out of Pokémon and Asmodee hands. But surely the better option is to delay the launch of Shining Fates in Europe by a few weeks. A few extra weeks will also see the restrictions ease up and local shops to hopefully open again.
You do realize that pokemon is a company and their main goal is to make money. By releasing a lower amount of a special release product, they are artificially creating demand. When people can’t get something they want, they often go for the next best thing. I’d expect champions path to sell out at the retail level when shining fates comes out.
Allocation wise, delaying it in EU would only make the situation worse. By delaying, it puts every single store in the entire continent behind the US stores in terms of a restock. It would also make the secondary market explode for singles coming from the US and the one thing that all card companies hate is overpriced secondary markets on modern cards.
Reducing all these issues to the “basics of supply of demand” would be extremely shallow. And yes, my question was hyperbolic and sarcastic when sets released 2 months ago or barely one year ago are between 100-400%.
Yes and one could argue the point Pokémon has already made there money by selling out already (Pokémon makes money by selling to distribution not consumer) but the supply they have sold ain’t here because of logistical issues. Delaying it will surely make them more money as they won’t have to fly it over at about 5x the cost!
I don’t know who is picking up the tab for that but if its Pokémon then do they will they actually make money on those shipped over? Doubt it. I can’t see Asmodee paying for it as are the only supplier of English Pokémon Pokémon in western europe.
Your right they hate overpriced secondary market on modern cards so releasing an already limited set with less than 5% of expected availability is going to do wonders for the prices. Surly having extremely limited cards in circulation will cause prices to rise uncontrollable.
We’re talking 5% of a limited allocation that wasn’t going to meet demand in the first place. Look at sites like Chaos Cards (biggest online card retailer in the EU) they sold out of there pre-orders within an hour and won’t have anywhere near the numbers to meet orders. Retailers are looking at mass refunds or telling there customer you can have the product but with no ETA. Just look at Twitter, Facebook and the mass emails of refunds emails people are posting.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in some of these meetings going on
All I’m saying is other TCG’s have delayed product launch to help ease distribution and logistical issues. Look at BANDAI they have delayed the official release of Digimon by two weeks and allocations have gone from heavy allocations to no allocations here in the EU. Wasn’t guaranteed to ease the allocations but those two weeks helped massively with that already troubled TCG.
I asked for about 10x more than I would normally order because
a. I know there’s a lot of hype
b. I know I wouldn’t get much
c. There is LITERALLY no cost to me asking for a huge order.
I could be part of the problem…
but if I got 5% of what I asked for, then I’m really getting 50% of what I normally get
c. is the most important part of the equation. it doesn’t represent actual supply at all. it just represents demand
Sorry I don’t think I’m making my point come across right. Yes demand is high but before stores could ask even order stock Pokémon USA told Asmodee the expected estimate of product availability for launch.
Asmodee then started taking orders and hit that number on 18th December and declared sold out. Fair enough we knew that would happen.
Now Asmodee is only getting 5% of that number originally given to them by Pokémon at the very beginning for launch. With no eta of the rest as everything is backed up via sea freight.
Shining Fates is going to be extremely scarce even compared to champions path standards here in the UK/EU.
This has been the case for many of the recent product/set launches and re-printings. It’s a chicken and egg situation.
Everyone knows demand will be much higher than supply, meaning there will be shortages.
So knowing they won’t be allocated their full order, LGS’s order more than they normally would, sometimes 10x or 20x, knowing they will only be allocated 5% or 10% of their order Plus at this point in time, there’s very little risk of being stuck with being stuck with Pokemon product that won’t sell at MSRP.
If you’re suggesting that Shining Fates should be delayed until all the UK/EU stock arrives rather than releasing in unannounced waves, I don’t think it will make a difference since demand still far outpaces supply even if all the currently-printed supply dropped at once.
What I think should happen is not a delay, but more production/allocation. I understand the entire supply/demand model, but I don’t think it should look the way it does with these modern sets. I know there are production delays, but Pokemon is still releasing more products than ever before. They are choosing to diversify their product lineup but in doing so sacrifice meeting demand on any single one.
The thing is there would be NO shining Fates in Western Europe on release date from official suppliers if Pokemon wasn’t flying it in the last minute because of the issues with sea freight at the moment. Pokemon didn’t have to do that with any previous releases last year.
Some LGS are not even getting enough to qualify for free shipping.
Some of the big players like Wayland Games are now telling customers release date is now March 1st.
On a different note, the practice of selling preorders when allocation is still unknown is laughable. It creates an illusion of availability while stores have to reimburse their customers, a classic lose-lose situation.
Totally agree. For that reason, would rather not pre order.
I can understand taking a nominal deposit as a preorder (like 10%) but taking full value when supply is so scarce does not make sense.