With #SDCC in full swing (check out the Major Spoilers coverage here), we are seeing the upcoming state of pop culture TV, comics and movies, as well as the Comicon Exclusive items that are inevitably going to show up at exorbitant prices on the online auction sites next week. As always, I’m of two minds on the idea of exclusive material: On the one hand, they serve as cool collectibles to memorialize your #SDCC. On the other hand, limited release items can end up being a mess, scooped up by speculators to be resold at a massive profit later. Of course, the real issue is that I don’t get to go to Comic-Con, which leads us to today’s limited-time query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has a different take professionally than personally, as well, asking: Do you like or dislike the idea of Comicon Exclusive merchandise?
7 Comments
Although I never have gotten any of them (Too many medical bills to afford the trip to SDCC and I certainly don’t have the funds to buy them on the secondary market), I do like the idea behind them. There have been many, many unique new or special versions of toys, models, statues, comics and so on that were exclusive to conventions that were just awesome. Even though I don’t and probably won’t own any of them, just knowing they exist is pretty cool.
Keep hoping that some day, someone I know will go to the convention and bring me back one of the exclusives, even if it is something minor like an exclusive recolored minifig or something like the translucent Green Ranger Ranger Keys they gave away a year or two back.
If you are buying these exclusive items to make money, sell them ASAP. Between 6 to 12 months after the con, there is usually is no interest in the item any more.
If you are buying them to keep, hopefully you won’t have buyer’s remorse when you find out years later that they are not worth what you paid for them (at the con or from an auction).
I have several Star Wars Celebration items (bought at the con) from almost a decade ago. None of them are worth what i paid for them any more. On the bright side, I still like them and have no intention of selling them.
I don’t have strong opinion either way but maybe timed exclusive would be the best way to do it. Sell exclusive in the con, maybe with slight difference in packaging or something, then make it available later for people who really would want it but couldn’t get one.
But then, the people who want it BECAUSE it’s exclusive get mad…
Many companies do this. Mattel does this a few weeks after the convention on its figures, and Quantom Mechanix sold their Cthulhu/Aquaman statue the same day it was released on the show floor. I’ll get mine on Monday :)
In Soviet Russia, exclusives are very popular. Milk stands are very exclusive, especially if you are not from here, Botulism get you if you’re not drinking it every day. Except Jeff Rosen, but he eat everything.
I am not a collector of these items. I prefer more personal exclusives like teeth, ears and locks of hair.
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wut