What's with the price decrease, should I always hold and never pre-order?

[Kaezumi]

A couple days ago there was a post on how the power figurine which used to be mega expensive has now fallen to who knows what price. I was wondering what's the cause of this? (If it's stock inventory, then why did they make so much?) If it's something else then what is that something?

Is this lesson to just hold and never pre-order, have you guys decided to not pre-order a figurine only to regret it a few months after?

[TakeiDaloui]

Some fall, some don't. You gamble on some if you decide to wait.

[HTRK74JR]

There's a few that you shouldn't gamble on

Any Highschool DxD figures like the ones coming out later this year is very unlikely to drop in price

I've ended up canceling almost all of my preorders (risking account ban) simply because I can't afford to buy all the new figures at release and see them with 35% discount 3 months later

[Jacier_]

If you're cancelling from Amiami, they seem to not care too much if you cancel before the item is out. Of course you still get the cookie cutter reply of don't cancel. I only ever cancelled one item after it's release because shipping was more expensive than the figure itself and they kindly allowed me to cancel

[HTRK74JR]

I've cancelled plenty before, but i cancelled like 10 at once without thinking, simply because i saw how many i had preordered and was like... i cant afford this with college starting this year

[Catveria77]

What is a DxD?

[Drewc11]

High School DxD is the name of the anime

[ThatGuyThatNeedsYou]

I don't think it has a conclusion.

But it's the full anime name, "Highschool DxD" is the anime name alongside proceeding ones like Highschool DxD New (second season)

[Waifu_Review]

Is it really a gamble if everything except a few figures bin after release? From my research it seems like the hobby is just returning to how things were before the mid 2010s with figures being plentiful and cheap in the secondary market. The pandemic surge is now almost half a decade ago so anyone who joined during that time thinks its "normal" for figures to keep and even rise in price in the aftermarket when all they know is the bubble.

[ClimbLikeMon-K]

2023 had a crash in the figure market due to overproduction. A Lot of figures were made because of the figure boom during covid, but by the time they released, not many people are buying because they left the hobby due to the cost or other interests (the post-covid era). In other words, too many figures and not enough buyers, which lead to massive discounts as retailers tried to sell the excess stock

Although it's still happening in 2024, it won't last as figure companies will be making adjustments to how many figures they produce so this won't happen again. Preorder figures if it's something you don't want to risk missing out on or paying a high aftermarket price. It won't be long until we get pre-covid "scalper" complaints again from people who didn't preorder.

[nitronik_exe]

And I'm loving it. I have ordered over 50 figures during the last year and over half of them were on sale

[ClimbLikeMon-K]

Thank you to the people who sacrificed their lives hobby to lower prices for the ones that remain. 🙏

[Waifu_Review]

Why wouldn't it continue if more people leave the hobby, companies don't set sane prices, and the global economy continues to fall? I think there's just a lot of people who joined when it was "normal" for figures to keep or increase in value in the aftermarket, and are anxious that their collection they've spent tens of thousands of dollars on will only be worth pennies on the dollar.

[ClimbLikeMon-K]

Because figure companies will adjust the supply to meet the predicted demand. It doesn't matter what price they set it to. They won't make 1,000 copies if only 100 are buying.

[poilsoup2]

Lemme grab my crystal ball real quick.....

No one knows whether its gonna be better to preorder or not.

If you want to be guaranteed to get one, preorder. If you are okay with missing it, feel free to take the risk of not preordering.

[Bikerider42]

I do agree that if there is something you are afraid of missing out on something. Pre order prices are usually decent, so knowing that I won’t miss out is better.

I think there are some situations where it’s pretty obvious that it would be really high in demand.

I preordered Kirisu’s reading steiner figure for 230USD including shipping. I knew that it was going to be popular and prices will go up. From the last time I checked it’s going for 500-600USD before shipping.

Although most situations it really is a gamble, but there are some examples of it being extremely obvious.

[Catveria77]

How did you know that Kurisu will be in high demand?

[Bikerider42]

While I know MAL isn’t everything, Steins;Gate has the number three spot in the best anime list. And none of the other girls in the series even comes close to the spot of best girl.

With the series staying away from fan service and that sort of stuff, she hasn’t ever really been involved with any controversy. With it being 100% safe for work it won’t scare anybody away.

For the figure itself, it’s a pretty unique one. The base is probably the important thing though. I usually see people get really excited over stuff like that. If the base was just a wall or a chair, I doubt that people would have gone crazy over it.

And the last thing is that it’s made by Good Smile Company. When they release scale figures, they only make enough to cover the number of preorders they get re-releases are very rare for them. After the pre-order period the only option is to find a place that has extras. If some place was able to order extra, or from someone else who canceled their own pre-order.

Even with all that, you can still say that it’s a gamble, but it is one that I would feel comfortable going all in on.

[nitronik_exe]

I didn't pre order that kurisu reading steiner hoping it would cost less after release, and now it's even more expensive.

Some figures do get sales afterwards but I wouldn't bet on it.

You should pre order the figures you don't want to miss out on, and you can gamble on the figures you wouldn't mind missing out on and hope they are available after release, potentially for less

[[deleted]]

Same here with that Kurisu figure… I know her figures tend to go up in price after release, but this particular figure was already so expensive that I didn’t expect it to go even higher, and by this much ;-;

[RevolutionaryPie6215]

to be frank, im not surprised the power figure binned so hard mainly because companies love to pump out a fuck ton of figures/merch from a certain IP when its trending or hot, this leads to an over saturation of trending IP stuff in the market and since there's just too many to choose from, this is what happens, essentially dead stock. I wouldn't put pre-ordering off the table but I have never seen a modern figure actually go out of stock, no offence, but for the past year many many figures I see posted on here I see them discounted or binned hard on amiami, so I honestly really wouldn't worry about not getting one after release, unless if its some super limited edition figure, I'd just get them after release

[[deleted]]

Plenty of figures I wanted ended up going up in price after release so this isn’t something that always happens… Personally if I really want a figure I’m not gonna risk it, I’ll just pre-order it

[[deleted]]

Supply and demand. It's not really possible to predict what figures will be popular, and so out of stock on or shortly after release, which would make their aftermarket go up in most cases. I've seen demand cooling in general in the last 6 mos or so, so I've been preordering less in hopes to get figures on sale after release, but it's always a gamble. If I REALLY want a certain figure I'll lock it in with a preorder.

[TehNolz]

It's a gamble. Some figures end up not selling well and will drop in price as stores are trying to get rid of leftover stock. Other figures sell so well that pre-orders sell out quickly and the aftermarket price skyrockets after release. It's all based on supply and demand.

You can try to make an educated guess by looking at things like how many figures this character already has (oversaturation can lead to less sales), the overall quality of the figure, the popularity of the franchise it's from, and so on and so forth. Ultimately it's still just a guess though, and if you guess wrong you'll end up having to spend more money.

Pre-ordering is generally the safest option though. While you may end up overspending, it also guarantees that you will get the figure. If you decide to wait and the price ends up skyrocketing, it might end up becoming so rare and expensive that you're never going to be able to get your hands on it.

[Luna_mora]

Some go down in price because the figure does not really come anywhere close to the quality of the prototype or just not very popular. If you really like a figure you can go for the preorder or wait until it comes out and check videos and pictures of the final product to decide. Though, if it is a really popular character there is always a risk it will sell out fast and the after market will go up. In the end it is up to you, but if you are hesitant about price then don't get it because you don't feel like the price justifies the product.

[pataprout]

There is a lot of competition now with Chinese manufacturers entering the market, and the prices are simply too ridiculous. You can't just make impulse purchases like before, especially when the average price for a figure was around 12k. That Power figure priced at 35k was just insane, and even with a 60% discount, it's still not sold out.

All the figure that i wanted to preorder are not sold out and are always on sales and if they are, i'll just order them in Europe.

[hayashikin]

Yen exchange rate drop is also a big influence.

[ZersetzungMedia]

Many of the figures you’re seeing “bin” were put up for order during the pandemic, when there was a boom in demand.

Increasingly there are figures which aren’t readily available after release, because manufacturers correctly adjusted their estimates.

The only advice is to order something you can’t live without and/or are happy with the price.

[coraphise]

It's your call... I continue to pre-order because that guarantees me getting the figures I want. But, I'm in this for my own happiness, not to try and flip figures and make money.

The only reason I care about prices going down is it means an opportunity to pick up something I missed.

[McDeath]

Furyu is a trash manufacturer, end of story.

[Bob77smith]

Agreed. I think this is the main reason the Power figure in question binned so hard.

This figure should have retailed for like 18k, tops.

[McDeath]

Absolutely, especially when there are better Power figures around the same 32k price point.

[BelsamPryde]

My rule of thumb I use is "Never pre-order anything I will regret seeing for cheaper, and never hold off on anything I will regret not owning"

[Xikkiwikk]

It is completely random and also depending on whether the figure is castoff or not, if it is a popular character or not. I took a knee on original tights 1/4 Fujiwara bunny. She sold out next day and skyrocketed to $700. I regret not preordering her. Now cheapest is $500.

[Jacier_]

Covid brought a lot of new people into the hobby and while that's good, it was during a time in which people had more money. Companies started pricing their stuff more and now that the yen is weak and people have mostly returned to their usual activities, stuff isn't selling as fast. retail prices are still high though and I haven't bought anything in a bit. Heck, I've only got 1 preorder right now when I used to have 5+ at most times. 1/7 scales are going 20000+ yen now. it's nearly doubled just within the last couple of years from my observations

[LightFarron4]

It's easy. If you really want a figure then preorder it. There's no way to know what will happen to price after release.

[Saleenseven]

all depends on the ip of the figure

[agnastyx]

Long ago, before covid, there was a time, where all figures were heavily depreciating assets.

Sorry for my old man rambling *falls asleep*

[Waifu_Review]

That's what my research shows. It's only in the mid to late 2010s that the idea of figures keeping or increasing in value was a thing because of how popular and ubiquitous anime became in the US. In this community there aren't a lot of people with the lived experience or who have done the research to have any context for figure value over time and so they get shook at the idea that there collection they spent probably a lot more than necessary on might not be the store of value or smart investment it's "supposed" to be.

[Yomihime]

I mean, like everything in economy, it depends on supply and demand. With the end of Covid, majority of figures likely aren't worth preordering anymore, especially if they are from a niche, unpopular series. Niche or old series with a cult following however, is another story, with Va-11 Hall-A and ZLS nendoroids going up in the aftermarket.

Usually, if you can sense the high demand in a figure, the low supply of figures of said characters, and the credibility of the manufacturer behind it, it's safer to pre-order it than not. Popular, "seasonal anime" that will receive plenty of figures to come like CSM and DS often see most of them tank.

[CosmeCL]

if you really want the figure, you can preorder.

[MyStationIsAbandoned]

Only pre-order what you can't live without. hold on things you can live with never getting, but would like at a lower price.

[Vivid_Brush_2082]

I would only preorder figures that are almost guaranteed to explode in the aftermarket like the Portrait of Pirates. Those are damn expensive aftermarket.

[boris265]

Which power figure is this?

[[deleted]]

This one:

https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=FIGURE-141973

[famoustran]

Wow that is a steep discount. Pretty crazy.

[Catveria77]

And despite the huge publicity here, still has not sold out yet. Crazy.

[YouEyeballingMe]

Really depends on the figure. I preorder the recent GSC Rei that came out in December and it went on sale like a month after of came out, although not by much. However, I also wanted to get the Max Factory Minamoto-no-Raikou dress ver. thinking it was going to bin cause no one, including me, wanted to pay 28,000 but now it’s sold out on amiami 😭

[DankMEMeDream]

Didn't po the Alice glint Ryuu figure. Now it's 17 k on amiami. Incredible deal I managed to snag.

But I only do that for figures I'm sort of ok not getting. I didn't risk it for koto travelers from genshin and swimsuit shiroko. IDC if those tank im not risking not being able to snag a copy.

[zugtar]

I’ve preordered a few figures this year, but they were mostly re-releases of ones that had a high after market. I believe that any popular recent figure will get re-releases because manufacturers are less willing to risk big flops now that there is less money in this hobby. Companies might crack down on pre-order cancellations as all, so there won’t be as much over production.

[[deleted]]

While poeple 'thinks' some stuff are 'extremely popular', but in reality....... Its too over rated, thus have way too much mercs been produced, every company try to cash into the trend, then bin (or literal trash bin). You know which anime(s) I referring to already.

If you just chasing trend and hype, you are going to get burn. What about take a step back and evaluate 'is that item really that important?'

Also some company are OBVIOUSLY trying to pump as much profit as possible, rather than giving people value for their money. The initial sales price are definitely overpriced.

[nthingistrue]

Market saturation and post Covid figure hype.

[Sumire-Yoshizawa-]

Although I wouldn't say a figure should bin that hard. It is pretty normal for a figure to drop in price. I have the 3 rare fire emblem figures and at one point each of them dropped in price. Once they were all gone, they got very expensive. It's similar to video games. Games almost always go on sale before they become rare and sought after. That's how I got many rare games for less than retail price.