Biting the hand that feeds me
There are two companies (well prolly more but this post is about two) that bring me much joy and as much frustration. For as much as I love their products, I’m not too fond of their business practices.
The first is Wizkids. Evan has often heard me cuss about them. I really like their heroclix, and I wouldn’t mind giving them so much money if I didn’t hate their business practices from both a professional and fan perspective. I say professional because I work at a game store and while Wizkids doesn’t screw us as much as Game Workshop- that’s sorta like saying Mitt doesn’t piss me off as much as W.
From the professional pov, I hate their ‘clix brick’ marketing idea. Wizkids decided to pressure people to buy in groups of 12, starting with their last set, by saying that if you buy a dozen- you’ll get a cool limited figure… that you can’t get any way else. I wouldn’t mind this idea- and would’ve thought it was a cool incentive… if it weren’t for the fact that you have to buy ALL at once. Now as a collector, I know I’m going to buy enough so I can do that… BUT working at a game store I know some people can only afford 3 or 4 at a time. Worse I know a guy who’s going to be in 4 sealed tournaments, so he’ll buy 12 but only 3 at a time… so he can’t get the mail in, even though he’s buying the 12.
It gets worse for the store… As say I have a brick- 12 boosters. I get a customer at 2 pm and he wants 5 boosters, which I sell him. Then at 4 pm, I get a customer who wants a brick. I point out I only have 7 boosters, and he decides NOT to buy them because he needs the brick. So I’m stuck with 7 boosters.
I also need to mention that today I had 3 conversations with the same customer about the clix brick. You see he had a stroke and his memory isn’t anywhere near where he’d like. Even on the best of days, he often gets things totally confused. So I have told him that he should wait to open his brick in front of me. That I will help him with all the paperwork but had to STRESS that he needs to buy 12 at once. That the 4 he just bought from another store( as we were out) meant NOTHING to the mail in, as this other store also didn’t have a full brick to sell him.
Next is the Convention Exclusives that vex me from both POVs. These are BIG figures that you can only get at conventions. Conventions which don’t happen in my home town even though said ‘town’ is Boston. So the only way for me to get them as a buyer( besides ebay) is to BEG a friend to go to a convention near him and HOPE that he can get one… Oh yeah that’s the other problem with these Con Exclusives, Wizkids willfully makes less then demand for them. They go to a convention with hundreds of thousands of geek boys and girls with only 3,000 of their TOP product. What I wish they would do is have the item roll out as a Con Exclusive for about 5 months and then let us carry them in the stores. I’d like that because a) I think the game store could’ve made some money if given a chance of selling Phoenix, and b) many people like me would then have a better chance of getting cool stuff and giving Wizkids more of our money. As it is, the people who make out like bandits on Con Exclusives are those who sell it on Ebay.
Which leads to the next problem: Limited Edition Figures. These are ‘special’ figures that you can only get buy winning a sanctioned tournament. This pisses me off, because I feel that there are a lot of people like me who enjoy heroclix- want ALL of the figures but aren’t the best clix’er around… Oh and don’t have a bottomless wallet to buy these figures online. I know that some places( like in Chico, Ca) the gaming scene is a nice friendly affair, not so at my store. Wizkids implies that this tournament scene helps the stores and builds a customer base. I say NOT SO. What happens is, our judge is a gun- one of those people who plays to win. He’s not fun to play with as he’s in it for the prizes… He will often find the best and broken figures and use them to stomp the tar out of anyone else. The people who show up for his tournaments are the same, they’re not fun to play with and I know I don’t have a chance as I don’t have the time to go all over the web figuring out what figures are broken. There are TWO prizes at these tournaments- one for the top winner, one for showmanship… however as the guns travel in packs… I know no matter how nice I am, they’re gonna vote for each other.
Now there were two sets where they put the Limited Edition figure in the booster packs. Wizkids did color them slightly different and called them ‘Super Rares’ if you got them from the pack instead of winning them… but as far as I was concerned, they were the same and I loved this. I bought WAY more DC figures from that set then normally as I liked the ‘Super Rares’ and was very happy to be able to pull them. So what happens is the guns like the judge complained that these Super Rares cheapened their prizes( re: made the prices drop on Ebay) and Wizkids listened to these jerks rather then the fans like me…. Which is a sad thing.
The other company is the Cartoon Network. They’ve come out with a lot of cool shows and then promptly buried them for crap. I blame them for the lack of Reboot in my life… as Mainframe did come out with a ‘season 4’ and Cartoon Network didn’t properly hype it and buried the episodes… I had to get them from a friend in Canada (thanx Kel). There were cool toys that were planned, and I saw on websites that were scrapped because there wasn’t enough demand. Likewise, I’d like to think if they promoted it- more people might've been turned into fans which would've lead to a FIFTH season of Reboot.
In fact, lack of promotion is their biggest problem. They don’t have ads on their network or web site( which is a joke) letting me know when NEW episodes of my favorite shows are going to be on… Or when they’ve moved my favorite show to…. I really think that Megas XLR was one of their coolest shows and died because others gave up on figuring out when it was on.
This second part is here because Justice League started showing new episodes… and I missed a few. They’re also showing this show at 10:30 pm on a Saturday night. I’m just like huh? How do they expect to get good ratings for this at such a crappy time… esp when then give Bobobobobo as a lead in.
So I’m going to have to look for a place to download Justice League as I was told there was an awesome one where Flash and Luthor change bodies… which is made more awesome by the idea that Flash is voiced by the guy who does Luthor on Smallvile
The first is Wizkids. Evan has often heard me cuss about them. I really like their heroclix, and I wouldn’t mind giving them so much money if I didn’t hate their business practices from both a professional and fan perspective. I say professional because I work at a game store and while Wizkids doesn’t screw us as much as Game Workshop- that’s sorta like saying Mitt doesn’t piss me off as much as W.
From the professional pov, I hate their ‘clix brick’ marketing idea. Wizkids decided to pressure people to buy in groups of 12, starting with their last set, by saying that if you buy a dozen- you’ll get a cool limited figure… that you can’t get any way else. I wouldn’t mind this idea- and would’ve thought it was a cool incentive… if it weren’t for the fact that you have to buy ALL at once. Now as a collector, I know I’m going to buy enough so I can do that… BUT working at a game store I know some people can only afford 3 or 4 at a time. Worse I know a guy who’s going to be in 4 sealed tournaments, so he’ll buy 12 but only 3 at a time… so he can’t get the mail in, even though he’s buying the 12.
It gets worse for the store… As say I have a brick- 12 boosters. I get a customer at 2 pm and he wants 5 boosters, which I sell him. Then at 4 pm, I get a customer who wants a brick. I point out I only have 7 boosters, and he decides NOT to buy them because he needs the brick. So I’m stuck with 7 boosters.
I also need to mention that today I had 3 conversations with the same customer about the clix brick. You see he had a stroke and his memory isn’t anywhere near where he’d like. Even on the best of days, he often gets things totally confused. So I have told him that he should wait to open his brick in front of me. That I will help him with all the paperwork but had to STRESS that he needs to buy 12 at once. That the 4 he just bought from another store( as we were out) meant NOTHING to the mail in, as this other store also didn’t have a full brick to sell him.
Next is the Convention Exclusives that vex me from both POVs. These are BIG figures that you can only get at conventions. Conventions which don’t happen in my home town even though said ‘town’ is Boston. So the only way for me to get them as a buyer( besides ebay) is to BEG a friend to go to a convention near him and HOPE that he can get one… Oh yeah that’s the other problem with these Con Exclusives, Wizkids willfully makes less then demand for them. They go to a convention with hundreds of thousands of geek boys and girls with only 3,000 of their TOP product. What I wish they would do is have the item roll out as a Con Exclusive for about 5 months and then let us carry them in the stores. I’d like that because a) I think the game store could’ve made some money if given a chance of selling Phoenix, and b) many people like me would then have a better chance of getting cool stuff and giving Wizkids more of our money. As it is, the people who make out like bandits on Con Exclusives are those who sell it on Ebay.
Which leads to the next problem: Limited Edition Figures. These are ‘special’ figures that you can only get buy winning a sanctioned tournament. This pisses me off, because I feel that there are a lot of people like me who enjoy heroclix- want ALL of the figures but aren’t the best clix’er around… Oh and don’t have a bottomless wallet to buy these figures online. I know that some places( like in Chico, Ca) the gaming scene is a nice friendly affair, not so at my store. Wizkids implies that this tournament scene helps the stores and builds a customer base. I say NOT SO. What happens is, our judge is a gun- one of those people who plays to win. He’s not fun to play with as he’s in it for the prizes… He will often find the best and broken figures and use them to stomp the tar out of anyone else. The people who show up for his tournaments are the same, they’re not fun to play with and I know I don’t have a chance as I don’t have the time to go all over the web figuring out what figures are broken. There are TWO prizes at these tournaments- one for the top winner, one for showmanship… however as the guns travel in packs… I know no matter how nice I am, they’re gonna vote for each other.
Now there were two sets where they put the Limited Edition figure in the booster packs. Wizkids did color them slightly different and called them ‘Super Rares’ if you got them from the pack instead of winning them… but as far as I was concerned, they were the same and I loved this. I bought WAY more DC figures from that set then normally as I liked the ‘Super Rares’ and was very happy to be able to pull them. So what happens is the guns like the judge complained that these Super Rares cheapened their prizes( re: made the prices drop on Ebay) and Wizkids listened to these jerks rather then the fans like me…. Which is a sad thing.
The other company is the Cartoon Network. They’ve come out with a lot of cool shows and then promptly buried them for crap. I blame them for the lack of Reboot in my life… as Mainframe did come out with a ‘season 4’ and Cartoon Network didn’t properly hype it and buried the episodes… I had to get them from a friend in Canada (thanx Kel). There were cool toys that were planned, and I saw on websites that were scrapped because there wasn’t enough demand. Likewise, I’d like to think if they promoted it- more people might've been turned into fans which would've lead to a FIFTH season of Reboot.
In fact, lack of promotion is their biggest problem. They don’t have ads on their network or web site( which is a joke) letting me know when NEW episodes of my favorite shows are going to be on… Or when they’ve moved my favorite show to…. I really think that Megas XLR was one of their coolest shows and died because others gave up on figuring out when it was on.
This second part is here because Justice League started showing new episodes… and I missed a few. They’re also showing this show at 10:30 pm on a Saturday night. I’m just like huh? How do they expect to get good ratings for this at such a crappy time… esp when then give Bobobobobo as a lead in.
So I’m going to have to look for a place to download Justice League as I was told there was an awesome one where Flash and Luthor change bodies… which is made more awesome by the idea that Flash is voiced by the guy who does Luthor on Smallvile
2 Comments:
At 2/20/2006 01:15:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
You can cheat on the ClixBrick redemption (particularly easier because you work at a game store). Any receipt is good as far as WK is concerned, not just cash register. So, if your store has hand-written receipts (our store uses for pre-pays, lay-aways, and gift cert.'s) our the paper credit card receipts, you could fill one of those out with the total a brick would cost, stamp it or write in the store's info (if the store has a stamp, better) and then you can use that receipt. We had to do this in order to show I bought 4 bricks instead of 1 case last Wednesday. I of course, would only condone this for folks who buy their bricks piecemeal instead of all at once.
Also, in case you didn't notice, this redemption form requires you actually send in the UPCs from the box bottoms. If you threw yours out, WK says it's ok as long as you send a note explaining this along with everything else.
oh, re the tournaments. Your judge isn't allowed to win a prize at his own tournaments. He's allowed to play now, but if he takes either prize for himself, he can be reported and lose his judge status forever. As you work at a game store, you turning him in would hold a lot more clout than typical joe off street.
At 2/20/2006 08:22:00 PM,
Drew said…
While I thank you for your points- I think my main premise stands. Yes if a guy buys 5 packs from me and likes what he gets- and decides to buy the brick... I will fudge the paperwork, as we offered the guy who bought the first six boosters. But would it be fair for the first guy if I fudged the SECOND guy's paperwork? I mean he just bought 6 as well... Now I know the store has just sold a multiple of 12--- but I don't think the second guy is entitled to the brick.... even if he was willing to buy 12 boosters.
Likewise if a guy goes to 4 tournments and buys 3 boosters each- he's just bought 12 boosters. However he didn't buy the 12 at any ONE store. While I would be willing to fudge the tournement at MY store- that would be 4 people buy 3 boosters each and they can argue among themselves who gets the mail in... still I think less then fair and I'm not gonna mess up MY store's paperwork if they're buying boosters elsewhere.
If the customer does it on a single day, that's possible- but over multiple days and it's just not doable. It's easier to do what they did for you and break a big sale up then combine lots of little sales over a course of a couple of weeks.
And yeah I know I have to send the UPCs... that's why I told the old guy with the stroke that I would help him. I'm too afried that when he opens the box- he'll throw them out. It's taken alot to explain he needs to buy 12 and I didn't really want to take the time to explain the money order or the box bottoms, so tomorrow I'm going to buy a packing envople for both of us, as well as two money orders... so he'll get his krypto because getting him to write a note to wizkids would be almost as bad.
And the judge doesn't take the prize from his own tournment. What happens is he has a posse... so if he's A, there are players 1,2 and B. I say B, because B is ANOTHER judge. He is a part of this posse of twitty rules game players so A judges an event where B is at and then they change places... and 1 and 2 play in both/all events. Making it unfun for people who aren't in this group, esp. as I mantain that they all vote for each other for fellowship. Plus if judge A is judging several marques( which he does) he gets a prize for being a judge for each one... and thus he can trade his second( or third) judge's prize for the prize he didn't get.
Heck this group more often plays at other game stores who put up with their crap.
I also seem to remember turning him in because he listed an event on their website and not on OURS. And I found out that basically I work with a bunch of stupid lazy people. If certain people( head judge) so desired he could make it so judge a couldn't list events with Wizkids. However since the head judge doesn't BELIEVE that judge A is a dick, he lets judge A do events.
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