[MetroPoliceGray]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thessair

True, but a lot of lock seeds are already out of print and Bandai is having issues keeping up with demand for things like the AC line. Now, realistically, Bandai couldn't have foreseen the demand for some of this stuff. But from my point of view, Mandarake sales aren't costing potential sales for Bandai because Bandai doesn't have the stuff to sell. Especially in the case of the AC figures, I think people would rather buy them at a retail level than pay the higher secondary market prices.

I think buying trends are fragile things and just because someone wants to buy something today doesn't mean they will next week. If Bandai is losing potential future sales, from whenever they can provide the product again, I think they would have lost some of those sales from people who just lost interest in buying them over time - even had there been no secondary market to supply them immediately. Not all, obviously, as I think the steady rate of Sengoku driver sell-throughs on both the primary and secondary markets show.

This makes another point. Basically, the secondary market supports said manufacturers. When they have a line, like Figuarts, that's ongoing, and a subline or character goes out of production, it hits the secondary market. But the ongoing characters in that line support the desire for the current line and the discontinued character for those that missed out. So trust me Bandai's not losing much. It's when they (!) end something like SHFiguarts. That's why there's so much involved with diversity of product lines within a company. Just my $.02.