NoCal/Northbay Reports....

[jedibear]

Pelleon....

If this down time is any indication, I think the SW line will be dead 6 MONTHS aster EpIII debuts.
Sigh. Here we are in April & up here in the Sonoma-Northbay, we have seen nothing but drips-n-drabs since December.....

Witness....TRU got in (at least 3 different times) the Ani/Padme 12" wave BUT NO NEW regular figures. Our area WM & Targets got ONE shipment of the Arena Obi/Tyranus wave and I've been told the Targets actually had the Lama Su wave at least once (my buddy Grayhank snagged 'em...crunched bubbles and all) & the Boba Fett wave (just one sighting..same story..Grayhank snagged e'm and got me a set..again, crunched bubbles). I have yet to see any of these on the pegs for myself. Target did get the new SpeederBike wave in a couple of weeks ago, but bam! Gone quickly...

Meanwhile, the Windsor WM has Clone Pilots falling off the pegs ( and an infamous toy dept mgr who picks & chooses who gets access to new stuff) and the RP one has had NOTHING on their pegs in months! (Frankly I'm suprised they haven't just taken over the dead space with another line)

Except for the above-mentioned breif sightings, our area Targets have nothing but ooo-I-burned-ma-hand Maces' & Wattos gathering dust along with a huge number of Zam/Dooku/SBD 12'ers (that finally got marked down for clearance).

Our KBs haven't had anything new for SW in ages (aside from more of the four-pack repack sets).

It's bad out there right now....between the stores not ordering & scapers/dealers scooping up what little turns up, it's enough to make the average collector want to throw up his hands and turn away....except for the wonderful images floating around online of the stuff we're missing! I want my Lamma Su! A Barriss Offee to go with Luminara! An Aalya Secura to kick some Geonosian butt (wait a minute...do they have a butt?)

I'm wondering if when I attend WonderCon in SF later this month if there's going to be dealer tables overflowing with these hard-to-find waves at $20 a pop....I wonder if the retailers, who are so eager to only carry what's deemed "hot" (Yu-Go-whatever anyone?) are passing on the line right now until the new "Clone Wars" banner bows this fall....

I dunno fellow bay area SW collectors....these are dark times in the old republic....thanks for lookin' at my rant. Back to search'n the aisles (in vain)....

[c_richards]

THIS SUCKS!!!!

I can't find jack s**t! Like you Jedibear and Pellaeon, I have seen little to nothing in terms of new SW stuff.....

WTF is going on? I got a feeling there is a huge werehouse somewhere that is filled with all these new figures, and none are being shipped out here.

Things have gotten so bad, that I am now turning to my friend in Arizona to look for stuff. So far he's found the Unleashed Padme for me, but that's it. Apparently it's just as bad there as it is here!

This isn't funny..... I really am getting discouraged.

Oh well... if I should see anything... I'll report it
(after I have my coronary from seeing something new!)

Until the next time....
MTFBWY!!!

[Brainiak76]

Hey JEDIBEAR??

Whats wondercon in SF? a toy show?

[jedibear]

It's a comic book convention held by the same folks who put on ComicCon in San Diego every summer. It's been held the last few years in Oakland at the Convention center but this year it's moving to the Moscone Center in SF on the weekend of the 22nd of April....check your local comic shop for more info.
These cons usually have alot of dealers present who deal not only in comix but action figures & other toys, collectible cards and all sorts of fun stuff...

[Brainiak76]

TITE!! april 22? so its like a collectibles show?

do you know how much to get it?

[IG-89]

Hi, the Penninsula checking where it is a virtual wasteland in terms of Star wars collecting as it seems like is common in all parts of this area. i've been to Target ea. morning on my way to work and only seen restocks of light sabers and c3p0 deluxe wave and a few Ani and Dooku speeders. Target in mtn view as well as San Mateo have had 1 or 2 cases of '03 figures in the past month because i can see remnants of those cases a few times. The scalper activity is VERY high as it seems that the months following Christmas is very light for the Hotwheels guys so they've gone over to Star Wars to fill their time. These are the annoying folk who line-up in front of Target or Walmart at opening ot make that dash to the toy aisle and seeing that there's been no new Hotwheel cases will go over to the Star Wars to pick it clean of anything new. I asked one guy who snagged every library droid, DFC Padme and '03 Tuskens why...he just simply said he's goin to get $10-20 per figure at the card show 2 weeks ago. grrrrr.

I've been collecting since the '95 relaunch and it's never been as bad as it is now.

There is some hope though as Target well have some sort of clearance on ALL their toy stock right after Easter so here's hoping some new stock gets on the shelf.

I still have NO idea what Walmart is doing as i've NEVER seen a single Trash Compactor set and it's been shipped as early as November. Someone give Walmart a clue please? Heck, give TRU a clue too.

[Lone Jedi]

Have you guys ever considered ordering figures by the case online? That's what I've been doing for sometime now. If you choose cases wisely, or better yet, split them with a fellow collector, you can forget about all those wasteful trips to TRU, WM, Target, KB, etc. I've given up looking in stores, unless I'm out shopping for other stuff anyways.

Newforcecomics.com charges $61.99 per case of 12 (plus UPS ground shipping), that's roughly $5.17 per figure, plus they come double-boxed and case fresh. The shipping costs more than balance out the wasted time and gas money you would normally choke on. There are quite a few cases that contain 2 each of six new figures, so two collectors can split the case equally. However the down side of course is when a figure is short-packed (i.e., the upcoming red battle droid).

I know some people may enjoy "the hunt" but the way things are looking, I think they should consider ordering online cases. Besides, we all complain about the lousy and corrupt employees and say "screw them." Well let's follow through with those words, and buy from another supplier.

Just my input.

[Brainiak76]

if i had someone to spilt a case with i would!!

[c_richards]

LoneJedi-

Your post right now seems to be a godsend. I had thought about doing that in the past, but like you said, I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.

Things here seem to be really bad... so why not just cut out the middle man, and get the cases directly? I can't seem to find a reason that would make me think that would be a bad idea.

So what if a figure is short-packed. I think many people that arranged a deal to buy a case would be willing to trade off every so often who got the short packed figure.

If what I said, didn't make sense.... let me provide an example.
Say we got 3 cases, and 2 of them have short-packed figures. One of the crew can take one figure, and the other takes the second figure. Hopefully, in time, another case might provide the one with a figure he didn't get the first go around.

And, if you should get stuck with extras, then maybe put them up on Ebay as a bundle to recover your cost.

I can only see this as a win/win situation.

Thanks for the idea LoneJedi!

MTFBWY!

[Brainiak76]

yeah or if someone split a case and someone didnt get..oh lets say lama su..then the people that split the case would look hard for him in retail stores and in time im sure he would be found..PROBLEM SOLVED!