I just looked in the for sale forum for the first time in 12 months. Holy FUCK. Has the economy been THAT HARSH on everyone? It makes me want to cry. Really. It's just, well, a very sad thing, to see what's happened to this "industry" if you can call it that, since the bottom fell out of things. Where the fuck are all of the posters on the board, even? Did everyone die? I guess I wasn't the only one to drop off for a while. *sigh* I'm I off-base here? Or have things simply changed in the last year, for skullbrainers?
As you suspect, it's all about the economy, but the board and the scene aren't dead, just slowed down. And yeah, there have been some astonishing collection sell-offs lately, but some folks saw that coming a year ago with the signs of impending recession (or worse.) There was a thread which served as sort of a roll-call for people who've been laid off from their jobs. Several people posted to it, and that was months ago. So yeah, it's quieter here but it ain't quite crickets and tumbleweeds. Several sofubi outfits are stil on a roll, Super7 being one of 'em. Their SOI and Monster Family lines seem to have momentum, thank Godzilla. I take cruel satisfaction in seeing some of the flippers having a hard time of it, and some apparently out of biz entirely. I guess every cloud has its silver lining. There are some cool threads here that are currently active. Check out "Rokuron Q Mike" in the Vintage Vinyl section for example. Some of the regional posses are still getting together to trade toys, attend events, and shoot the shit. The austerity will probably last for awhile and things might get even worse before they improve, but toyz ain't dead!
good stuff dean, I appreciate the update! I got lucky, my business grew about 35% in our year-over-year ending july 31st, thank heavens. I totally understand that that's an anomaly though, when the S7 tour in Japan took place last year in September, it was RIGHT when crap was starting to look really bad, and I remember us discussing how things might get tough for the toy industry, among all the others. GLad it's not completely dead though, I will do my part to reinvigorate things.
i've taken lengthy breaks from kaiju throughout the year, which i'm guessing a lot of folk are doing now with all the financial craziness everyone is experiencing, but i could never totally kick the habit! it's like those dudes that don't smoke for 10 years and suddenly decide to buy a pack...so please, do not shoot yourself in the face. and if you do, send me your toys first!
With my spare cash dwindling, in combination with rarely being able to touch new full-size figures for less than $100.00 a pop, my toy buying has all but ended. I still enjoy the toys I have, and have no desire to sell them, but if not for the occasional toy I pick up in the sales threads, I'd not be buying much of anything. I never even lost my job, but I just don't have the xtra money I once had for buying toys....
I think it's awesome shit's not being flipped for 100,00,000 x it's cost. I've been scooping up deals like a madman. GO RECESSION!
. . . and Geo said he was never gonna post on Skullbrain again (twice!) . . . you guys talk the talk but never walk the walk!
I am selling ALL of my toys and will NEVER post here again. I REALLY mean it this time. Frak this board. Frak these demon toys. Just Frak!
Wow the drama. I think people also need to focus on how companies shot themselves in the foot and made their products worthless.
Panic selling, rapid price slashing, and the idea that everything must sell within 10 hours is a big factor.
Too much crap being released. The $60 retail figure really isn't worth $60.00. Alot of long time collectors have burned out. Scene isn't growing. Everything has been discussed and talked about. Hipsters have moved on to the next thing. People have a life outside of Toy Town. etc
In a sense, 2009 has been like 2005-6 all over again. Back then, there were few releases, but the average quality was excellent. Now, there is a dust storm of releases, but very few are excellent.
Please see my above post on how companies have shot themselves in the foot. I recall trying to hunt down the few SB release there were back then and loving them all. Rxh set a new market trend of thousands of releases/sculpts nothing worth noting, and hype of buyers paying 60 bucks and then offloading for 45 the next week. Maybe retail will drop again to something reasonable and smaller runs of quality will perk back up once the hipsters and kids move on to play with paranoia.
yeah... this pretty much sums it up. i think if the economy was booming right now, this "scene" would probably still be in the same state. everything is also too readily available & the fun of the hunt has been successfully removed from the hobby.
10 hours? more like 15 minutes...people need to sell what they bought an hour or two ago to buy the new cool must have grail. sad. i'm burnt out i know that much. i agree with rhino, part of the fun for me is tracking down the things i'm interested in, and having discussions about/researching the toys that make me happy. that doesnt happen much around here anymore. personally i've found other interests to keep me occupied these days.
I'm unemployed too, don't really have the means to be buying, but I've bought a few toys I couldn't pass on and have had to let some stuff go to fund some projects and get those. Seems like people have been saying this hobby has been dying since the day I joined this board. Seems to me there are more releases than ever. Are they all stellar? No. Are there too many toys driving secondary prices down? Sure, but if all you care about is secondary market value than you should probably be collecting vintage cars or something. If you just crave a hunt, than it's true, maybe the world of Japanese toys isn't the best hobby for you. Let's face it with the internet, E-bay, YJA, our buy sell trade, you're pretty much going to have good luck finding the toys you're after pretty quickly. But I'm into some pretty obscure stuff and have a handful of wants I have never been able to track down and doubt I ever will, but I'm sure if I someday do, I'll probably be the only one looking for it and get it for 30 bucks. Anyway, sorry for the mini rant, I'm not much for them, but I love toys, if I can get the ones I like for 30 bucks and I have the means to buy, I'm going to fill a whole room with them, I don't care if it's popular, if there's a scene, if I'm the last active member on this god damn forum. Fuck the now- who cares if it's hot, if it's hard to get, just buy what you love, hold onto it until you die, then leave it to the grand kids, let them play with all your old Godzilla toys. Maybe it will be worth hundreds, maybe it will be worth 5 cents, will it even matter. Anyway it just bums me out when I hear talk about the scene being dead. I've felt fortunate to belong to this scene and have met some really cool people doing so. It's still alive and kicking in my mind but I wasn't around in 05 or 06 so maybe I missed the boat and I have just been swimming. So. instead of just talking about what's bad. What's good? New makers and almost all our favorites still kicking. A lot of Japanese makers taking overseas orders. It's possible to get toys you want. More stores have opened, and S7 has a distribution network. A resin scene with some crazy talent has emerged. I could go on and on, but bottom line The times seem pretty ok to me.
