So it seems that the lottery system could be broke. The lottery system has become a popular way for toy makers to "fairly" distribute toys and give all people a fair chance of owning toy, but with the fact that there are people out there with multiple email accounts applying, it seems it could be as fair as state election using the trusty diebold electronic voting machine...
Is it time to move to a better system? Is there a fairer way of distribution, that's easy for the toy maker and purchaser? Does anyone even want fairer distribution? Do we all get 20 fake email accounts? I don't really know how the lottery works, is there a way of weeding out this type of cheating/gaming?

Lottery via paypal account, & only accept payment via the same paypal.

I realized the lottery system was broke when the same people kept winning Gorilla Ju auctions over and over. The fake email bs is a real problem.

I say go oldschool style again and literally set a fucking time- even if it is a 14 hr difference in Japan. That will weed out lazy fucks who can't get up and obviously can't want it that much if they can't be bothered to figure out time zones. I remember years ago me and plover were chatting back an for via pm's one really early morning trying to score the very first GID Maza. Guess what? It worked for both of us! Early bird gets the worm.

Oh yeah and what psilo said paypal must be connected to email...

I hate doing lottos, it takes days to collect payment, you deal with flakes, and people with the gull to tell you their friend entered for them and won already so they don't need the toy after all and you can draw someone else. Then you have to do a new round of pulls, and by the time it's all said and done you've wasted 2 days of your time doing what a cart system would have done in 10 minutes.

But, I guess you can't use carts anymore, because there is script that people use to automatically add items to their cart. I don't know, I'm not the most tech savvy, but this is what I've been hearing. I guess it is a cheat that started in the sneaker collector scene. I'm not sure if there is a way around this.

Make everything a timed, open run.

hand written letters with a scan of your ID included. its the only way.

Both lotto and cart system are screwed up. I have been seeing the same people win every lotto.
From what I think PK's lottos are tracked by IP address to help with multiple entries.

YES PLEASE! Timed/open run would nice but anything to cut out all the cheaters!

Open run...Maybe if you're Medicom. Do you think a popular indie guys want to paint 200 of the same toy from an open order? Maybe an unpainted open order is more plausible, but god that would suck to ship.

Still, this is a hobby that thrives on the offering of limited items. People can go on about that how that shouldn't matter and buy what you like, but it does to so many, even if they are unaware. Part of the fun is in the chase, and not being able to score everything right away. It's why people remember winning this toy or that one, because it wasn't guaranteed, they got lucky and they felt good.

Blobpus does it, it takes time but in the end everyone's "happy" (when the toy's not damaged)



Yeah but the thing is that all the "uncool" kids would get the toys and then those toys would end up being not that "cool" anymore, it's all about the hype and keeping them toys sought after

Open runs would be nice, but offering more than one a year seems way too difficult for the artists (even when it's unpainted).

EVOM's idea might work , but then the artist would get a pile of mail to sort through -- would that be more difficult than using emails?

Lists.

Kaji is a freak of nature, I'm pulling my hair out after 30.

I've ordered made to order figures in the past, there's one I've been waiting on from Monstock for 2 years now. And when a toy takes 4 to 6 months to get to you, it's inevitable people are going to be moving between, and then you have to keep track of address changes. Last time I ordered from Blobpus, I moved while waiting, sent him 2 emails about the address change and he still sent it to my old address, luckily it was forwarded safely.

I meant yes to the whole "hand written letters and photo id" but i know that probably has little loops holes also. and I understand open runs would kill the whole "chase" of collecting. I agree not winning evey lottery makes it fun, just wish all of us that are in it for collecting can get a fair shot, while the makers can make all the money and we dont see it landing in the hands of a flipper.

With the prices of most of the standard-size releases, would 200 people really purchase each and every release though? If there was no semi-artificial rarity, would these people still be popular? I honestly don't know. (Not dissing anyone, but as you said, many people may be in it at least partly for the rarity) I'm looking at the open Maza run... Some have been sitting on the BST for $80, which is what, half-price?

As far as shipping, sure, it would suck, but if you make that much more money, hire someone to put toys in boxes and you'll still come up ahead.

if you had to supply ID with a letter sent by mail with paypal info that matched your info and was shipped to the return address on your letter.. and postmarked within entry window. would be hard to get more than one entry. sounds complicated but I'd be down. I don't even know if youd need the id actually.. too much thinking for me right now.

I'm honestly stumped as to how to do any kind of lotto that could lock out cheating... I mean, even ID's can be faked, haha. Just a shame that cheaters have to ruin things for everyone... And let's not even get started on the flippers who enter lottos just to profit.

There are guys getting 300-400 entries in their lottos. Stuff has really been picking up, it might not be visible on Skullbrain. But there are tons of people off this board buying stuff. Yeah there are plenty of people out there, who would only end up with an order of 15,30, or 50 figures, but I imagine those aren't the guys this thread was started about.

If you have to prepare and ship 200 figures, the overall quantity of releases will have to go way down to adjust for time needed to handle much larger runs, so you wouldn't be able to do as many releases. If you have a popular toy and you're doing open orders, you may only be offering 1 or 2 releases of it a year, and then I'm sure the people who want that toy will have to jump on it since it will be their only shot for another 6 months- 1 year.

I always thought Maza was over rated, so it didn't surprise me the value dropped when it was finally readily available. But I've seen plenty of open order toys, sell for much more on the secondary market. I'm sure there will be those who pass, because they don't perceive it as being as valuable or flippable, but I think most of the normal collector base would still jump on it if they liked the colorway. After all, it's still limited, just not as much.

Thank you for bringing attention to this Joe.
I recently found out about this bot bullshit, and it's very discouraging news. Also wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a couple members here have been using one... Your Bone Usir and PK's drop the following night were the only times I've had any success during a heavily trafficked Bigcartel drop. After countless times of coming up empty-handed from MVH webstore releases, it's hard to get excited about the shop drop announcements anymore.

On that PK drop, no toys were listed before the announced time. After refreshing, items began to appear and I was somehow lucky enough to grab a Goon... Fast forward to the Jinxman release (where the item was listed ahead of time as "coming soon"), and the usual scenario happens (long gone before the "Add to Cart" button appeared).

I'm not very tech savvy either, but think that the "stealth drop" like PK did (posting items for sale at the drop time and not before) might help to keep the bots at bay. If an item isn't listed in the shop, there's no web address for the bot to "watch" then perform its function of immediately adding to cart when the option is presented. I may be completely wrong, but in theory it makes sense...

Despite the shenanigans that people pull during lottos, I'll take them over shop drops solely on the fact the artist still retains (some) control over who's purchasing their goods.

I have to say, learning about the bots was definietly disappointing. I have failed at every attempt in buying a toy through a shop drop but happy to say the Usir DX was the first pleasant shopping experience.

hearing about these bots really sucks.

people will find a way to cheat at just about everything.

what if toys were numbered, that way the artist can keep track of who got what number? it might make it easier to prevent flippers caught in the act from doing so again... but maybe not...

ultimately, they're toys. they're supposed to be fun. if you're not having fun, maybe look at what you can change, as others will rarely (if ever) change for you.

Im not debating whether or not people are using bots but coming from some one who has nabbed all four releases in one drop, I'd say there is also a bit of simple luck and technique involved.

I wouldn't get discouraged Sam there is definitely still hope in just hitting that 'add to cart' button at the right instant and getting the toy/toys you want.

Haven't had any experiences buying toys through the lottery system, but I have bought ceramic art pieces (also a competitive thing). The art galleries make you register your credit card with your billing address, before the show pieces are put online for purchase. When the pieces become available, you can add them to your cart, but you need to enter that deformed image combination of text and number characters, before your order is validated, to prove you're not a bot. Might this system work with toys too? You could limit the toy shipment to one credit card number AND it's associated billing address. I know you can have more than one card tied to a different address, but at least this will narrow down the multiple entries?

This is a big part of the issue. So many toy makers benefit from stuff being difficult to get that removing "the chase" aspect from their toys could seriously hurt them financially. Most of the people I know who are making toys aren't making any decent money in the first place. So the difference between breaking even on a toy and not breaking even can mean a lot.

The idea of more open runs sounds good but lots of the people who do this stuff do it just because they enjoy it. An open painted run could really suck for an artist. Imagine having to paint the same thing a couple hundred times in a row. By the end it wouldn't be fun or satisfying at all. It would feel like just work which is exactly the opposite of what it should be. An open blank run also sounds great but at the same time lots of people doing this stuff are making money mostly from their paint work, not just the toy itself. So letting every single person with an airbrush grab as many of your toys as they want to do their own runs can end up costing a toy maker a lot in the long run.

I don't think giving up on the lottery system is the way to go. It's easily manipulated but at the same time it gives the toy makers a little bit of control over where stuff goes.

In the end I think most of you are concerned about getting what you want and your friends here getting what they want as well so why not come up with an SB solution rather then trying to change what's already in place?

Maybe open a lottery sub-forum here. Let some willing toy makers and some staff members work it out together. Say someone is holding a standard lottery themselves like they often do. They can announce that sometime during the same day a post will be up in the lottery forum and 3 pieces will be up for grabs first come first served. Yeah it would probably only be a few pieces but there would be no cart-bots and whoever won would at least have a screen name and the staff would have their IP address so if that piece gets flipped they can be stopped from ever using the forum again. It would probably be fun for the people who enjoy the chase and it wouldn't have a negative impact on the people who like to enter the lotteries as they are now. I think if someone figured it all out properly it would be a simple way for you guys to have a fair shot at a toy.