Comments In Regards To Figure Woes In 2022

Great pointers you got there. Let me add one or two to it.

Not all figures are expensive on the aftermarket.
Take this for example ITEM #98783, she's a great and beautiful figure, but the price didn't increase and it drops instead. Why? Because of no demand of her. She came from an old game and nobody plays that now.

Figs are expensive because companies knew they can milk it off the fans, by producing popular characters or with fanservices. And fans will still buy it, together with FOMO, if they don't preorder it, they will have to top extra to get on the aftermarket (not forgetting the existence of scalpers). Because the character is popular, because the character is limited edition, because the character is by high quality manufacturer.

One Piece P.O.P from MH is a great example. A lot new collectors sprung into collecting this line during the pandemic, resulting in the aftermarket price spikes over the roof. And with those new collectors supporting it, their price kept increasing over every single new/next character they produce, its insane.

I know of people (with or without financial stabilities) whom collects every single piece of OP Characters that MH produce no matter the price. I personally hate Prize figure, so I collect OP from MH too, BUT selectively only. I skipped a lot of their recent preorder/new releases because they aren't my fav characters. BUT, when they release a character I favors, I will still get it (unless its wayyyy over my budget), just that character. I hate prize fig, but I like MH quality compare to other brands, so there goes my money, it hit my weakness, my soft spot.

So all in all, its difficult to avoid boycotting or making them stop increasing the price (with those many factors that you have stated). There are still people out there collecting every fig or collect selectively like me. It all comes down to each individual to purchase carefully and manages their own finance wisely. Those who complains, it's because they can't control themselves properly. It's a hobby and non essential. Nobody forces them to buy anything.

JoeyTheAsian • 1 year ago • #112658054Myself. Ive cancelled dozens if not over a hundred POs. Never had any action taken against my account. They simply ask that you dont cancel POs that are releasing within the next month. If you try to request a cancellation on those they will deny the request.Well that's quite odd, I've been canceling figures due out the same month for the past year with no issues.

starhawk • 1 year ago • #112658050What's your source for this information?
Myself. Ive cancelled dozens if not over a hundred POs. Never had any action taken against my account. They simply ask that you dont cancel POs that are releasing within the next month. If you try to request a cancellation on those they will deny the request.

JoeyTheAsian • 1 year ago • #112603953The best part about POs on amiami these days is that you can cancel as many as you want with no repercussions so long as you cancel 2 months ahead. This wasnt the case in the past.
What's your source for this information?

To me the fun is in the rarity. I get the figures that matter most to me. Such as I absolutely love Hatsune Miku, so I get the figures I really want. I am focusing on prize figures for now. I also get them if its cheap and I can do it.
I got the first nendoroid Miku figure for 20 dollars because I got lucky someone else was selling on ebay.
I live near a hobby store that also sells her on a rare occasion. Seeing Miku in stores is a rare treat. Especially as I don't take much interest in other characters from popular animes I seen.
Then some of my favorite characters are also rare to even get a figure. For example Kojiro Sasaki from Record of Ragnarok has only one figure I seen. I noticed he was disappearing online for the colored version. So I had to spring for him.
It's a hunt that is fun for me. I take it as they come. I'm hoping that one day when I finally move from home. I can buy a 1/7 figure. I have my eye on IA...

An idea I want to put out there is the likelihood that resource hoarding is not broadly a "human" thing and is rather more a genetic / learned behavior from cultural / generational habits.

European and other cultures that lived in the north needed to store ("hoard") resources by necessity since food and resources became scarce during winter in those regions. Several months of no crop-yield and many animals migrating or hibernating made the quick acquisition and storage of resources a matter of life and death. This translates to storing other resources that people find valuable, since simply being able to acquire and retain value meant you were better equipped to survive than otherwise. (Though it should be noted that people would understand that grain > gold when discussing putting food on the table.) This concept of abundance of resources being useful for survival became more broadly applicable as economies shifted from barter (trade items / services for other items / services) to store of value (trading items / service for currency and vice versa) some thousands of years later.

Figures are not a commodity and nobody thinks that are. If you are buying a piece of plastic based on a japanese drawing, there is no illusion that the value of that thing is purely in the aesthetic or personal emotional attachment (as OP correctly noted). I wouldn't apply human's need to feel safe and comfortable when faced with uncertainty of survival to buying luxury goods UNLESS you make the connection that having those luxury goods is linked to someone's perception of an increase in survival. e.g. If you can say "buy luxury item = more social status = ability to influence others = ability to acquire resources necessary to live" or "buy luxury item = store of value that is better than the currency used = better ability to acquire necessary resources" then I think there's an argument to be made. Nobody's doing that with figures.

I would agree with the idea that there are people who do use the hobby to find some comfort during an increase in discomfort as a result of covid's pressures on survival. I'm specifically combatting the idea that any significant amount of people are conflating having plastic figures with having actually tangibly useful items; and that hoarding resources is a "human" thing when it's a learned behavior more than it is something fundamental (like seeking out food when we feel hungry).

I'm no anthropologist, economist, nor psychologist so take what I say with a grain of salt.

gpanthony • 1 year ago • #112649501...finished figures always had a kind of odd look to them...

True, but that odd look is really what I liked. It's what made me fall in love with them in the first place.

gpanthony • 1 year ago • #112649501Garage kits were super expensive and hard to find back then too.

Despite really wanting several of them, I never went actively looking for any, because I always stopped cold in my tracks when I saw the price. >_<

RayeKinezono • 1 year ago • #112625060I've been collecting since before 2000. 1996 is when I first became aware of them and somewhere in that year is when I got my first figure.
My collecting went from a small trickle, to a massive firehose, and now it's moved back down to a small trickle. Mostly because the COVID situation forced me to be more selective (sniper, instead of shotgun) in what I pick up. And since it worked so well, I'm still doing it.

Back in the days when the hobby was 98% garage kits and finished figures always had a kind of odd look to them... Garage kits were super expensive and hard to find back then too.

JoeyTheAsian • 1 year ago • #112604427With that said, there is one risk on the horizon that threatens to completely upend this hobby and send prices into god knows where.
If a certain communist country starts a war in the pacific it will destroy supply chains, manufacturing, and international shipping and we can kiss goodbye to any new plastic waifus for at least 3-5 years. The ensuing global recession would be cataclysmic so whether fig prices go up or down is anyones guess.
Keeping this as apolitical as possible let's hope that never happens.
LOL if a war breaks out my PVC darlings are probs gonna be the last thing on my mind, ngl

I also agree that things have been so negative...pretty sad, but everything has been kind of negative anyway. The points you make are very interesting, especially the last one!