BOTCON REGISTRATION IS LIVE!!!!!

[BigTransformerTrev]

Sigh, maybe someday I'll see all you guys there... someday

[griffin]

18 & 1/2 hours after opening up registration, they've only sold 30% of the boxsets (which I includes non-attendees, and in previous years they had to wait a couple weeks before they could buy up non-attendee sets).

Also in the email they sent out a couple hours ago, there were still 2 seats left in the Thursday Custom Class. (might be gone now though)
(they also mention that there is only a few more hours to get the first-day pin... yeah, big deal)


Damn... it's gonna be a quieter convention this year if they can only get about 300 people (my estimate) to pre-register as attendees on the first day.
That's like with their club exclusive toys - the bulk of the sales are in the first day, and then very little interest after that, because their sales are by people who follow twitter, facebook and the global fan-sites, who know immediately when these things are available and purchase them that day.
I have a feeling that they will struggle to get past 50% this year... but it will be interesting to follow their updates over the next few days.

[UltraMarginal]

Perhaps they've become too greedy for their own good and have ordered a lot more sets than last year. Registration is probably a little down due to the last two years of debacles, but I'm surprised it's that much. Either way it should be fun.

[griffin]

After doing up a pre-order posting for at-show toys, I looked at the Loose set prices during Fun-Pub's time, and they've certainly been climbing.

2005 - 140
2006 - 129
2007 - 179
2008 - 189
2009 - 199
2010 - 210
2011 - 210
2012 - 250
2013 - 275

A doubling of prices makes it difficult to attract interest from other people with these, as I like to get the extra figures to help out people here. But at this year's pricing, it means an uncarded Deluxe is now $40 - not a huge increase from our Retail prices here considering it is a limited edition toy, but for Americans it is effectively triple their Retail pricing for a toy that doesn't even come carded or boxed. And that's IF a person doesn't try to make any money (profit) from the extra toys.
It is also worth noting that the loose set this year is $10 more than the Boxed set in the first two years, and close to the price in the third year, of which those prices also included the full convention experience.

[Skript]

yeah.. signed up for membership for the subscription, but was hoping to go for the non attending, saw the price..
think i need a new job to feed my addiction.
love to get my first lot of botcon sets, but with the selection, the price, the shipping.

might be worth trying to save money to actually attend next year

[griffin]

10 days after going live, FunPub have sent out an email to say that they are just up to 60% sold on the boxsets.
They also mentioned that if you are wanting a non-attendee set, they don't have many left. (but if they don't sell out, even after the convention, they will be available on their site store later)

[griffin]

Email was just sent out today to say that the non-attendee sets have finally sold out, and that there are still so many "attendee boxsets" available, that they are looking at transferring more across to the non-attendee option.
Otherwise, they will sell the extra sets at the convention, and on their site after the convention.

We have run through our allotment of Iacon (non-attending sets) and are considering moving some of the Primus attending sets over to Iacon non-attending.

However, we don't want to do this until we are confident that everyone has registered that intends on coming to San Diego. So, we will re-visit the numbers in the next few days and make a decision as how to assist those who can't come but want the figure sets.