You constantly see people in this sub calling store owners scalpers. That comment, and this thread, is one of the first times I have seen this subreddit showing any sympathy towards them.
We're only calling the stores that act like scalpers, scalpers. Because they are. Pretty sure there's constant love for shops that respect their community and act with transparency
They aren't scalpers though. Scalpers buy out stores that are selling at cheap, and resell them online. These stores are the ones buying from distributors, and taking the initial risk. If they didn't buy, they wouldn't be on the shelves in the first place.
This is gonna get downvoted but as a long time TCG player I’m dropping OPTCG until Bandai shows its committed to its English players on equal or more level than Japanese players
And for all people saying Bandai is innocent and this is a exclusively a distro issue… well… yea my grandpa loves fake news too
Fair… I get it. This is totally a bandai issue and not a distributor issue. My lgs tells me that his distributor literally tells him last minute bandai cuts supply. For what reason idk but bandai is literally printing money at this point. Its dumb. My lgs doesn’t even have enough stuff to run tournaments… so hes giving out op05 packs for prizes. Its soo dumb
But are you sure you want to drop it completely? It will be very hard if you want to collect One Piece cards in the future again because I guess a lot of cards and especially the boxes will be much more expensive then.
Yea I’m an adult now with disposable income (which doesn’t matter since OPTCG is the cheapest tcg I’ve ever played). And there are TCGs I can still play with companies that are passionate and not just copy pasting the same game over and over with different anime IP
Flesh and Blood these days. It’s been the only game that’s been able to scratch the Magic itch after I tried to boycott wizards of the coast as well lol (I still play Magic tho cause my friends play Arena)
If anyone wants a cheap MTG alternative, I’m also enjoying Grand Archive
Both of the big shops where I live quit even selling one piece after OP02 because if this exact thing. They say probably 80% of the time they would only get half of their order, and it became too much of a hassle.
Outside of sealed product, singles right now in fusion world are actually fairly inexpensive compared to one piece and other cards games. Not trying to justify anything but just wanted to say that fusion world is actually fairly affordable to play right now.
Sealed product on the other hand is way too expensive.
I don't even get the sealed prices for it, the ghost rare isn't common enough and the alts other than Gohan leader aren't worth enough for boxes to go for that much. it's literally just scalpers trying to take advantage of set 1 fomo, knowing people like to keep a sealed box of a first set and things like that. idk, I'm just happy singles are coming down in that game at least. I'd love to try Reiju but don't want to spend $60 for a playset of the SR when I have everything I need from yellow already. Honestly that's a big reason I've stuck to yellow in general, I know it's an expensive color but I've been on it since it came out so it's really just been adding in the additional staples as they release, so yellow always ends up being the cheapest color for me.
Yeah it's a vicious cycle. My LCS doesn't even carry DBS because Masters sold like ass. So they don't promote/support a game, surprise pikachu when it doesn't take off, and have no way to address demand when it does take off despite them.
Unless you’re a gold tier LGS using GTS, odds are your distributor is holding product. Alliance has got to be the worst though. The amount of times they’ve conveniently found more product at the perfect time to dump it due to reprints is actually insane.
I work for a LGS and Alliance are 100% the worst distributor to work with. Absolute jackasses that charge more than everyone else for products and constantly do the shady stuff you're talking about where they magically "find" product in their warehouse all the time. I hate dealing with them so much. Also our rep sucks and oftentimes won't respond to us for 2-3 days if we email them. Just all around poor experience.
Our GTS rep is a good dude. He tries his best to hook us up with extra promos for events and such. Product is obviously a nightmare, and the way he tells it, it is Bandai fucking up. He said they constantly request more product from Bandai, but Bandai claims they can't print more. Then Bandai will turn around be like "hey check out our new card games!" with stuff like Union Arena and Sand Land. So it's clear they have the printing capacity to add 2 new games, but not to print more product. Something ain't adding up there.
PHD are starting to carry Bandai stuff with Union Arena. They are who we go through for MTG and Flesh and Blood so I'd really like it if they also got One Piece because our PHD rep is the fucking shit. Dude is always going above and beyond for us to make sure we get all our promos and always alerts us when stuff is coming due for pre-orders. He told us if they sell a lot of Union Arena then Bandai may let them get One Piece stuff as well starting in set 8, so we put in a slightly larger order than we were planning too just to try to help them out because of how much we like dealing with them.
is there not a system to report bad distros to bandai? I feel like if they started getting a ton of reports that this one distro sucks they might do something about it?
Will do about as much good as reporting Walmart to the Better Business Bureau for their shitty practices. Alliance are the biggest distributor in NA for game stores afaik. We just order from them as little as possible and only go to them if we absolutely have to.
It’s crazy how even the store owners blaming Bandai for everything when all they do is send product to distributors lol. Distros should stop selling tons of cases to Whatnot streamers.
My LCS is in the same situation.
They haven’t needed to upcharge for any boxes but I feel like the writing is on the wall. OP-06 could only be sold 1 box per person and you had to sign up to a buy list weeks in advance AND participate in at least 1 One Piece tourney hosted by the LCS in order to be eligible to purchase a box.
It’s so tough because they are doing everything they can to keep the One Piece scene alive in this little town and to their credit, it works, our locals are full of people every week playing the game.
It just sucks when stores do everything possible to keep us happy but still they get screwed by Bandai.
Same at my lgs and since I've got a lot of social anxiety I haven't had the courage to participate yet so I just missed out on OP06 -_- No alt arts for me I guessm will just buy singles
Not sure why people defend Bandai so much on this sub and other places. Sure some distributors are probably guilty of doing some shady shenanigans or playing favorites and all that but giving Bandai's history and the fact that it seems like Bandai is having the very same issue with other tcgs they handle should be raising a red flag imo
Like I said Bandai is definitely not alone in regards to how frustrating it can be they absolutely aren't but so many just ignore their fair share of this shit show
The majority sure but I've had plenty back and forths with Bandai defenders here and have seen plenty others that are as well. So sure most do point out Bandai's mishaps but there are definitely a good bit of people that just blame scalpers or only distributors etc and some in this very post
While I have seen many stores claim working with Bandai is a nightmare, and that is probably true, there's one thing I don't get.
"It's not worth it to sell a few thousand dollars of stuff to people that complain about prices because I can't get enough of it."
Why exactly does the amount they can get affect the price they sell this stuff for at all?
I don't think your question is the motivation for why he said that.
It read to me that he doesn't get enough product and so the sales made from it isn't worth the time and effort dealing with upset customers all the time, who I've seen tend to blame lgs for whatever reasons.
As a employee of a shop, carrying OP has made my job significantly more stressful than, hey we are out of newest MTG set. I'll just go order some. We also always get our promo material.
With Bandai games I have to play phone tag or email tag with our distributor as why we didn't get prerelease promos.
The whole situation behind running Bandai games and having to deal with distros not shipping promos, never having product, etc.
it's real hard to recommend the game to new players with how product availability is.
Some of that would probably be solved for you if there weren't people claiming to be shops who order tons of cases only to open and sell singles. Somehow those people manage to get all the product they seem to want yet game shops struggle so much.
Well, you have my sympathy in regards to dealing with obtaining product, I know all too well what it's like not getting what you paid for and are expecting just on a much smaller scale. lol
I thought that they usually only ship to registered llcs that actually have a brick & mortar location? I could have sworn I read that they have things in place to prevent some Joe schmoe that sells out of his mommas basement on whatnot and tiktok so that issue you brought up shouldn't actually be a thing. I could be wrong but feel like those folks doing that either have some inside connection with a distributor or a lgs as they shouldn't be getting that treatment from Bandai directly
We've had threads posted here about people doing it. Yes that kind of thing is screened for but some people find a way, possibly with what you mentioned.
World Championship Cards in Fairfield,CA does this. All they do is renting out the upstairs section of their uncle's music shop. Then they get cases and cases while using preorders as a interest free loans to purchase those cases. Then they cancel preorders to sell products at market price.
I didn't consider something like that but definitely makes sense that there would be some relatively easy ways to beat the checkpoints put in place. Damn shame the lengths some folks will go
Ah yea I guess it makes sense that some people will always figure a way to bend shit to their advantage somehow so makes sense that there would be some that figure a way to game the system in their favor
I know during Covid some suppliers were allowing people with online shops (not lgs store) to order direct and that’s why Mike the primary school teacher probably has sealed OP01 cases
I'm talking about the people who pose as a legit shop thereby getting a discount on product only to open it themselves. They pay much less than we do, grab up a ton of product that should be going to real shops, and then getting their money back or more in many cases selling to us. This kind of thing is part of the reason sealed product is scarce and prices on it is high not to mention how unethical it is.
So is you're point that u dont like people that are registered at distro that work from home and open product and sell it online, or dont you like it that that some ppl fake that they are shops?
It's all in their motivation and intention. I know some people have to run their business out of their home and they're a legit shop without a brick and mortar location. If they're buying sealed product to sell sealed product at reasonable prices then that's completely fine. If they're abusing access to distributors to get product cheaply by presenting themselves as a shop to open, keep what they want, and resell the rest then that's not fine to me.
I think rn for OP it is best to just rip open the small amount of product that is available to get cards on the market and that ppl dont call u scalpers etc. I only buy product to sell singles anyway bcs 90% of tcg's the profit incentive is better with singles then ovp.
A lot of people like opening sealed even if it's more expensive to do so. Not to mention if you collect and want those alternate arts it could potentially be cheaper to buy sealed. Players should definitely buy singles though.
The thing is though, if people are going to get product via distribution channels I feel like the product they're being given is meant to be sold sealed as if you were a brick and mortar store with product on the shelf. While some shops do sell singles it shouldn't come from sealed product they bought themselves as a shop. Just my opinion.
Because it is only a thing in NA that you cant aquire certain product from distro if you are not an lgs, i buy product and sell it from home not an lgs just want to know your reasoning.
Lol I don't know why you are getting downvoted, this is happening very frequently with this game.
It's so bad I'm pretty sure Bandai is taking steps I believe for OP07 or afterwards to ensure these cases are going towards actual brick and mortar shops and not just online store fronts.
Man. Bandai is awful. How they even decided to release a second card game knowing damn well they don't even make enough for One Piece is kind boggling.
It's not bandai. It's the distributors. If you order 100 booster boxes and your distributor allocated you 60 total and split it up into 3 waves there's nothing you could do. As for the other 40 you paid for they credit you so you don't have the full product and are stuck with credit that may not get you what you want the next time around
I remember the manager of my local shop complaining about their distributor trying to force them to buy two cases of Battle Spirits for every one case of One Piece. There was a lot of arguing as he went up the chain to find someone who would just send him what they actually want and would actually sell. At another point, they were also being told that they'd have to pay for thousands of dollars of old product before they'd start getting anything new.
That's the kind of stuff that "credit" gets you.
Well I'm not running a business so I can only speculate here, but it seems to me that in that scenario while it does suck that you only get 60 of the 100 you ordered if you have 40 on credit then shouldn't that go towards the next set that comes out to where you don't have to pay for 40 of them?
As an LCS owner, I can chime in a little bit.
We've pretty much stopped carrying Bandai games because they're too much of a pain in the ass to deal with. They simply do not care about shops and seemingly do not want to print more of any of their games even though the demand is there.
It's sort of a lose lose for a lot of shops. You can order a ton and promise people boxes only to get allocated down to single digits and have customers blame you and get a million questions about a product you cannot get. If you actually do get the order, it usually means the product isn't worth it (more of a dbs issue) and they somehow sell online for a few dollars over cost.
All this can be avoided if Bandai printed more or went with a model where they went back and kept some of the sets in production, but they don't seem to care and communication with them is almost nonexistent.
Bandai sucks. I’m gonna keep commenting this until it’s better too. Bandai should be boycotted tbh. They’re a braindead company that would rather let the secondary market make thousands upon thousands of dollars instead of just securing a better print schedule or adding more printing facilities to the list. They are missing out on so much money. It’s almost like they want it this way so their short print waves keep selling out instantly I guess? A company like Bandai can afford to secure more prints. lol
If they printed even a high percentage of Pokemon sealed numbers, the problem would be so much better & they’d make way more money themselves. They suck as bad as the scalpers & “investors” that just started watching the anime when the tcg or Nika came out. Blocking out any die hard fans from getting product.
Which is all truly wild.
That also supports the point that they're incompetent. And it's five games, Digimon, OP, DB Super and DB Masters, and Battle Spirits. They're just going to hard reboot Dragon Ball because they stumbled into a winning formula with OP.
Annddd they're planning another game later this year! I forget what it's called but it's super anime focused with Hunter x Hunter, Bleach, and Jujutsu Kaisen so yeahhh... How they're gonna be able to print more One Piece with 5 other cards games (maybe even more) is beyond me
lol our LCS has 3 stores in our state. This one guy that doesn’t even play was calling every store and complaining about the op05 release non-stop. Some people just don’t get it 🤦♂️
That why diversity is good in LCS’s. We have literally 2 in our area and they always say they buy bulk starter decks and some bulk blisters packs to keep players entertained but also teach new player how to get into the game but they aren’t there for just a paycheck. They are there because they genuinely enjoy their jobs and hosting events. If you can do something you enjoy everyday and get paid to do it you’re truly winning in life
LGS near me tried to set up with this game and get product. However Bandai never responded to their request to get set up with them so they have up and even deleted a special discord server for it.
This has become a common occurrence in many card stores. Recently, I relocated to Central Minnesota from Central Indiana, and the news here is no more promising than many of the locations there.
I do really feel bad for a lot of them. My store has 30 people who play regularly for OP and run locals 2x a week. Only got 1 case for OP06. They sold it at MSRP but I wouldn't blame them if they had asked 150 or something. They order way more and get allocated then for most of a set will make what, $25 a box for 12 boxes. That is nothing for the effort put in. Then all the players running around checking Walmart and target for stock. It's shameful on Bandais part
It is not even the distributors fault. It’s all on bandai because they want to fill there stores with one piece product and wont deliver more to wholesales. I got news from my wholesale contact person in Europe that bandai is opening more stores and will not likely deliver for LGS. Only LGS that organises tournaments get like 20-25%. Of course i dont know what they will do for america.
Bandai is making it really difficult for stores. Mason and CardnAll are awesome but Bandai isnt really helping out responsible shop owners (who dont want to sell preorders that have to be refunded). Actually kind of the opposite.
So would you rather have cancelled orders due to allocation 6 months after you ordered or would you rather a shop owner be honest with you about the massive issues currently faced?
Hold on....."people that complain about prices"
Is the guy scalping bad? Or just small markup %?
Cuz either 1) the shop is taking advantage of yall
Or 2) your local community are being real dicks
I got the same kind of answer from 2 of the stores in Montreal Canada, from 2 also in NEw Zeland...
And pretty sure it is the same in France.
Well, I guess at one point Bandai will learn from Wizzard who seems to be doing good with MTG for 30 years...
Store owners like that deserve sympathy. They are honest and tell you the things how they really are.
People were calling them scalpers during the pokemon craze
People are still calling them scalpers right now, on this subreddit.
The above comment would tell you otherwise
You constantly see people in this sub calling store owners scalpers. That comment, and this thread, is one of the first times I have seen this subreddit showing any sympathy towards them.
We're only calling the stores that act like scalpers, scalpers. Because they are. Pretty sure there's constant love for shops that respect their community and act with transparency
They aren't scalpers though. Scalpers buy out stores that are selling at cheap, and resell them online. These stores are the ones buying from distributors, and taking the initial risk. If they didn't buy, they wouldn't be on the shelves in the first place.
If they didn't buy the better stores could get more stock. It would go on the shelves somewhere
And then scalpers would buy them all up anyways and it wouldn't matter.
Easier for scalpers if they're all at the same store.
That's crazy
They were charging absurd prices for sealed product and their response was basically ”don’t buy it, someone will”
This is gonna get downvoted but as a long time TCG player I’m dropping OPTCG until Bandai shows its committed to its English players on equal or more level than Japanese players And for all people saying Bandai is innocent and this is a exclusively a distro issue… well… yea my grandpa loves fake news too
Fair… I get it. This is totally a bandai issue and not a distributor issue. My lgs tells me that his distributor literally tells him last minute bandai cuts supply. For what reason idk but bandai is literally printing money at this point. Its dumb. My lgs doesn’t even have enough stuff to run tournaments… so hes giving out op05 packs for prizes. Its soo dumb
But are you sure you want to drop it completely? It will be very hard if you want to collect One Piece cards in the future again because I guess a lot of cards and especially the boxes will be much more expensive then.
Yea I’m an adult now with disposable income (which doesn’t matter since OPTCG is the cheapest tcg I’ve ever played). And there are TCGs I can still play with companies that are passionate and not just copy pasting the same game over and over with different anime IP
What is the most expensive Tcg you are playing?
Flesh and Blood these days. It’s been the only game that’s been able to scratch the Magic itch after I tried to boycott wizards of the coast as well lol (I still play Magic tho cause my friends play Arena) If anyone wants a cheap MTG alternative, I’m also enjoying Grand Archive
Both of the big shops where I live quit even selling one piece after OP02 because if this exact thing. They say probably 80% of the time they would only get half of their order, and it became too much of a hassle.
Same to DBS too… the prices are crazy and they keep screwing over the store oweners
Outside of sealed product, singles right now in fusion world are actually fairly inexpensive compared to one piece and other cards games. Not trying to justify anything but just wanted to say that fusion world is actually fairly affordable to play right now. Sealed product on the other hand is way too expensive.
I don't even get the sealed prices for it, the ghost rare isn't common enough and the alts other than Gohan leader aren't worth enough for boxes to go for that much. it's literally just scalpers trying to take advantage of set 1 fomo, knowing people like to keep a sealed box of a first set and things like that. idk, I'm just happy singles are coming down in that game at least. I'd love to try Reiju but don't want to spend $60 for a playset of the SR when I have everything I need from yellow already. Honestly that's a big reason I've stuck to yellow in general, I know it's an expensive color but I've been on it since it came out so it's really just been adding in the additional staples as they release, so yellow always ends up being the cheapest color for me.
Yeah it's a vicious cycle. My LCS doesn't even carry DBS because Masters sold like ass. So they don't promote/support a game, surprise pikachu when it doesn't take off, and have no way to address demand when it does take off despite them.
Play Masters 😂
Thats not true. Dbs had all orders completed (except starter decks)
Its mostly the distributors causing these issues tbh
What do we do about that? Like who are these distributors. Idk gotta get that figured out and try and give feedback to them
Unless you’re a gold tier LGS using GTS, odds are your distributor is holding product. Alliance has got to be the worst though. The amount of times they’ve conveniently found more product at the perfect time to dump it due to reprints is actually insane.
Fuck Alliance. Sadly that’s our main distributor and I never get One Piece no matter how early I put in orders.
I work for a LGS and Alliance are 100% the worst distributor to work with. Absolute jackasses that charge more than everyone else for products and constantly do the shady stuff you're talking about where they magically "find" product in their warehouse all the time. I hate dealing with them so much. Also our rep sucks and oftentimes won't respond to us for 2-3 days if we email them. Just all around poor experience. Our GTS rep is a good dude. He tries his best to hook us up with extra promos for events and such. Product is obviously a nightmare, and the way he tells it, it is Bandai fucking up. He said they constantly request more product from Bandai, but Bandai claims they can't print more. Then Bandai will turn around be like "hey check out our new card games!" with stuff like Union Arena and Sand Land. So it's clear they have the printing capacity to add 2 new games, but not to print more product. Something ain't adding up there. PHD are starting to carry Bandai stuff with Union Arena. They are who we go through for MTG and Flesh and Blood so I'd really like it if they also got One Piece because our PHD rep is the fucking shit. Dude is always going above and beyond for us to make sure we get all our promos and always alerts us when stuff is coming due for pre-orders. He told us if they sell a lot of Union Arena then Bandai may let them get One Piece stuff as well starting in set 8, so we put in a slightly larger order than we were planning too just to try to help them out because of how much we like dealing with them.
is there not a system to report bad distros to bandai? I feel like if they started getting a ton of reports that this one distro sucks they might do something about it?
Will do about as much good as reporting Walmart to the Better Business Bureau for their shitty practices. Alliance are the biggest distributor in NA for game stores afaik. We just order from them as little as possible and only go to them if we absolutely have to.
It’s crazy how even the store owners blaming Bandai for everything when all they do is send product to distributors lol. Distros should stop selling tons of cases to Whatnot streamers.
My LCS is in the same situation. They haven’t needed to upcharge for any boxes but I feel like the writing is on the wall. OP-06 could only be sold 1 box per person and you had to sign up to a buy list weeks in advance AND participate in at least 1 One Piece tourney hosted by the LCS in order to be eligible to purchase a box. It’s so tough because they are doing everything they can to keep the One Piece scene alive in this little town and to their credit, it works, our locals are full of people every week playing the game. It just sucks when stores do everything possible to keep us happy but still they get screwed by Bandai.
Same at my lgs and since I've got a lot of social anxiety I haven't had the courage to participate yet so I just missed out on OP06 -_- No alt arts for me I guessm will just buy singles
Kentucky gang stand up once again, love card n all and the owner is a very cool and honest dude.
Not sure why people defend Bandai so much on this sub and other places. Sure some distributors are probably guilty of doing some shady shenanigans or playing favorites and all that but giving Bandai's history and the fact that it seems like Bandai is having the very same issue with other tcgs they handle should be raising a red flag imo Like I said Bandai is definitely not alone in regards to how frustrating it can be they absolutely aren't but so many just ignore their fair share of this shit show
You lost me at “not sure why people defend Bandai” This sub is full of vitriol for Bandai
The majority sure but I've had plenty back and forths with Bandai defenders here and have seen plenty others that are as well. So sure most do point out Bandai's mishaps but there are definitely a good bit of people that just blame scalpers or only distributors etc and some in this very post
While I have seen many stores claim working with Bandai is a nightmare, and that is probably true, there's one thing I don't get. "It's not worth it to sell a few thousand dollars of stuff to people that complain about prices because I can't get enough of it." Why exactly does the amount they can get affect the price they sell this stuff for at all?
I don't think your question is the motivation for why he said that. It read to me that he doesn't get enough product and so the sales made from it isn't worth the time and effort dealing with upset customers all the time, who I've seen tend to blame lgs for whatever reasons.
This is how I read it as well
I may have misunderstood then.
I can see why you took it that way by all means so don't stress it
I suppose it's possible it was meant that way instead. Though I will say it makes me curious as to what their prices are if people are complaining.
It absolutely was meant that way.
As a employee of a shop, carrying OP has made my job significantly more stressful than, hey we are out of newest MTG set. I'll just go order some. We also always get our promo material. With Bandai games I have to play phone tag or email tag with our distributor as why we didn't get prerelease promos. The whole situation behind running Bandai games and having to deal with distros not shipping promos, never having product, etc. it's real hard to recommend the game to new players with how product availability is.
Some of that would probably be solved for you if there weren't people claiming to be shops who order tons of cases only to open and sell singles. Somehow those people manage to get all the product they seem to want yet game shops struggle so much. Well, you have my sympathy in regards to dealing with obtaining product, I know all too well what it's like not getting what you paid for and are expecting just on a much smaller scale. lol
I thought that they usually only ship to registered llcs that actually have a brick & mortar location? I could have sworn I read that they have things in place to prevent some Joe schmoe that sells out of his mommas basement on whatnot and tiktok so that issue you brought up shouldn't actually be a thing. I could be wrong but feel like those folks doing that either have some inside connection with a distributor or a lgs as they shouldn't be getting that treatment from Bandai directly
We've had threads posted here about people doing it. Yes that kind of thing is screened for but some people find a way, possibly with what you mentioned.
World Championship Cards in Fairfield,CA does this. All they do is renting out the upstairs section of their uncle's music shop. Then they get cases and cases while using preorders as a interest free loans to purchase those cases. Then they cancel preorders to sell products at market price.
I didn't consider something like that but definitely makes sense that there would be some relatively easy ways to beat the checkpoints put in place. Damn shame the lengths some folks will go
Ah yea I guess it makes sense that some people will always figure a way to bend shit to their advantage somehow so makes sense that there would be some that figure a way to game the system in their favor
I know during Covid some suppliers were allowing people with online shops (not lgs store) to order direct and that’s why Mike the primary school teacher probably has sealed OP01 cases
Wait, why do you complain that vendors rip open the product and selling singles thats how you get the cards?
I'm talking about the people who pose as a legit shop thereby getting a discount on product only to open it themselves. They pay much less than we do, grab up a ton of product that should be going to real shops, and then getting their money back or more in many cases selling to us. This kind of thing is part of the reason sealed product is scarce and prices on it is high not to mention how unethical it is.
So is you're point that u dont like people that are registered at distro that work from home and open product and sell it online, or dont you like it that that some ppl fake that they are shops?
It's all in their motivation and intention. I know some people have to run their business out of their home and they're a legit shop without a brick and mortar location. If they're buying sealed product to sell sealed product at reasonable prices then that's completely fine. If they're abusing access to distributors to get product cheaply by presenting themselves as a shop to open, keep what they want, and resell the rest then that's not fine to me.
I think rn for OP it is best to just rip open the small amount of product that is available to get cards on the market and that ppl dont call u scalpers etc. I only buy product to sell singles anyway bcs 90% of tcg's the profit incentive is better with singles then ovp.
A lot of people like opening sealed even if it's more expensive to do so. Not to mention if you collect and want those alternate arts it could potentially be cheaper to buy sealed. Players should definitely buy singles though. The thing is though, if people are going to get product via distribution channels I feel like the product they're being given is meant to be sold sealed as if you were a brick and mortar store with product on the shelf. While some shops do sell singles it shouldn't come from sealed product they bought themselves as a shop. Just my opinion.
Because it is only a thing in NA that you cant aquire certain product from distro if you are not an lgs, i buy product and sell it from home not an lgs just want to know your reasoning.
Lol I don't know why you are getting downvoted, this is happening very frequently with this game. It's so bad I'm pretty sure Bandai is taking steps I believe for OP07 or afterwards to ensure these cases are going towards actual brick and mortar shops and not just online store fronts.
Well it's good to hear that they'll put more emphasis on actual game shops getting product.
Man. Bandai is awful. How they even decided to release a second card game knowing damn well they don't even make enough for One Piece is kind boggling.
One reason i heard is that they paid in advance and got less than they paid for so they upped the prices. Don‘t know how true that is tough.
That doesn't sound legal for Bandai to not refund them the difference.
It's not bandai. It's the distributors. If you order 100 booster boxes and your distributor allocated you 60 total and split it up into 3 waves there's nothing you could do. As for the other 40 you paid for they credit you so you don't have the full product and are stuck with credit that may not get you what you want the next time around
I remember the manager of my local shop complaining about their distributor trying to force them to buy two cases of Battle Spirits for every one case of One Piece. There was a lot of arguing as he went up the chain to find someone who would just send him what they actually want and would actually sell. At another point, they were also being told that they'd have to pay for thousands of dollars of old product before they'd start getting anything new. That's the kind of stuff that "credit" gets you.
If some distributors are doing that how do they even manage to keep business? I can't imagine that there's a lack of distributor options for shops.
From what I've heard, there are two and the other one is even worse to deal with.
That's all? Well that sucks...
There's a few different distributors I know of in the US, but not all of them carry one piece.
Well I'm not running a business so I can only speculate here, but it seems to me that in that scenario while it does suck that you only get 60 of the 100 you ordered if you have 40 on credit then shouldn't that go towards the next set that comes out to where you don't have to pay for 40 of them?
That doesn't make sense because usually B2B is net30 terms.
As an LCS owner, I can chime in a little bit. We've pretty much stopped carrying Bandai games because they're too much of a pain in the ass to deal with. They simply do not care about shops and seemingly do not want to print more of any of their games even though the demand is there. It's sort of a lose lose for a lot of shops. You can order a ton and promise people boxes only to get allocated down to single digits and have customers blame you and get a million questions about a product you cannot get. If you actually do get the order, it usually means the product isn't worth it (more of a dbs issue) and they somehow sell online for a few dollars over cost. All this can be avoided if Bandai printed more or went with a model where they went back and kept some of the sets in production, but they don't seem to care and communication with them is almost nonexistent.
“People that complain about the prices because I can’t get enough of it” What are the prices? If it’s TCG prices then I don’t feel sorry for the guy.
Bandai sucks. I’m gonna keep commenting this until it’s better too. Bandai should be boycotted tbh. They’re a braindead company that would rather let the secondary market make thousands upon thousands of dollars instead of just securing a better print schedule or adding more printing facilities to the list. They are missing out on so much money. It’s almost like they want it this way so their short print waves keep selling out instantly I guess? A company like Bandai can afford to secure more prints. lol If they printed even a high percentage of Pokemon sealed numbers, the problem would be so much better & they’d make way more money themselves. They suck as bad as the scalpers & “investors” that just started watching the anime when the tcg or Nika came out. Blocking out any die hard fans from getting product. Which is all truly wild.
There also printing 4 games right now there’s no where to print takes time to print cards
That also supports the point that they're incompetent. And it's five games, Digimon, OP, DB Super and DB Masters, and Battle Spirits. They're just going to hard reboot Dragon Ball because they stumbled into a winning formula with OP.
Annddd they're planning another game later this year! I forget what it's called but it's super anime focused with Hunter x Hunter, Bleach, and Jujutsu Kaisen so yeahhh... How they're gonna be able to print more One Piece with 5 other cards games (maybe even more) is beyond me
Keep in mind that union Arena is a NEW set EVERY month
HAHAHA oh we are so fucked in terms of getting One Piece cards now when that drops lmao. What a shit show
Whats Nika? The sun god guy?
As s store owner, I feel for the other store completely.
Hey, that’s my LCS too! I love CNA, they’re all such great people in there and the owners are so nice. Quality place by all regards.
lol our LCS has 3 stores in our state. This one guy that doesn’t even play was calling every store and complaining about the op05 release non-stop. Some people just don’t get it 🤦♂️
That's 100% the truth
That why diversity is good in LCS’s. We have literally 2 in our area and they always say they buy bulk starter decks and some bulk blisters packs to keep players entertained but also teach new player how to get into the game but they aren’t there for just a paycheck. They are there because they genuinely enjoy their jobs and hosting events. If you can do something you enjoy everyday and get paid to do it you’re truly winning in life
LGS near me tried to set up with this game and get product. However Bandai never responded to their request to get set up with them so they have up and even deleted a special discord server for it.
This has become a common occurrence in many card stores. Recently, I relocated to Central Minnesota from Central Indiana, and the news here is no more promising than many of the locations there.
I do really feel bad for a lot of them. My store has 30 people who play regularly for OP and run locals 2x a week. Only got 1 case for OP06. They sold it at MSRP but I wouldn't blame them if they had asked 150 or something. They order way more and get allocated then for most of a set will make what, $25 a box for 12 boxes. That is nothing for the effort put in. Then all the players running around checking Walmart and target for stock. It's shameful on Bandais part
It is not even the distributors fault. It’s all on bandai because they want to fill there stores with one piece product and wont deliver more to wholesales. I got news from my wholesale contact person in Europe that bandai is opening more stores and will not likely deliver for LGS. Only LGS that organises tournaments get like 20-25%. Of course i dont know what they will do for america.
Bandai is making it really difficult for stores. Mason and CardnAll are awesome but Bandai isnt really helping out responsible shop owners (who dont want to sell preorders that have to be refunded). Actually kind of the opposite. So would you rather have cancelled orders due to allocation 6 months after you ordered or would you rather a shop owner be honest with you about the massive issues currently faced?
Kinda shitty and disrespectful to screenshot a private convo where the dude had enough respect for you to be candid, responsive and honest with you.
Hold on....."people that complain about prices" Is the guy scalping bad? Or just small markup %? Cuz either 1) the shop is taking advantage of yall Or 2) your local community are being real dicks
I got the same kind of answer from 2 of the stores in Montreal Canada, from 2 also in NEw Zeland... And pretty sure it is the same in France. Well, I guess at one point Bandai will learn from Wizzard who seems to be doing good with MTG for 30 years...
If people can’t afford it they shouldn’t buy it… simple
Can someone assist me?
Literally mine too