Busy, good, and bad

[dalekboy]

The last week has ended up being all sorts of crazy and busy, but mostly good crazy and busy, with the only negative being a grizzly baby some of the time. And that's counter-acted by the fact we're getting some smiles scattered about here and there, which is nice. Hence no posts.

The last 24 hours, however, has been craptacular! Roadshow dicked me about with my order, changing the price of one of their reduced DVDs, but that's normal for them. The good side is at least I'll be getting them sometime soon-ish.

I lost my wallet on the way back from the Post Office yesterday. No sign of it yet. Losing the $50 in it is still less annoying than if I have to replace all the cards. Have just come back from putting up signs and asking at the Kaleen shops to see if it had been handed in. The good side was I got to ride my trike, and got to wear my skeleton socks, so not all bad. And as I said to Sharon, if I've lost this one I'll have to buy a new one with room in it for photos of my wife and son.

I'm behind on my preparation for the panels/items I'm doing at Conflux. Yes, I can talk about this stuff off the cuff better than some people who have prepared, but I think an over-reliance on just knowing your topic and not doing a bit of brushing up beforehand shows an essentially arrogant and lazy attitude. And if you're too lazy to do the work, why are you wasting people's time being on the panel? But the good side is, I'll get to talk Doctor Who, do trivia, do Magical Hat, and catch up with some people for the few hours I'm there on my panel passes. And I still have time to go over my notes before the con at this point.

Funtastic have chosen not to honour the remainder of my order for Classic Series Doctor Who figures. Basically, it doesn't matter that I have an order with them, they have pulled the remainder of my stock (and everyone else's) to put aside for Myer, Roger David, or one of the other big guys that didn't bother to order this stuff six fucking months ago, unlike the rest of us!

There is no good side, I'm fucking furious.

I do at least have enough figures put aside for those that ordered them, so no problem there, just been too flat chat to process them.

If anyone can tell me how I would go about sending an email to Funtastic's stockholders, I'd appreciated the information. Funtastic's stock have dived in recent times, and this sort of behaviour can't help. I would like their stockholders to know how they dick about the people giving them money.

The Voyage of the Damned Gift Sets got pulled in much the same way for one of the big companies. Six months later, they have obviously decided that they don't want them and the sets are now available again. In fact, virtually all the units that were pulled are back. So now there's a huge excess of old stock... still at the original price! Why would I want to buy them? Anything like this I really wanted to sell, I've sourced from overseas to fill my orders. I had to charge more, but at least I had the stock.

I don't expect it to do any good, but I'm ringing Character Options in the UK tonight to beg them to find another Australian distributor.

Comments

[king-espresso.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree about panels (and podcasts for that matter). It's always good to do the homework even if you're a ninja at the subject, And you find odd facts sometimes. That's how I discovered that the first ever SF movie was about an abbatoir. Half the bloody time on a podcast weekend I take up with couch with reference books and piss Sal off for hogging the space. But it pays immense dividends. My podcast now has an audience like a reasonably sized Australian convention, which ain't bad. But yeah, people who don't do their homework at a panel are just wasting oxygen.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Oh the films about the sausage machine! I know the one, even if I can't remember the name.

One day, I'll get around to listening to your show, honest :)

I can remember one panel I was on where I swotted up like mad beforehand, and I could clearly see the difference. People getting small, basic facts wrong, etc. It says a lot that out of a group of knowledgable and personable panelists, I was the one that ended up stuck in a corner of the fan lounge afterwards with people talking to me about the subject for an hour and a half. The refresh meant I was totally on the ball with a subject where I would have only been good without it.

[king-espresso.livejournal.com]

The movie was "Charcuterie Mecanique", throw a pig in one end and sausages, hams, ribs and roast fly out the other. A lot of the movie historians dismiss this one, but it's a definite SFnal solution to the problem of smelly abbatoirs in urban areas in 1895.

The other thing I have learned is use the web as a reference but don't *only* use the web as a reference. Most of the freakily interesting stuff is in the books, not the hmtl.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and you tend to get the same 'facts' cut and pasted from one page to thirty others. Most annoying when the source is actually wrong!

Not that books don't get it wrong, but it doesn't generally spread as far when a published book buggers up the facts.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

If you have people needing a complete set more than me, then by all means give them to them first. If you *do* still have a complete set for me, let me know your bank details again.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

No, you were THE first person to order a set. In fact, all the orders on LJ can be filled as I have the stock here. I just need to sit down and figure out the postage, then I can give you a figure.

But I appreciate the offer on behalf of any customers that may have needed them more. But I don't know anyone else who will explode without them :)

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

That's the trouble with 'big' companies, they tend to think of their smaller, but enthusiastic customers as 'fiddly small change' and will ignore established orders if a 'bigger' buyer comes up. I agree it sucks and definitely a protest of some sort should be logged.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

To me it's just unprofessional. If you have an order, you honour it unless you can't for some reason. And then you still do your best to honour by tracking down other sources.

I'm going to kick as much arse as I can. I may even visit in person while in Melbourne.

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

Re the wallet: I feel your pain. :(

Ley of the Land...

[drjon.livejournal.com]

CO have just this week started accepting Australian retail orders, but I don't know if they'd accept trade orders -- possibly not. Might not hurt to ask... then again, it might... it's kinda hard to say.

Buzz is also saying their US trade terms for the most recent waves were better than their UK trade terms, such that it was cheaper for UK retail purchasers to buy from the US and pay the airmail. Something else to keep in mind.

Also, they've just reined in some folks who were publically associated with CO (both internal and external), who were until very recently sharing information (embargoes and etc notwithstanding) and generally being present on the online collector's scene.

Time will tell what the connections between all of these are. But something's afoot.

Oh, and there's a guy with contacts in the Asian manufacturer's factory who's flogging stuff on eBay -- including prerelease and other odd goodies.

Re: Ley of the Land...

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

All very interesting. Main gist of my call will be to please replace Funtastic, and to tell them some of the horror stories.

I'm not expecting it to benefit me directly, but am hopeful that it will in some small way improve the local market for the retailers and fans.

Bringing in the toys from overseas is very doable, but it means charging a lot more for per item just to make a profit, when I should be able to charge a reasonable amount, and still make a profit. I sell more, the fans get it cheaper, everybody wins.

Re: Ley of the Land...

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Hope that call went okay for you.

Incidentally, if you want to curse Funtastic's name, you might like to drop by Brand Smart on Whitehorse Rd in Nunawading.

It's Funtastic's Overstock store. They were selling CO DW stock at about 1/3 wholesale ...all sorts of DW stock which was never offered locally.

Mostly sold out now. Might have some left. Sorry, just found out myself.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

My Uncle, who works at the ABC shop in Civic, says that Funtastic's done the same thing to them over the Doctor Who stuff. He's spitting chips as it's one of their best sellers.