Future of D&D Miniatures

[DaveMage]

I too am only buying singles from Auggies so I'm not woried about the "very rare" ones.

It will result in me buying 0 more booster packs...

If I can't get the "very rare" - oh, well.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Won't that hurt your wallet more if the very-rares are minis you want? Even if you're not a set completionist, I'm sure eventually one will catch your fancy.

Because I'm not a completist any longer (my last complete set was 14, I think), even if I buy a VR or two my total outlay will still be significantly less than buying the two or three cases I used to buy.

A look at the Star Wars line puts recently released very-rares at $20 and up on the secondary market

I simply won't pay that much. Once upon a time, but not any more.

 

[Dausuul]

Won't that hurt your wallet more if the very-rares are minis you want? Even if you're not a set completionist, I'm sure eventually one will catch your fancy.

As another singles buyer, there are a lot of high-priced minis out there that have caught my fancy, like Aspect of Tiamat. Doesn't mean I'm gonna buy 'em. Past a certain price point - around $4-5 for a Medium or $10-12 for a Large - I stop buying DDM and get Reaper instead. The only time I'll drop a wad of cash on a single DDM mini is for the iconics, like the Colossal Red Dragon or the upcoming Gargantuan Orcus.

The essential economics of DDM is that the super-expensive rares subsidize the cheap commons. However, the consequence of this is that the rares are more expensive on the aftermarket than if they were being sold direct as singles from the manufacturer. Therefore, buyers have an incentive to buy only commons from DDM and get equivalent rares elsewhere.

This is where the skirmish game came in handy. Wizards could exclude all but their own minis from the skirmish game, which provided a reason to chase those rares instead of looking for alternatives. Skirmish players got their game, tabletop gamers like me got our minis for cheap, Wizards sold lots of boosters, everybody won.

Without the skirmish game, I don't think the economics are really there for a Very Rare category. Maybe I'm wrong, but... the "chase factor" is much less when you're just buying minis for your D&D game than if you're prepping for a tournament or something.

 

[MerricB]

Without the skirmish game, I don't think the economics are really there for a Very Rare category. Maybe I'm wrong, but... the "chase factor" is much less when you're just buying minis for your D&D game than if you're prepping for a tournament or something.

I feel that the economics may be unsustainable for the current prices for non-skirmish pieces, but that just means that the very rares will be lower in price than you might expect. There's no magic formula that says "an ultra-rare must be this price".

The existence of very rares doesn't affect Wizards much; they don't benefit from the secondary market. The line will mostly depend on the commons and uncommons and (to some extent) on the rares. If the very rares are extremely desirable for some reason or another, then you do get people who buy more as part of the chase factor.

Cheers!

 

[Dausuul]

I feel that the economics may be unsustainable for the current prices for non-skirmish pieces, but that just means that the very rares will be lower in price than you might expect. There's no magic formula that says "an ultra-rare must be this price".

No, but there is a cost to each figure included in a set. You have to pay for the sculpt and the production line of that figure. I'm fairly sure that's a substantial overhead.

To recoup that cost requires balancing supply against demand. For rare figs, you want them rare enough that people will buy a bunch of packs "chasing" them, but not so rare that people throw up their hands and don't bother.

That means you have to consider how much motivation buyers have to chase the Very Rares. If there's not enough motivation, then you've expended all that overhead adding the Very Rare figure to the mix, but you haven't gained the benefit in terms of increased sales.

The skirmish game was a big motivator for chasing. With that gone, I'm not convinced there's enough chaseability left to justify a Very Rare category.

The existence of very rares doesn't affect Wizards much; they don't benefit from the secondary market.!

Not directly, but I'm fairly certain there are a lot of online retailers that buy cases of each release, open them, and sell the singles. If secondary market sales decline, those retailers won't buy as many cases next time around.

 

[Shazman]

I don't like the addition of very rare figures either. Even if they look good, they will be too expensive on the secondary market for most gamers to bother with. Buying lots of booster packs to chase them is even more cost prohibitive. Without the minis game, what's the point of having very rares or even rares? The product line seems to be on it's last legs. D&D minis was a successful product, but now it has been pwned by WotC's mishandling of the line.

 

[amysrevenge]

price point - around $4-5 for a Medium or $10-12 for a Large

Whew!

Someone's got a higher price point than me. lol Mine is more like $1-2M and $3-4L, which would explain why I don't have many DDMs I suppose.

I save that kind of cash for minis I have to paint myself.

 

[pawsplay]

I save that kind of cash for minis I have to paint myself.

I know, right? It's kind of funny, when you think about it.

 

[Dausuul]

Whew!

Someone's got a higher price point than me. lol Mine is more like $1-2M and $3-4L, which would explain why I don't have many DDMs I suppose.

I save that kind of cash for minis I have to paint myself.

Well, those are the maximums. It's rare that I'll go that high for a DDM piece; it has to be something I really want and it has to look really good. Usually I expect to pay $1-3 for medium and $3-6 for large.

 

[Dice4Hire]

It seems to me that WOTC is tying to attract the game-centered user now, though I do not see that being very successful.

In my case, I consider myself a game-centered user, and bought about 10 packs of miniatures total, of the last 5-7 sets, and then bought a bunch of loose miniatures online to a) give me more miniatures that could be used for player characters, and b)give me more large and huge miniatures.

So ten packs, and maybe 40 online loose miniatures, plus a game shop visit that gave me another 30 or so.

The last set I bought one booster, and got lucky with the single uncommon I wanted, so I only got one booster.

The next set might be much the same. One booster for fun, and if I like enough pieces, an online order of a few specific things.

I also bought the Blue Dragon, but have no need or Orcus (never much liked him anyway) or the Beholder set.

If they are gonna try to go with a user like me, it is not gonna be pretty.