Toys to Retirement Weekly Wrap-Up #33
Hello friends,
Happy June! It’s the time of the year where we can take a deep breath and start to see the light at the end of the tunnel (Q4). We’re over halfway through the year!
It is not completely out of the question to start considering when to ship in your Q4 items. It’s definitely early, but there is opportunity cost associated with shipping in later.
Have to remember, shipping stuff in in October sounds ideal, but then you’re also spending time packing and prepping instead of sourcing during the most profitable buying season of the year.
There is no one size fits all answer here, it depends on how you operate your business — Do you have employees? Do you have cash flow issues right now? Anticipating large purchase orders arriving in Q4 you’ll need space for? Etc.
I’m trying really hard to not have to send in Q4 items until October, but space is tight right now and I need to start making some consolations.
Anyways, let’s look at the week:
An Overview of Pokemon Investing
![[VIDEO LESSON] An Overview of Pokemon Investing](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Gm3z!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb360a00f-d7a2-43fa-9229-f08ff43c3f6e_500x500.png)
This was one of the most requested pieces of content you guys have been asking for, so I dumped some info into about 45 minutes of videos for you guys to consume.
It’s not for everyone. These are long term holds. Think 5-10 years. But the price ceilings on Pokemon are extraordinarily high.
If you’ve been curious about the Pokemon craze, how it works, why it works, and my unique insights into some alternative investing strategies outside of just “Buy Prismatic Evolutions and Surging Sparks”, then you may enjoy the overview.
For reference, I was introduced to Pokemon the month it released in the US, and have a lot of exposure to not just the modern day “mainstream” cards, but all vintage and promotional releases for competitive players and staff members. I talk about that in the article, and it’s allowed me to have a somewhat unique perspective on how to make money in this niche.
Marvel vs. Capcom Marvel Legends Pre-Orders are HOT!
As mentioned in last week’s Weekly Wrap-Up, I had a lot of excitement over the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Gamerverse wave.
The first store exclusive went up for pre-order this morning and sold out in NINE minutes.
Pay attention to this line, there is some magic here. Expect a restock on this specific SKU in the fall.
Repricing for Father’s Day
We finally have a slight toy-driven holiday coming up in a week! “Kidults” are a very fast growing demographic, continually making up more and more of toy sales. It should come as no surprise that toy sales should pick up this week as people order last minute action figures and Funkos for their dads.
While we should all be making more money this week, you can really tap into this by adjusting your repricer settings.
Maybe you have a ton of a specific SKU in stock and it’s just not moving at the speed you want.
First, make sure you have your ‘yo-yo’ strategy applied.
If you’re unsure about the ‘yo-yo’ strategy, check out the tip of the week from this previous Toys to Retirement article:
Once you have your yo-yo strategy applied, it’s not just about lowering your minimum. If you have a SKU where you rarely or never see a sale at your maximum, then maybe it’s time to lower that.
Remember, the goal with yo-yoing is to dip low enough to command the buy box, then jump up your price before Amazon has time to react and give the buy box to someone else. Ideally, everyone else on the listing will also follow your price.
For example, I had an item with a minimum of $33.99 and max of $41.99. I was not getting sales at $41.99, but I had a good chunk of sales at $33.99.
I decided to lower my maximum to $38.99, and now I’m getting the same amount of sales as I was before but a few of them per day are at my new max.
Sometimes you just need to find that sweet spot for the yo-yo, and you’ll make an extra few bucks per sale.
Doesn’t seem like much, but now imagine making an extra few bucks per sale across all of your SKUs.
Definitely take advantage of these higher velocity weeks by staying in tune with your repricing.
More Live-Action Toy Movies Coming…
We knew it was coming. But the combination of successes of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Barbie, and Minecraft have really pushed studios to greenlight more video game adaptations and live-action movies based on toys.
Not only are we getting a Hot Wheels movie with John Cena, but now a Monster High and Care Bears movie have also been greenlit for the near future.
It’s never too early to start at least thinking how we can prepare for these.
I have some ideas…
Magic the Gathering Final Fantasy Collab
The Magic the Gathering and Final Fantasy collaboration set is finally being opened a week ahead of its June 13 release. For those out of the loop, this is the best selling Magic the Gathering set of all time.
If you can get your hands on any of the collector edition booster boxes at MSRP, consider yourself extremely lucky.
These collector edition packs have a chance of containing the serialized Golden Chocobo card. Only 77 of these will exist. Two of them have been found, and there are bounties for $50,000 USD if someone finds the more sought after numbers (7, 77).
Happy hunting…
Going to wrap things up there, hope everyone has a lovely weekend. See you next week!
