Before I begin my story I want to make sure that everyone is aware of the place that I am coming from. This message is being sent from a place of helping and not hurting. Think of this as a “Come to Jesus” talk with your coach from high school. Yea, that sounds good, this is good ‘ole Coach StrongBeard here to help you through these hard times. So sit down, listen up, and hold on to you BUTTS!
Make-A-Wish Freddy Says: Limit Your Expectations
Today on the Funko Shop the Make-A-Wish Superhero Freddy Funko was released. This is actually an awesome Pop! that was worth buying for me personally. I love giving to charity and 100% of the sales were going to go straight to the Make-A-Wish foundation. I was instantly sold, plus I collect Freddy Funko figures so it’s a win-win. Now, why would this bring me to write an article? Was this an especially sought after item? Was there a huge calamity with the Pop-up Shop? For once I am proud to announce everything worked out as it should. That being said, we have a major problem.
The issue today was not with servers, or bots, or bandwidth. The problem I want to address is with the community. When the announcement email appeared in my inbox I knew we were in for an interesting time. Make-A-Wish Freddy had a bad omen painted all over it. It was almost as if someone screamed “DANGER”, there was a sign spray painted across my screen, or at least that’s how it translated. Right there plain as day on the image of the box we could all read it. Limited 5,000 pieces, limit 1 per customer.
The 1 per customer part wasn’t important that’s normal for every release. It’s the other part, the limited sticker. I am not 100% sure if people outside of this hobby understand the significance here. That sticker was just as good as a searchlight. As soon as everyone saw it, they should have known that this was going to be a must-have item for re-sellers and collectors alike. What happened next was a huge surprise to me – and maybe to you too.
Superhero Freddy – Let The Games Begin
I want to be honest for a second, I had no expectations of getting the Superhero Freddy Funko today on the shop, but I did. I was Lightning Fingers Magoo. I was able to check out faster than I have ever checked out before. No queue, no challenge questions, just in and out and ordered. Why am I saying this you might be asking yourself? It is not to brag or boast. It’s simply to say I went in with an understanding and I walked out surprised and elated. That is not the case with most people, and the reason why is the fact that this item was LIMITED TO 5,000 PIECES.
This brings me to my point. This release was not difficult to obtain because of bots or server issues. No, my friends, this item was difficult to obtain because of the limited quantity that was produced. Going through Facebook groups and reading posts from the unlucky individuals it seems that many don’t seem to realize this. We were fighting to obtain an item that was an incredible demand for one reason or another. I do not know the total number of Funko collectors out there, but let’s just say 30,000 people were trying their best to pick-up this specific Freddy. That means that only 16% of the community would be successful. The chances were not in your favor and failure was much more likely than success.
So how do we approach this situation? It’s simple, you just need to be a graceful loser. I am not using the word “loser” in the sense that you are terrible at life and should go live in a gutter. On the contrary, you tried and came up short and now it’s time to hold your head up high and walk home. It sucks that you didn’t get the thing you wanted but you live to fight another day. Many people just don’t seem to understand that concept but it is something that we need to encourage as a whole. We need to be positive and remember that you might still be able to get “the only one that you wanted” through other channels. Ask your friends, join an awesome group, or wait until the hype dies down on eBay and pick it up for a reasonable price. Just don’t point fingers and cry how the queue isn’t fair. Don’t point out how it was in your cart and Funko took it from you (because they didn’t). Lastly don’t be one of these guys.
… And Now For These Guys.
I have become immune to the crying about missing an item because it happens. I have also learned to ignore the sore losers begging for handouts on social media. What I cannot ignore is the manipulators and I have to call them out. I am not talking about market manipulation by flippers and sneakerheads. I am talking about literally manipulating people through emotions. Superhero Freddy Funko was created as a means to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you were able to get this item or not, Make-A-Wish is going to receive a great donation on behalf of collectors and Funko.
Make-A-Wish has helped a large number of people and they are a great organization. That being said, the number of people that came out of the woodwork complaining that “my child was a MAW kid and they collect Pop and we didn’t get one, need someone to sell to me for cost” is disgusting. It doesn’t matter if these comments, yes plural, were made as a joke or not is absolutely disgusting. Don’t be one of these guys, please don’t be.
The Takeaway
The thing I took away from today was that sometimes we win and when there is an item on the Funko Shop that is limited and desirable then most of us are going to lose. I also realized that we have a serious problem in the community where we cannot accept the reality of how popular Funko has become. Just be aware that there are many people involved in this hobby and it’s not the same beast that it used to be. We need to accept that. Stay positive, keep trying, and make sure you help out your fellow collectors when you can. Salt should only be reserved for your food because it’s not a good look on anyone.
