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Welcome back to the latest edition of the Pop Collectors Alliance, Funko Making Fun…. for the Fans. This week the team discusses Funko’s documentary premiere Making Fun: The Story of Funko and how awesome it is to see Funko pay tribute to their fans. They also detail the announcement that were made on last week’s episode and some exciting news concerning the next LIVE Cost Plus Shipping event, a local Pop Swap the Alliance will be sponsoring and all the details about the Patreon page (mostly an infomercial up to this point).  They close everything with Finders Series: Books-a-Million and PX Previews Exclusives and yes you are hearing this correctly a LISTENERS Collector’s Story of the week.

The next LIVE Cost Plus Shipping event will be on Sat February 24th at 7PM CST and 8PM EST checkout our Facebook page for more details.

Also we will be sponsoring a local Pop Swap in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. All details will be posted on our Facebook page.

And Finally if you are interested in attending the Pop Collectors Alliance SDCC 2018 Excursion please email us at info@popcollectorsalliance.com for all the details.

Finders Series Vol 7: Finding Pops at Books-A-Million and PX Previews Exclusives:

Overview:

Disclaimer as always our ratings are based on our experiences, the experiences of our frends in the collector community or experiences that we read from blogs, forums or social media. This does not mean we are saying all BAM employees, stores or layouts are terrible or great, everyone’s experience is their own.

Pros:

1. BAM has a large selection of dedicated to Funko products and it’s always easy to locate in BAM stores. One of the larger selections of Mystery Minis.
2. BAM has great exclusives with the exception of the occasional 2-Pack common exclusive, they do a great job of having an above average selection.
3. Convention exclusives are above average and more on the rare side.
4. Online page is easy to navigate and they rate above average marks for allowing an easy way to preorder any BAM Exclusives.
5. Great membership reward program (not as good as Barnes and Noble) but a close second with the free shipping for online orders.

Cons:

1. Employees are often unfamiliar with Funko products, which often result in damaged merchandise and lack the ability to locate inventory.
2. Online store crashes constantly during high traffic periods (Conventions)
3. FUNKO Displays are disorganized and clumsy, exclusives and chases are mixed throughout displays. Product is not always centrally located requires a thorough hunt. This can be a good thing too…..
4. Inventory system is sub-par. forcing you to call location and hope the employees can locate merchandise.
5. Limited amount of locations and that number could be growing.

Overall Rating:

BAM has made great efforts to expand their Funko collection and to offer collectors product for preorder online. They have a great selection of Pop! and above average exclusives, but all this falls well short of their competition. With a non-existent inventory system, clumsy store layouts, and a website that cannot handle traffic BAM scores a 5.5 out of 10.

 Books-a-Million and PX Previews Exclusives: Where to Find them:

Store Layouts often vary (mall or shopping center / strip mall)

• Most stores have a dedicated Pop! section that is easy to locate, however individual Pop! can be located throughout the store in related sections.
• Most Funko displays are NOT managed well and often new product pushes older product to the back or bottom of a display. Prepare yourself for the search, BAM is the most time consuming hunt out there. Just because you don’t see it on the surface doesn’t mean it’s not there.
• Mystery Minis, plush and a small number of Pop! are often located near or around the registers with some exclusives or convention exclusives being located behind the counter.
• PX Previews are distributed through Diamond Comics so they are mainly limited to Small Businesses that sell comics, but you can also locate them in FYE. I would suggest that you buy them at a local comic shop to support small businesses.

Books-a-Million Hunting Tips:

Hunting Tip 1: Most stores have a unique selection of Pop! and they don’t always do a great job of rotating product on displays or shelves. DIG! DAMNIT! DIG! It is important to complete a thorough search in these stores. Like I said above this is the most time consuming hunt you will go on! I have found chases behind, buried and tucked away. DIG!

Hunting Tip 2: Preorder, Preorder, Preorder. Often BAM doesn’t receive TONS of their exclusives in store. So when available preorder. You will also receive free shipping with your rewards membership.

Expert Hunting Tip 1: Check behind the counters. Often employees keep exclusives behind the counter as they are stocking the shelves as a staging area.

Expert Hunting Tip 2: Get employees to check for shipments. When you see an item go up for preorder and you are uncomfortable with ordering it online….. Go to the store and see if an employee can let you know when the shipment is arriving (bring the product # with you)

Expert Hunting Tip 3 PX Previews Exclusives: Since PX Exclusives are generally sold at comic shops and comic shop owners are approachable. Get a group of friends and see if the comic shop will let you preorder the PX exclusive. With this option you can avoid lines, traffic and frustration and help some fellow collectors and small businesses out in the process. (Note: Comic shop owners can choose a quantity to order)

Books-a-Million: Where are the Deals?

Not too many deals at BAM occasionally you can find Pop! in the clearance bin. I would recommend getting an membership card from BAM to save on instore purchase and free shipping for your online orders (a great deal with shipping costs on the rise).

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