We have been receiving an unusually high number of requests to preorder upcoming products for Pokemon TCG, Flesh and Blood TCG, and other high demand product lines. Because of this, I (Nick) felt it a good idea to outline how we deal with preorders of upcoming products, as well as why, in some cases, we don’t take preorders at all.
As I’m writing this, I realize it comes down to basically one thing: Allocation, which is the guaranteed quantity we will receive. Specifically, allocation of product from the publisher or distributor. In some cases, allocation for certain products is guaranteed by a publisher (i.e. Wizards of the Coast; Games Workshop), but more often than not it’s the distibutors who decide on allocations to each of their accounts (stores who buy from them).
Taking preorders for Magic: the Gathering is usually pretty easy since Wizards of the Coast guarantees most new products an allocation to WPN (Wizards Play Network) stores; the same is true of Games Workshop. In other words, we typically know how much of a new product we will be guaranteed. There are, of course, exceptions to this. Unfortunately, many other publishers don’t guarantee an allocation to us, so it’s up to our distributors to determine how much we will receive. This is the case for Pokemon TCG and Flesh and Blood TCG (plus most other games).
So, for determining when or if we will take preorders comes to down our allocation. Specifically, there are two reasons we don’t take preorders on upcoming products:
- Our distributors haven’t told us what our allocation will be
- Our allocation is so small that we feel it is best to not take preorders and instead put it out for sale on release day for our customers to come in and purchase
TL;DR – What this means is that we won’t take your money until we can guarantee that you will receive your product.
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