SDCC 2021 Premium Bandai Site Experience

It's that time of the year again, San Diego Comic Convention! Due to the coronavirus, most SDCC events are still held online. This includes new toy reveals as well as the sales of exclusive items. I've never been to the actual SDCC physical event location but since it's now being held online (probably until the virus goes away completely), there's a chance to buy the event exclusive items without having to pay high scalper prices.

Just like last year, the Premium Bandai site was overloaded majority of the time. You're not just competing against other collectors, you're also competing against automated bots meant to snatch up all of the items for their scalper masters. It was hard adding items to your cart. The site would fail to load and sometimes, the items you've successfully added to your cart would DISAPPEAR!

Anyway, thankfully I managed to succeed getting myself one of each item that I wanted, some Figuarts Dragon Ball toys with more accurate color schemes based on their anime appearance. I sold my old ones a year ago so I'm happy to have a chance to get improved versions of them!

Well here's a shortened video which shows what it's like trying to buy SDCC exclusives online lol

Congrats on getting your stuff, Adeno. The scalper crap reminds me of when Toys R Us was around and I was collecting McFarlane Spawn figures, and you were hard pressed to get anything before the damn comic shop owners came in to scoop stuff up and then charge double or triple the actual cost in their stores. I’m glad most of those @$$holes went out of business.

Thanks! I miss Toys R Us. It was fun hanging out there after work as a form of stress relief, re-arranging toys into weird positions lol

Getting SDCC exclusives was so hard before the coronavirus. Paying increased prices was already expected since you always had to find someone who actually was going to SDCC and they can't really buy for everyone due to the purchase limits and of course all the costs that come with traveling to that place.

I sure hope selling exclusives online becomes part of the norm for SDCC even when the time comes that the virus isn't a threat anymore.

Well done, Adeno. It is a different experience I guess, and I'm glad you managed to get your stuff despite the hurdles and challenges.

I'm glad you were able to get the figures you wanted.

But the demise of Cons makes me want to cry. Even though I only attended one, and a small one at that, just the idea that they were taking place – SDCC, Dragon Con, and all the smaller local and regional versions – made me happy, and I loved seeing Con pics and stories online.

Thanks!

Yeah those adventure videos at cons were awesome! Sometimes when I'd order an exclusive from someone who goes there every year, they'd set up this live stream or upload videos of what's going around so you feel like you're also there! Long lines and all that, but lots of people in interesting costumes, too! Then there's Conan O'Brien and the random celebrities on stages haha

Oh well, at least Toyark still gets the news for us https://news.toyark.com/