I'm for Announcing the time/date.
I know this may complicate things, but just a thought.
This recent event with the Anakin had some new protocol to follow...
A new figure was announced, an update to the servers/webpage(s), a registering newsletter to ensure only newsletter holders get first dibs...
All great things from a great company. Now for the lessons learned.
1) Due to the server/webpage update(s), the newsletter did not make it out til late Friday. That meant that a lot of the newsletter subscribers did NOT get it until Saturday, Sunday, Monday... maybe even Tuesday. This does not include those whose newsletter got filtered as junk email or whatever.
This brought a worry to the masses as the pre-order event was the following friday. Even though you had a few days til Friday, the cut-off for registering was Thursday, 23:59.
2) The time was announced for the event. Like I said, this is a good thing, BUT, it gave a window of "sometime between 10-12 am Pacific", which to me, means not exactly at 10am, but between those times... so it is a potential LESS THAN 2 hours for that window. You have folks already hitting refresh from 9:50am onward. and then you'll have others slowly hitting the site until WHAM... all set. a normally 3-minute task to order takes 15-30(?) mins to place just because the server is getting hit.
I personally was worried cuz our own server(s) were lagging, and I thought I had to drive home just to try and get an Anakin. Luckily, the server stabilized. But I had to attend a function and didn't get to try and place my order til 11am pacific, and it took a good 10 mins just to see the PURCHASE button, and another 5 or so mis to place the order.
My recommendations, take them how you want:
-the whole premise of being a newsletter subscriber is that you have insider info. which, SSC delivered on. to maybe improve on it, use that newsletter as a vehicle to be even more desired.
Announce on the webpage the new item, entice people as usual to consider buying it...maybe on a monday or tuesday.
By Friday, send out a newsletter which asks the subscriber "Do you want this item? YES / NO". Make this a date/time restricted question, perhaps a week to allow for potential snags on getting the newsletter (See #1). It's not so much a poll, but asking them, if you want it, better click YES. If you're a true die-hard for a line, title, or specific figure, you won't think twice on it.
If the subscriber clicks YES, this means that the following Wednesday, the subscriber gets a flash-newsletter with a link to their acct. to click "PURCHASE". basically reserves the item for them to buy at their leisure.
If the subscriber clicks NO, they still get the flash newsletter on wednesday as part of the whole 'subscribe to newsletter' thing, BUT without the PURCHASE link. However, they get to see the window with which they CAN buy the item. "Friday, 10am-12pm" Basically a way for SSC to say, hey, you snoozed, but we'll give you yet another chance as a newsletter subscriber. But then, these collectors KNOW what happens when you try to fight with the rest of the masses. Lag, etc. but hey, they didn't want the figure that much to begin with. Now I may get some flackfrom the on-budget folks. Me too. But it's a pre-order and we don't get charged til the item ships. This second-chance, if implemented, is SSC's way of saying, yeah, you missed out on a sure-thing, but maybe you'll get lucky here.
After THAT, we're all on our own.
This gives a fair warning and a shot to collectors to know the item, and have a chance buy the item before the rush. A nice perk for newsletter subscribers. Basically, same as what was done for Anakin, BUT, provide the chance to buy it before the rush. One, you please the true-die-hard collectors, AND you have a gauge on how many exclusives would be required by the die-hards. If the choice was YES, NO, MAYBE... the Maybe would be a good number to gauge how many extra exclusives there could be before you switch to the regular edition. A YES means basically assured. A MAYBE means the remaining number for an exclusive, but yer still on your own. A NO means yer really on your own.
This removes the die-hards from complaining "oh, i couldn't log on cuz of server lag" or "oh, i missed out on my newsletter", or "the time was off, i was asleep, i was at work, i was at -whatever-"; reduces what I could consider unnessary complaints that the cool customer service folks have to put up with. It also takes them out of the server problem for the other folks. Win-win. This is what I consider the "newsletter pre-order".
The point of still telling the "MAYBE" or "NO" people the date/time of the web-site pre-order is that they still have a chance. up to them if they really want it.
How many people will say yes right off the bat? not everyone, that's for sure.
how many people will say maybe? who knows. SSC, if they consider this, can judge how much of the 'maybe's to add to the actual exclusive edition size. and any NO's, they can subtract. Again, this is all limited by the original newsletter cutoff time/date of "do you want to buy?"
Just a thought.
