Whew, What an Obi-Wan day!

Hey Everyone,

We have been reading the posted feedback. First of all let me say thank you to everyone for their patience!

Sideshow Collectibles has improved the ordering experience many different ways by increasing edition sizes, increasing our server equipment, creating streamlined 4 click pre-ordering, creating Priority Protected Pre-ordering, as well as doubling our Customer Service staff to be able to take your pre-orders over the phone. We will continue to make further improvements to our system based on the feedback of our collectors.

Please understand that as our ordering process becomes faster and our newsletter membership expands, our site will be visited with a larger amount of traffic during future pre-ordering sessions. This may cause pre-ordering delays regardless of improvements that may be made. In short- give people a bigger door and more people will try to squeeze through at the same time.

Although it looks like everyone had varied experiences from 3 minutes, 15, 30 to one hour, we will continue to work hard to implement your suggestions in order to make your ordering experience with us a more satisfying one.

Best,
Chicky

Thanks Chicky, I thought the system held up OK under the circumstances

Too much demand, not enough supply. Up those exclusive editon sizes, problem solved.

Yep, I tried for an hour today and got nothing. Very frustrating...

Wow, I feel pretty lucky now. I remembered he was going on sale, checked, and got the exclusive in about 5 seconds, not a single problem.

You were lucky LOTRSWfan, it took me about 45 to secure one, eventually by phone. It was kinda exciting. I would rather get excitement some other way though.

What goes around comes around for me. Took me about 30 seconds to order Anikan and about 45 min for Obi... thats the way it goes. And I think the exclusive edition size is fine. You don't want too many since then people will complain that they are all over the place. If I happen to miss one sometime thats just the way it goes.

Include me among the super, super, super lucky as well it seems. I was at work on an early lunch break (approximately, 11:45 PST), typed in Sideshow's URL and immediately a page sprung up with a nice close-up of Obi Wan stating that he was available for preorder and had the box below for inputting a username and password. I didn't remember my password and quickly had Sideshow send me a new one. I waited a few seconds for the password e-mail to arrive and I calmly typed it in and clicked "enter". The next page that came up was Obi Wan preorder page and I actually just stared at it wondering if it was the actual order page as it just seemed too easy. I finally tapped on the purchase button and again, a page with my personal info came up with practically no waiting and again I was wondering why it was all happening so easily. I clicked the button to place my order and once again with hardly any waiting I received my order number. This all happened so quickly I thought there wasn't as much demand for Obi Wan as there was for Luke and Ani. Apparently, I was wrong! Perhaps the traffic was much lighter at the time I placed my order after many others had already placed their's. I suppose this time makes up for my experience trying to order Anakin (I eventually did get him though after waiting a total of 40 or so minutes).

While "Revenge of the Sith" is one of my favorite SW films, I no longer get the urge to snatch up the exclusives and that's how I've come to feel since ordering Anakin. I think Sideshow wisely is offering items that I at least don't think I must have. If I'm lucky enough to get the exclusive, great, but if not, I'll gladly take the regular edition without grumbling. This may change in the future, though, which is probably the only reason why I feel compelled to take my early lunch breaks the past couple of Fridays.

Promising Galahad said:

Include me among the super, super, super lucky as well it seems. I was at work on an early lunch break (approximately, 11:45 PST), typed in Sideshow's URL and immediately a page sprung up with a nice close-up of Obi Wan stating that he was available for preorder and had the box below for inputting a username and password. I didn't remember my password and quickly had Sideshow send me a new one. I waited a few seconds for the password e-mail to arrive and I calmly typed it in and clicked "enter". The next page that came up was Obi Wan preorder page and I actually just stared at it wondering if it was the actual order page as it just seemed too easy. I finally tapped on the purchase button and again, a page with my personal info came up with practically no waiting and again I was wondering why it was all happening so easily. I clicked the button to place my order and once again with hardly any waiting I received my order number. This all happened so quickly I thought there wasn't as much demand for Obi Wan as there was for Luke and Ani. Apparently, I was wrong! Perhaps the traffic was much lighter at the time I placed my order after many others had already placed their's. I suppose this time makes up for my experience trying to order Anakin (I eventually did get him though after waiting a total of 40 or so minutes).

Click to expand...

11:45 PST? Are you sure you didn't get the regular version? I thought he was sold out before the 1 hour and 45 minute mark. I think the site had calmed down by 11:45 because the exclusives were all gone. Maybe I am remembering wrong? Congratulations if so!

Edited from my order confirmation e-mail:

Qty: 1 Item: 21171 Price: $49.99
Star Wars 12-inch Figures Obi-Wan Kenobi - Sideshow Exclusive

Yep, pretty sure! and this e-mail arrived at 1:52 PM my time (I live in Florida).

Edited as I type: Mea culpa!!! Somehow, I was thinking that California was only two time zones away. I call this the I-once-lived-in-Chicago-and-that-screwed-with-my-time-zone-awareness. I noticed the e-mail shows it was sent at 10:52 AM, which means, of course, three time zones (and therefore three hours difference from sent to received). This now has me puzzled as to why I was able to order without any real problem this time. I seem to recall checking previously for Anakin's preorder to appear and it wasn't up yet. Perhaps I checked an hour early it seems. Sheesh. I need to get out more.

madden821 said:

What goes around comes around for me. Took me about 30 seconds to order Anikan and about 45 min for Obi... thats the way it goes. And I think the exclusive edition size is fine. You don't want too many since then people will complain that they are all over the place. If I happen to miss one sometime thats just the way it goes.

Click to expand...

I can't imagine why people would complain about higher edition sizes, it's not like these are high-end statues or prop replicas, they're toys. Very well made toys, but toys none the less.

Great Suggestion!

Up the edition size!

1750 figures in a world that has 10's of thousands of SW fans is a bit harsh.

Hell, that # of figures in a popular state like NY or Cali is too little! I'm all for
having rare items & low numbers, but this is ridiculous. They're SW dolls for
goodness sake!

If it takes about a week or 2 to sell out of the reg version, it should take at
least a day to eliminate the exclusives. Sold out 1 hour is WAY to much of a
demand. What's the point in that when this is ultimately supposed to be fun?

I'm pretty sure that the only people who'd want the exclusive #'s to be
ridiculously EXTRA low are scalpers / flippers who don't really care about the
product itself.

*ss*

It took me 45 mins and was a tad frustrating but I think we've all dealt with worse.

TheObsoleteMan said:

Too much demand, not enough supply. Up those exclusive editon sizes, problem solved.

Click to expand...

That's kind of the point of exclusives don't ya think? They are supposed to be very limited and hard to get.

jlcmsu said:

It took me 45 mins and was a tad frustrating but I think we've all dealt with worse.



That's kind of the point of exclusives don't ya think? They are supposed to be very limited and hard to get.

Click to expand...

I though the point of an exclusive was that you could only get them at a certain place.

TheObsoleteMan said:

I though the point of an exclusive was that you could only get them at a certain place.

Click to expand...

Yes, and that as well. They are also supposed be very limited and much harder to get than a regular version. That's always been my experience with exclusives. If you really up the ES then you might as well not make exclusives.

TheObsoleteMan said:

I though the point of an exclusive was that you could only get them at a certain place.

Click to expand...

Hey- I do believe you're right. "Limited Edition" refers to the number available. "Exclusive" refers to source, meaning you can only get it from Sideshow. A Limited Edition Sideshow Exclusive means both.

TheObsoleteMan said:

I can't imagine why people would complain about higher edition sizes, it's not like these are high-end statues or prop replicas, they're toys. Very well made toys, but toys none the less.

Click to expand...

Thats very true, but then they might as well just get rid of the "exclusive" part of it and just have a regualr figure. I guess I wouldn't complain if they raised the exclusive editions since unless they make 10,000 it still wouldn't be enough for everyone who wants them but thats what the "regular" figure is for. Keep the exclusive exclusive. Of course I will probably only have this attitude until I miss one of the exclusives then I will be saying MAKE MORE.

I realize that the exclusives are supposed to be limited, but when they sell out in an hour I think they've become a bit too limited. Just my opinion.

madden821 said:

...Of course I will probably only have this attitude until I miss one of the exclusives then I will be saying MAKE MORE.

Click to expand...

SO TRUE! LOL!

TheObsoleteMan said:

I realize that the exclusives are supposed to be limited, but when they sell out in an hour I think they've become a bit too limited. Just my opinion.

Click to expand...

AGREED!

*ss*

Chicky said:

Hey Everyone,

We have been reading the posted feedback. First of all let me say thank you to everyone for their patience!

Sideshow Collectibles has improved the ordering experience many different ways by increasing edition sizes, increasing our server equipment, creating streamlined 4 click pre-ordering, creating Priority Protected Pre-ordering, as well as doubling our Customer Service staff to be able to take your pre-orders over the phone. We will continue to make further improvements to our system based on the feedback of our collectors.

Please understand that as our ordering process becomes faster and our newsletter membership expands, our site will be visited with a larger amount of traffic during future pre-ordering sessions. This may cause pre-ordering delays regardless of improvements that may be made. In short- give people a bigger door and more people will try to squeeze through at the same time.

Although it looks like everyone had varied experiences from 3 minutes, 15, 30 to one hour, we will continue to work hard to implement your suggestions in order to make your ordering experience with us a more satisfying one.

Best,
Chicky

Click to expand...

What about multiple mirror servers so instead of trying to cram more people through a bigger door...you let us all stride through a lot of medium sized doors?