I bought the Alita Prime 1 from a small shop in Kansas (and paid a deposit) but I am not expecting it anytime for months after other collectors get their hands on her first. Which I?m OK with.
Unless a company is the official distributor, it?s typical for a longer turnaround to get an item in stock and shipped to you.
I consider the slower turnaround at BBTS or other shops a fair trade off in order to save on (for example Sideshow?s) insane shipping fees and sales tax. For a Prime 1 statue, that?s easily $100+ in savings. If you buy multiple figures/statues, that?s potentially thousands of dollars.
When I first got into this high end hobby about a decade ago, I was impatient as well but now that I?ve built up a backlog of unboxed collectibles and a lack of shelf space, I don?t mind the long delays.
BBTS does offer $4 flat rate shipping on multiple items but recently (for some items) they built in the shipping into the price of the item (like the Ecto-1 vehicle).
Another weird quirk is Sideshow is the main distributor for many companies. When I buy from smaller shops, Sideshow ships it to them first (instead of directly to me). Then the shops deliver it to me. What a waste of time and fuel to ship back and forth, so this contributes to the delays.
I remember for the Threezero Drogon, Sideshow (CA) sent it to the shop I ordered in Kansas. Before the KS shop sent it back to the West Coast where I?m based, they discovered it was damaged upon inspection. SSC made them destroy the $1,300 statue and shipped another one to repeat this back and forth delivery cycle. Not to mention there?s one less Drogon out in the wild (an estimated 144 limited run). [emoji21]