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Funko sending $30M of its products to a landfill
- Thread starter Revolutionary
- Start date
NeoIkaruGAF
Member
Wow, who woulda thunk.
What will GameStop do with all that free shelf space now?
What will GameStop do with all that free shelf space now?
GnomeChimpsky
Member
They should bury it in a secret location.
Rockondevil
Member
And here I am using a straw that dissolves in seconds rendering my drink useless.
FunkMiller
Member
I’m sure this is much more sense than… you know… offering the stock at a discount.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
So basically you are telling me that the Funkos are returning to their homeland.
gaming_again
Member
Reddit utterly BTFO.
anthony2690
Member
Not surprised tbh, the amount of funko pop stuff you see on clearance in the UK for £1-3 is amusing.
My partner grabbed all the frozen pops for £2 each.
& Seen the funko something wild card game with mini pop included for £2 each too.
My partner grabbed all the frozen pops for £2 each.
& Seen the funko something wild card game with mini pop included for £2 each too.
newtypepilot
Member
I never understood why they got popular.
They just oversaturated themselves, and kept spamming out crap, which is stupid for a supposedly collectible item. Should've learned a thing or two from Nintendo about artificial scarcity.
They just oversaturated themselves, and kept spamming out crap, which is stupid for a supposedly collectible item. Should've learned a thing or two from Nintendo about artificial scarcity.
JonSnowball
Member
Valued at $30,000,000....has to be at least $5 of plastic there.
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Our donating to low income, poor, or homeless children for starters.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
bitbydeath
Member
Why not melt them down, stick em all together, see what happens?
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
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killatopak
Member
Land fill instead of just donating it?
UnravelKatharsis
Member
How is that better than contacting say...toys for tots and asking them to pick it up?
nightmare-slain
Member
Disgusting.
Donate them to children charities. There are plenty of kids out there who would love a little toy to play with. If not that then at least send them to be recycled as much as possible.
Of course it will all come down to money. Tossing it into the landfill is the cheapest option.
We need to hold companies more accountable for the waste they create.
Donate them to children charities. There are plenty of kids out there who would love a little toy to play with. If not that then at least send them to be recycled as much as possible.
Of course it will all come down to money. Tossing it into the landfill is the cheapest option.
We need to hold companies more accountable for the waste they create.
You really think poor kids want a Jay and Silent Bob funko to play with?
nightmare-slain
Member
Kids have wild imaginations and will play with pretty much any toy you give them. It doesn't matter what or who it is.
There are kids out there with no toys at all and would love anything they got.
StreetsofBeige
Member
As for you guys saying donate it, companies typically wont for good product that can be resold or is similar to existing products already on shelf. It'd cannibalize their sales of existing product, especially since there are $15-20 kinds of products which even poor people can buy. And $30M sounds like a lot for Funko. Stores would get pissed the company is giving away product.
My company has donated stuff. But it was obsolete product for a distinct product line no stores sold anymore. So nobody cared. And it was only like $200,000 worth. Not $20M.
My company has donated stuff. But it was obsolete product for a distinct product line no stores sold anymore. So nobody cared. And it was only like $200,000 worth. Not $20M.
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UnravelKatharsis
Member
Yes. As a once poor child that got socks for Christmas I would have been happy with anything.
GeekyDad
Member
Marking it down wouldn't allow them to claim as much loss, and donating it would kill demand for the toys in the future. They may have over-saturated demand for their products now, but they could simply be about to release new product, perhaps even under another company name. The 30m will probably be written off completely, and the "children" will buy their new shit. Win-win for them.
UnravelKatharsis
Member
I'm honestly curious how donating a toy that's not selling to poor kids that can't buy would kill demand for a product no one's demanding.
GeekyDad
Member
Flooding the market with $30 million dollars worth of free toys.
Can you work the rest out on your own, or you still need help?
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Fbh
Member
Never understood the appeal of the these. They are so ugly.
I guess they are cheap, but just spend an extra $10 and get something much nicer.
Hey!, they are poor but they've still got standards!.
But seriously though yeah this seems like waste that could have made some kids happy.
I guess they are cheap, but just spend an extra $10 and get something much nicer.
Hey!, they are poor but they've still got standards!.
But seriously though yeah this seems like waste that could have made some kids happy.
UnravelKatharsis
Member
I still need help. But you can continue being triggered by an honestly worded question.
GeekyDad
Member
Sorry, man. I don't mean to come off that way.
I guess for me, I just think that's perhaps their thinking. If they give toys away for free -- whether demand for those specific toys is all but nonexistent -- toys are still toys, and when they're free, as a business, you're not doing yourself any favors when you have a new product(s) about to be flooding the market again.
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Billbofet
Member
My friends collect this crap. It was cool and novel a few years back, but when you can get 17 different pops for each level of John McClane's injuries in Die Hard, that magic seems somewhat lost.
Now each of them have shelves upon shelves of this trash that all look the same after a while. Kind of like walking into a Gamestop.
Now each of them have shelves upon shelves of this trash that all look the same after a while. Kind of like walking into a Gamestop.
NinjaBoiX
Member
It would probably be cheaper to literally just give them away. I imagine you can’t just show up and dump $30 dollars worth of moulded plastic in landfill for free…
Edit: and yes, I totally get how that would depreciate the perceived value of these products, but news stories like this don’t do Funko any favours either.
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UnravelKatharsis
Member
I do get that. And I could be wrong I just don't think that giving them away to a market that wouldn't be buying them anyway (poor kids or kids in foster care) could hurt that much. I am willing to acknowledge that there could be a legitimate business reason not to. But at the root of it, for me there's just an emotional reaction to seeing toys being thrown away that could be given to the underprivileged.
GeekyDad
Member
That's probably the natural response for most of us. Unfortunately, I'm looking behind that curtain daily (well, not currently, since I'm on medical leave).
But who knows. Maybe the things are defective. But this company has made a lot of money on these toys, so I just can't believe they'd piss any money away trashing them altogether without good financial reason. Otherwise, they would give them away and make a public display of it, so as to garner favor from the public.
Fuz
Member
"Funko gifts $30M of toys to underprivileged kids!"
SafeOrAlone
Banned
“Poor people holding our toys? Not a good look.”
back in the 90’s, a bunch of “Simpsons” clothing was almost given away to the homeless, but was trashed instead. You don’t want your brand affiliated with homeless people.
I know.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
I understand the reasons for dumping rather than donating these, but really there ought to be some kind of environmental legislation to punish brands dumping product en masse.
Personally, I'd say the world can't afford to put resources into making utterly worthless shit like this that was always heading for landfill at some point.
Personally, I'd say the world can't afford to put resources into making utterly worthless shit like this that was always heading for landfill at some point.
poppabk
Member
Maybe the underprivileged didn't even want them. You ever see the muffin top episode of Seinfeld?
TheUsual
Member
GameStop CEO : "Grab your shovels everyone! We're going to get a great deal at the landfill!"
TuxedoSammy
Banned
Izzit $30 mil based on the resale price or $30 mil based on how much it cost to produce said product? I presume the former, but this question is v important.
