Since I started this mess, I should clarify a little.
I'm not trying to suggest an unlimited amount of exclusives. My point is that with most items, folks have ample time to purchase the item as long as they are paying some sort of attention to what Sideshow is doing. In other words, I feel availability should be high enough that the average person who can't access the internet from work will still have a shot at an exclusive item once his or her shift ends. I think folks on the other side of the globe shouldn't have to worry about sleeping through the window of availability of an exclusive. Star Wars is much more popular than other SS lines, therefore I'd like to see a much larger number of exclusive editions available. That number should still be roughly in proportion to the exclusive/non-exclusive ratio that other items have. If the exclusive supply were TBD for the 1st 24 hours of any given pre-order period, would it REALLY make the exclusive less desireable?
Similary, call me crazy, but I think Sideshow loyalists should have some sort of advantage in getting exclusives. The newsletter mailing is good in theory, but the execution didn't quite work. Maybe a Sideshow completist should be allowed to "subscribe" to a line-- in other words, Sideshow would automatically pre-order ever 12 inch exclusive for a subscriber when it is announced.
I'll let Sideshow worry about the details; however, this item blew out faster than any other exclusive in a Sideshow line that I collect (I may not have knowledge of others), and I thought the company might consider slightly broader availability. The only faster selling items I can think of are the Comic Con thingies, and those aren't really the kind of items I have in mind.
So, in summary, I wasn't asking Sideshow to make exclusives as common as regular editions-- I just would like the SW exclusives to be reasonable to obtain.
But, hey, if other folks prefer exclusives to only have a 2 hour shelf life, then I'll happily bow to the majority.
***EDIT*** Just saw Chris's post. Don't know how I missed it the first time around. I had a gut feeling that the Luke edition size was significantly more than any other, and he's proven it. I have a similar gut feeling that the regular edition for Luke will be a lot higher than most other figures, but I don't have any numbers to back that up. Still, I don't fault Sideshow for a fast sellout-- they didn't know what the first figure would do until it did it. I would just like there to be enough exclusives to last at least a full day the next time around. Not a month, not a quarter, not a year, but a day.
And on that note, thanks for listening and replying, Chris. I hope my posts have been low on the "whining" factor, and I hope you've found them reasonably well-mannered and constructive. If not, you have my apologies.
