Preorder is a widely used method among transformer collectors around the world. Third party toy makers’ biggest spending is on preliminary design phrases. Once a design is passed, they will announce their product and pre-order information to the community, via their social network profiles or TF dealers. Preorder helps toy makers to estimate the market size, budget for production and pricing. Depending on which country you are located, preorder may be full amount upfront or deposit only.
Do I have to preorder?
Simple answer, usually you do not. For my own collection, I had never preordered anything in the past and I always got what I need (maybe not at earliest time or best price). TF sellers do not just pass customer pre-orders to the toy makers, they would commit their own fund to get the extra amount. You can buy one of this extra amount if you did not preorder in the first place. However, for some extremely popular toys/figures, pre-order will not only assure you receive the toys at the earliest time, also secure the best price (or a reasonable price) for you.
What you can/cannot expect from pre-orders?
Savier’s Toys sources our toys from China mainland distributors. Sourcing from China gives us better prices for most of the brands, flexible restock-ability on small quantity, easy communications when dealing with part replacement. Even when manufacturers’ pre-order deadline already passes, we can still sign you up in the pre-order queue as “luck-based”, which means if quantity received is more than expected, you still have a chance to receive the toy. However, Chinese channel is usually slower and has no certainty on the final price throughout the pre-order period. Therefore our pre-order works differently from other sellers in following ways:
- We only charge AUD$5 deposit for any pre-orders, the deposit is refundable before we start shipping toys from China;
- We will guarantee the availability of the pre-ordered toys unless you are in the luck-based queue;
- We will not provide final pre-order price since we don’t know out total cost until last minute. However, we will be trying our best to deliver the best price for our Aussie customers;
- Since we cannot provide the final price from the start, you do not have obligation to buy your preorder. We will refund you if the toys haven’t made their way to Australia;
- We cannot guarantee the release date is accurate. Delay is expected from time to time;
- We will provide after-sale support to all our customers to the extent the manufacturers can provide.
Type of pre-order (updated)
In order to serve Aussie TF collectors better, we make up four types of pre-order transactions and will show “Pre-order type” in the listing. Four types are:
- Pre-order (official release/guaranteed), means toys are not available yet, manufacturers will be making them and release when they are ready;
- Pre-order (official release/luck-based), means manufacturers’ deadline is already passed, other sellers might not be able to add you in at all but you can put you into a luck-based line in case you can catch extra availability.
- Pre-order (restocking/backorders), means there are toys available from our suppliers, we will just put up a link to see how many out there want it so we can import altogether;
- Pre-order (pre-sale), these are the stocks that are already leaving Chinese port, will surely arrive safely in Australia as long as the plane don’t crash.
Pre-order process
Once a pre-order item is up in store, it is usually located in Category: Toy_group/Brand/item_name or Preorder_items/item_name. It is also shown in “New In” section as the system considers it is a new product. Preorder items are created as “virtual” item. We recommend you register on our site for pre-order as we will maintain contact with you for further updates. Only deposit is needed for pre-order items, the deposit is usually AUD$10.00. Preorder items are created as “virtual” item, therefore, no shipping cost will be paid.
Once the item arrives, we will inform you via email and arrange shipment and balance payment.
Release date
We will give each preorder item a rough release date, which is given by manufacturers. However, such date has not been very accurate in the past. Toy makers may change the date from time to time, or delay it at their own discretion. Therefore, the release date is a guideline only, do not take it too seriously.
Refund-ability of pre-order deposit
Pre-order deposit is refundable at any time before the item is leaving its country of origin.
Pre-order price (or Projected price)
In China, wholesale prices are given usually AFTER production is finished, distributors of different layers do not know their cost of goods even until receive them. In the past we have been trying to give a guess on the final price in Aussie dollar term. However, we weren’t very accurate on that. Therefore in future, we just decide not to give out a final guessed price anymore. In order to avoid you are pre-ordering an item with uncertain potential that paying more, we will only cover brands that we are confident we can provide a good price (if not the best). These brands are DX9, Fans Hobby, Fans Toys, Iron Factory, Generation Toy, Gigapower, KFC, Mech Planet, Open and Play, Perfect Effect, TFC, TFM, Unique Toys, Zeta Toys etc.
