Ah! Now it makes more sense... (Another Heroclix post)
This past weekend's Wizard World East comics convention in Philadelphia, which I remarked on here, also served as the pre-release sales event for the next Heroclix set: Ultimates.
Seeing that this was going to be May 21-23, I expected that the worldwide sale date for the set might be as early as June 1 -- enough time to allow the convention sale to remain special, but not so long that it would unduly irritate the fans who couldn't make it. As it turns out, the sale date is June 30th, meaning that everyone has to wait well over a month beyond that convention before being able to buy theirs at retail. This struck me as a little odd, as they'd done something like this with an earlier set and it upset quite a few people.
I've now seen that sometime yesterday Wizkids announced a series of pre-sale tournaments at select, local venues. So far it's just five locations (in AZ,OR,WA,AR & MA), to be held on June 19th or 20th, but they claim more will be added.
From a business standpoint this makes a great deal of sense, as they're trying to build the support at the retail level, and giving people an extra reason to go to a venue to play should accomplish that. With the new $7.99/booster price my stance has been that they've priced themselves out of my comfort range at the retail level, and my expectation has been that I've gone to my last sealed booster tournament (where one goes to the event, buys three boosters, and makes a team from the clix he's pulled), but I must confess that this sort of a presale tourney has managed to tug at my sleeve a little. If one in my immediate area joins the planned events I might consider it, especially as I was disappointed by the low, low availability of Ultimates boosters at the recent convention. Then again, I'm just as likely to keep my money and let it pass.
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