Has Hasbro Overcorrected On Vintage Collection Production Levels?

I think it's fair to say that starting in 2022, Hasbro was overproducing some of the Vintage Collection figures. The first two waves in particular appeared to particularly glut. In fact, 2022's Fennec Shand wave seems to have made a reemergence at many Walmart stores around the holidays for some reason. My particular store has been sitting on a straggling Shand and Corvus Ashoka for months now, and the prospects of them ever selling are beginning to look grim. Even a character debut like Bo-Katan was selling for under MSRP for a long stretch, and her case mates Lobot and Bib Fortuna can still be had on Amazon via third party sellers for under $10.

We can't say for certain whether or not crashing prices are due to poor demand or an over-supply problem, but it definitely feels like the latter. I still remember being excited late into last year when I saw a Target stock girl carrying around a couple of TVC cards looking for their home. My timing is never that good. When she placed them on the peg, I sighed as it was a pair of early 2022 Death Watch Mandalorian figures, and they appeared to be case fresh. There is an ebb and flow to these things. The pendulum swings back and forth as Hasbro seeks a homeostasis between supply and demand. It feels like the pendulum might have swung back too far to the under-supply side. It's not just the obviously "hot" figures from the last two waves of 2023 that are hard to come by now, it's most of them. In addition to the ones in the header image:


Considering that the 2022 product lingered for a while (some of it to this day), this appears to be a departure from the way things were trending with respect to supply. I'm noticing some mild panic on the socials about this. As Yak Face has reported, Entertainment Earth has canceled their backorders for Chopper as well as Pre Vizsla and Hera. Darth Revan can still be preordered HERE (sponsored), but it's anyone's guess if those order will actually be fulfilled. Everyone knows what is best for their own collecting habits, so I don't want to be presumptuous and tell people how to spend their money, but I will tell you how I'm going to proceed. As I've written recently, I suffer viciously from FOMO. For that reason, I will be erring on the side of pre-ordering on day one if I'm on the fence about something. For me, regret purchases are much easier to deal with than regret passes.

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