At eight-twenty in the morning, as Jiangnan's flagship store was about to open and the boys queuing outside were getting ready to charge forward, they saw an employee posting a large, handwritten poster at the entrance.
They took a look and saw it stated that due to insufficient stock, all blind boxes were estimated to sell out by tomorrow, and sales of blind boxes would be suspended for the next 20-30 days. They hoped everyone would inform their friends and not come to queue anymore.
"Thank goodness I came to queue at the flagship store today!" was the thought on everyone's mind. At the same time, this announcement clearly ignited the fighting spirit of everyone present. These people all turned into red-eyed hungry wolves, staring intently at the doors of the flagship store.
The reason they had all come to queue at the flagship store was that the Warcraft blind boxes at other stores and stalls in Shanghai had already been sold out. Only the flagship store, which was prioritized for resources, had consistently maintained a supply. Therefore, they had all gathered here to grab the blind boxes.
To their surprise, even the flagship store was running out of stock, so it was imperative to buy them!
Before long, the doors of the flagship store opened, and the first fifty people rushed into the store like the wind, heading straight for the Warcraft special zone, and directly bought ten boxes each.
Since some wealthy individuals had bought over ten thousand boxes at once, causing a stockout in the entire region, all the stores had implemented purchase limits. With people queuing, each person was only allowed to buy 10 blind boxes per entry.
If they wanted to continue purchasing, they would have to rejoin the queue. Thus, the first fifty people who rushed in could only each purchase ten boxes and then open them on the spot.
The person who had been queuing since midnight was the first to unbox. As a result, all ten boxes he opened contained only regular items. He casually handed these small figures over to the redemption counter and exchanged them for fifty Jiangnan Coins.
The redemption rules for Jiangnan Coins remained the same as before, calculated at half the marked price of the items obtained.
For example, these regular small figures were all marked at 10 yuan, so they would be exchanged for 5 Jiangnan Coins. Rare models were marked at 360 yuan, exchanged for 180 Jiangnan Coins. And the super deluxe gift boxes were marked at 2000 yuan, exchanged for 1000 Jiangnan Coins.
After exchanging for fifty Jiangnan Coins, this person directly went out and rejoined the queue at the very end. However, some people did not choose to redeem them at the counter.
After opening ten small figures, someone left the store immediately. As soon as he stepped out, two or three people swarmed around him, bargaining with him. In the end, he handed all ten small figures to one of them and received three ten-yuan bills in return.
"Are those scalpers?" Huang He, standing on the second floor, asked with a frown.
"They are scalpers!" Liu Xiangjiang nodded. "These scalpers buy these small figures from users for about three yuan each, then transport them to internet cafes and other places to sell them for around six yuan. By avoiding the possibility of getting duplicates from blind boxes, they can directly buy the desired figures and the redemption codes under them. Plus, they can verify them directly on the internet cafe computers, which is very convenient, a direct exchange of money for goods. So their business is doing quite well. They can basically sell all the collected small figures, making a profit of double the investment, making this business very popular."
"It's still early, and there aren't many scalpers. In about an hour, there will be at least a dozen scalpers at the exit, surrounding the customers and buying the small figures they have!"
"However, because their price is only three yuan, some users are unwilling to sell to them and choose to exchange them directly for Jiangnan Coins. After all, our Jiangnan Coins can also be exchanged for many good items. As long as a certain quantity is accumulated, exchanging for items will be much more cost-effective than selling them directly!" Liu Xiangjiang explained.
"Hmm!" Huang He nodded, his expression somewhat serious, which made Liu Xiangjiang a little scared. He then asked, "Chairman, do you think we haven't been diligent enough in driving away these scalpers?"
"You already guessed it, and you still have the nerve to ask me?" Huang He snorted.
"Chairman, you are mistaken. It's not that I haven't been diligent enough in driving away these scalpers, but they are simply impossible to get rid of. We tried at first, but as soon as our people withdrew, these scalpers would stick back like flies on a wall."
"Once, our people pushed them too hard and got into a conflict with them. Then, good heavens, they all went to the hospital, demanding that we either compensate them thousands of yuan in medical fees or stop bothering them. This has put us in a very passive position, and we don't know what to do!" Liu Xiangjiang said helplessly.
"I know your difficulties, but we still have to try to drive them away!" Huang He said.
"Yes!" Liu Xiangjiang nodded. Just then, a cheer suddenly erupted from inside the store. It turned out that someone had opened a box with a tank pattern on it, indicating they had found the rare human-type Tiger Tank.
By the way, this tank is different from the assembled one displayed on-site. This is an unassembled tank, containing over ten plates and more than two hundred different parts. It requires a player to cut out each part according to the instructions and then assemble a tank.
This is actually one of the reasons why the Warcraft 3 blind boxes have been selling so well. The rare items are incredibly fun to play with, not only do they come with redemption codes, but they also offer the joy of assembly, which is the greatest pleasure for many plastic model enthusiasts in later generations.
"Assembling models!" Seeing the human tank model, Huang He couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. As a planner for Bandai China and a veteran model enthusiast himself, he hadn't assembled a model in over a year.
"Old Liu, get me a set of rare blind boxes for each race later, I want to play with them when I get back!" Huang He said with a smile.
"Yes!" Liu Xiangjiang nodded. Before long, staff members rummaged through the warehouse, opening boxes one by one. Finally, they managed to put together a set of four different rare items for Boss Huang.
Of course, these opened blind boxes would have to be re-packaged and sold to users. Otherwise, would Boss Huang bear the loss himself?
To get back to the story, the player who got the Tiger Tank didn't seem too happy. He had actually already obtained a Tiger Tank, or rather, he was only missing an Undead Meat Grinder.
His gaze started to drift over other players, hoping to see someone who had opened the Grinder he needed, and then exchange it on the spot.
Unfortunately, although some rare items were gradually opened by others, the Meat Grinder that this player needed never appeared. And having finished opening his boxes, he was prompted by the store staff to leave the flagship store.
As soon as he stepped out, those scalpers swarmed around him. Seeing that he was holding a rare item, they became even more excited and started bidding their prices.
Finally, this human tank was bought by a scalper for 400 yuan.
"400 yuan! That's even higher than our marked price of 360!" Boss Huang exclaimed upon seeing the price.
"Yes, our rare items have been too successful this time. Every Warcraft player wants them. Some players don't want to endure the frustration of opening the same item repeatedly, so many are willing to spend money to find scalpers to buy them. As a result, the acquisition price has already soared to 400 yuan, and it's estimated that when sold to players, the price will reach around 500 yuan!" Liu Xiangjiang said.
"Have the prices always been this high?" Huang He asked.
"Not really. I remember at the beginning, the scalpers' offers were quite low, only willing to buy them for 100 yuan. But then they realized there was very little supply of these rare items and they could sell them at any price, so these scalpers started raising prices themselves, and now they've reached 400 yuan."
"When we suspend sales for the next month, I estimate that the prices of these items will increase by several hundred yuan more!" Liu Xiangjiang said.
"Brilliant!" A smile appeared on Huang He's lips. "Old Liu, tell your subordinates who are supposed to drive away these scalpers to argue with the scalpers every day. They just need to know our attitude. Absolutely no physical contact, and definitely don't actually drive them away."
"Ah!" Liu Xiangjiang was stunned for a moment. Just now, Huang He had told him to drive away the scalpers, but now he was telling him to put on a show. What was this all about? How could the attitude change so drastically?
"Don't you understand?" Huang He said with a smile. "Our blind boxes are sold for 10 yuan per box. The volume has increased, but it's difficult to elevate the brand. If your blind boxes are sold for 10 yuan per box forever, then your brand will forever be a 10-yuan brand. In fact, if it weren't for the current market environment that requires large-scale market occupation, I wouldn't want to set this price."
"But we can't be a low-end brand forever. We still need to occupy the high-end market and sell more expensive blind boxes. To do this, we need users to recognize that our products are worth that much money. But the problem is, if we raise prices ourselves, users will find it hard to accept and will call us profiteers. So, we can still raise prices ourselves."
"Therefore, we need someone to help us raise prices. Do you understand?" Huang He said with a smile, and Liu Xiangjiang nodded thoughtfully.
"Furthermore, scalpers are essentially an intermediate product of the market. When supply and demand are unbalanced, especially when supply is less than demand, scalpers become the intermediate carriers of price increases. Therefore, the price of scalpers is actually the real market price."
"This means that the price recognized by the market for rare items is at least 400 yuan per box, which is higher than our marked price of 360 yuan per box. This way, even if someone simply buys a rare blind box, they can immediately sell it for a higher price, which will attract many people who are not interested in blind boxes at all to buy our blind boxes. Their goal is not to use them, but to speculate and make money."
"And for a brand whose actual price is far higher than its product pricing, won't its brand value in the minds of users greatly increase?"
"I understand!" Liu Xiangjiang finally showed an expression of sudden enlightenment and was even more impressed with Huang He. With Huang He explaining it to this extent, if Liu Xiangjiang still couldn't understand, then Liu Xiangjiang would be finished in this lifetime.
"The chairman is indeed like Mount Everest. I thought I was quite a profiteer, but compared to Huang He, the gap is still too vast! Boss Huang is truly magnificent!" Liu Xiangjiang exclaimed in his heart.