Loot Crate is bankrupt

[Flojomojo]

Posted in Classic Gaming because they did a bunch of classic themed boxes. 

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-12/cash-squeeze-forces-subscription-box-startup-into-bankruptcy

 

WHO KNEW the market would tire of subscriptions to licensed swag? 😆

 

They had had a good run and lasted longer than I ever thought they would. It's unclear to me whether they spawned a bunch of competitors or if it was just them doing different themes. 

[HoshiChiri]

I'm not the least bit surprised- I gave up on adding more random guff to my collection years ago. One only has so much room for these kinds of things, I'm surprised they could even make a business out of what was essentially subscription grab bags.

 

Shame they didn't branch off into food or something- the only sustainable version of this I can imagine involves consumable goods.

[Tempest]

That's the thing.  I can see someone doing this for a few months, but really how much random collectible junk do you need?  Eventually you just run out of room and of course tastes and interests change.  I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did.

[dj_convoy]

In some ways, I'm surprised they lasted this long. That sure was a big fad there, for a minute or two; I could sort of see the appeal, but the endless pop culturification of everything ever and the transformation of anything you have the slightest bit of nostalgia for into a never ending collectathon has long since become a bit of a drag. One of the folks I watch on YouTube kind of ironically gets various brands of Loot Crates here and there, and they had been getting progressively thinner and thinner, swag-wise, so I guess we know why. 

 

To Hoshi's point, they do make food type crates (don't know if Loot Crate did). I know there's some kind of Japanese food stuffs themed company that sends you Japanese treats (a "Bento Box," yuk yuk), and a more general one that sends you international treats. 

[jaybird3rd]

I guess this is the end of all those unboxing videos—which, by the way, were spoofed perfectly by RLM:

 

 

 

[PikoInteractive]

VC Investors always kill startups.

 

Damn, all major toy/game/nerd crates are done now then.

[+TrekMD]

Yup, I got their email talking about it.  I got their Star Trek stuff but they still have things to ship out.  Maybe I'll get them now that they've been acquired.  Or maybe not.  We'll see!

[Newsdee]

I never understood the appeal of this. It pretends to have amazing stuff every time but we all know its impossible to please everybody. Now hopefully this fad will die out.

[The Mr. Video]

I forgot about Loot Crate until now, they and their copy cats were a huge fad up until around 2017. It seemed like everyone and their moms were doing Loot Crate unboxing videos and sponsored ads back then. I personally never cared, I guess getting cheap, random junk in the mail every month didn't appeal to me.

[derFunkenstein]

 

[Eltigro]

Actually, those unboxing videos are kind of what convinced me I didn't want it.  I'd look at what they got and it never seemed worth it to me.  Out of five or six things in the box, there'd be maybe 1 thing I was interested in.  No thanks.  Not that much of a gambler.

[Metal Jesus]

I was offered many times to promote these on my YouTube channel.... and for a time lots of YouTube channels were doing it... But to me it just often seemed like a box of random crap that nobody wanted and I passed on it. I think the idea is neat, but it would really need to be good stuff you want every single month and that would be very tough and probably expensive to pull off.

[Flojomojo]

Grab bags can be fun -- if they're cheap and you have some chance of getting something at above your purchase price.

 

The subscription aspect of Loot Crate is what I didn't like -- it was hard to cancel, and they didn't seem to want you to just get the thing that interested you, as their revenue depended on repeat business. 

 

Its easy to hit "peak swag" and get saturated with useless stuff, even if it's of high quality. 

 

Who the F is buying these random retro game "crates?" https://www.cratejoy.com/subscription-box/retro-game-treasure/

[PikoInteractive]

The business model is actually pretty cool if applied correctly.

 

At some point I considered doing something similar. Basically a yearly membership that will give you credit to buy at our store and wholesale discount sin all our store fronts.

 

Piko Releases at wholesale prices, Free magazine, free steam keys, and then access to wholesale prices to other retro products (like consoles, hardware, and accessories and games from other companies) but without the minimum quantity.

 

The problem is that you need the initial influx of members to start the business (minimum of 500 or so) and that is the expensive/hard thing to do. The rest is easy peasy.

[HoshiChiri]

14 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

 

Who the F is buying these random retro game "crates?" https://www.cratejoy.com/subscription-box/retro-game-treasure/

Those are well suited towards new collectors, who haven't loaded up on all the common stuff yet & could enjoy the surprise of new games every month.

 

I've got a few friends who are 'earlier' in their 'collector-cycle' than me. I remember them being all hyped up to go to game stores a few years ago & wondering why I never seemed to buy much- now they've caught up and mention from time to time that they don't seem to find games anymore. The finally understood what I meant back then when I told them 'someday you'll buy all the easy stuff & this won't be nearly as exciting'.

 

And that's the trick with these kinds of things- eventually, you'll have all the stuff you could want from these sources. Piko's got the right idea up there- give the buyer the chance to choose their crap- but that's not a loot box, really. More like a good version of Gamestop's Pro membership (with the free magazine & discounts and such.)

 

I definitely think a Gamer's Wholesale Club could work if implemented right. Maybe someone float that by LootCrate while they still have some capital left?

[+Atari_Warlord]

I have nothing against this business model, I just have too much junk already.  The couple times I saw a loot box that had something I wanted, I was able to get the items on Ebay for less than buying a full box.

[derFunkenstein]

15 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Grab bags can be fun -- if they're cheap and you have some chance of getting something at above your purchase price.

 

The subscription aspect of Loot Crate is what I didn't like -- it was hard to cancel, and they didn't seem to want you to just get the thing that interested you, as their revenue depended on repeat business. 

 

Its easy to hit "peak swag" and get saturated with useless stuff, even if it's of high quality. 

 

Who the F is buying these random retro game "crates?" https://www.cratejoy.com/subscription-box/retro-game-treasure/

Along this line, my local Mega Replay bundles up all the Funko Pops that nobody wants to buy and puts them in blind bags, and then puts out *maybe* 2-3 desirable ones along with them, and then posts pictures on Instagram and Facebook about how "you might get this ultra-limited figurine" if you buy a blind box that most likely has common junk nobody wants for $8. 

[Keatah]

I basically don't need anything more than my Doom swag and Asteroids trophy. I have a little bit of intel merch in the form of keychains and cpu die.

 

But I can see beauty boxes working well, cosmetics are consumables with little chance to accumulate into useless junk. Kids stuff, too, should work because kids don't have discerning enough tastes to say no to free stuff. And just opening the box is fun, even if it's $29.95/mo fun, parents will do it.

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Keatah

[+frankodragon]

The YouTuber Ashens usually did unboxings of these and he often complained about the cheap pins but one of the things that set him off was an inflatable crown.  

 

[+GoldenWheels]

Shoot me some PMs guys. Grab bags of shit from my basement. 25$ plus shipping. You might get a VCR remote, you might get Double Dragon 2 for the NES! WOW!

[Video]

What drives me more nuts than the loot crate thing (surprised it lasted as long as it did) is those stupid pop vinyl figures. They take up about half the shelf space at game stores, are over priced, and have like an inch of dust on them due to sitting, sometimes literally, for years. I've never seen one in private collections, or in the wild. Who the hell is buying that shit?

 

Now they even got dedicated shelf space in big box stores. Comeon, Wal-Mart, what are you thinking?

 

only thing I can think is, they likely only cost a quarter to make(if that much), well them to stores for 50 cents, and stores out outrageous prices from $20-$100 on them (yeah, I've seen the delusionaly priced ones) and laugh all the way to the bank as stores get this shit that's not going to sell.

 

Sure, "fool me once" and all that, but why do stores keep buying them? That's the part that really blows my mind.

[HoshiChiri]

8 hours ago, Video said:

What drives me more nuts than the loot crate thing (surprised it lasted as long as it did) is those stupid pop vinyl figures. They take up about half the shelf space at game stores, are over priced, and have like an inch of dust on them due to sitting, sometimes literally, for years. I've never seen one in private collections, or in the wild. Who the hell is buying that shit?

 

Two kinds of people: actual collectors who buy all of them (they do exist!), and well-meaning relatives who need a gift but don't know what to actually get. 

 

But yeah, I'm just waiting for that pop vinyl bubble to burst.

[Flojomojo]

Re: the big-head funko dolls, I think they're silly too, but they have a super wide range of available characters, so I imagine there's something there for almost anyone. Plus I would think there's some production scarcity for some of them, just like with baseball cards, Amiibo toys, or other "collectible" stuff. 

 

So very much not my bag, but obviously someone's buying them. 

[digdugnate]

30 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

Re: the big-head funko dolls, I think they're silly too, but they have a super wide range of available characters, so I imagine there's something there for almost anyone. Plus I would think there's some production scarcity for some of them, just like with baseball cards, Amiibo toys, or other "collectible" stuff. 

 

So very much not my bag, but obviously someone's buying them. 

presented without comment

[PlaysWithWolves]

 @Flojomojo, perhaps these would interest you?

 

For example: