Opinion - Online pre-orders that sold out in minutes

Hey everyone,

Today underd0g watches did it again. They opened an online pre-order of a limited number of watches but they were all sold out in 5 min.

It is not something new. I still have a bad taste in my mouth because of a few watches that I missed for minutes. Kurono Tokyo and Worn and Wound, if you are reading this, please know that you 2 made a grown man cry 😭.

That is a phenomenon that has been happening for a while. I can imagine that the strateggy is maximizing the hype over a limited production capacity but, that could be done in a more civilized way. For example, creating a virtual pool where a number of requests have been random selected instead of make us rush to the purchase forms, basically, the fastest typer wins.

What is your opinion about it?

Reply
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no matter what the companies do, there will always be those that are unhappy.  to me it's fair to say, orders open at 10AM, first come first serve.  what is so unfair about that?  if some prepared better than others by having their cc ready, or pre-filling forms or having a better internet connection, why should they be punished?

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Just avoid the hype watches and there is no problem. The more hype I see about a brand/model, the less likely I am to want to buy it. 

As mentioned above, there is no solution that will make everyone happy. 

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Er… watches that are well made and do well by one-man-bands or small teams is a bad thing now? Limited runs are probably all they can handle to keep cost and QC reasonable. They might not have warehousing to store 2000 watches. I mean, heaven forbid a microbrand makes a good watch and tries to make a little profit, how dare they right?

Good for Studio Underd0g. Bravo.

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Watches that I can’t have are bad. Watches that I have are just “ok”. I need to replace them with watches I can’t have.

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I like the Studio Underd0g watermelon enough to have paid the rather high £500 asking price for an ST19 based watch, but missed out. My disappointed lasted about 2 seconds, much the same as my disappointment with not being able to get a MoonSwatch. 

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It's no different to ticket scalping. And I view the people buying to sell at a profit with the same level of regard.

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jason_recliner

It's no different to ticket scalping. And I view the people buying to sell at a profit with the same level of regard.

Not really.

The limit is one per customer. The watch is £500 so they make a set amount of profit. Ticketed events don’t often set limits to numbers of tickets - family of 6? No sorry, lose granny and then you can come.

If customer wishes to sell for more secondhand then SU get nothing from that. It’s not their fault. Scalpers exist, but thats life. Don’t buy from them then they stop - no demand, no need to supply (in an ideal world). Also, quick trawl, no SU watches for sale on eBay, so no scalpers yet. Perhaps (shock horror) they were bought by people who want them as watches? What a weird concept.

Why is it so bad that a small one-man-band can get 100 or so watches made, and then sell those in one go? If they sell out in 5 mins that’s just luck of the draw. They are not a volume producer, and cannot control what happens to the product once shipped, but it seems like some of you don’t appreciate that someone like SU is not Seiko, and also don‘t deserve success? 

Waitlists are also unreliable as you can have 100 people interested but only 25 actually able to purchase when ready - open store is first come first served and is generally quite fair. If you have capital and they have stock a transaction can be made.

Genuinely concerned and disappointed here.

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Porthole

Not really.

The limit is one per customer. The watch is £500 so they make a set amount of profit. Ticketed events don’t often set limits to numbers of tickets - family of 6? No sorry, lose granny and then you can come.

If customer wishes to sell for more secondhand then SU get nothing from that. It’s not their fault. Scalpers exist, but thats life. Don’t buy from them then they stop - no demand, no need to supply (in an ideal world). Also, quick trawl, no SU watches for sale on eBay, so no scalpers yet. Perhaps (shock horror) they were bought by people who want them as watches? What a weird concept.

Why is it so bad that a small one-man-band can get 100 or so watches made, and then sell those in one go? If they sell out in 5 mins that’s just luck of the draw. They are not a volume producer, and cannot control what happens to the product once shipped, but it seems like some of you don’t appreciate that someone like SU is not Seiko, and also don‘t deserve success? 

Waitlists are also unreliable as you can have 100 people interested but only 25 actually able to purchase when ready - open store is first come first served and is generally quite fair. If you have capital and they have stock a transaction can be made.

Genuinely concerned and disappointed here.

No, I've got no issue with a provider selling a limited number of products based on what is viable for them. I have a problem with people buying those products with no intent of using them, but with no other motivation than to sell them for more than they paid for them. They're not adding value. They're parasites.

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jason_recliner

No, I've got no issue with a provider selling a limited number of products based on what is viable for them. I have a problem with people buying those products with no intent of using them, but with no other motivation than to sell them for more than they paid for them. They're not adding value. They're parasites.

But not the case here - I looked online this morning after reading your post, there are none.

Scalping is another problem for another thread. This thread is moaning that microbrands brands sell out limited runs because they cannot do volume and hurts my head. 

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Porthole

But not the case here - I looked online this morning after reading your post, there are none.

Scalping is another problem for another thread. This thread is moaning that microbrands brands sell out limited runs because they cannot do volume and hurts my head. 

Fair enough.

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FOMO is a GREAT marketing tool

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aztecknight

no matter what the companies do, there will always be those that are unhappy.  to me it's fair to say, orders open at 10AM, first come first serve.  what is so unfair about that?  if some prepared better than others by having their cc ready, or pre-filling forms or having a better internet connection, why should they be punished?

Because that's not usually how it works. Scalpers set up their bots and often times they snatch the watches before a person can. What if a customer waits 4 days before the release on the website and then when he presses buy the website is down due to traffic, does he not deserve it? It wasn't his fault the website went down. These type of sales online are unfair to an average person and there's a lot of factors that play into it that are entirely out of the customers control.

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w1nter

Because that's not usually how it works. Scalpers set up their bots and often times they snatch the watches before a person can. What if a customer waits 4 days before the release on the website and then when he presses buy the website is down due to traffic, does he not deserve it? It wasn't his fault the website went down. These type of sales online are unfair to an average person and there's a lot of factors that play into it that are entirely out of the customers control.

It doesn't change anything.  Go out and get a bot no one stops you from doing it.  If website goes down, it doesn't just go down for you it goes down for everyone. 

Everyone has the same opportunity, some are just better than others at preparing. 

No matter what the seller does, on a hot watch, there will be many who are unhappy cause they didn't get one for one reason or another.  I'll take my chances withr first come first serve.

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aztecknight

It doesn't change anything.  Go out and get a bot no one stops you from doing it.  If website goes down, it doesn't just go down for you it goes down for everyone. 

Everyone has the same opportunity, some are just better than others at preparing. 

No matter what the seller does, on a hot watch, there will be many who are unhappy cause they didn't get one for one reason or another.  I'll take my chances withr first come first serve.

These bots do not go for free, but rather cost a lot of money. Nobody is better than anyone at "preparing" you cannot "prepare" when it comes to buying online. You can cheat, but you cannot prepare. More often than not it's luck based. Lets not pretend that it's fair, because it's not.

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Would you prefer if they raised prices to limit availability to those that were most willing to pay for it?  Of course the professional reseller is the one that fixes supply and demand disparities via arbitrage in this way.