Finally some good news.
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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What will GameStop be filled with now?
Definitely not customers, that's for sure.
It will be the death of Eb games in Australia
Labubus
~~Gambling~~ Gacha machines containing smaller, off-brand versions of Funko pops.
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Regarding collectibles, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
But get your eyes checked from time to time.
Purpose-made collectibles sit just above gambling on the hierarchy of scummy (but legal) business models, IMO. Just as gambling preys on certain kinds of vulnerable personality traits, so too does collecting.
The trick is to collect something that retains its value or even appreciates in value over time. Which is not the case with any artificially made-to-collect items in the first place. Those only rely on your gambling trait to be tickled. All those people standing in queues for pokemon cards? Very few of them give a single shit about pokémon or the card game. They're just gambling that they'll get high value cards they can resell. It's just not the same thing.
pokemon launch yesterday at my FLGS was incredible, they unilaterally declared kids get to cut to the front of the line and imposed sales caps. TPC guy there delivering additional boxes thought it was absolutely hilarious. So many butthurt adults there just to get the ebay cards being asked to leave, absolutely beautiful to see.
the point of collecting things is to collect stuff you actually want to collect, if your collecting thing because they might be valuable later on you should cut all the middleman out and just gamble on the stock market like everyone does (thats atleast reliable $ once you learn the rules)
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Why not just buy index ETFs?
If I’m going to collect something, it’s because I want those things to be able to use them, like video games or seeds. Collecting ugly plastic dolls is just a waste of money. The stock market will beat that every time over the long run.
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Like seriously, who buys this stuff? Just such a cheap and cliche way of displaying your interests or values. Funkos are just the nerd shut in version of a middle-age white woman's "live laugh love" wooden sign.
I absolutely get why they became popular, you know your Nephews favorite video game character is Claptrap... its a $15 stocking stuffer that shows you pay attention to their interests and care. Then when I saw people displaying their "Collection" and it was literally just people trying to buy them all and taking up whole rooms in their house I knew that they would monetise it to death licencing every property they could worming into every niche in existence to the point where there was absolutely no scarcity and no collector could keep up and eventually go bust.
They're not that bad. They're nerd Hummels. When their mom dies and they move out of the basement there will be a display cabinet waiting for them.
You nailed my husband.
You can't just accuse someone like that in public without proof.
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Those collections are about to get more valuable, like beenie babies.
Aaaany day now.
Funko just needs to make statuettes. Stop with the weird looking stylized heads and make the actual characters.
People would collect the hell outta them.
There's already 8 bajillion companies doing that. Been to a mall lately?
A mall?... Is that some kind of boomer thing?
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Good riddance. I hope the leftovers flood the markets and ruin the "collectors value" of that junk.
Wtf, they had collector value? How? They flooded the market with to much product.... or did they have a Supreme business model?
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Finally some good news
I wonder how much total plastic waste was generated on this stupid fucking gimmick?
That's ok, I'm sure Labubus and other consumerism bullshit will fill the void just fine for these gambling addicts who think they'll strike gold with some shitty plastic one day.
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Sales of Funko Pops are down.
Sales of generic plastic crap remains sky high.
Good thing they bought Mondo and ruined something I liked.
How the fuck do you go out of business selling overpriced plastic tat? They must have a cost price of pennies.
They're $240m in debt, and I bet the people running it are not short of money.
Advertising and licensing costs
Good fucking riddance, just about every nerd junk shop had a whole wall of these ugly things.
The day they make it official and go out of business is the day we find out the only thing keeping the blockchain and AI bubbles from popping was the Funko Pops bubble.
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The most damning recession indicator yet
Almost like there's a direct correlation between tech layoffs and the collectibles market... Who the fuck do you think was buying Funkos? It's the dev at the cubicle / working from home.
did they try to add ai and/or NFTs? Or to blockchain something? Maybe some gambling mechanic where the box is closed and you need to buy 20 to get the one you want?
I have 1 funko of mr rogers that was a gift. I never understood the appeal of these things.
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no more chunkopops
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