Just wondering if anyone knows how the split works in regards to the show?
Is it 50/50 between Shout and Joel now?
Just wondering cause I’ve noticed them blowing out some MST items on the site and we really have never heard from them in regards to the future of the show.
I wonder if they’re more “silent partners” then hands on.
I was just looking through there and was amazed to see the snow globe on there for $75. Man if I had known it was gonna end up on Shout at that price I’d have waited it out to buy one. Oh well no way to have known.
It is fair to wonder what Shout’s current role is within the MST3K realm.
Yeah, that caught my eye. Feels like it’s a fire sale on those items.
I mean… if they have extras, what are they supposed to do with them?
They had to order a certain bulk amount. It was bound to be either way too much or not near enough and they erred on the side of the former.
I continue to be shocked that those overstock items weren’t offered as pledge levels or add-ons in the last failed crowdfunding campaign. I KNEW they had to have them laying around. Maybe the numbers weren’t adding up for them to reach the goal even with those sales, but it seems like they were leaving money on the table.
I mean in a perfect world try to unload them at the same price that Kickstarter backers paid for them. I don’t regret buying them, but it sure does sting knowing that if I held out I could have had one for $75. I don’t begrudge them getting some value for them but at LEAST try to offer them at the original price before slashing the cost. If they had offered them at the original price and they weren’t moving them sure, by all means, discount them.
The value doesn’t matter to me THAT much because I bought mine as keepsakes for my children, but it would have been really great to grab them for $75. Also I’m pretty sure they were limited to 4500. What’s the point of limiting production on an item if you’re just going to slash the cost of it to rid yourself of extras? Kinda feels like self imposed value destruction….Eh oh well. I’ll get over my sour grapes about in time and congratulations to anybody who waited it out and snagged one at this reduced price.
I guess I think of it more like a PBS fund drive. Of course the tote bag is worth next to nothing and you’ll probably be able to find one at Goodwill in six months, but that’s not really what you’re giving for.
I very much agree with these sentiments as well. We could probably just completely categorize the last funding drive as a through and through missed opportunity and not offering these items as add ons absolutely left money out there. Probably not enough to get over the hump but still. I’d also like to add I’m shocked as well that they just didn’t save these items for a future pledge drive. Reading the tea leaves of these actions has me concerned that there will even be a future pledge drive or effort to make more MST3K. I absolutely want to be wrong about that, but the silence as well as moves like this are concerning.
Physical item fulfillment was probably the biggest pain point of S13. If you believe some people, it’s the sole reason they would never support MST3K again. That’s why there was such a massive scale back on physical items for the s14 campaign. Had they offered leftover physical items as addons, it would have complicated the fulfillment process again. I’m sure they wanted to avoid that like the plague.
And as FlyingSquid alluded to, physical items in a funding drive are not offered at retail price. It provides little benefit to the campaign to just sell physical items at a normal profit. The objective is to funnel funds into the overall goal, not set up a temporary shop. Why add all that logistics and cost for little to no benefit?
I am NOT going to take a snowglobe even for free just so it can look beautiful for a week and then be shoved over by the cat.
Nice try, Shout Factory. 
Given the timing of order fulfillment from s13 compared to when the fund raiser happened, they may have been holding onto those overstocks in case of issues with people’s perks. Imagine the outcry if people had been told “sorry there was an issue with your item, but we just sold all the extras right away”
We are now 4 months past the end of the s14 fundraiser so they may decided enough time has passed.
Same thing happens with any sort of limited item amywhere. It sells out, but then suddenly months (or even years) later, the original seller suddenly puts some on sale at a discounted price.
I honestly believe that was a huge mistake. I may be among the minority here but the shipping delays didn’t bother me and all items were as expected or better. I expected the pandemic to exert pressure on item fulfillment, and I also knew to trust Ivan and the gang that should anything go wrong it would be fixed. I think the people you’re talking about had unreasonable expectations and became a loud minority in the aftermath of the s13 campaign.
Not saying I don’t believe there weren’t logistical issues with shipping to Canada that rightfully upset people or that the people who didn’t enjoy the shipping delays didn’t have a right to complain about it, but I think the expectations were unreasonably high considering the situation. For every person that complained there were probably ten more like me who waited a while, but got all their stuff as expected.
I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re saying as far as the cost of items go. Nobody wants them to set up a temporary shop or sell items at retail during a campaign. There should be consideration paid to those who paid the campaign price for items after the campaign. What I’m saying is that offering them up at a steeply discounted price is inherently disingenuous to those who paid the premium during the campaign. I would rather see them retain their value at least for a bit when offering them up after the fact. I am fully aware that what I paid for the snow globe wasn’t its worth, and that I was paying for it as well as money to fund MST3K. That is absolutely 100% understandable. What I don’t get, is offering the extras at what probably amounts to a break even cost after everybody else paid the premium. At least offer them at the campaign price to pay respect to those who also paid it, if after a while they don’t sell. Then reduce them to break even.
I guess I don’t really see the problem? Maybe there are people who really wanted that snowglobe two years ago, but couldn’t see their way clear (!!!) until now? I mean, I hope they’re not buying a whole raft of 'em just to hoard, but who knows?
I’ve paid $3 at someone’s yard sale for an LP that looked pretty good. Gone home and looked it up online to find that someone on Amazon wants $153 (plus shipping) for the same disc in the same condition. Not sure there’s anything to be done about this. 
The problem is offering them at a lower price when reams of people paid a premium for them. It’s not rocket science to say hey, let the item maintain its value rather than destroy it to make a profit on Shout! And while I see your yard sale point I would counter that by saying your point is comparing apples and oranges. How it would really be is that you went to this yard sale and bought that lp for $153 and went back to the same yard sale later in the day and found the same lp same condition same everything now being sold for $3. That would be more comparable.
I don’t think that’s ever happened at a yard sale, though. I say this as seasoned veteran.
My point is: I don’t think S.F. really has total control on what value collectables do or don’t have in the near or far future. But I could be wrong. It’s not my field.
If they’re deleting actual episodes from the catalog, that would be far more concerning to me, even though I’m not a completist. That would make me really sad.
Very true just using it as a hypothetical. 
You may be right about SF not having control but I have to think that somebody close to the campaign did and made this decision and I’m not a fan…but I digress.
I still want to talk a little bit more about why I think cutting down on the items for S14 was a huge mistake and an overreaction to the S13 Kickstarter. There was a global pandemic still chewing through the supply chain when the S13 items were sent. The resulting chaos should have been better prepared for no doubt, BUT the supply chain has mostly settled down now. And people love unique items, and I honestly think Joel and the gang have a real knack for designing nice merchandise for MST3K. I would say don’t give in on that and maybe go back to the S13 model for a future crowdfunder. Because the first Kickstarter they did that and were VERY successful. Don’t let a once in a generation pandemic ruin what worked before.
Possibly.
As ever, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes which we don’t see. Perhaps by cutting prices they are trying to gauge what might sell later on…? 
That’s a very good point. I still would think it were a bitter pill to swallow, but if it were going to the greater good of designing a future for MST3K I would renounce my complaint about it in a second.
EDIT: And I ended up steering this thread off topic with campaign talk when the thread was meant to discuss the current relationship between Shout! and MST3K. Just to circle back to the topic at hand. I am still puzzled as to what Shout’s current role is. I wonder if they are included amongst the groups that were talking about potentially helping fund MST3K from Joel’s last email?
I’m sure Shout would have a role to play, but I can’t help wondering if it was among the other entities discussed in regards to funding future MST3K
Thank you so much! I really appreciate this comment because I was feeling this thread had gotten off topic from what I started, so thank you for steering it back.
Yeah, my guess is we probably won’t learn the “split” or equity each person has.
It kind of feels like Shout is most interested in the back end stuff - of more seasons come out, they get to produce and sell more DVDs and also create interest in the past releases.
Feels a little less like they’re vested in producing new seasons.
Just my feeling.
That was the price four years ago and that cost included funding for season 13. The product is on sale now because it’s four-year-old merch. The same as last year’s phone being deeply discounted after the next model goes on sale.
I agree that there should have been more physical rewards with the season 14 fundraiser. They were burnt out from dealing with season 13, and over compensated.