Pricing Policy

[gazznewbie]

Would it not make sense to drop the prices of some of the minor guests

 

surely if the stormtroopers / minor star wars guests autographs were £5 each for example

 

they would have taken more money overall , 10 x £10 = £100, 100 x £5 = £500

 

I only got 1 myself but at a cheaper price I would pretty likely have spent more on minor guests

 

would anyone else have done the same

 

also the dearer prices i think a dedicated photo at least should be part of the deal it does not take long

 

even the big guests had open queues later on so could have done this easily

 

if guests wrote something or did dedications its likely

 

I would see them again for something different written next time at a future event

or buy 2 autographs instead of 1, 1 dedicated , 1 not

 

I would think this policy reduces future sales where even big star guests doing future events have open queues most of the day

 

come on Showmasters think ahead, give the customers what they want and they'll spend more !

[dufresne]

That argument has been doing the rounds since before they finished filming ANH. I agree with every word of it, but SMs don't seem to subscribe.

[spocks-brain]

I know exactly what you mean and I'm sure a lot of us on here have thought the same.

After getting the main guests that we go for lots of us tend to be walking round later in the afternoon, with maybe a bit of money left, but just taking a look at the guests rather than buying anything else.

A few of the SW minor part guests at £5 would probably do very well during those times, tempting price for us to get 2 or 3 just before leaving and rounding off the day. I know I'd do that.

[MikeDonovan]

I have to admit I'm 'not in the stormtrooper business', as it were, so in all honesty £5 wouldn't change things for me. But I do understand where you're coming from.

 

However, when you're talking about dropping from £10 to £5, the big question is whether halving the price would more than double the sales. It's as simple as that.

 

If yes, then it's worth doing. But I honestly don't think it would - in fact I'd bet a fair amount of money on it. It almost certainly would have a positive effect on sales, but more than doubling them? No chance - and as such, it's just not worth SM doing it.

Edited May 31, 2010 by MikeDonovan

[Dan2593]

As lovely as he was I thin Colin should have been the same price as Georgia.

£10.

 

The Stormtroopers etc should have been 5.

[gobo1979uk]

Im happy to pay £10 for bitparters. Remember the 8x10 comes free and most cost about £3.00 to buy (I know cost price would be cheaper). Some of the guys over the weekend were in 70s-80s and had to sit round in the cold all day so i definately think they deserve it.

[Vitani]

While I probably would get more autographs if they were cheaper, that would also mean that the guests have to do more signings (must get pretty tiring for them), and it means longer waiting in queues while we wait for the extra autos to be done.

[MikeDonovan]

As lovely as he was I thin Colin should have been the same price as Georgia.

£10.

 

The Stormtroopers etc should have been 5.

 

Not going to happen for exactly the reason I set out above.

 

As for specific pricings, well, as I've said before I do think certain guests take the ****, in my personal view. I'm not talking about Colin Baker, I don't really have a view on him. But there are one or two guests who probably carry a portable signing booth with them at all times to inflate at anything from a SM event to a queue at a coffee shop. And those guests have suddenly started charging £20.

 

Now these guys (naming no names) are not big stars, even in the context of what they are known for; they also have got signatures that are not, by any yardstick, rare. In fact it's quite difficult to get any items without their signature on. However, they seem to think it's OK to charge £20....

Edited May 31, 2010 by MikeDonovan

[Scifi]

I know what you mean. Certainly I would have been tempted to get stormtrooper autos for friends who like Star wars just as gifts, if they had been only £5

 

But I think there has to be a minimum price tag on getting anyones autograph in person.

In other words in its worth getting their autograph then its worth £10 at least

 

Actually I tried to give the crew member £15 for joseph Long only to be handed back a fiver. So I told him he was a bargain, which he seemed to like.

[spocks-brain]

Remember the 8x10 comes free and most cost about £3.00 to buy (I know cost price would be cheaper).

 

But I think there has to be a minimum price tag on getting anyones autograph in person.

In other words in its worth getting their autograph then its worth £10 at least

 

12 of the sports stars were charging £5 for a signed photo.

 

I thought the pricing on all the sports stars was very good at this event compared to those by another organiser.

[Charisma]

I agree with some of that, sometimes things are pricey, the guests get a "set" fee anyways so surely some may WAY over what they get paid.. they could set some people cheaper.

[DavidB]

I don't think anyone needs to be discussing what the guests get or don't get. That's something between them and Showmasters.

 

I'd rather people didn't discuss that when they simply don't know all the facts. I've already seen some inaccuracies stated.

[Banished_From_Rohan]

 

12 of the sports stars were charging £5 for a signed photo.

 

I thought the pricing on all the sports stars was very good at this event compared to those by another organiser.

 

Actually I have to agree with this bit - I got the 4 darts players because they were a fiver, if they'd been a tenner I wouldn't have. But the big question is how many more like me were there? And that will be the big unanswered question.

[TerraHawk]

I have to admit I'm 'not in the stormtrooper business', as it were, so in all honesty £5 wouldn't change things for me. But I do understand where you're coming from.

 

However, when you're talking about dropping from £10 to £5, the big question is whether halving the price would more than double the sales. It's as simple as that.

 

If yes, then it's worth doing. But I honestly don't think it would - in fact I'd bet a fair amount of money on it.

 

It depends what else they've been in. Many of the Troopers had been in Dr Who too, and at £5 events, some of us routinely spend £50 on one guest without thinking about it.

 

£10 a time (with 20 odd other people to get too) is enough to kick some sense into us.

[Rockstar6662]

Just because the price is lower doesn't mean you'll get correspondingly more people willing to pay. It's a nice idea but while you may get a few more, the pricing is set and published well in advance giving you chance to save if you really need to and no-one is forcing you to pay the prices given.

 

The MK event is sometimes a little higher than some others but then it's free entry. Personally the chance to meet and, in most cases, have a brief chat with someone who's given me a lot of pleasure over many years is worth the expense. Most of my friends would think otherwise however!!

[MikeDonovan]

I have to admit I'm 'not in the stormtrooper business', as it were, so in all honesty £5 wouldn't change things for me. But I do understand where you're coming from.

 

However, when you're talking about dropping from £10 to £5, the big question is whether halving the price would more than double the sales. It's as simple as that.

 

If yes, then it's worth doing. But I honestly don't think it would - in fact I'd bet a fair amount of money on it.

 

It depends what else they've been in. Many of the Troopers had been in Dr Who too, and at £5 events, some of us routinely spend £50 on one guest without thinking about it.

 

£10 a time (with 20 odd other people to get too) is enough to kick some sense into us.

 

Again, I agree that dropping the price probably would increase the sales. I don't think anyone is disputing that. But you need to think holistically, and if you are the sort of person would would conceivably spend £50 on a minor character actor, or even one without lines, you are very much in the minority. I'm not saying you're wierd, or that no-one would ever do that. Just that you're in the minority.

 

This is my posit : -

 

If they halved the price for Stormtrooper X, SM would not sell more than double the autographs

 

And if you believe that statement to be true, as I do, it does not make business sense for SM to halve the price. Now as for the £5 sports guests, opting not to double the price for sports guests is a decision that comes from the other way, in that SM almost certainly would believe that if they doubled the sports guest price, it would more than halve the amount of autographs sold.

 

The central issue is that the price is what it is, and given that how can you alter it in such a way that your revenue would be increased. For instance, a bulk discount of 5 stormtroopers for £45 almost certainly would cause more autographs to be sold than the notional drop in revenue. Now that sort of price cut is defensible.

Edited May 31, 2010 by MikeDonovan

[TerraHawk]

you're in the minority.

 

Sure its a minority thing, but how big is the majority that are otherwise interested in the same guests for just Star Wars? None of those guests ever had queues for more than a few minutes. Surely half the reason they are there is all the leftover photos in quiet patches which pays for their attendance. Otherwise they'd all be there on the busiest day when the most people attend.

 

Fortunately I met Peter Roy and Derek Chafe when co-organiser Tenth Planet had them for £5 a time a few years back, so got most of what I wanted then. I never knew they were in Star Wars too!

 

You'd be surprised how many Who fans would like to get a dozen signatures if the person is in a dozen DVDs. I have other collections to maintain too!

[MikeDonovan]

You'd be surprised

 

I'm sure I would be - but again would it be more than double over the entire weekend?

 

 

What does a stormtrooper do in terms of business? I'm not sure - but 100 sounds reasonable to me, if anything a bit high. My point is that if the guest took, lets say, 100 autos in a weekend, that guest would do 100 * £10 == £1000. If you drop it to £5, you would need 200 autos just to break even. I don't buy that there are enough people who would suddenly come out of the woodwork wanting 12 extra autos to make the difference.

 

Apart from anything else, you can't tell me that this 12-Auto person would have got none previously, but will suddenly get 12 because the price has been halved?

[cybernator_uk]

I am not into Star Wars but I thin fans of the show will pay that and that is exactly who they are there for. I have twice paid for a signature of someone I wasn't expecting, but that is because they were attractive women.

 

Myself and many others wouldn't get a storm troopers signature because it has gone down to a fiver. I went there for Trek, Dwarf, Linda Hamilton, Peter Kwong and Slavitsa Jovan and that is who i got. I think many people who go know who they want and very rarely deviate from that.

 

Dropping theprice makes no sense in my book. Also, showmasters know what they are doing as obviously they made money from it. I thought that the prices were generally quite what I was expecting. I think that there was only 1 guest that I thought I had paid a little too much for but as it was Trek, who cares.

[talie]

If you want an autograph bad enough imo you will pay for it.

 

SM had some people at a fiver they had PS at 25, at the end of the day they charge the minimum price they feel necessary.

[theentsrgoingtowar]

The rate that the shows are going as they are getting more and more popular, the prices for each autograph will increase so much it will get really really expensive, I reckon next year populars will be 30 pounds+ and stormtroopers etc will be 15 pounds, it is the way the market is going, they wont ever get cheaper, just more expensive me thinks :-(

[talie]

Try living in the US..... lol

[DavidB]

The rate that the shows are going as they are getting more and more popular, the prices for each autograph will increase so much it will get really really expensive, I reckon next year populars will be 30 pounds+ and stormtroopers etc will be 15 pounds, it is the way the market is going, they wont ever get cheaper, just more expensive me thinks :-(

They try to keep prices down where they can.

 

There have been cases where they haven't had guests because they wanted to charge too much for an autograph (e.g. £15 for a very minor part) and so SMs wouldn't have them there.

 

Yes, it does seem like we've opened the events up to more expensive guests, but if that's the only way we're going to get them to an event I don't think it's a huge issue. I'd take that over not at all.

 

There are so many factors that go into how much an autograph has to be. The general structure of the guests hasn't changed a huge amount since I started, but the economy etc has. Sure, we have some more expensive guests, but they are far 'bigger' than a lot of the guests we used to get.

[Scifi]

I don't think anyone could say the big names were charging too much at MK based on how long the queues were.

I think the big names attract new people to the events, that benefits all the other guests.

[DavidSimons]

I had this exact conversation with Jason at Time Quest and he told me my ideas were rubbish and that I'm the only person, or one of the few who would do this. I politely disagree.

 

The simple fact for me is that a lot depends on the guest. If SM were to get someone I need lots from, such as David Tennant, or Harrison Ford, Richard Dean Anderson, I could go on. Then they could charge high fees and I suspect the guest would sign all day. For example Mark Hamill at a non-SM event a few years ago in London charged £70 per auto. A huge fee and not one I personally was willing to pay but despite that they sold out. Mark signed all day and even at that fee they turned people away.

 

But that was Mark Hamill. At a recent Tenth Planet signing they had two of the Weeping Angels from the recent Doctor Who story. They were charging £10 per auto. I didn’t even bother to attend. I would like their auto, I’d even pay £5 for it. But at £10 I simply wasn’t interested. I don’t know how many autos they sold, but I do know they’d have sold at least two more at £5.

 

Another example I’ve quoted elsewhere was Ingrid Pitt who attended an event where she was charging £5 (as it happens she wasn’t well enough to sign but the point stands). I looked and found seven items I wanted signed, that’s £35. If she’d been charging £10 I would have only got two items signed.

 

In my Doctor Who collection I’ve got books, photos, DVDs and CDs all signed. To pick someone at random I’ve got at least a dozen autos from Elisabeth Sladen. If she turns up somewhere charging £10 then I’m going to only get a couple of items more. But at £5 I’d look at all the Sarah Jane DVDs, the Doctor Who DVDs, etc. I’d probably get about 12 autos. At £10 I’d spend £20, at £5 I’d spend £60.

 

Jason tells me I’m the only one with the money to do this and the only one who thinks this way. I don’t agree and to be honest I’m no more or less able to prove my point than Jason is.

 

So I’ve a serious suggestion. Jason runs several events a year and I’m sure making more money would be good for him and for us as we’d get more and better guests. So why not experiment? Invite, for example, six Doctor Who guests to one event, and then a month later invite another six similar guests to a similar event in a similar or the same location. At one event charge £10, at the other charge £5. Then tot up the takings. I’d do this at different events because it would be difficult to explain to, for example, Colin Baker why he was worth £5, while Sylvester McCoy was worth £10. But at different events that’s less of an issue.

 

There’s no reason to keep the experiment a secret. The actors will be every bit as interested in making more money and would, I assume, therefore be just as happy to find out the result.

 

However much money any of us have we all live to a budget. When I personally look at an event I’m mostly interested in how many autos I can get, others will look at other things. I didn’t register for Bad Wolf until a couple of weeks ago because, for me, the cost of the event didn’t justify the number of autos I wanted. A few weeks ago more guests were added and I registered. But I’ll still not buy as many extras as I’d like, and I know I’d have registered far earlier and spent far more, even without the extra guests, had the price been £5.

 

But then as Jason said that’s just me.

 

 

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