Hi all,
I am back and posting from my new home at Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW). Thanks for keeping the thread going!
I don't know why BNDCY isn't active, but I am not worried. If it doesn't move up after the next earnings report I may reevaluate my reasons for being in this stock. I may also hold on to it for a few years and see what hit toy Bandai comes up with next. Toy company stocks seem to stagnate for a long time and then suddenly explode when the company has a hit (look at Galoob's chart, for example, although it has lately been back in stagnation mode).
Last week I did some more local research on virtual pets. I started at the local mall (Westminster, Colorado), where I have seen more and more stores carrying knockoff VP products. Guess what? The knockoffs are NOT selling! The Rakuraku Dinokun VPs I saw in a Hallmark store for $29.95 each are still sitting on the shelves. The sign out front advertising "we have virtual pets" gets bigger and bigger, but it doesn't help. Kinney shoes has had a sign out for the past month advertising "get a virtual pet for only 9.95 with shoe purchase." Now the sign has "or without" scribbled in next to the "with", but their VPs aren't selling either. I think they have the VP with the animal head on top of the case. The candy store next to them has a rack of that kind of VP on its front counter, and those aren't selling much either. A specialty games store at the other end of the mall had a display of NanoPets on the wall behind the cash register which didn't seem to be selling too fast, but that may be because they just got the shipment and/or just started carrying VPs and no one knows they have them. (A note to Truman and the other Playmates fans: I am not calling NanoPets a cheap knock-off, I am just reporting my research on where I found VPs and how they were selling -- remember I own and like the NanoPuppy :-)). Kay Bee toys had NO VPs (they have had all three of the major brands, Tamagotchi, NanoPets, and GigaPets, in the past).
Next I checked Toys R Us and they had NO VPs either, although they were "supposed to get some more in the next few days." The cashier seemed sick of talking about Tamagotchis :-)
My conclusion: as with Beanie Babies, in virtual pets the brand name really does matter to kids (or speculators/collectors -- I don't know for sure who is buying the VPs). Fake Beanie Babies aren't selling and neither are fake Tamagotchis or NanoPets. The real Tamagotchis and NanoPets and GigaPets are still instantly and completely sold out whenever they hit the shelves. This has to bode well for all of us concerned Bandai and Playmates stockholders.
Dennis, I know the school year is only a few days old (although a day feels like a week according to my wife and to my mother, who are both school teachers and who both started teaching this week, but do you have any student-related VP field research data?
Take care all,
Kirk |
