Monday, June 24, 2013

Hot Buys: "Summer Retro" Collection Review

Whether Stardoll's graphic designers have just become lazy, or finally given into the persistent demands of their Hot Buys consumers is a question that I have difficulty answering, especially with the release of the "Summer Retro" collection. While I do appreciate that some of the pieces I particularly coveted were brought back, I question the prices. 13 Stardollars for a simple shirt I could replicate in StarDesign for a fraction of the cost seems a bit outrageous to me; same goes for the Rose Denim Shorts priced accordingly. So, let us have a moment of silence for the users that paid an arm and a leg for any items in this collection on the Starbazaar.

This release has been increasingly frustrating to Hot Buys sellers, as highly sought after items such as the Minni Body take a significant plunge in their value. This may have been the icing on the perpetual cake "of doom" to collectors, especially since Stardoll's opening of the Archives store and the release the Voile bridal gowns. However, I do (somewhat grudgingly) have to commend Stardoll on their ability to find out how users were making money for themselves without raking in a direct profit for the company itself, and then do something like this that would benefit them and the users desperate to get their hands on a piece from the collection for cheaper prices. Though one might argue that when these items had such a high value, users would have to buy more Stardollars to afford them, thereby making a profit. It all depends on the user and what they would be willing to spend for a Hot Buys. For example, I've seen the green Head Bow go for 400 SDs in some bazaars, though I'm not quite sure who in their right mind would pay so much for it. If you did your research and read the trends, it ends up becoming user's own faults for making a purchase that would not pay off, though I do agree that Stardoll kind of screwed over the collectors with this move.


So all in all, I suppose this release was pretty bittersweet for a lot of us, and not one of Stardoll's brightest moments. Angering the collectors, who also apparently make up a huge chunk of the profit, probably was not one of the smartest things to do. This also puts a time cap on the collectors' sales, forcing them to wait a few more years before actually making a decent profit, and even then, if you've got the chance to get the Hot Buys now, do so. Then again, if you are buying them merely for the aesthetically pleasing view and not so much to make money, I'd say go for it! 

10 comments:

  1. Loved the review but I think most of the collectors bought them for ridiculous prices when if they had tried they could've got it cheaper.

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  2. It's nice that SD released some nice items for once for reasonable prices, but I just wish they weren't recycled items from the past. Obviously SD realises that people prefer them items so I don't understand why they couldn't just make new graphics in the form of a shop of the same quality and similar pieces as before, rather than using exact same.

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    1. Some people said it seemed kind of like a cop-out, but I guess it boils down to a matter of personal opinion.

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  4. I managed to invest a pretty penny for the retro collection. Fortunately, most of the items featured I don't own - or at one point I did, and then sold it - so I didn't have to worry about paying extra for a re-release.

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  5. Yay finally! I asked when this topic would be posted (in the previous post). I always said the weekly hotbuys was not a good idea & part of your 1st sentence says it all : "Stardoll's graphic designers have just become (are) lazy" & I couldn't see that idea being a success because there are now so many hot buys including those from the last 2 christmas calendars. This idea however is a win / lose situation for some - the winners are those older members who missed out on these items previously, the newer members & those who have sold some of these items at a profit and the losers are those who bought these items at high starbazaar prices and those who believed stardoll's deceit when the hot buys items were initially described as unique & special one time only items which would be around for a short time, thereby making some users feel the need to collect these special items. But those who had these items previously can buy them again ( the label is different) as I discovered with an old hot buys bag I bought in starbazaar 3 years ago for 2sd. I think one of the reasons stardoll has done this is to minimize hacks & scams by making these archives & rare or limited items available to more people & I think in future the old LE's & designer labels might be next.

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    1. I would like to add that those who are annoyed about this are not just those who bought these items at ridiculous starbazaar prices, but those who were deceived by stardoll to start collecting these items as they were unique & around for only limited time & these people bought the items directly from stardoll not the starbazaar..

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    2. You certainly bring up a good point. I shudder to think of the consequences of Stardoll re-releasing the old LE's or designer labels. I remember maybe a year or two ago when Stardoll put the Rare Dragon Dress or something similar in the Archives, and that caused a huge controversy in itself at the time. And even though Stardoll hasn't made the best decisions, I doubt they'd be stupid enough to re-release "Limited Edition" items, or they might have one big, angry crowd of rares collectors and such after them with pitchforks.

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    3. Stardoll wouldn't ever re-release the LE items with an LE label: although releasing past LE items with another label is something they have done before (see the original future (i think) shoes which they later changed. same items without the tags

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  6. I don't think these items were huuuuuge faves. This is like antm cycle 17. There was allison and Laura and Isis. But then came the most hated ones. Angelea Bianca Lisa Camille domonique Shannon. I hope they make new hot buys.

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