Welcome to the new blog for AP Collectibles. Here you’ll receive updates on new products as well as great news on the industry.

We are VERY excited about some changes coming to our website over the next month or so. We are in the process of upgrading to new shopping cart software that should prove to be more user friendly and easier to navigate than ever before.

Have you ever seen those websites that give you an opportunity to write a user or product review? What’s the incentive? Who actually takes their time to give their opinion of a product when there’s nothing in it for them?

Let’s ask this question… what if you could earn reward points toward future products by writing product reviews on our website and sharing your thoughts on what you received from us last week?

Finally, one of the biggest changes coming will allow our site to be optimized for mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry, Windows 7 smart phones and many more. Lets face it… m-commerce is a growing business and with our new mobile device optimization you will experience faster loading pages & a quick, easy check-out process all from the convenience of your phone!

Be sure and check out our new Facebook page for additional product updates & shipping notices!
(click the link below)

Be sure & check out our new Facebook page for new product, shipping updates & product previews from time to time.

Our new Facebook page can be found HERE.

We are VERY excited to announce the expansion of our 1/6 scale Modern and WWI/WWII Military Products.

As we have already added several new Dragon pieces to our site, be sure and check back as we will be adding even more great items from Solider Story, BBI, DID (Dragon in Dream) & ACI.

Additionally, if there is a product line that you do not see on our site… drop us a note and we will see about picking it up.

As we gear up for the Holiday Season we would like to thank the following collector sites for allowing us the opportunity to become VIP Sponsors:

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If you aren’t already a member of one or all of these GREAT sites… sign up today!

Select Sponsors occasionally offer additional exclusive discounts on shipping & their products to website/forum members.

After play catch-up for the last week, we were FINALLY able to update our website with all the cool new products & pieces that were previewed at SDCC this past week.

While there are too many new additions to list, all of our newly added products can be found by clicking HERE.

Now for my personal SDCC recap commentary…

After attending San Diego Comic Con for the 6th year in a row, I’ve come to grips with the reality that a person is going spend the first two days standing in lines waiting to buy products if they want to get them before they sell out for the weekend but this year seemed unusually bad. With that being said here’s some personal thoughts that I would like to share with some of the vendors:

Mattel: If you’re going to double your exclusives from previous years, you had better be prepared to deal with the crowds and stop allowing dealers to buy up all of your inventory in the first two days of the show. Adding a second booth just for sales isn’t going to simply solve all the problems of offering too many exclusive products.

Hasbro: Crowd control & the limit of 4 of each item per badge made operations run a WHOLE lot smoother for you this year. I see you learned your lesson from last year!

Gentle Giant: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for loosing the huge Jabba statue this year that took up three quarters of your booth in previous years! Pre-orders were a breeze to pick up and lines were not bad at all!

Hallmark: Way to go on the exclusives this year! I would have liked to have seen some type of lottery system rather than a first come first serve style of selling your products. Had you not been set up close to a wall for lines to form, crowd control would have been a nightmare for you!

Lego: Once again… you have done a fantastic job of offering your products. The lottery/drawing tickets for a chance to buy your exclusives is the best idea I’ve seen in a long time! It gives everyone an equal chance while weeding out the dealers. Well except for that one guy who was always in your booth at the end of the line offering $10 bucks to people to buy their “winner” tickets.

OfficalPix: While I’ve always enjoyed your guests and autograph offerings, perhaps the middle of the exhibit hall isn’t the best choice for a booth. Might I suggest the Autograph Area in the Sails Pavilion where EVERY OTHER individual with anything sets up for autographs???

Sideshow: Once again… in my opinion you’ve managed to steal the show with your booth set-up, customer service, product offerings & show exclusives/management.

Elite Security: While I’m sure some of you are really friendly and intelligent individuals, just there to do a job… most of you that I’ve ran into are just plain asses with a chip on their shoulder & a God complex! You know who I’m talking about. They’re the ones that have to have the fancy earpiece attached to a $10 radio & the ones who wear the mirrored sunglasses 100% of the time while inside the building. This year I was literally shoved out of the way while walking through an open aisle by an employee to make way for Gene Simmons. Then on another occasion… threatened to be removed from the building for taking a break and sitting against a wall for five minutes. Yes apparently for the first year in a row it’s now a “fire hazard” to sit on the ground anywhere on the floor inside the building on the first floor. Who knew?

Overall I had another great year. It was extra special to me as I was able to share my experiences with my 14 year old son who attended this year with me. I’m already looking forward to next year although it’s my understanding that ticket prices will go up next year. Hey SDCC… here’s an idea… I’ll agree to pay more for tickets next year if you agree to reduce the number of passes you sell…. fair enough?

Were you late to the game in starting your Sideshow collection and now all of your most-wanted items are Sold Out with no Wait List option available? Have you ever wished you could find your ‘Holy Grail’ of Sideshow collectibles? Are you sick of dealing with sketchy eBay sellers? Before you give up all hope, be sure to try the brand new Retail Network service, which may help you find your most desired, long sold out Sideshow collectibles!

What is it and how can you take advantage of it? It’s a FREE referral service that will hook you up with a Sideshow Collectibles Direct Dealer who may have the item you most desire sitting in their store waiting for YOU! If our Wait List is closed and you are in despair of secondary market searches, simply visit the product page of the sold out item you’d like to find, click the Sideshow Retail Network button, fill out the form (and agree to the Terms and Conditions), and they will search their Direct Dealer inventory database for your collectible. If they find a match, they will then send your contact information to the dealer who may have the item and give you their information too!

While AP Collectibles may not have EVERY item you’re looking for, we are proud to be a member of Sideshow’s Retail Network and look forward to helping you find that missing piece in your collection.

With the introduction of some new added features to our website, I figured we would provide a long over-due update to our Blog as well.

As you can see we’ve added some additional content to our home page to include a snap-shot of our Newest Arrivals & Featured Products. Additionally customers can jump right to these sections to see the full list of products.

We’ve also added some exclusive discount codes for members of www.sideshowcollectors.com www.banthaskull.com. Please visit the previously mentioned sites to learn more about these additional savings.

As far as new products, we continue to add more pre-order items every week and continue to grow our in-stock product inventory.

As San Diego Comic Con 2009 approaches, be sure and check out our website regularly as we will be adding new products daily and listing a VERY limited quantity of exclusives.

Finally, as always if you do not see the product you’re looking for on our webite, it doesnt hurt to ask. We may just have it tucked away in our warehouse.

Updates:

12″ Iron Man Mark 3 Model Kit by Hot Toys : After waiting for what seems to be like an eternity, this piece has FINALLY arrived in the US and is scheduled to be in stock by 4/10/09. We will begin processing orders on 4/6 and try to get most of these shipped out the same day they come in. I would also like to personally thank everyone for their patience in waiting for this piece as it is VERY long overdue!

12″ GI Joe: Snake Eyes Figure : We have sold through our initial shipment of this item and are currently waiting for our next shipment to arrive sometime this next week. As we are not 100% sure how many we will be receiving (since we were allocated on our first order) we have instituded a Waitlist for those still interested in this item. Orders placed on the waitlist program will be filled on a first come/first serve basis. Once we receive confirmation on how many more pieces we will be receiving we will fill our current orders and close-out the waitlist.

Additionally, be sure sure and check out the new Recon at Waypoint 12 with Timber 12″ Environment piece that is designed to go hand-in-hand with the 12″ Snake Eyes.

Action Figures & Toys:

As I am sure most of you have noticed we have been adding more and more action figures & toys from various themes to our product line. We are clearing out some of these older products from our store-front so be sure and check back regularly as we plan on adding more products on a weekly basis.

Events:

We will once again be attending SDCC this year so bookmark our site and look for us to be offering some of those hard-to-get Exclusives.

Finally… as always you can check out our newly added products by visiting our New Arrival Page.