Sword Art Online Alice: Angel Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure

• ratbunuts​
• 5 years ago

I feel yeah comrade

• mangoshake​
• 5 years ago

To be fair, you pretty much get 1/3 of your money back in TOM points. I don't know any other sites that are offering lower deal than this.

• Vissas​
• 5 years ago

Beware that the price is higher compared to competitors and earned points get deducted when you redeem them in the same purchase. The more you redeem the less you earn. They should make this more clear cut. Still, it ends up cheaper (with the 30%) so that's what matters.

• NitsuSaiNeko​
• 5 years ago

Yea, I did calculation before. You don't really end up saving 30% if you happen to also use TOM Point in purchase. Since the partial money deducted by TOM point is paid in full and not with 30% off.
But nonetheless, it usually still end up a bit cheaper than other sites when also consider shipping fee.

• mangoshake​
• 5 years ago

I am actually surprised how difficult people think percentage operate. Let's say you used TOM Point in the purchase and got it down to $240 for example, you would get $72 in TOM Point back -- which is STILL 30%. In regards to comparing a single figure price to other sites, you are comparing apple to orange because TOM Point is meant to be used on future purchases, and once you get that ball rolling on multiple figures, you will end up spending much much less on TOM over other sites.

• NitsuSaiNeko​
• 5 years ago

"which is STILL 30%." WRONG. You should not be looking at a single purchase. Since the TOM Point have to apply on the NEXT order, you will have to look at the total money spend across multiple purchases. Let's say if you always buy on 30% point back. Spent $100 you got $30 back, on next purchase you would use the $30 and spend $70 to get $21 back. You would notice you're not getting $30 back anymore. So on the next order, you would use $21 and spend $79 on the purchase, and get $23.7 back. Let's pretend you can also use the last $23.7 in the same order. In total you spent $249 and got $74.7 discounted. That did not end up as original $300 total with 30% off, which should be $210 spent and $90 saved.

• NitsuSaiNeko​
• 5 years ago

I know it got long and maybe confusing, but that's where the TOM point trick lays. It appeared to be 30% off, but in reality it's not. Don't forget the TOM point used in future purchases are deducted 100% without the TOM point event benefit, which the discounted part does not get the 30% off. That's where the price difference from above example comes from.
However, with all those said, TOM point events in the end still made the price cheaper than other places. I'll give them credit on that, and is why I'm here to stay. TOM charge higher price than other places but offer free shipping (but usually ships 2+ months later than other sites). That usually balance out most of the shipping fee on other sites. So with TOM point event it should end up cheaper than most places, but probably not as much as you think due to the initial insane overprice on some figures. The orange "$x.xx (x% cash back)" text is there as a visual trick to mislead people.

• That_Random_Guy​
• 5 years ago

dont forget the fact that tom no longer has free shipping on jp figs which their mainly stocking to keep the release dates reasonable.

also do not forget the fact that they said they wanted to keep pricing down because US warehouse figs were 40 and 60 bucks more then buying elsewhere.... now their jp figs are 40 to 60 above elsewhere. that being said the 30x return only very marginally makes the fig cheaper meaning if you dont buy on that 30x then you are actually paying more then most other places and paying up front. and then locking yourself into here when tom in ALOT of cases dont get certain figures or wait a month or 3 to even put them on the site.

basically your over paying on a figure to get a normal price on the next figure. you do not come out cheaper at all buying here. your just paying up front. dont let that full you. now back when there where 30x +10% on new fig deals oh yes, but those deals are long gone

been buying from here for a couple years and spent a good 3 to 4k here alone

• mangoshake​
• 5 years ago

That is exactly what 30% entails.

As both you and I have pointed out, the 30% is applied ON the purchasing price (minus shipping of course), NOT on the MSRP. This isn't misleading or a surprise -- this is exactly how percentage works, not to mention that this is pretty much how all other businesses using points operate (i.e. airline mileages/points, hotel points, etc...). If anyone were misled by that, then that's on them.

You do realize that if it were to work like most people think it should work, then TOM is essentially handing out free money if you were to think you should be getting back the entire $90 in TOM Point after you deduct the original price. For example if you were able to deduct the original price to $0, would you still be getting $90 back? Of course not. That's absolutely preposterous and would absolutely bankrupt a business if it were to operate that way. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the orange text is meant for if you were to buy the figure at MSRP.

And to That_Random_Guy, as far as I can trace back in TOM's promotional deals, at least twice a year (such as Golden Week, July 4th), you would be able to get somewhere from 25x to 50x on new figures. If you were able to time your purchase right every year, then you are essentially coming out on top of everybody else. Now if you were to argue that despite employing this strategy and still think you are overpaying, I am all ears on which sites offer better deals :)

• mangoshake​
• 5 years ago

If anyone is still confused, here's a simple demonstration.

****What most people think how 30% back should operate****
Buy $300 item, get $90 points back, then
buy $90 item using points, get $27 points back, then
buy $27 item using points, get $8.1 points back, then
buy $8.1 item using points, get $2.43 points back, then
buy $2.43 item using points, get $0.73 points back, then
buy $0.73 item using points, get $0.22 points back, then
buy $0.22 item using points, get $0.01 points back.

Let's calculate your return (minus shipping):
(Total Items Worth) / (Total Money Spent) =
($300 + $90 + $27 + $8.1 + $2.43 + $0.73 + $0.22) / ($300) = 1.43 (or 43% back)

****How TOM 30% back operate (or any business for that matter)****
Buy $300 item, get $90 points back, then
buy $90 item using points, get $0 points back.

Let's calculate your return (minus shipping):
(Total Items Worth) / (Total Money Spent) =
($300 + $90) / ($300) = 1.3 (or 30% back)

****TL;DR****
A benefit from a promotion should never be stacked/compounded/domino'd on the benefit of another promotion. Otherwise you risk creating a loophole where customer can take advantage of the domino effect of compounding the promotions ad infinitum.

• Vissas​
• 5 years ago

Thanks! This clears things up.

• NitsuSaiNeko​
• 5 years ago

($300 + $90) / ($300) = 1.3 (or 30% back)
You're not wrong here, I'm not trying to correct you or anything because you clearly know what's going on. But I personally will avoid calling this 30% simply because it's misleading to anyone who didn't dig into it.
I understand how cash back is different than straight up discount, but total purchase of $390 with $90 off is essentially only 23% off and not the appeared 30% saving.
All I wanted to demonstrate is cash back is not as simple as it seems. I want to make people aware they are not actually saving 30% as listed, as it is in reality less than that. As my example has shown, it appeared to be 30% off but it's really only 23% off (% will vary based on how the points are used).
I think many people who didn't give too much thought into it will simply think 30% cash back is equivalent to 30% off, which is not.
Easiest example would be if site offer 100% cash back.
($300+$300) / ($300) = 2 (100% back)
but it's actually 50% off when you spend $300 and get $600 worth of item.

On a side note, I believe TOM changed their policy to make it impossible to apply points to get the purchase to total of $0. I think now we cannot use point for over half of the total. I usually use point to get my purchase to $150 free shipping minimum.
Anyway, even with TOM's mark up price compare to other sites, after 23~25% off TOM still ends up cheaper than most other site's price after shipping.

• NitsuSaiNeko​
• 5 years ago

@That_Random_Guy​
I hope they give us the option to choose between JP warehouse or US warehouse if they happen to have(or will) both in stock. I don't mind waiting longer for US warehouse as long as the price ended up lower (it should since TOM will be shipping in bulk).
At the moment their JP warehouse items are still marked up and charge shipping, don't know what's the deal here. I thought the reason behind the mark up is to get the shipment to US warehouse. Hope they can sort things out, I don't really like the "mark up and give sales" marketing moves in general :/

• mangoshake​
• 5 years ago

With all due respect, you are still spreading incorrect information.

30% is 30%. It's NOT effectively 23% or any other %.
I call it 30% because it is really, actually, realistically, basically, essentially, fundamentally, mathematically 30%.

Let's use your initial example: let's buy three $300 figures with 30% promotion and see if we get 30% saving.

Buy 1st $300 figure, get $90 points back, then
buy 2nd $300 figure w/ $90 points, get $63 points back, then
buy 3rd $300 figure w/ $63 points, get $71.1 points back.

Let's calculate your return (minus shipping):
(Total Items Worth) / (Total Money Spent) =
($300 + $300 + $300 + $71.1) / ($300 + $210 + $237) = 1.3 (or 30% saved)

The key here is that you HAVE TO take into account the the TOM points that you did not use (which is $71.1) and add that to "Total Items Worth" because that's the one of the valued items you bantered/exchanged with your real money aside from the 3 figures. I believe this is the main difference between how you calculate the saving versus how I calculate saving. Do note the way I calculate it is pretty much Accounting 101. Any other calculations are mathematically incorrect ways of calculating saving.

You could then apply the $71.1 TOM points to a couple of graphic t-shirts or whatever you so wish to purchase to exchange the rest of your TOM points into actual items worth $71.1, but the crux of this is that no matter what you wish to purchase, you will always end up with 30% saving.

If you wish to counter this, show me a purchase pattern that would result in less than 30% using the above formula.