Bob Cosner of Bob's Baseball Cards, Comics, and Gaming in Des Moines, Iowa saw our coverage of the McFarlane Toys exclusive for Spencer's (see 'McFarlane's Monster Set Exclusive to Spencers'), and sees a new distribution plan from McFarlane:

It is obvious to me, and others, that the McFarlane compnay has a new distribution plan.  Ship only to Wal-Mart and the other big time retail outlets and shut the little guys out.  This new Spencers-only item looks like step two in this process.

The recent, 'shortage,' of the Cooperstown Series 3 is an obvious example of this plan.  All of the sportscard distributors were 'allocated' and only shipped a few cases.  I ordered three cases and received one, and I had to beg to get that one.  My distributor ordered 20 cases and received five and was told that would be all they would get.  No waves, just 'That is all.'  Phone calls to other distributors uncovered the same results.  HOWEVER, if you go to Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us the Cooperstown 3 figures are everywhere!  No shortage there. 

If you look at it from McFarlane' s point of view I guess I can't blame them.  If they shut out the hobby and comic stores and stop shipping to their distributors their shipping costs will decrease dramatically.  They will only have to ship to the distributor centers of the big retail giants. 

So, all McFarlane Sports figures at Bob's are now $9 each and variations are 33% off.  We might as well make room for something else.