With a run of recent CCG sell-outs hitting the market (see “CCG Sell-Outs”), we asked CCG manufacturers a handful of questions about how they manage sell-out issues.  Bandai's James Takenaka provided these responses.

What is Bandai’s goal in terms of sell-out—how long do you want to have product after release?

We typically want to sell out of a product by the time the next set is being released.  That is typically a three-month time period.

Are you trying to have product run out in all channels at once, or to have products in some channels last longer than others?

Since the mass market gets their product around three-four weeks after the hobby market, we expect the product to run out at hobby earlier than the mass market on a hot product.  However, we don’t try to time a product to run out for either group if they still want the product.

Are there ever circumstances in which Bandai would reprint a particularly successful set, or is that off the table?

Yes, we do print “unlimited” product.  However, it might not always show up in a hobby booster box format because we do have requests for three-pack product or collectible tins and need to fill those items with packs from previous sets.  We try to take into consideration the total number of packs that exist and will exist after these products are introduced before we would decide to reprint hobby booster boxes.