I finally have some time to make a comment. I do want to start by saying I opted to skip out on this sale - not because of price or content, but simply because the Reaper V2 and that colorway is not my cup of tea, and I've stopped entering sales just for the sake of entering them. Especially something like a CE, I wouldn't feel right if it wasn't something I was really interested in keeping.
I don't think the contents or picking the perfect combinations of items to make the "perfect" collector's edition for everyone is of priority here. Everyone is going to want something slightly different, so you could be tweaking this package forever (although I think changing up contents on future CE releases is a great idea). You could tweak it and release a sleeve, or keychain or whatever, but let's be honest - people will still be making the same kinds of comments, wishing there was something else.
Personally, I would have liked to have just seen the package reduction from $125 to $100. I thought this was a much more reasonable price point for the package, while keeping everything together thematically. I realllyy didn't like seeing the cap go up for purchase on it's own. To me that defeats the purpose of a Collector's Edition. Why would I buy a collector's edition of anything when I can buy it's most desirable component at retail?
Depending on how you want to launch CE's in the future, there could be some interesting possibilities. For one, I think you need to make them extremely limited and make sure they know how limited (i.e. 100 specified units with numbering on the product). In my mind, the purpose of Collector's Edition package isn't to appeal to the masses and make it widely available. It should be an easy decision for die-hard fans and it should have COLLECTORS value (contain things that would be valuable to those Brocaps collectors out there). Unfortunately, it is hard to achieve this perceived value with brand new products (which is why a lot of collector's edition video games include classic components to invoke that sense of nostalgia). Something that I would be interested in at that price point: a CE including all past and present versions of a design (i.e. Reaper v1, v2, classic), in a matching colorway. Heck I know lots of people would be fine paying $125 for this package, even without additional merchandise. I know this touches on the issue of revisiting old designs, but for the purpose of collector's editions, I think it may be warranted. It all depends on how often you want to release these CE's, in what quantity, whether you want to do a themed release again, and whether CE's are exclusively for new designs.
So much work went into this release, and I thought it strange that all the people saying "not for me, but I'd love the cap on it's own though" actually got their way. I should clarify that I'm not salty people are getting what they want - I'm salty that Bro put in countless hours of conceptual and manual work to give us a unique launch with back story, and that the resounding reactions (even the positive ones) were "it costs too much" (by the way...if you think the price even remotely covers the amount of work put into something like this...think again) or "cool, but I just want the cap" (imo that's not the point of this CE!!).
I appreciate you taking all of our input into consideration, but don't let our entitlement change what YOU want to do. I was fanboying pretty hard over the poster art to my roomates when looking at the sale and I would be personally bummed if this piece of art was replaced by say - a keychain. It should go without saying that I love the idea of a themed release, whether it be for future CE sales, or regular raffles.
In the end only you and the guys behind the scenes know what it really takes and what is really feasible. Thanks for all your hard work, and I look forward to future CE releases (if that is the plan).
