Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?
Conte had/has an interesting way of doing business.
Kind of like complete saturation in a pretty small market which really isn't expanding enough to match their goals.
I was managing Classic Toys in NYC when Conte came on the scene. I thought it was good product but I didn't think the plastics would do that well for us (and they really didn't). The metal figures we couldn't keep in stock.
So, a year goes by and we see them at Toy Fair with a small booth. We have a nice conversation, they try to pressure us into buying the plastics, etc. We don't go for it.
A comic book shop opened next door to us. They also had other things like kits and action figures. They liked conte (knowing that we were carrying the metal figures) and decided to carry it in direct next door competition to us and began to price war us.
I saw it land there and I saw that they were also picking up the metal sets.
I immdiately called Conte and told them that selling directly to a place RIGHT NEXT DOOR was not good for the three of us and to not do that again. They said it was their right to do so and that if we were not going to carry the plastics and playsets that they'd rather sell to the comic shop but we were welcome to continue placing orders (gee thanks). I said "ok".
After that order from the comic shop, we had moved on with Frontline and K&C and a numbe rof other makers. Village Comics never ordered again and I guess Conte realized that they messed up. So they call me. Just to clarify, I would speak with Richard Conte himself and we would be very friendly and would agree to stuff but when his business manager (forget her name) got involved, it would turn into something very different.
I brought the stuff back in but it never regained what it lost in the few months we didn't stock it. When we stocked new makers, our customers kind of shifted along with us and kept pace. It was wonderful that way.
Then, we placed an order for a lot of WWII and Civil War products. What do they ship us? A huge overstock of the Warlord and Pirate sets which stopped selling for them. Then they demanded we pay for it (we didn't cause we didn't order it) and then they sent it to collections. Screw that.
With Frontline, K&C, Tommy Atkins, Tradition, Britains, Guard Corps, Tom Loback, Imperial, Alymer, Toy Army Workshop, Peter Greenhill, HECO, etc, no drama, no worries. We'd have to wait a long time for some orders but no issues otherwise.
Conte thought they were a much larger company than they actually were and treated some of us dealers like they could "call the shots". I think they've learned some lessons over time but, what ever.
