Funko fanatics who regularly scour the shelves at Target and their local comic book shop might want to check in this unexpected spot for a treasure trove of Funko Pops! – The landfill.
In what looks like it could be a sign that the Funko Pop! bubble is finally showing signs of deflating, it’s now being reported that the company is dumping $30 million in products in a landfill because it’s just taking up too much space in their warehouse. The story broke today from Kotaku.
“Inventory at year-end totalled $246.4 million, an increase of 48% compared to a year ago,” Funko said “This includes inventory that the Company intends to eliminate in the first half of 2023 to reduce fulfilment costs by managing inventory levels to align with the operating capacity of our distribution centre. This is expected to result in a write down in the first half of 2023 of approximately $30 to $36 million.”
The article went on to say that the company’s CEO revealed during an investor’s call that “one distribution centre was so full that Funko was renting shipping containers to hold the excess stock.”
What does this mean for the future of Funko? They are still one of the largest toy companies in the world and they have their fingers in a lot of pies like Mondo and Loungefly. If they are smart, they’ll pull back on releases and inventory, but if history repeats itself, any Funko Pop! you own is going to have a value equivalent to a Beanie Baby within the next three years.