I agree, removing the packaging seems counter-productive and also punishing those who want to pay for the Con-Exclusive item but now have to settle for buying it loose instead of MIP. As a company why do that, when they could just ebay or put the leftover products in their online store. Those who attended the Con will be selling them in its packaging so why shouldn't they do it themselves with their leftovers. Plus they be wasting time just to be ripping the header cards off the packaging. They paid for those header cards they shouldn't throw them away in the belief they are providing something exclusive. Counter-productive bad idea.
Really, we've just been trying different things with exclusives to see what works best. I personally am not a fan of exclusives, but i understand that some people are. So seeing that, we want to make people who like exclusives happy by trying to provide one. The main problem i have with exclusives is that they are rarely "exclusive" anymore. Even as far as seeing the SDCC "exclusives" for sale at Toys R Us months later! As a collector who paid money to get to comic con, stand in line and hunt down the exclusive, it's a slap in the face.
So for that reason, we tried a new method. We made an exclusive, but the part that was exclusive was the header for the packaging. That way, the ultra collectors out there, can still have an exclusive to chase, but we don't eliminate the casual fan, because we then sell the figures "loose" after the event.
For me, it seemed like a cool idea. We don't leave any of the collectors out in the cold, and we make something that the ultra hardcore would want to collect. Reading this thread, it seems people just didn't like this at all! Who knew trying to help everyone would lead to such an outpouring of hate! I personally don't collect packaging and would have been the kind of person who didn't care about an exclusive header as I would have opened it either way.
I guess I just don't see how this was counter productive or a bad idea? This way everyone that wants to collect the figures, has a chance to.
Maybe next time we'll try another method!