Question: What is Print Placement?

[acshih]

Hi:

I am new to the forum. I have several toki bags purchased before I joined the forum, and did not pay attention to "print placement". Actually did not know what that is...and still a little bit confused about it. So, I am going to ask a stupid question: What determines a good or a bad print placement?? From the posts I read, it looks like the prints placement sometimes determine the bid price on ebay??

[dizchik]

i don't think there is such a thing as bad print placement. I think it just depends on the potential buyer/future owner of the bag. Print placement is is just a matter of preference. For example, one of my fave prints of tokidoki is Pirata. For me, the perfect print placement would contain full, clear cuts of the pirate girls smack dab on the center of the bag. For others, they want the bag with just the little characters shown clearly on the bag.

For an ebayer to say that their bag has perfect print placement is really based upon their opinion, or the majority of what tokilovers love to see on a certain print.

So it's really all a matter of preference upon which characters you want on your bag.

(btw, it's not a stupid question)

[acshih]

well, here are some pics of my bags...Are the placements ok?? What should I be looking for??

[SisterBlue]

Yep, exactly! Perfect print placement is purely a matter of opinion. Different people like different characters on certain prints. For example, some prefer the water scene on Spiaggia, and some prefer the beach scene.

Most of us try to avoid girls with cut-off heads, etc...but past that, I think we all have slightly different ideas of what would make a "perfect" bag in any of the prints....which is one of the things that makes Tokidoki so much fun!!!!

-SB

[gingiemay]

Often print placement involves a popular character whose face or body is reproduced in full on a visible portion of the bag--i.e. having the pink haired girl on Citta or Citta Rosa. Many people love her, and bags with her displayed prominently can go high on eBay. Others, however, can't stand her and wouldn't look at a bag with her on the front. It all comes down to your preference in terms of what you are looking for. It just so happens that some characters generate more interest than others.

[lisalala]

I think there is such a thing as bad placement, but really only on the smaller bags. It's possible on some of the small bags to get placements where you don't get a clear, uncut portion of any character. And this is especially true of certain prints like Adios Star. It's possible to get small AS bags that have no characters on them at all (other than AS Star of course).

Other than that, I generally agree with the previous posts. My perfect print placement would involve no girls and only small characters.

[dizchik]

Originally Posted by acshih

well, here are some pics of my bags...Are the placements ok?? What should I be looking for??

You just need to be looking for whichever characters you like the most. They are awesome bags (I especially love the inferno-but that's just 'cuz I love that print, I don't care much for the citta rosa or paradiso prints)! But see? It really all depends on what parts of the print you like.

Once you collect and get to know the prints, you'll start to know what you like and don't like.

[acshih]

Thanx! When I get my toki bags in the future, will certainly look carefully to see what I like and do not like.

[djr0658]

acshih-i think your Paradiso Gioco has perfect placement! (in my opinion)

[tokibebe]

Yup, make sure you try not to get any cut-off heads (can't help if it's a small minor character's cut-off head sometimes and that should be ok). If the print is small or busy enough this shouldn't be too much of a problem because there's so much to look at. The larger prints with the girls or where the girls are the highlight would be the ones to make sure there's no head-chopping.

Also, check online for full swatches or bigger bags that show out more of the design so you can see all of the characters -- then pick out your favorite characters/scenes and try to get your ideal print placement with them on it. I refer to the "great bag reference" (stickied thread) or the tokidokiblog a lot for the older prints, as the LeSportsac website only has a couple of current prints. Sometimes I look at eBay pictures but only if the bag is real, not fake.

As for your bags ~ your nice Inferno and Paradiso! Your Inferno has the cute vampire bunnies up top which I love, then your bottom pockets have the cutie bread-baking pink girl and the pasta-cooking devil boy. And you have the little toothbrushing skeletor boy, too!

Your Paradiso is wonderful because of the sushi boy and snowcone boy!

[kkiimm]

i love the placement on your paradiso gioco, however the placements on the inferno campeggio and citta rosa canguro are not my cup of tea. personally, i dislike the big red devil heads on the inferno print.. it looks a little cheesy to me. i like the placement on the gioco because it has the characters i was after on my ciao ciao (girl w/ yellow monkey & sushi boy) front and center.

print placement can mean that a retailer is willing to help you find the specific characters you want on a bag, or sometimes for me it's just specifying that the straps and/or zipper on a bag do not cut off any faces. on the bigger bags such as the ciao ciaos that can hold a whole print, it's somewhat impossible to get a "bad" print placement, so your OP Ciao Ciao looks fine

even when i was first starting out w/ toki, i kinda had an idea of what i wanted on my first bag, the l'amore gioco. my favorite characters on that print are the sushi couple, so the bag i won off eBay from uniquethreads had them ~ 5 times on the bag, and most definitely in the front

[sparklyseahorse]

Acshih- I never knew about "placement" wither before this Forum, I just got my first Toki's sight unseen.
BTW, if it weren't for this Forum, I would have never known the definition of "random boobage".

[QueenLouis]

Originally Posted by lisalala

I think there is such a thing as bad placement, but really only on the smaller bags. It's possible on some of the small bags to get placements where you don't get a clear, uncut portion of any character. And this is especially true of certain prints like Adios Star. It's possible to get small AS bags that have no characters on them at all (other than AS Star of course). Other than that, I generally agree with the previous posts. My perfect print placement would involve no girls and only small characters.

OK, here's a perfect example how it's different for everyone. I actually feel like there's no such thing as bad Adios Star placement... because it is not a scenic print, so nothing would ever be cut off in my opinion.

It just matters what you like. Most people LOVE Sandy... I really don't at all. I'm ok with her in L'amore and Spiaggia and AS, where she's small and not very obvious. But I hate the BIG Sandy's on Foresta and Tutti (and I am crazy about Tutti... just trying to avoid Sandy)

[angelic*ruin]

Most of us have different, or at least slightly different favored placements in the various prints. I think "good" print placement is whatever looks good to you. Some of us really like certain characters on bags and others of us don't like those same characters. Go with what YOU like, not necessarily what you hear others saying is good placement.

And, yes, some of the more "popular" favored placements do tend to fetch better prices on eBay. For example, in Foresta, a lot of us like the scene to include Sandy and those bags with her on featured on them may bring a higher price on auction. But, again, not everyone likes the same scenes/characters.

[kkiimm]

exactly ^^ i would especially be careful about letting it be known which characters you love here because i know some sellers lurk and they will probably up their prices even more if they know that someone else would pay more for it.