What Is the Big Bad Toy Store's Pile of Loot?

Big Bad Toy Store (BBTS for short) is a popular online shop for action figures, statues, and collectibles. A few years back, they noticed something: their customers weren't just buying one thing at a time. They were pre-ordering figures that wouldn't even come out for months, buying a few things here, a few things there, and ending up with orders trickling in one box at a time — which meant paying for shipping over and over again.

So BBTS built something clever: the Pile of Loot.

Here's how it works, in four simple steps:

  1. Add it to the pile. When you check out, instead of shipping your item right away, you choose to drop it into your Pile of Loot.
  2. Let it grow. You can keep adding to your pile for up to 90 days — new pre-orders, restocks, impulse buys, all of it stacking up in one place.
  3. Pick what ships. Whenever you're ready, you choose exactly which items in your pile should go out together.
  4. Ship it all at once. One label, one box, one shipping charge — instead of five separate ones.

The service itself is free to use. You only pay for shipping when you actually send your pile out, and BBTS even offers a flat $6 rate for U.S. addresses when you do.

Why Do Collectors Love It So Much?

Two reasons, and they're both pretty simple.

It saves real money. Shipping five boxes costs a lot more than shipping one. When you combine everything into a single shipment, you're not paying five separate shipping fees for five separate trips to your mailbox.

It feels exciting. There's something genuinely fun about watching your pile grow — knowing that somewhere in a warehouse, your treasure is quietly stacking up, waiting for the day you say "ship it." It turns a normal shopping habit into something that feels a little like a game.

That second part matters more than people realize. Collectors — whether they're into action figures, vinyl records, trading cards, or comic books — already love the waiting. Pre-orders, restocks, and "the next drop" are part of the culture. A Pile of Loot doesn't fight that instinct. It works with it.

Why This Idea Isn't Just for Toy Stores

Here's the thing: nothing about a Pile of Loot is specific to action figures. Any store selling to collectors runs into the exact same shipping problem BBTS solved.

Think about it from a vinyl record store's side. A customer pre-orders a repress that won't be pressed for another two months, then buys a couple of in-stock records the same week. Should that store really ship three separate packages, eating three separate shipping costs, just because the items didn't arrive on the exact same day?

The same goes for comic shops with monthly pull lists, or trading card sellers restocking a set every few weeks. The pattern is everywhere once you start looking for it — and it's exactly the pattern BBTS built an entire feature around.

How to Build Your Own Pile of Loot With Addora

This is where Addora comes in.

Addora is the infrastructure behind Buy Now, Ship Later — a checkout feature that lets your Shopify customers do precisely what BBTS shoppers do: buy now, hold their order, and choose when it all ships out together. Think of it as giving your store its own built-in Pile of Loot, without having to build anything from scratch.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

  • Customers combine orders into one box instead of paying for (and waiting on) separate shipments.
  • They choose their own timing — no more guessing when the "right" moment to ship is.
  • You save money too. Packing and shipping one combined parcel instead of several means less packaging and lower shipping costs on your end, not just theirs.

And it's not just a nice idea — it works. Stores running this kind of combined-shipping option are seeing more than half of customers come back and use it again once they try it, with plenty of them specifically calling out how much they appreciate the savings on shipping.

The Takeaway

A Pile of Loot isn't just a fun name for a shipping feature — it's proof that collectors will happily wait, combine, and save, if you give them an easy way to do it. Big Bad Toy Store figured that out for toys. With Addora, your Shopify store can offer the same experience for whatever you sell — no treasure map, warehouse, or dragon required.

Curious what your own Pile of Loot could look like? Addora offers a free plan to get started.