Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

So this will probably come across as sour grapes from a Botcon non-attendee, but what on earth is going on with these exclusives on the secondary market? At the moment, there is an eBay seller with 103 separate listings for the Junkions set over the course of this weekend, most of which have sold at a 50-100% profit. Who knows how many more he has on hand...

Now, I live in the real world and I get that scalping/speculating happens in our hobby. It generally doesn't bother me and if anything, I'm grateful that I can find certain items after-the-fact, even at a mark-up. And even though I'm a bit overwhelmed by the number and initial price of many of FunPub/TFCC's offerings, I like that they can get certain characters made that wouldn't otherwise be. Certainly, I'm not under any obligation to collect these exclusives if I don't want to, so my attitude is largely live-and-let-live.

But something seems pretty off to me when a scalper is able to control this large a quantity of what is supposedly a "limited" inventory. What happened, did he walk up with $10,000 in cash at Botcon and buy a hundred sets (or more, potentially)? Was this a behind-closed-doors sort of deal?

The speculation wouldn't bug me nearly so much if FunPub was holding another couple thousand of these figures to sell online to club members. But last year most of the remaining exclusives sold out within a couple hours of being listed online.

I understand that FunPub is a business and it behooves them to sell their products any way they can, but it bothers me that they are willing to play ball with the scalpers to such a ridiculous extent. Can someone buy an extra exclusive or two to trade, store, or sell? Sure. But more than a hundred? What's going on!?

What frustrates me the most is that I'm probably going to buy right into this and bid on this guy's auctions, in order to get a set or two of these for my collection. I'd love another option, but the TFCC seems to have no real intention of providing one.

/rant

From what I understand about the buying limits, I'm not sure how a guy could get 100 of them. BBTS has some coming, but they had people go specifically to get the sets. Might be a similar operation here. There were 2000 Junkion sets. so if he has 100 of them he somehow got control of 5% of the stock.

Keep in mind that every year during Botcon, we have a 2 week period of time where prices go stupid on ebay and will stabilize shortly.

Seriously, just be patient and you will get your stuff. Being the first to own doesn't always pay off.

And to an extent, TFCC has combatted the scalping of troop builder sets. Botcon 2009 Sweeps were $50. I had 2 sets and sold one for $175 during Botcon weekend. They raised the price somewhat so now those throwing the troop builders on ebay don't make as hefty a profit as they did in 2009.

I believe that with the Golden Ticket power (new this year), holders could buy unlimited amounts of the exclusives. I think.

Certainly they could buy more than a regular Primus package holder (1 each).

Gotta love capitalism.

tigertracks 24 wrote:I believe that with the Golden Ticket power (new this year), holders could buy unlimited amounts of the exclusives. I think.

Certainly they could buy more than a regular Primus package holder (1 each).

Gotta love capitalism.

If that's true I guess they anticipated having far too many sets left over and wanted to get rid of as many as possible to lessen shipping costs.

Though I don't get why, if that's the case, they don't just sell more to the average ticket holder at the end of the event. Like, in the last two or three hours open it up to multiple purchases or something.

I really am shocked about this. If you're selling figures for collectors you should be selling TO collectors, not people who will obviously be reselling. A collector club is a fragile house of cards that stands on both money and CONSUMER GOOD WILL. Opening the door to potentials scalpers like this will only hurt them in the future.

Sellers were allowed to purchase 2 sets of exclusives per badge.Alot of sellers brought alot of employees with them, for instance toyarena.com( they were in line behind me) had 7 employees with them. bare in mind the limits were only imposed on the first night( thursday). On friday anyone could walk up to the club store and buy away. I had aprimus package, Purchased my 1 set thursday night and then Friday morning I purchased 2 more, 1 for a friend and 1 to help cover some of the costs. I sold said set at the show for slightly more than I paid.

Diem wrote:I really am shocked about this. If you're selling figures for collectors you should be selling TO collectors, not people who will obviously be reselling. A collector club is a fragile house of cards that stands on both money and CONSUMER GOOD WILL. Opening the door to potentials scalpers like this will only hurt them in the future.

This is my main problem. Certainly, I'd like to get the items I want for a reasonable price, but I'm truly beside myself that one guy has sold over a hundred sets in 72 hours, starting BEFORE the convention ended:



I get that FunPub is a business, but I remember back in the early days of Botcon when the MIB took over and the fans had an uproar over their commercial sensibilities. And FunPub blows them out of the water in that regard.

Sadly, I think that FunPub sees this sort of thing as beneficial to their reputation. After all, they've sold most or all of their inventory, and the high aftermarket demand only drives up the exclusivity of their products and helps their ability to promote future Botcons.

people were buying and selling those things at the con..It wasnt like funpub was handing this guy all of those sets. Im sure he had to do his share of wheeling and dealing to get all of those sets..

Want to put a end to it? Go to botcon...

LiKwid wrote:people were buying and selling those things at the con..It wasnt like funpub was handing this guy all of those sets. Im sure he had to do his share of wheeling and dealing to get all of those sets..

Want to put a end to it? Go to botcon...

Also the fact that buddy and his friends (whomever they may be) all got Golden Tickets, allowing each to get three of every set on day 1.

Mkall wrote:

LiKwid wrote:people were buying and selling those things at the con..It wasnt like funpub was handing this guy all of those sets. Im sure he had to do his share of wheeling and dealing to get all of those sets..

Want to put a end to it? Go to botcon...

Also the fact that buddy and his friends (whomever they may be) all got Golden Tickets, allowing each to get three of every set on day 1.

Changing the limit per set was a bad move on fun pubs part I agree.. Some people abused the hell out of that this year, toy arena is a fine example.

Always been my experience that the best way to beat scalpers is to beat them at their own game..