The Energon Pub

Autobot032 wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:If I see something in a store that I can resell for twice as much, I'm going to do it as many times as I can. $$$$!

And that's precisely the type of thinking that makes us vilify scalpers. It's greed, plain and simple, and it ruins the hobby for others. Especially children.

**** the kids. I'm a consumer, too. If it's on the shelves, I'm allowed to buy more than one, and I don't need to justify my reasons for it. I can keep it if I want, give them to friends or sell on ebay. Or to hell with it, I'll just burn every god damn Windcharger in the store just to spite everyone else.

PS: I've got some great stuff to sell you!

It Is Him wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:If I see something in a store that I can resell for twice as much, I'm going to do it as many times as I can. $$$$!

And that's precisely the type of thinking that makes us vilify scalpers. It's greed, plain and simple, and it ruins the hobby for others. Especially children.

**** the kids. I'm a consumer, too. If it's on the shelves, I'm allowed to buy more than one, and I don't need to justify my reasons for it. I can keep it if I want, give them to friends or sell on ebay. Or to hell with it, I'll just burn every god damn Windcharger in the store just to spite everyone else.

PS: I've got some great stuff to sell you!

Wow. What part of "Keep it civil!" in Bishop's opening post did you not read? This is hugely inflammatory and begging to pick a fight. One I will not engage in, but I will comment on it.

Wow.

I noticed that someone was oh-so concerned about the children, but didn't feel bad about grabbing that last Laserbeak or one of the last Powerglides.

You know, I'm not serious about burning any toys, right? I mean come on, that's like burning about $5 in scalper dough, per toy, right?

And I really do have great toys to sell you. I don't have to sell 'em. I could keep 'em if I chose.

I honestly don't mind the scalpers as long as their doing a general service to the fandom. examples: like taking care of older out of production toys that are over 10 to 20+years ago. going the extra mile by keeping them as mint as possible & in excellent collectors condition.

I dis-like the botcon scalpers. but can't go into great detail why because i'll get banned if I do so.

I live on the far,far east coast of America,so we get newer TF toys dead last. because of this we don't have much scalpers running to stores & buying up everything.

This is why I love the bigger sized new mold TF toy like leaders & supremes,because the shipping fees are a lot & this is a scalpers NIGHTMARE. Scalpers can't charge beyond high shipping cost & make extra money off shipping fees. scalpers don't like buying bigger/heavier TF toys because they know buyers don't like to pay $12 to $20 in shipping fees in america between the states.

Galvatron X wrote:I noticed that someone was oh-so concerned about the children, but didn't feel bad about grabbing that last Laserbeak or one of the last Powerglides.

Cute.

There obviously had been other Laserbeaks before I got mine. There were several wave 3 cases. You and I have every right to get one for our collection, nowhere did I say we had to sacrifice everything. Don't stretch the truth 'til it breaks.

Oh and when I bought Powerglide, I had no idea the scalper was going to come along and buy up the rest.

And please don't tell me you haven't bought the last one, of anything. I'm sure you've had that chance and took it.

I think i've been pretty fortunate, I live in an area with next to no TF fans (other than those darn kids) so haven't had to deal too much with scalping.

Until DOTM. As far as i'm concerned, Australian retailers have become scalpers. Slow to put their stock out, AND they've put the prices up despite being able to import at a cheaper price.

But that's an entirely different discussion.

Does it exist? I have no doubt about it. Some are bastards for do it, while others like Amelie are doing it just to get by.

What age childeren are we talking about here? When I see kiddos in stores these days all I hear them say is " Oh mommy/daddy I like the bright green one" or " Oh look at that one it's Bumblebee!!" .. let's be serious guys, how many kids wake up and think to themselves, " Man I really need to get a case fresh Warpath today"..

Sure scalpers do their part to jack up prices and make certain figures more rare than they should be. Hell I spent the last 2 days driving around my city hitting every ross, tj maxx and marshalls I could find. I found lots of great figures, some of which I do plan on reselling. most of them I have already sold to members of this site. While there are some unscrupulous people out there that cause the avg collector alot of frustration, companies knowing a certain figure will be a huge hit and limiting them in a case doesn't help either.

I'm not so much concearned with the kids for the reason LiKwid stated. I think we shouldn't overrate the passion of children for their toys. If I want a certain figure, I'm not going to leave the last one in fear of some hypothetical child maybe wanting that specific figure a toystore is able to restock.
I once snagged the last 'Twilight Princess' on release day from the shelves right in front of some doubting kid. Karma bit me in the ass the day I wanted a leader Starscream and one guy right before me picked it up, leaving me empty-handed.

Overinflating prices is what bothers me. But then again, customers are what keeps scalpers going. Stop scalping, stop buying.

What did I say about keeping this discussion civil??

Remember the site rules

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The Rules wrote:1. No flaming, trolling, harassing, or baiting other guests.
Flaming should be self evident, trolling means to make posts or threads for the intended purpose of starting an argument, while baiting is any post intended to make another user resort to flaming. Harassment means following a user or group of users around through multiple threads to flame them, bait them, or otherwise cause them to want to avoid the boards because of a user's actions towards them. If there is a discussion and there ends up some sort of disagreement on someones personal opinion, simply try and respect each others opinions without forcing them on others.

Galvatron X wrote:

Prime Riblet wrote:I admit that it truly pisses me off to have not even seen a single Warpath, but whatever. Oh well.

Doubledealer25 wrote:i would love to find a warpath or a HA mudflap when they were out, but nooooo. my view is that scalpers are annoying. you have to realize that other collectors are trying so hard to find a toy for their collection.

I've never seen a Warpath in stores either. But that's just poopy Hasbro distribution - not scalpers, right?

yeah i dont think is the scalpers fault for next to no warpaths. thats all on hasbro.

It's especially bad with store exclusive, they should put a purchase limit on those. Back when I was looking for MP Grimlock I asked the manager when they were getting them in, he told me ONE GUY bought all of them that day. It was the same with Animated Arcee, I'd go in and there would be dozens of Ratchets and not one Arcee. I was lucky enough to get them eventually, only because I work in the same shopping center and go in all the time.

It's ok in some situations, I managed to find an extra HA Mudflap for really cheap that I've been meaning to sell, but I've never sold anything online so I have no idea what I'm doing. Before you start gathering you torches and pitchforks I'm planning on selling it for only $20.

There will come a time when them scalpers will be stuck with too high an inventory and 0 profit margins.

And......whats the big deal with Cyberverse Powerglide anyway?

From where I live, he's just hanging around on the display aisle.

Could scalping somewhat be related to either too much hype or speculation on availability for an otherwise above average fig?

My opinion varies on this subject:

I too know a comic book store owner who will go to TRU and grab ALL exclusives off the shelves, take them to his store and mark them up 30 to 50 a pop (no joke). That, I think is unreasonable. I argued with him over this. The only thing he could come back with is the whole "supply and demand" theory. But I don't think it's right to grab them all so someone will have to come to his store and pay 60 for a 10 dollar toy.

Now when it comes to the con and/or club exclusives, I'm kind of more understanding.For the most part, they are already fewer in numbers and go extremely quickly. I, myself have paid a nice chunk of change for those exclusives, plus I like seeing them go up in value, as opposed to the TRU or Walmart exclusives that don't really hold that kind of value, yet certain specialty stores still sell them like they are.......does this make sense?

headsortails wrote:My opinion varies on this subject:

I too know a comic book store owner who will go to TRU and grab ALL exclusives off the shelves, take them to his store and mark them up 30 to 50 a pop (no joke). That, I think is unreasonable. I argued with him over this. The only thing he could come back with is the whole "supply and demand" theory. But I don't think it's right to grab them all so someone will have to come to his store and pay 60 for a 10 dollar toy.

They are artificially increasing the rarity of the figure from what was originally intended, and now want the customer to pay them more because the figure is only available through them. I agree with you, it's not right.

I live in the UK - the regular retailers and Hasbro ARE the freakin Scalpers.....nobody else needs to bother with our prices.

Motorthing, Hasbro doesn't even know what toys they release here, how can they restrict the flow of the popular ones?

I used to chase down Treasure Hunts from the Hot wheels line before they made the split into regular and super, where the super was the T-hunt.

We ran into scalpers and old "wanna fight ya'" white men. No offense and no joke. We would see them run down the aisle at 8 o'clock in the morning to get to the hot wheel pegs at Target, and this still goes on today.

I worked at Target and Kmart and yes, I scalped all the t-hunts and sell them on ebay. When I actually hunted I could buy a car for a dollar, and sell it for $40 sometime $60 dollars. Johnny Lightning cars can go higher for a white lightning.

I stopped because I have a better job and school, but the profited went straight to TF's. I'm not a scalper of TF's, but I do duplicate and triple my figures when I can, So I may pop up on ebay selling for profit.

Truth be told you snooze you lose.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:It's especially bad with store exclusive, they should put a purchase limit on those. Back when I was looking for MP Grimlock I asked the manager when they were getting them in, he told me ONE GUY bought all of them that day. It was the same with Animated Arcee, I'd go in and there would be dozens of Ratchets and not one Arcee. I was lucky enough to get them eventually, only because I work in the same shopping center and go in all the time.

It's ok in some situations, I managed to find an extra HA Mudflap for really cheap that I've been meaning to sell, but I've never sold anything online so I have no idea what I'm doing. Before you start gathering you torches and pitchforks I'm planning on selling it for only $20.

From my personal experience with various TOYS R US stores. The employees at all my stores were scalpers. they use to hide toys in the back for days/weeks/months & wait for either pay day or until they had enough money saved up until they could buy them.

I know this as fact,because the Hasbro guy use to visit the TRU stores every 3 weeks & re-arrange the shelves. Most of the time the hasbro guy would tell me their are TRU employee who hide stuff in the back in a certain spot. The hasbro guy went in that hiding spot & grabbed me a first release regular colored Armada Jetfire.

other instances I saw,Various TRU employees would get busted/caught hiding star trek toys & transformers toys. they'd get yelled out by management & then get told to put all the items back on the shelves.

One instance I remember,when RID first came out. this one TRU store employee hid all the popular new mold toys. the manager busted/caught him. the Manager was a bit strict & made the guy stand in front of the store & try to encourage customers to buy the RID toys he hid in the back stock room. I remember grabbing a RID super sized Ultra magnus from him & paying for it thru the cashier.

When ever I read that TRU stores are getting TF store exclusive I cringe/get worried. because of the store employees hiding stuff or buying up all the exclusives in high volume units.

My favorite place for store exclusives is walmart because the employees are properly trained & their not allowed to hide stuff or buy up stuff in huge volume units.

bvzxa wrote:Truth be told you snooze you lose.

That little sentence just made me cringe big time. And not in a good way.

Even though I'm not experiencing any scalping where I live (The Netherlands in this case, where the prices aren't worth it), I hold no respect at all for people who simply buy in bulk just to make a profit, effectively leeching from everyone more than the companies do. Seeing members here actually admitting that they do it just makes me a sad bunny:



Unfortunately, there's only one thing you can do against them, which is what I'm doing right now: ignore them, forget EBay, and look at online stores instead. Be patient, and within foreseeable time the items scalped will pop up again, used but still MISB/MOSC, for you to get. Scalpers get no business from me, unless they sell below retail price, effectively making a loss. Who's the one leeching now?

bvzxa wrote:We ran into scalpers and old "wanna fight ya'" white men. No offense and no joke. We would see them run down the aisle at 8 o'clock in the morning to get to the hot wheel pegs at Target, and this still goes on today.

I still see this as well. It is comical to walk around the toy section, them see you, eye you up and sneer at you..

Not too long ago I was in a Target on my lunchbreak and saw one of the old guys I have seen trolling the HW isles, I saw him but acted like I did not, I walked down the action figure isle and a vile plan formed in my head..

I looked around and saw some of the real common Star Wars clone troopers, I said out loud, OH MAN, these are those super rare clone troopers, I have to go to the ATM outside and get some cash..
I walked off then stealthy made my way back and spied on the action figure isle from the back near the nerf items..

Sure enough this old coot came walking from the HW isle, looked around (was looking back and forth the whole time he was walking), walked down the action figure isle, walked up to the Star Wars figs, look around again, then grabbed EVERY CLONE TROOPER THAT WAS ON THE PEGS and put them in his basket.. I followed him as he made his way to the checkout and watched him purchase all of them (I mean this was 20+ figures)..

I got a chuckle..

Cyber Bishop wrote:

bvzxa wrote:We ran into scalpers and old "wanna fight ya'" white men. No offense and no joke. We would see them run down the aisle at 8 o'clock in the morning to get to the hot wheel pegs at Target, and this still goes on today.

I still see this as well. It is comical to walk around the toy section, them see you, eye you up and sneer at you..

Not too long ago I was in a Target on my lunchbreak and saw one of the old guys I have seen trolling the HW isles, I saw him but acted like I did not, I walked down the action figure isle and a vile plan formed in my head..

I looked around and saw some of the real common Star Wars clone troopers, I said out loud, OH MAN, these are those super rare clone troopers, I have to go to the ATM outside and get some cash..
I walked off then stealthy made my way back and spied on the action figure isle from the back near the nerf items..

Sure enough this old coot came walking from the HW isle, looked around (was looking back and forth the whole time he was walking), walked down the action figure isle, walked up to the Star Wars figs, look around again, then grabbed EVERY CLONE TROOPER THAT WAS ON THE PEGS and put them in his basket.. I followed him as he made his way to the checkout and watched him purchase all of them (I mean this was 20+ figures)..

I got a chuckle..

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

bvzxa wrote:Truth be told you snooze you lose.

That little sentence just made me cringe big time. And not in a good way.

Even though I'm not experiencing any scalping where I live (The Netherlands in this case, where the prices aren't worth it), I hold no respect at all for people who simply buy in bulk just to make a profit, effectively leeching from everyone more than the companies do. Seeing members here actually admitting that they do it just makes me a sad bunny:



Unfortunately, there's only one thing you can do against them, which is what I'm doing right now: ignore them, forget EBay, and look at online stores instead. Be patient, and within foreseeable time the items scalped will pop up again, used but still MISB/MOSC, for you to get. Scalpers get no business from me, unless they sell below retail price, effectively making a loss. Who's the one leeching now?

Thats a cute bunny in that pic.

Here's a custom someone over at Hisstank.com made. Yeah, it's G.I.Joe, but I figured you guys would enjoy this.

Galvatron X wrote:Here's a custom someone over at Hisstank.com made. Yeah, it's G.I.Joe, but I figured you guys would enjoy this.

That made my night!!!