The Energon Pub

Put these workers on blast! Panorama City Wal Mart in southern Cali for sure has workers that buy figures before they even reach the pegs.

Exhibit one: i went to my wal mart (panorama) and it just so happens they were stocking and bringing out their toy palettes. I waited for a while hoping that maybe a TF hasbro deluxe boxes would roll out their back room. So i waited, and lo and behold, TF voyager boxes come out. I was excited so i go in for a closer inspection. However, i noticed a couple of workers in the toy dept crowd around the boxes.... i wanted to see what was in the boxes, so imagine me as a shark circling around the workers who are surrounding theses boxes. As im circling near by i notice that all the TF voyager boxes were already opened before they even reached the toy dept. This is a no no because the toy stocker is supposed to do that, not the person who hauls the boxes out. I watching, maybe about 3 or 4 workers looking in the boxes. Anyway when i saw this i was like "WTF!!" Cause they already got dibs before anyone else did.

Exhibit two: as im circling nearby pretending to mind my own business, im actually eavesdropping on them suckers. I over hear things like, "Yea i was looking for the yellow one"...."I bought jazz when he came in last time"...."Oh, what do we got in these boxes?" These foos are all searching through what they got in their new shipments, especially when theyre supposed to be working. But finally a manager notices the workers crowding around the boxes, so he comes in to see whats going on. He notices the boxes were opened,in fact, he saw one of those guys that hauls the boxes out opening the voyager boxes. He simply tells him, that he's not supposed to do that.... But guess what, Mr. Manager here take a look in the box too and says, "Ooh, theres a Starscream in here." After that, I was like "mother @#$%^ !!" They finally all leave and go back to their duties, so now im like a vulture who get to see the remains.... There was nothing in particular that i needed, and so i was glad that they didnt take anything that was HTF. But im pretty sure when a deluxe box comes in, it'll be a sure shot bumblebee, long arm, final battle jazz, and payload wont be there. Kinda sucks that we dont really have a chance since they work there and got dibs.... Id complain, but you know how that effective is against wal mart. Oh well

That sucks ass, but at the same time it's hilarious.

"Ooh,a Starscream."

I like this thread. It is very bold. This happens with every hot item in these kind of retailers. I had the honor of finding xbox 360s for 2 families 3 weeks before xmas (the 1st year they were released- OOS everywhere). As luck would have it , I knew the inventory systems of most of the retailers and knew how to coerce employees from other stores to enter skus and not know what I was talking about. Well, I found a Circuit City that had some 360s in stock- when I got to CC I asked them if they had any- I was turned away. So when I got home I called them and spoke with a new employee- she said they in fact had them- I rushed to CC and asked the lady that had turned me away to get a 360 from the back from me- she just stared at me in disbelief- I could hear her argue with the employees to bring one to the front. She wouldnt even check me out (all of a sudden the manager called her into his office), another employee came in and started asking me how I knew...blah, blah, blah. Apparently (just from observation) the manager had held stock from the floor for the employees (my war with them meant that other customers would demand the same)- I saw alot of them start calling their families to get down their immediately (it took an hour to checkout). Some of them were really upset with me, but in the end I had a great Xmas getting 2 phone calls from families (non-relatives) thanking me for a Christmas miracle (I got the other 360 online).

Here's an interesting WM story I read online once:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/walmart/index.html

This thread represent everything wrong with retail distribution. Hasbro should further enhance its online website and offer deals to quell the need for collectors to buy and be screwed by such underhanded retail practices.

"Action", "Back Door" and "Wal-Mart" should not go in the same sentence.

Just one of the perks of the job...

I have a friend who works in my local walmart and hooks me up with info when stuff comes in.

I don't see anything wrong with this. Id do the same thing if I was them, and I think so would most of you. Because there in the company they see the inner workings, and I find if you ask them nicely they tend to be very helpful instead of hovering around.

If you work at a bakery you get fresh bread, If you work at a brewery you get free beer (or at least discounts), same is true here its just one of the perks. Oh, and if you were working for min wage at a walmart would you care if you took 10 minutes to check out the cool stuff hitting the floor

Swines! That really isn't on but I can see that it will happen if the staff are collectors. Can you really blame them though? Wouldn't you do the same if you had the chance. Perhaps they are being sneaky and clever by keeping them out of sight until they are officially put on the shelves and then walking them to the register?

Hmm but if they are using phrases like

"...."Oh, what do we got in these boxes?"

then they cant be all that intelligent can they?

I guess that's one of the few perks of working a crap job like Wal-Mart. Hopefully they are at least fans or collectors and now eBay scalpers.

I do know for a fact this goes on at my local Targets, as I used to see their employees at the local comic store, selling the toys they were supposed to be stocking.

Xgamer wrote:I like this thread. It is very bold. This happens with every hot item in these kind of retailers. I had the honor of finding xbox 360s for 2 families 3 weeks before xmas (the 1st year they were released- OOS everywhere). As luck would have it , I knew the inventory systems of most of the retailers and knew how to coerce employees from other stores to enter skus and not know what I was talking about. Well, I found a Circuit City that had some 360s in stock- when I got to CC I asked them if they had any- I was turned away. So when I got home I called them and spoke with a new employee- she said they in fact had them- I rushed to CC and asked the lady that had turned me away to get a 360 from the back from me- she just stared at me in disbelief- I could hear her argue with the employees to bring one to the front. She wouldnt even check me out (all of a sudden the manager called her into his office), another employee came in and started asking me how I knew...blah, blah, blah. Apparently (just from observation) the manager had held stock from the floor for the employees (my war with them meant that other customers would demand the same)- I saw alot of them start calling their families to get down their immediately (it took an hour to checkout). Some of them were really upset with me, but in the end I had a great Xmas getting 2 phone calls from families (non-relatives) thanking me for a Christmas miracle (I got the other 360 online).

You sir, are a genious and a defender of the people.

Grimlock_CA wrote:Just one of the perks of the job...

I have a friend who works in my local walmart and hooks me up with info when stuff comes in.

I don't see anything wrong with this. Id do the same thing if I was them, and I think so would most of you. Because there in the company they see the inner workings, and I find if you ask them nicely they tend to be very helpful instead of hovering around.

If you work at a bakery you get fresh bread, If you work at a brewery you get free beer (or at least discounts), same is true here its just one of the perks. Oh, and if you were working for min wage at a walmart would you care if you took 10 minutes to check out the cool stuff hitting the floor

oh for sure i would be doing the same thing. its just one of those things where its okay if you do it, but its bad if someone else does it....
....as for asking them nicely, it does work to an extent. i did ask one of the box hauler (not the same one in the incident) to open a couple of boxes for me a few weeks back, and he did. and because of this i became a regular face around there during stocking time to hopefully to find a case of deluxe figs. but because of me coming everyday to their store at that time, waiting for them to unload the boxes, they became less helpful and even rude....
....one thing that i didnt mention in my incident was that when they all left and i was able to take a look at the voyager boxes, i was taking a peek inside the boxes to see who they got. while i was doing this, a lady who was part of the original crowd of workers who was looking in the same boxes earlier approached me and said "Excuse me! you cant be looking at those," well, i asked why not because all these boxes were all brought out and were in the toy dept. She said, "well, if the manager sees you looking through the boxes its us, the workers who get in trouble." Now, let me remind you that these boxes were already open to begin with, i was not the one who opened them. These boxes were open as clear as day and all i needed to do was lift one of the box flaps to take a closer look in a few of the boxes. These boxes were amongst the aisles where people shop, fully opened, and i believe as long as theyre out there, they are considered merchandise. But this lady insisted that i not look through the boxes and that i come back tomorrow morning if i wish to see what was in the boxes. i guess because i was a familiar face around the toy aisle for around the same time for the past week, they knew i bought a big majority of the TF toys, and they wanted to shun me away; im part of the reason why they are sold out of TF deluxe figs. so despite this ladys attitude, i did not want to complain or argue due to the fact that this is the only wal mart near my house and one of my only sources for TF figs, and so i agreed to come back the next morning. i just think its shady that the toys are pretty much out in display in their storage boxes out in the open but you cant purchase them.... especially when theyll technically be out of those boxes in a few hours.

And this is news? LOL!

I used to work at Toys R Us for a few months back in 2005. This stuff happened ALL the time. It was one of the perks of working there. Certainly few items had restrictions, like when PSP was coming out, but generally that's all I remember. If you wanted a toy and were in the know of when stuff was coming you could buy anything you wanted.

I saw it all:
- Going through hotwheels for those damn treasure hunt cars (what's with those ridiculous things?)
- Marvel Legends getting yanked and held in a hiding spot in the back room
- Star Wars figures getting held
- First dibs on heavily marked down clearance items (some good stuff too!)

Of course some people know the collectors who come through and they save stuff for them. I had regulars who seemed to know every day things would get in on the truck. Many had the UPC numbers and we could check with the manifest online in the internal terminal on what exactly was on the truck for the next shipment. So if anyone tells you they don't know what comes in on the truck, that's a load of bullcrap, I guarantee that. You could even look up by keyword and find stuff, but an employee has to look it up.

It's amazing the stuff these collectors/scalpers seem to be able to find. They have nothing better to do than walk in these stores everyday. They make the rounds to almost every store. They keep in contact with others and when you walk in the store wondering why you can't find anything, keep in mind:

1. There's store employees who are there for more than just making minumum wage
2. There are collectors & Scalpers who are heavily in the loop on these toys and WILL be there before the store opens and buy as much as they can afford to re-sell (if it's a scalper)

I reccommend that if you can, get to these stores just before they open. Your chances will be much greater at finding stuff. There is actually quite a bit out there, but too many single individuals make these hard to find by how much they hoard, this being the scalpers.

I was a big toy collector for a while and you wouldn't believe some of the jerks I came across. I only wanted one of each for myself, but some of these guys would just be relentless. Some guys you think are collectors aren't. Especially when you see the volume they buy at times. They know variants and what is rare. They will raid the pegs to find the good stuff and leave the rest behind. If they can't afford to buy all the pristine condition toys, they've been known to dog-ear or purposely damage packaging for those wanting to keep them in package.

I actually have been working on a fan movie for a long time based on a moire exaggerated form of the collectors and scalpers called Toy Wars. We started shooting in late '98 and are just getting done this year with it. It's basically about a massive underground network of scalpers and their quest to find a rare toy that could ruin collectors forever (blah blah). The site is located at:
http://www.toywars.org

It's been in production forever, but I hope we'll be done this year. Anyway it was just for fun and was loosely based on some experiences that inspired making it.

I really hate scalpers.

Meh, one of the perks of the job as it has been said. Besides at my work if I see a person doing that, they take ONE (although I work at TRU not Wal Mart). Then they bring the box out to the shelf and some dude with aviator glasses and a stained t-shirt grabs ALL the rest of the hard to get ones he can, and waits for the next box to come out. Employees getting "dibs" works both ways too. Say theres a TRU or Walmart you regularly go to and one of the toy guys knows you, you might know that you'll be getting an 08 BB off the next truck....

Also, I cant speak for walmart, but I know in Canada TRU has a team of people working for head office that does nothing but search internet listing sites and ebay looking for employees selling toys. Of course the first thing they go for is video game systems and games, but you would be surprised how many people get busted for action figures and cars. They are seriously pissed off about scalpers.

It would be understandable because as others have said its one of the few perks of the job, but it sounds like they didn't know what they were talking about. They just sound like assholes who buy whats rare and resells them for double the price. I hate people like that. I hate more the people who the overpriced **** from them.

The circle would be broken if everyone just was patient and waited for more of that toy to hit stores ('08 BB for instance).

SB

How is this different than the majority of the people who post on these forums?

Versa wrote:Of course some people know the collectors who come through and they save stuff for them. I had regulars who seemed to know every day things would get in on the truck. Many had the UPC numbers and we could check with the manifest online in the internal terminal on what exactly was on the truck for the next shipment. So if anyone tells you they don't know what comes in on the truck, that's a load of bullcrap, I guarantee that. You could even look up by keyword and find stuff, but an employee has to look it up.

When I am looking for something specific I always call or show up with a UPC, SKU or DPCI number. Asking someone to look up a number is so much easier than trying to explain to them what it is that you want.

Versa wrote:It's amazing the stuff these collectors/scalpers seem to be able to find. They have nothing better to do than walk in these stores everyday. They make the rounds to almost every store. They keep in contact with others and when you walk in the store wondering why you can't find anything, keep in mind:

1. There's store employees who are there for more than just making minumum wage
2. There are collectors & Scalpers who are heavily in the loop on these toys and WILL be there before the store opens and buy as much as they can afford to re-sell (if it's a scalper)

Again, this isn't any different than the majority of the people who post on these forums. There is an entire forum dedicated to sightings with threads of people in specific areas keeping in touch with each other about what is where.

Versa wrote:I reccommend that if you can, get to these stores just before they open. Your chances will be much greater at finding stuff. There is actually quite a bit out there, but too many single individuals make these hard to find by how much they hoard, this being the scalpers.

I hoard. I have picked up a ton of stuff for people on the forums but I'm not a scalper. Cost + Shipping. The last run I made to Fort Wayne I picked up a bunch of Classic Devastator and Alt. Rumble and Ravage for people who couldn't find them local.

Versa wrote:I was a big toy collector for a while and you wouldn't believe some of the jerks I came across. I only wanted one of each for myself, but some of these guys would just be relentless. Some guys you think are collectors aren't. Especially when you see the volume they buy at times. They know variants and what is rare. They will raid the pegs to find the good stuff and leave the rest behind. If they can't afford to buy all the pristine condition toys, they've been known to dog-ear or purposely damage packaging for those wanting to keep them in package.

Like I said, I buy a ton of stuff. It's not always for me. I also know the variants and what is rare for every toyline I collect. It's part of the fun. As far as packages being damaged, the only time I have seen that happen are when kids do it.

It's frustrating, fun and rewarding (for me anyway) to hunt, not find and/or find what I'm looking for. If I could walk into any store and always find what I wanted right away the hobby wouldn't be nearly as entertaining to me.

JTKranix wrote:How is this different than the majority of the people who post on these forums?

Versa wrote:Of course some people know the collectors who come through and they save stuff for them. I had regulars who seemed to know every day things would get in on the truck. Many had the UPC numbers and we could check with the manifest online in the internal terminal on what exactly was on the truck for the next shipment. So if anyone tells you they don't know what comes in on the truck, that's a load of bullcrap, I guarantee that. You could even look up by keyword and find stuff, but an employee has to look it up.

When I am looking for something specific I always call or show up with a UPC, SKU or DPCI number. Asking someone to look up a number is so much easier than trying to explain to them what it is that you want.

Versa wrote:It's amazing the stuff these collectors/scalpers seem to be able to find. They have nothing better to do than walk in these stores everyday. They make the rounds to almost every store. They keep in contact with others and when you walk in the store wondering why you can't find anything, keep in mind:

1. There's store employees who are there for more than just making minumum wage
2. There are collectors & Scalpers who are heavily in the loop on these toys and WILL be there before the store opens and buy as much as they can afford to re-sell (if it's a scalper)

Again, this isn't any different than the majority of the people who post on these forums. There is an entire forum dedicated to sightings with threads of people in specific areas keeping in touch with each other about what is where.

Versa wrote:I reccommend that if you can, get to these stores just before they open. Your chances will be much greater at finding stuff. There is actually quite a bit out there, but too many single individuals make these hard to find by how much they hoard, this being the scalpers.

I hoard. I have picked up a ton of stuff for people on the forums but I'm not a scalper. Cost + Shipping. The last run I made to Fort Wayne I picked up a bunch of Classic Devastator and Alt. Rumble and Ravage for people who couldn't find them local.

Versa wrote:I was a big toy collector for a while and you wouldn't believe some of the jerks I came across. I only wanted one of each for myself, but some of these guys would just be relentless. Some guys you think are collectors aren't. Especially when you see the volume they buy at times. They know variants and what is rare. They will raid the pegs to find the good stuff and leave the rest behind. If they can't afford to buy all the pristine condition toys, they've been known to dog-ear or purposely damage packaging for those wanting to keep them in package.

Like I said, I buy a ton of stuff. It's not always for me. I also know the variants and what is rare for every toyline I collect. It's part of the fun. As far as packages being damaged, the only time I have seen that happen are when kids do it.

It's frustrating, fun and rewarding (for me anyway) to hunt, not find and/or find what I'm looking for. If I could walk into any store and always find what I wanted right away the hobby wouldn't be nearly as entertaining to me.

Those are the rule of the game.

Pay attention players.

Grimlock_CA wrote:Just one of the perks of the job...

I have a friend who works in my local walmart and hooks me up with info when stuff comes in.

I don't see anything wrong with this. Id do the same thing if I was them, and I think so would most of you. Because there in the company they see the inner workings, and I find if you ask them nicely they tend to be very helpful instead of hovering around.

If you work at a bakery you get fresh bread, If you work at a brewery you get free beer (or at least discounts), same is true here its just one of the perks. Oh, and if you were working for min wage at a walmart would you care if you took 10 minutes to check out the cool stuff hitting the floor

I have to agree...if I worked there, and there were only ONE G1 Titanium Ultra Magnus per, say 10 cases, you can bet your ass I would snag it before the customers had a chance!

It sucks for us not on the inside, but I can't blame anyone for doing it...

Check the gondolas too. Some people hide stuff inside the lower metal shelving units on the floor level. You never know what can pop up sometimes.


Point taken on the hoarding, but as long as you're doing it for others. I'm talking about the people who go out to buy and re-sell these are the jerks. The people doing a service of cost plus shipping is different and that's okay, but many are out to make $$ off these.

Skowl wrote:"Action", "Back Door" and "Wal-Mart" should not go in the same sentence.

...okay, that just totally wrecked me.

X-D