The Energon Pub

Has one here considered a "buying the TFA figures on your behalf" idea for your over-seas forum brethren??

I don't know if you could really offer it as a paid service? (legal issues?) but I'm sure that I - and probably a lot of other TF fans outside of the US certainly wouldn't mind paying a lil extra to get a TFA figure that hasn't been stolen from some factory in China.

I realise it would require a lot of trust / honesty on both ends - but I think as long as it was done reasonably (ie: Retail + Postage + $5 maybe?) you'd have a nice lil packet of extra pocket money, but more importantly help foster a lot of community good-will, and general TF-love

This really belongs in the Carbombia section but I'm going to advise a little more patience. Not only do I live in the US, I live in Philadelphia (the third largest media market in the country) and we haven't seen Animated bot one yet. Another month or so and they'll be mass released and the eBay prices will drop down to retail just like it did with the Movie figures. Just be cool and wait and you'll only be paying a fraction of the current price for legit figures and not funding the Chinese toy piracy rings.

zodconvoy wrote:This really belongs in the Carbombia section but I'm going to advise a little more patience. Not only do I live in the US, I live in Philadelphia (the third largest media market in the country) and we haven't seen Animated bot one yet. Another month or so and they'll be mass released and the eBay prices will drop down to retail just like it did with the Movie figures. Just be cool and wait and you'll only be paying a fraction of the current price for legit figures and not funding the Chinese toy piracy rings.

Thinking like this only adds to the problem.

For weeks, I couldn't get anyone to help me find the figures I wanted for Animated. I posted want ads, I got jerked around by people who made false promises, only to hold out for more money.

Finally, a member over at TFans (really good guy btw) helped me get the figures I needed and I paid him $5.00 extra per figure and it was still cheaper than going to all of the stores or online to find them.

Because he was willing to go the extra mile (and he would've done it even without me offering the $5.00, but I figured he deserved the payment) I now have Animated figures sitting on my shelves.

All it takes is the kindness of one person to make a difference for others. If we all stopped thinking about numero uno, this fandom and this world would be a much nicer place to live in.

I've said it before, I'll say it again...I can't believe how many selfish people there are, in this fandom. It's sickening. It's all powered by greed. Whether through money or hoarding...it's all greed.

And it makes me sick.

ELITISM!!


I HAVE IT, SO YOU SHOULDN'T!! MEMEME!



Maybe when animated is a little easier to come by.

Dealer wrote:ELITISM!!


I HAVE IT, SO YOU SHOULDN'T!! MEMEME!



Maybe when animated is a little easier to come by.

Easier to come by? The Cincinnati region (parts of Kentucky included) is still receiving stock as we speak. Wave 1 + 2 Deluxes, Wave 1 Voyagers.

I keep seeing more and more posts about Blackarachnia and Ratchet showing up, etc.

Not to mention, our Canadian friends in Ontario seem to find them pretty regularly.

I'd say someone in one of those two regions could easily find the figures someone else needs, especially if they're willing to pay extra.

I had to throw my $5.00 per figure offer at people just to get them to take notice and they still wouldn't do it, even for a $35.00 profit!

Who doesn't want to make money? Seriously?

My area is NOTORIOUS for not getting toys on the proper release dates....or they get them, and sell them out directly from the backs of the trucks they arrived in on (Wal Mart is SO guilty of this by me, it makes me sick!)...So I have been working on a "relay system" to get the toys from people in other areas that do not have this same issue...and, of course, tossing in a nominal fee for their services....It is only fair, after all!

I get what I want, yet can't get here....and my partner gets a nice "finders' fee" as well! Gotta love a touch of teamwork from time to time!

Maybe this is flawed thinking on my part, but I try to buy as much of my collection as I can locally, in the hope this encourages local stores to stock more Transformers in the future. The line goes on general release in, what? A month? Have some patience. Besides, it's more fun to go hunting yourself instead of having someone do it for you.

Sledge wrote:Maybe this is flawed thinking on my part, but I try to buy as much of my collection as I can locally, in the hope this encourages local stores to stock more Transformers in the future. The line goes on general release in, what? A month? Have some patience. Besides, it's more fun to go hunting yourself instead of having someone do it for you.

Have you seen gas prices!?!?!? I have and they are killing most of us.

I don't mind hunting sometimes but only if I'm killing 2 birds with 1 stone a.k.a groceries/medicine/toys all in the same store. When I do I sometimes try and notify friends beforehand and pick up rare finds for them while I'm out. That's how me and my brothers finish collections. Whoever finds a toy on another persons wishlist just gets it. That's how the guys in the Mich thread do and I encourage others to do so as well. To me it's how collector communities should operate.

Now if we only had contacts overseas we could get our hands on those Japanese exclusives. I'd be more than willing to help someone make a few extra dollars for those Arcee repaints.

Okay, okay, okay....I live in the Cincinnati area, and I can obtain any Animated figures you will need. The "finders fee" can be negotiated(I like the $5 extra per item, that will help pay for gas and time and packing materials), plus you can pay for shipping. I have a Paypal account if you want to pay that way. Please PM me and we can see what we can work out. I'm not going to rob you, I am very trustworthy, and I'll give you whatever info you need to raise this belief(I am an Eagle Scout lol). Let me know....
Kevin

Star_ling wrote:Have you seen gas prices!?!?!? I have and they are killing most of us.

I live in the UK. I'm presuming you live in America. When your petrol prices reach ours, THEN you can complain.

How much is gas in the UK? We're pushing $4 a gallon here ugh...

Locally, for unleaded, you're looking at £1.10 a litre or more.

Sledge wrote:

Star_ling wrote:Have you seen gas prices!?!?!? I have and they are killing most of us.

I live in the UK. I'm presuming you live in America. When your petrol prices reach ours, THEN you can complain.

I complain because of how little money I make and the fact that I'm starting school again and my mothers health problems are increasing and we may not be able to afford home schooling for my 2 younger brother, which may force me to postpone school. Add that to rising gas and you get something for me personally to complain about.

Don't get me wrong I understand we don't have the worse prices ever but for my family any rise is a big deal.

Anyway how much are you guys paying in dollars?

Let's see...2.2 litres per gallon, so 2.5 quid per gallon approximately, that's like 5+ bucks a gallon. I am sorry for you, that sucks.

Megatron's Lapdog wrote:How much is gas in the UK? We're pushing $4 a gallon here ugh...

After you convert liters to gallons and pounds sterling to dollars I think they get stuck with like $12/gallon or something like that....

I can do the math later if need be....

Right, let me dig out some calculations. 4.55 litres to the gallon so that's £5 a gallon. xe.com says thats $9.73 a gallon. Keep in mind that £1.10 a litre is a slightly low estimate. I don't drive, but my father paid £1.12 a litre last time he filled up.

Megatron's Lapdog wrote:Let's see...2.2 litres per gallon, so 2.5 quid per gallon approximately, that's like 5+ bucks a gallon. I am sorry for you, that sucks.

Some places are actually approaching this price in the US. I am on vacation right now, and I drove from Missouri to Florida.....cost me around $120 in gas ONE WAY! It hurt a bit...correction....it hurt A LOT! Wallet is still smoking, and I still gotta drive home!


Ah well, I have gotten my ducks in a row regarding how I am to score the TF:A figures my collection requires, since I cannot count on local stores to carry them! I gots peoples!

Sledge wrote:Right, let me dig out some calculations. 4.55 litres to the gallon so that's £5 a gallon. xe.com says thats $9.73 a gallon. Keep in mind that £1.10 a litre is a slightly low estimate. I don't drive, but my father paid £1.12 a litre last time he filled up.

US Gallon is actually different to our gallon - the multiplier is 3.785, not 4.55.

That makes £4.2392 / US gallon, or $8.25. Still extortionate, though - something like 70% of the cost here is taxes.

$8.25 a gallon.....You might as well bend over for the Oil companies and go "Thank you sir, may I have another!!!" Didn't we go to war with Iraq to get more oil(I'm sorry, depose Saddam? cough cough)?

Megatron's Lapdog wrote:$8.25 a gallon.....You might as well bend over for the Oil companies and go "Thank you sir, may I have another!!!" Didn't we go to war with Iraq to get more oil(I'm sorry, depose Saddam? cough cough)?

Makes me wish everything was in walking distance. At least bus fare is the same. At least for the moment.

Well life doesn't suck but can be extremely trying at times. I gotta learn not to whine about it is all.

When we're complaining about gas, we're complaining about using gas to hunt for formers. I live in South Houston and I've had guys in North Houston (~40-50 miles) ask me to ship them stuff rather then meet up. Shipping = $4-$6. Meetup = $8-$10 in gas.

Back on topic. I was in Cincinnati for Botcon and it's pretty spread out, gas-cost-wise. Also, buying one entire wave = 10 figures. Two waves = 20 figures. I have no shame with buying a bunch of transformers but it gets pretty embarassing when they notice you buying 2 or 3 of the SAME exact figures!!! So it's not just greed. Remember that whatever you offer above cost+shipping has to cover a lot of items before it becomes profitable:
1) gas
2) paypal fees
3) packing
4) time
5) shame factor
6) tying up of cash
7) storage space
small chance but if there's a problem with the shipping it's a bitch to deal with the post office
9) etc.

Just my two cents.

Note:
You can't really compare $10 gas in England to $4 gas in the US. In England everything costs double but they also get paid double!!!! The british gas price is actually only slightly higher then what you'd paid in California. =)

One wave
1) Optimus/Megatron 2-pack $22
2) Voyager Megatron $22
3) Voyager Starscream $22
4) Voyager Bulkhead $22
5) Deluxe Bumblebee $11
6) Deluxe Prowl $11
7) Deluxe Lockdown $11
Deluxe Optimus $11
9) Deluxe Ratchet $11
10) Deluxe BlackA $11
Total = $154 (that's a lot of cash to put down at one time)

Autoclot wrote:US Gallon is actually different to our gallon - the multiplier is 3.785, not 4.55.

That makes £4.2392 / US gallon, or $8.25. Still extortionate, though - something like 70% of the cost here is taxes.

Ah, thank you. I was about to start rooting round the 'net after remembering there are some differences between UK and US units of measure. Still, sucks to be us.

Anyhoo, I prefer to buy locally where possible in the hope that this will keep local stores stocking TFs. Am I just fooling myself?

videriant wrote:When we're complaining about gas, we're complaining about using gas to hunt for formers. I live in South Houston and I've had guys in North Houston (~40-50 miles) ask me to ship them stuff rather then meet up. Shipping = $4-$6. Meetup = $8-$10 in gas.

Back on topic. I was in Cincinnati for Botcon and it's pretty spread out, gas-cost-wise. Also, buying one entire wave = 10 figures. Two waves = 20 figures. I have no shame with buying a bunch of transformers but it gets pretty embarassing when they notice you buying 2 or 3 of the SAME exact figures!!! So it's not just greed. Remember that whatever you offer above cost+shipping has to cover a lot of items before it becomes profitable:
1) gas
2) paypal fees
3) packing
4) time
5) shame factor
6) tying up of cash
7) storage space
small chance but if there's a problem with the shipping it's a bitch to deal with the post office
9) etc.

Just my two cents.

Note:
You can't really compare $10 gas in England to $4 gas in the US. In England everything costs double but they also get paid double!!!! The british gas price is actually only slightly higher then what you'd paid in California. =)

One wave
1) Optimus/Megatron 2-pack $22
2) Voyager Megatron $22
3) Voyager Starscream $22
4) Voyager Bulkhead $22
5) Deluxe Bumblebee $11
6) Deluxe Prowl $11
7) Deluxe Lockdown $11
Deluxe Optimus $11
9) Deluxe Ratchet $11
10) Deluxe BlackA $11
Total = $154 (that's a lot of cash to put down at one time)

That is a lot! Right now the only "must have" is Blitzwing. So I have a while to save.

Feel free to start a thread in this forum Buy/SellTrade and we can do networking for figures that people are looking for. It doesn't have to be limited to one area, it can be all over.

But remember you do all this at your own risk. If you post a want or have in the thread, I would strongly suggest you provide some form of feedback to the group. EBay, here, another website, whatever.

Regarding gas prices...

How about this. Leave the gas-guzzling machine at home. Know which store(s) you're going to visit, call ahead to make sure you're not wasting your time and hop on the bus. $2.50ish later, you've got your toys. Forget spending 10 bucks on gas idling in traffic for hours while you check every store in town, in a frenzy to get your figures. Plan ahead and you've only spent a couple hours and a little bit of money on transportation.