The Energon Pub

[n7ghost]

Hello fellow bot lovers! Longtime reader, first time posting.

I did read the rules and guidelines, as far as I understand this shouldn't violate them.... If this does violate any rules/guidelines, I do apologize it is not my intent to start drama. This post is me simply venting, and hopefully discuss collector ethics as it were.

I would just like to discuss one of the more frustrating problems I encounter as a young at heart toy collector. Whom among you has ever encountered the reseller that buys all the units of a new wave release in stores? I have literally walked into the toy sections of my local Walmart/Target, and have seen a customer turn the corner with a cart full of the fresh shelved product! The display is a mess because the just drop the unwanted models off the hanger, I've even walked into the isle and the remaining boxes are still swinging..... Now I'm not talking about the customer that happens about the latest release, and has the means to purchase one of everything to add to their collection. I mean the person that cleans out every single piece with the sole intention of reselling at a profit, the Ebay and Amazon Sellers that hike up the price 100 to 200%! I get it, capitalism, supply and demand is their prerogative and they seize opportunity.

Having shared my frustration, now comes my struggle as a collector that is part of this awesome community; I love contributing to the Toy Sightings Sections, I sometimes will visit 6-8 stores in a day scouting the inventory and sharing my findings when I can. I admit I sometimes forget or get distracted... and lets be honest, trying to enter all the sightings on a mobile browser is tedious at best. And I will admit sometimes I don't want to share because of the collector profiteers picking the display clean. I want to contribute to the community and share my finds, it's kind of exciting to score a model that's ETA is still a month or more out. It is equally as frustrating when one's efforts and footwork is allowing Ebay/Amazon sellers to just go straight to the stores being identified as having the best selection of new releases, with the sole intention of buying everything. It makes me not even want to submit toy sightings at all, and just keep to myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't know, maybe this is trivial nonsense. I just wanted to see if there were others that have experienced this and/or feel the same.

[Nathaniel Prime]

Sorry for the late reply (Exactly 2 months late, again, sorry), but I sometimes feel the same way.

I searched for months for that elusive SS38 Prime, and in the very few times I did find him, I didn't have the money, and every time I came back the next day, it was just gone (UPC codes did not help because the codes of each individual figure are the exact same as every other figure in the store, meaning the staff were confusing SS38 with either Megatron or SS32).

I want to post sightings, because there is a much greater chance of true fans going to be able to buy these figures, rather than scalpers who steal them in secret.

If people want to make money off of figures, then I have a genius way of doing it: buy and sell wholesale toys. You'd buy a case of new figures, and then sell those figures for retail (or less), and you'd be making a profit.

Heck, you could buy a case just to get a figure you like, keep one, and sell the other for cheap to cover the cost of the case. That way, you'd essentially be getting figures for free.

I recommend using this site: NDA-Toys.com