I personally have a strict "DO NOT FEED THE SCALPERS" policy. I know with patience and dilligence, I'll eventually find everything I want at retail. I may not be the first kid on the block with it, but I'll own it eventually

_________________

Ha ha ha, thanks a lot bro, I needed that. (I'm not being sarcastic here, this is genuine,) It does get a little crazy in this hobby.
Have a good one.

Uh-huh. Being friends with Hasbro and getting stuff shipped to you from them doesn't factor into it at all, I'm sure.



The Viper has exploded into stores. I see it everywhere. It helps that it was double-packed in two waves that hit almost simultaneously.

BUT... I've never seen Wild Bill. I've never seen a number of other recent figures. They show up once... and they're gone, never to return.

Even more so, the exclusives. Toys R Us sets? They hit the shelves once... and they're gone... for good. The Target vehicles? Target got one shipment of them and they're gone... for good.



You're a very bad person to compare with. Seriously.



They're being distributed... ONCE. And someone is getting there first. And that's it. They're not being distributed AGAIN. That's my only gripe.

I'm not a major fan of this line any more. I'll buy a few here and there, but only if I see them in the stores. I'm not paying extra for shipping or "this figure is hotter than those other figures" mark-ups.

That's my way to avoid the rage and frustration. Just don't care. Makes things much easier.

_________________

Yeah that's what I've gotten into the habit of doing. I haven't been making special trips to get the figures. Now that I'm not I'm starting to find the left overs from shipments a couple of the stores have got. Scalpers are getting there first. And yes I know it's scalpers because there's a Wal-Mart that I know the toy department manager. He knows the people he sees and has told me. Wal-Mart is a place though just like Target that puts the stock out and whoever gets there first can buy it. Sometimes they can put stock out later if they get to know the time scalpers check stores. I've heard of them doing that before on purpose. Rather than stocking the action figure section first they'll go stock the game section then the action figures after the scalpers hit and left. That's another story though...

And yeah, we all love you Justin, but we also know you'll pay extra and top dollar to get stuff in as quick as possible. You'll try and be first with it if you can for the review page. That's all fine, but a lot of people are beyond wanting to do that just for their collection. You have a popular page that you want to give people a "first look" and all that. Most have come to the point of wanting to just find them in store and nothing else though. I'm ordering some here and there when I'm able to be online when everyone puts out the word that they're up for ordering. Even then if a person is not online when people post, it's "sold out" before the person can order.

I can say for sure that the 25th Anniversary figures have been asked for at the KB I'm at by the manager, but it's always said "there are none to be sent or allocated in the warehouse". It's known they'll sell at this store, but they just can't get them. Not that they haven't tried either. Products can't actually be "ordered" in the sense of the word we know, but products can be requested due to customer requests. If it's able to be allocated, it'll get sent. So yeah, it still is coming back on Hasbro under producing.

There's an old marketing trick that you can do in retail. You can have 20 of one item that's fairly popular. If you put all 20 out, they'll sell but not too fast. If you put 2 - 5 of them out only each time, you'll sell out fast. Not 1 and not more than 5. It's odd but it plays on the idea of people thinking "there's only this many and I better not wait to get it". I really think that's the game Hasbro is toying around with. They just haven't figured out the best way to work their "system". I can understand they want to sell through their product and not have left overs to send off to Big Lots, but it is getting old having to wait them out to get their marketing right.

_________________

In addition getting Doc nearly a full month before everyone else,

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7802&p=88024&hilit=doc#p88024

No offence just stating it for the record.



Except when orders are being cancelled, which is what happened everywhere and in 8 months it still isn't fixed, yet all the other lines are. But under ordered they were not, they were ordered and then cancelled. Not the same thing. But also Hasbro has admitted they knew of the distribution problems, so yes by thier own admission there was (and appears to still be) distribution problems. They just haven't been addressed well.



I have to agree that the level this has built to is unreal, sorry but this should have been delt with around wave 3 not wave 8 or 9.

I am sorry this looks purposefull and mythodical to me. The slow action the fever. Truthfully it burns a person out after a while.

I'm sure if you really gotta have the latest and greatest Joe figure there's a lot of things you can do to get them. Where does this lead the casual collector? Your good old fashion normal channels? Hoarders and Scalpers are taking more than their fair share. Even if a casual collector is willing to go online they maybe put off when they see the shipping cost for just a single figure. Scalpers remove the normal channels. Well that's capitalism and it still unfair business practices. Everyone who does it, uses them or justifies it should be ashamed.

What are we defining a scalper as? I just want to know because i know of at least one person on this board (no names) that I consider to be a scalper. No one has lamented the lack of Joes on the shelf more than me, yet I still have managed to get every new figure and even finally found the Target exclusives.

I think scalpers are evil just like everyone else, but I still think the problem rests with Hasblo. If they were putting out enough figures, the scalpers wouldn't see Joes as a viable item to sell, except maybe for chase or variant figures. Every other toyshelf seems to be flooded with whatever product except the joe single packs. The Target vehicles I got, I never actually saw on the shelves - a drove 20 miles just to find a shelf tag which I "appropriated" and used to check scanners in other stores(I love that they tell you if there are any in the back) until I happened to be visiting a friend in Connecticut(2 hrs away) and got a hit on the scanner saying there were some in the back that I had to have an employee get for me. Wave 7 I saw twice - once was all damaged cards(which actually probably stopped the scalpers) the second time I got all but the viper and Wild Bill(which Spectre picked up for me TODAY).

I guess my point is, yes scalpers are evil, but I'm not sure if your comic guy counts as a scalper. If he is in fact jacking up the prices like Toywiz, then he is a scumbag, and you should give him no business if possible.

The rule of capitalism is supply and demand. I f the supply meets the demand, prices will level out. Hasbro's distribution system SUCKS. I live in the immediate vicinity of NYC, one of the biggest cities in the world, and it seems like west "LASER BLAST" Ohio(no offense to those that live there, just an example) gets more product alot sooner.

As for how to get stuff, you could try trading on this or other Joe boards, the aforementioned online retailers(a way I'm loathe to go personally but might have no choice if things keep up the way they are), asking at stores(which I do usually to no avail, but occasionally[see Target example above] comes up a winner, or we could keep [LASER BLAST] to Hasbro and hope they straighten things out.

Sorry for the longwindedness, but I'm pretty fed up with the state of things right now.

_________________

Come on now, to be fair you'e in California. Surely you knew by now that people are fake there. Esp. LA where they have mastered, literally, being something they're not and pulling off acting like they're your friend when they're just trying to get their way.

edit: if i'm Hasbro, i'd rather underproduce than overproduce and leave pegs clogged for months on end (ROTS Mon Mothma anyone?)

_________________

ROTS Mon Mothma reminds me of that teacher from the start of Serenity.

Back on topic, I have to say... Hasbro makes (presumably) thousands of each figure. If you go to eBay, you will see at most a few hundred auctions for any given figure. Assuming that those figures listed are all by scalpers, then that means there are still most of the thousands of the figures being produced that are going into collector and kid hands. I just have to wonder if the cry of "scalper" isn't just vilifying a straw man for ones own inability to find certain toys.

You can't find (insert popular toy here)? Is it because everybody is trying to sell it on ebay, or is it because there are multiple folks out there who want one (or more than one) for themselves? I think it's more likely the latter.


Just a few of my thoughts. I'm not saying there aren't those folks who buy stuff to try to sell for inflated prices, but I am saying that I think the problem is sometimes blown out of proportion.



bearcatcc

Most of the comic shops in Tucson don't sell toys. Two of them do, however, and one of them -- it's almost funny. The toy supply in this place seems to be divided into two sections, pretty much scattered haphazardly throughout the store -- overpriced obscure stuff that nobody gives a damn about, and overpriced recognizable stuff that is in such horrid condition that it's not worth a tenth what he's charging for it.

Assorted examples would include some really strange Toy Biz stuff -- I can't even remember what, but it's stuff that I had to reeaaallly dredge in the deep corners of my memory to recall them even MAKING -- and most of it is stuff that hardly anyone would want in the first place. You could probably stick it on eBay for a buck and it'd go unsold.

Then there's the recognizable stuff. Original Masters of the Universe figures with most of their weaponry -- and paint -- missing, that he wants over $100 apiece for. A Mego Green Arrow with such a faded costume that it'd have to work its way to up being pastel green -- no price listed. One of those "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" deals.

Place isn't a toy and comic shop -- it's a museum of the crappy. And none of those "exhibits" are going anywhere.

i don't really like "scalpers" but i do use the Ebay for any of my "must own" Joes, it might not be right to some people , but i do it . i know iam overpaying for something that somebody found at a store but its easy and fast .
i don't have any comic book shops that carry figures around me so i don't know what thats like but if i could stop somewhere local and pickup a certain figure fast , i would pay at lest twice the retail

I am always reluctant to use eBay -- or for that matter any online toy house -- for the simple reason that I do not like to buy "sight unseen". Even a picture in an eBay auction isn't necessarily going to give you all the details. I will buy from an online outlet if it is the ONLY way of getting a particular toy, and sometimes it is.

Which is not to say that distribution by the toy companies themselves to local "brick-and-mortar" stores is anything all that great. Here, I really don't know who to point the finger at. The companies? The stores themselves? I think about some of the stuff I SHOULD have seen by now, things that I know others, including on this board, have found, that has yet to appear anywhere in Tucson to the best of my knowledge. The second assortment of DC Universe Classics (TRU's apparent recall on those notwithstanding) leaps to mind. I want my Classic Firestorm and Harley Quinn, darn it!

Unfortunately, I think some of the companies, and I'm not specifically citing any one company here, because I think they all do it to a certain degree, I believe are under the grievously mistaken impression that the best way to cater to the collecting community, which I also believe they still see (and perhaps rightly so), as a fairly small percentage of their "buying audience", is to create scarce and hard to find items and give us all the challenge of finding these highly limited editions, chase figures, or whatever. I can't speak for everybody, but I'd just as soon be able to find my figures with as little fuss and grief as possible, thank you kindly.

(I mean, when Power Rangers starts creating collectible chase figures, enough is enough... )

Scalpers, those that buy up entire supplies of toys in the stores with the express intent of selling them at inflated prices to people sufficiently desperate to pay their prices, a market they know darn well they create by specifically cleaning out those supplies as soon as they can, certainly do not help matters any, whether they run a comics store or not.

(Granted, it could be worse. Be glad we're not discussing Hot Wheels in these regards...)

NO! NO! NO! Sound reasoning and common sense have NO place in a thread/discussion that involves "toy scalpers"! Only hysterics are allowed when discussing these mystical, magical people!

Seriously though, I think you hit the nail right on the head! Can't find a HISS Driver? It must be scalpers! Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with it being an army-builder figure one to a case, that many people likely have use for more than one. Especially in a line that usually only sees a store getting one case at a time. Hell, I'll be buying every one I find (unless I start seeing tons of them!) and I ain't selling a single one!

_________________

it's also never a collector's fault if you go on a weekend afternoon and never find anything either. then it's always scalpers or not shipping enough. and kids don't buy toys so we know it's not them.

_________________

*raises hand* Brutha, I feel ya pain.

_________________