How to say "Thanks" to your local Scalper!
 

How many times have you gone to your Big Box Retailer in search of the latest figure or vehicle you've seen or heard about on Joedios and have been screwed by the local Scalper. :( Who will then nail some other collector on-line who can't find the same thing you've been looking high and low for. I know of two scalpers in my area that clean pegs of any decent figures or vehicles, all of the time. I have three Walmarts and two Targets within a three mile radius of where I live and a population age of over 65 that outnumbers me 10 to 1. I've never seen Grampa in the store snatching up Shock Troopers to help his 35 year old kid with some army builders. Well to make a long story short, all of my recent finds at Ross and some of the other close out retailers have one thing in common, Packaging Flaws! :D The Scalpers won't touch anything with a bent corner or missing peg holder etc... The contents are fine. I don't care if the packaging is a little rough because I'm going to tear into it and remove the contents anyways. Of course after I pay for it. :cool: Not that I'm advocating people should go out and mangle packaging to piss off the local scalpers who in turn piss us off. :mad: But keep that in mind, when you find more than one Destro with money or Low Light that some greedy scalper hasn't snagged. SCALPERS HATE BAD PACKAGING!!!!!!!

I really can understand how mad you are, since I would be there too. And the idea is good =D.

Thank you Tone Guns! You probably laugh at us in the States complaining about getting our Joes. I can't imagine what you go through to find your stuff. Are GI Joes pretty easy to find in Brazil? Or do you really have to hunt them down? :)

I agree. It's always been a problem and what's funny is that they buy a lot of crap no one wanted at a clearance price and then sit on it for months trying to sell things like the Snarler Cycle online. I think the actual collecting community goes out a little more now, looking for figures and we're able to keep scalpers from being too productive in some markets, but they still f*#k us in others. The bent card is pretty funny :p

Dan, I made this discovery this weekend when I was looking at my latest haul of goods from the Plastic Mecca. The scalpers hadn't touched most of the stuff they were selling. But I did notice all of the items still leftover had packaging flaws. I'm guessing that's the only reason they hadn't snagged the rest of the stock.

You can go too far with this and become a bender (Not the Futurama robot).

Some stores near me 3 or so years ago would have the backer cards bent...severly....mostly it was done on Star Wars. And truth be told, I didn't buy them. A crease/wear is one thing, the entire corner bent to the state that the cardboard was torn...like buying second hand goods. I do like to keep the backer cards, so damaging packaging affects some collectors, too.

Let's say it costs a lot to get Joes. The Brazilian mades are very expensive, so I always miss them. Buying from US it's cheaper, even with shipping when compared to brazilian figures. However it is still expensive, specially vehicles.

Scalpers
 

It's one of the two evils isn't it?
Luckily I think i live in an area where this doesn't happen so much, at least not in my town.

On the one hand you have a well known way of deterring scalpers from making money, on the other hand you have a problem if it effects collectors.

Because every collector wants something different its hard to find a balance, I still blame the manufacturer for 2 reasons.

1. They get greedy with the item price from the outset, in todays market more so as most countries are supposed to be in a recession and unemployment seems to be very high.

2. By making 'rare' limited run figures it only makes people outside of the hobby greedier. They find the figure thats most sought after and buy as many as they can.

To a degree if your in it for the collecting its fine and it really is fun to find the rare or chase figure (i've done this myself with Sota Street Fighter) but this obviously has a knock on effect in terms of price hiking on other collectors. In most cases i'm not bothered about the packaging either but that's just my own humble opinion, I know plenty out there that are very specific when it comes to packaging defects.

The solution would be to make the same number of figures for each character, but the manufacturer knows in advance which figure they'd need to produce more of? Why is it no matter what happens theres never ever enough army builders to go round? Yet they always make trillions of a 'one character' figure like duke or baroness. :confused: I sometimes think the people at these major toy manufacturers don't know anything about the product they are selling and are more interested in the stock profits on the market, which is most likely the case. They are businessmen after all.

*rant over*

Hey how come its always scalpers thats taking to the rep!?! How come it cant be us hoarders!!!! Huh? I bet those scalpers just hate us hoarders. We are in it for ourselves, how cares how much a Shock troopers is worth, we own them all!!!! Muwahhh ha haaaaa. Take that scalpers and slow pokes, get on the ball with your Joe hunt and quit crying!!! :D

I agree with you Lava Boss, it could certainly get out hand and damage the packaging to the point of being vandalism. It was an observation I made that the scalpers were avoiding the items with less than perfect condition. I'm just tired of finding the same old peg warmers at the Big Boxes while the local comic and collectible shop has every CC, Firefly and Shock Trooper from this side of town at a marked up price.

That's interesting you can buy your GI Joes cheaper from the US, than the ones from Brazil. I guess we don't have it so bad after all. :)

Urban Saboteur, thank you for sharing your well detailed post! It would be easy to say ditto to your points, because they are very true to the subject. For better or worse, the toy companies have found a large customer base that supports their products that fall outside their targeted demographics. "Us" the fans and collectors of GI Joe. I think it makes Hasbro try harder at making their products better. Since we demand bigger and better. And worse in that they took a child's toy and turned into a collectible for adults. (Do kids still play with GI Joe's?) In doing so, they have figured out that making some figures more collectible, people like us are more apt to track them down. Thus creating a artificial demand. And the scalpers have figured out how to profit on that artificial demand. So who's the bad guy, Hasbro, Scalpers or the adult fans who "collect" the products? My thought on the subject is, let Hasbro go back to making toys, that kids can afford and find without a bunch of old dudes fighting over something designed for a six year old. Create a Collectible division to cater to the old farts like us who can't abandon our childhood. And cut the scalper out of the picture. Just a rambling thought on the subject. :D

LOL, SIC DETH, we think a lot alike. If I keep going back to Ross, I'm going to be riding the poor train to bankruptcy. Collector's drive the demand, Scalpers provide a service to the collectors. And hoarders like us just wallow in the excesses of our compulsive purchasing. I won't pay what the scalpers want for their goods, so I just wait until the right opportunity presents itself. And since scalpers are looking for MIB figures and packaging, they won't mind me scooping up the ("Ugly Betty's") laying around. They have their games, we have ours. I just hope I'm not some greedy old dude stomping on some six year old's desire to play with GI Joe. :o

To late for me bro. I have gone off the deep end. Just the other day I told this lil kid that the Arctic Destro was the hottest thing going plus he can play with him in the snow, so he would put down a Shock Trooper!!! I grabed the ST and ran down the aisle yelling you sucker!!!

LOL, you're horrible! Did you tell him Santa and the Easter Bunny were dead too! :p
I'm proud of you taking one for the team, the kid would have lost half the ST gear before he got home. And been a total waste for the rest of us. But Arctic Destro,that's like a turd in the punch bowl. There wasn't a Zartan or Recondo laying around. Even Dusty would have been better than Arctic Destro. ;)

Ahahahahaha!! that is classic :D

One of my local shops has the Shock troopers going for 14.99, the arctic hiss for 30 and the best of 80s for 89 bucks!! Sucks that they hit every Ross, which we have two, the four targets and probably the 4-5 wal-marts and TRU. It makes me soo upset that I have to compete with them just to keep up to date with any of the new stuff coming out..I pretty much say the hell with army building any more. I feel lucky to have gotten six of the Shock Troopers. If I had the money id have bought them all when i saw them at the store just to spite them and sell them at cost to my fellow collectors. They had A jungle gun from Ross in the store the other day..Were they willing to sell it to me...Eff NO!! They were more concerned that they could get 25-50 bucks for the damn thing come christmas time!!WTF??They cant help out a customer that buys from them when they have something really cool? Hell i spent 11.99 on Low Light cuz the stores here dont have them yet..Yes they get orders directly from Hasbro..I didnt mind paying a few extra cuz i REALLY wanted Low Light. I plan on getting more as they come out in stores.. But come on really?? Do we as collectors have to unite against this tyranny and buy the crap so they and the scalpers dont get it and sell it to our fellow collectors at price or just a lil over to cover P&H? Has it really come down to this??

Well put vespapilot! You must live in the same town I do. I can almost duplicate every event you've just referenced. It's BS that a small group can hijack the hobby so they don't have to get a job. There's a comic store around the corner from the only TRU on this side of town. Don't bother going to TRU to see what their exclusives look like, because the jerk around the corner has them all sitting in his store. The key word in all of this is GREED! Hasbro makes a limited amount of product , to drive the market. Scalpers take advantage of that. And the rest of us get screwed. It's one thing if a store wants to sell vintage stuff and mark it up. That's where the focus of their attention should be. But not cleaning every peg at the Big Boxes and creating their own Monopoly. If you notice the scalpers always have the cool figures, but never have any of the crappy ones. Which brings me back to my original post, we hate scalpers, scalpers hate bad packaging.

I agree with you death! I have another solution though! I either go to the front desk and tell them there is a scalper in the store and they wont sell him more then one joe at a time or if I get mad enough ive been known to knock em out right in the toy aisle! Im a pretty peaceful dread nowadays but for instance when the new zartan on his shitty skier bike was coming out I ran into target as soon as they opened. Ran into the toy aisle to find the guy in front me of running literally had picked up all four on the shelf turns to his friend and says ill sell each of these for 20 bucks on ebay! hah! i asked nicely if I could get one he said some stupid american fraise like you snooze you lose so I in turn said Im not american im cuban and in cuba we have im stronger and crazy so put it down before i knock your head off your shoulders. in turn he replied what do you think were in america you think your from the everglades you think your a dreadnok I will have you arrested! I just smiled and and said have it your way! before he could get another joke in I punched him in the face and elbowed him in the neck he crashed into the whole transformers aisle and hit the floor his friend went running i picked up a zartan gave it to the kid in the aisle and got one for me. i kneel ed down and told him how you gonna call the cops i just knocked you the f%^& out! tell all your friends not to scalp or they'll run into me! a true dreadnok! same thing with the other scalper in town. they literally leave the stores when they see me coming in! I dont care for bullsh^&t! I want me my toys and to be left alone dont piss me off! Scalpers don't like me and dont get me started about garage sales! lol im just glad i dont collect anything new anymore! lol


* i bet this will get deleted! lol

Cubanos es loco. I'm not saying that what you did was right. But I understand completely, and can't say I would have acted differently.
Remind me to tell you about the first (and only) cuban girl I've been brace enough to date sometime.

jejeje! I bet I know what your gonna say! Lol thats why I married scottish! lol :cool:

Scalper
 

When parents in the neighborhood I know have kids that have GI Joes. I tell the parents the figures are painted with lead paint. Then the parents give me the figures. Then i dash off into the night laughing like a hyena!!

another idea
 

wear a ski mask follow them home beat the crap out of them and say " don't u scalp any more joes in my neighborhood". lol maybe even come up with a cool nickname like "the Protector" :p :rolleyes:

I live in Cali..Im sure they are all the same no matter where you are..The same greedy mentality..Im sure one of these days somone is gunna shove me or grab something outta my hand and im gunna go Snake eyes on thier ass and they them the hell out!!

Which service do you require?
 

Operator: Which service do you require?
Man in Store: Police please, I've just been assaulted
Police Operator: This is the police department how may I help?
Man In Store: I've just been smashed in the face for a toy in a store, please send some police to arrest this man
Police Operator: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :D
Police Operator: Did they smash you in the face because your an evil scalper?
Man In store: They assaulted me for a toy that I wanted to buy to sell on ebay.
Police Operator: Go Away, we have real crimes we should be attending.
:p

did that really happed Dread ?? go on be honest :P haha great story I hate scalpers to but we don't get any about here I'm sure we get hoarders tho. cus I remember a few times looks for SW figures that woulda been just put on the shelf most the battle droid two pack outa pretty fresh cases and not a single one of them were left. sure I hope some went to a few kids but I guessing most went to a few hoarders .

Hoarding at least has the potential to lead to playing with the damn things. What I have noticed is that whether it's a collector or scalper in the toy aisle...they pretend NOT to be looking at Joe or Star Wars toys. I love that because I'm married, chubby and have nothing to prove, so I just stand there making my slow ass choice while the shy-ass nerd burger sweats it out in the Barbie aisle, waiting for me to leave :D

I'm the same way dan. Taking my sweet fat man time looking for toys. My wife hates it. She'll spend 45 minutes looking at clothes and shoes, but after the 45 second mark of me browsing the toy aisle she's nothing but complaints.

ahaha i know what you mean :D I'm not married nor do i live on my own im only 18 but when ever i come over to the USA there is always a much better selection of toys and i like to go and look and then my mom and sister hiss and bitch at me to hurry up even though they take forever to look at the crap they want to look at :rolleyes:

Im alot calmer now tycondrius but it did happen. I was scheduled to take anger management classes and asked for my own sake to not listen to metal or hardcore anymore! because of another situation! Lol only reggae and jazz for me now an the occasional hardcore thrash show! lol ive grown up alot dude. But imagine a scary dreaded gold teeth thug that was me years back! lol the kinda dude people crossed the street not to deal with. but then we grow up and learn to not act out! lesson learned anger management class sucks its like a new age Buddhist class that's crappy! and I dont mean the Buddhist part i minored in religious studies in college its the way they explained it and tried to actualize it! :)now a days i just alert the manager unless my wife had pissed me off moments before then watch out! lol

Wish I can say the same but I find myself to be very sexy at the least :D . What I do is strike up a conversation with these guys. Ask them if they are members of any boards, show them some of my work, you know let them know its ok to like toys. Must look at me like Im crazy, but who cares they are the ones hiding something they enjoy.

I also am extremely attractive. I make shopping for toys look GOOD. Especially when I go through the pegs in slow motion.

LOL, right on Dan! Why even "collect" toys if you're going to leave them in the package and turn them into wall ornaments. Go collect stamps or coins or whatever the hell "mature" adults do. I was a closet collector at one time too. Even went as far as buying Birthday cards to make it look like a present for a kid. But now I'm born again hard and will buy my dollies whenever and where ever I want. I had some old Lady go off on me at Big Lot's saying I should be ashamed being a grown man playing with dolls. I really pissed her off when I told her I posed them and took pictures of them too. :cool: I have no shame in being a fat old man who buys GI Joes and puts pictures of them on the internet! :D

ahhhhh, I remember fondly the days when I would make sure to ask for a gift receipt every time a cashier scanned a joe.

now i just smile at their looks of shame.

LMAO!!!

Isn't it great just to be able to just laugh at the boring and unimaginative slugs who give you dirty looks for having a little fun. My local club puts on a yearly diorama at one of the local parks. We bust out all of our 1/6th WW II stuff and declare war on the park for the day. We've even had the local TV news out at one of them. Hours and hours of old dudes playing with their GI Joes. The only one person who said anything bad about it was some old hag power walking and was pissed we took up part of the trail. Everyone else couldn't get enough of it. :p

I've had one incident of some D-Bag scalper taking stuff away from me. I used to collect the Simpsons figures that came out a few years ago. I was looking at the stock with my six month old daughter in one hand and a couple of figures cradled in the other. The dirt bag reached over a snagged one out of my arm and took off. I wasn't in position to do much at the time, since I was holding my kid. But I was so pissed off I could have stomped his fat greasy ass into the ground. But it pays to be nice, I told the store manager about the guy and incident. They broke out a unopened case of figures. Not only did I get the one the slime ball took, plus three other "chase" figures. It's hard to believe how far some of these scalpers will go.

damn! some people eh!

Cobra Freak, it's hard to believe how bad people act over something like toys. I never remember anything like this going on when I was a kid. The funny part is, the guy probably still lives in his parents basement and has never had a girlfriend. ;)

LOL, Maybe GQ can do an article on the men of GI Joe, and have you guys do a photo spread in the action figure aisle. :D