Quote Originally Posted by jaydisc View Post
Are you saying that a collector that suddenly decides to move on, possibly due to the birth of a child, or a higher interest rate on their mortgage, should be selling their toys at cost??!?!
The Seller can do whatever they want to do with their collection - It's solely up to them. If they want to sell their toys to their Mates at good prices, so be it. If they want to scalp them off for top dollar on Demonbay, it's up to them.

From personal experience on this topic, back in January this year I decided to get rid of all my SW Lego (some 25 pieces altogether ranging from $20 to $600 monsters). I was planning to throw them all in the bin but I was told to put some ads in the local papers for a garage sale. I did that & three mums ended up buying all of them off me for a total of $520. To me that was a profit of $520 because (as I said) I was planning to throw them all in the bin.

I know that not everyone who decides to get rid of their toy collection thinks like me but (as I said) people can do whatever they wish with their collection - it's entirely up to them.

Quote Originally Posted by jaydisc View Post
You also say that markup to cover costs is acceptable, but unnecessary markups for no reason becomes scalping. I don't understand this. Every goods-based business is all about markup for profit.
How many toy stores actually make a decent profit on Ebay? Only one immediately comes to my mind = playidia. Sure there are plenty of people who have their own smaller toy stores on Ebay but do they make enough off these toys in that it becomes their full time job? I don't consider the guy I bought my sealed BW figures off as being a scalper in the same sense that I consider playidia as being a scalper - He's not even close to being in playidia's league. To me, his prices were very reasonable & he only had some 40-50 items altogether. On the other hand, Playidia currently have 3206 items for sale. Now, wouldn't you say Playidia is the Walmart of Toy Scalping? Isn't there something wrong with that?

Quote Originally Posted by jaydisc View Post
Why is profiting off Transformers such a no-no? Why can used car lots by cheap used cars and mark them up? Why can a supermarket by cheap groceries mark it up? What makes markup on these toys so different?!?!
I guess it all comes down to supply & demand.

If you asked someone in-the-know on used cars, they would probably have a tonne of differing opinions regarding reasonable prices on buying & selling them. The same thing could be applied to real estate agents, as well as Supermarkets & all the players who are involved in putting the groceries/fresh food on the shelves (eg. Growers/Middle Men eg. Kelloggs & Cadbury/Supermarkets). Depending on which of these groups you ask for their opinion, their answers will vary widely.

But I guess with Toys & more specifically TFs, you'd have to agree that we know way too much about TFs for our own good . But all we are is the TF consumer. If you asked the typical TF consumer for their opinion on pricing (be it either when purchasing from Hasbro/Big W-Target-TRU/Sellers online), I'm more than positive they would give you a completely opposite point of view than if you were to ask the exact same question to someone who sold TFs or any other toys in bulk. Marking-Up prices or the extreme marking-up of prices (aka. Scalping) occurs in every buy & sell market out there & it will continue to exist for as long as consumers purchase goods. I don't think the marking-up of prices or the extreme marking-up of prices (aka. scalping) will ever stop taking place & in the long run, there's not a whole lot we can do about it.





I don't think I should post any more replies on this particular thread - for my own sanity.