Secret Sightings Section idea

[Cat]

What's suggested does NOT inhibit members of the public being able to buy these toys. All it means is that (for rare figures like MPs) we're not HELPING them by providing exact dates and times. They can still ring, visit, and have just as much of a chance. That's important.

I DO, however, have a HUGE problem with someone here seeing them and reserving them all, and members can then pick them up. That could take toys off the shelf for a day or more, with no guarantee of them all being bought. That's not fair on the public, and it makes us no different to scalpers , to them. That actively inhibits them from buying. Again, to me an important distinction.

I would have huge ethical issues with that suggestion.

[griffin]

So lets run through a little example scenario to see if I understand the process correctly:

1. Low-rank (or any) member excitedly posts up sighting of an MP-10 on the public sightings thread.
2. Moderator moves (or deletes) this post to the secret thread regarding MP-10
3. Low-rank member wonders where their sighting went. Is either told or informed that they are not permitted to post their sighting
4. Low-rank member goes wtf because their contribution to the community has been absconded for the elite.
5. Am I, as a Deluxe member, then obligated to only post sightings of MP-10 in the private sightings thread until otherwise instructed? Sounds very controlling.

That would be the idea, if this ever happened. The single item (not everything) would still be news, still be tweeted, still be on the header, still have a toy review topic, still be talked about on the global fansites, and even still be reported by members in the regular sightings section (it wouldn't be prohibited)... we would just have a rarely used subsection that would have the bulk of the locations by the more active members (Rank 5 and above) and any reservations or hidden items in the store, who are doing all the leg-work going around to all these stores, noting the details (prices and quantities) and taking the time to log in here and dictate it for the rest of us.

Which means, people can still post in the regular section all they want, especially for the newer or junior members who need the info or want to post sightings... but if a portion of the sightings (big or small) are hidden from those who don't contribute here, it improves the chances of those who do contribute. It also gives the people who keep sightings to themselves, an additional option, to post it where scalpers can't see it.

I really got back into transformers because I was gifted a high quality TF on my 21st as well as retail releases of Masterpieces. You could be depriving potential fans of these opportunities.

This may have indeed happened, at least in your case (which is great), but how many of those regular people who bought those items never became fans? Are we willing to let established fans (who are more likely to keep and cherish these items) miss out on dozens of rare figures, on the off-chance that we might convert one or two of the non-fan buyers into a fandom that isn't exactly a beneficial obsession (yes, I'm the first to admit that).
It doesn't sound nice, but when it comes to limited seats on the life-boats, tough choices have to be made as to who gets preference to survive the sinking ship... or else there's chaos, and women and children are left behind... figuratively speaking.
As noted above, the regular sightings section would not be "cleansed" of specific sightings. The smaller number of those sightings will still help out guests and newbies... along with "the news posts, the tweets, the header, the toy review topics, and the global fansites". It's not like this would cut off anyone from knowing where and when... it just improves our odds.

I'm a serious collector as well and i'm not rank 6, if this comes into effect, i wouldnt know when MP's hit shelfs and where to look.

Rank 5 and above...

Yeah... (if it comes into effect) I would have to try extra hard to try to gain a Rank 6... and I absolutely love collecting exclusives and limited editions.

Rank 5 and above...

I like this idea. For those like myself not rank 6, do your best to be a contributing part of the community and im sure it with come soon enough

Rank 5 and above...

(I periodically go through the member listings and upgrade people every few months, so don't feel left out if you think you should have it... I may not have had a chance to do it for a while)

[SuspectimusPrime]

Is it possible to integrate a simple system of hiding content until the person choosing to view that content clicks an affirmation (either 'Like' or 'Thank You') that publicly reveals their name on that post. This way any forumite can make a sighting rare or otherwise, and choose to have it global or hidden.

If there were later reports of a highly sought after item being lapped up by one person, it would be more easy to deduce the culprit - from a finite pool of forumites who may have made an affirmation. Even if its an MP10 posting, I'm assuming that only a very few people would have had time to respond, and some may re-post existing stock numbers of the said secret fishing spot.

I agree with Lint and I'm a glass-is-90%-empty sort of person (you eventually become one in my field, ahhah), but I don't honestly believe that there are that many scalpers around. Principally because financially scalping does not appear to be as worthwhile here as opposed to overseas - they have way cheaper prices at much higher returns and a larger/more ready market. Rare items on eBay Australia usually finish at much lower prices because we've got smaller demand (i.e. Sky Shadow's recent Botcon sales on eBay), and Americans don't seem to buy things priced outside of their dollar often (CBB? Too hard to convert from USD to AUD? Or simply not knowing where Australia is? ). Restrictions may do more to hurt existing non-Rank 5 forumites (Kazza/Megatron-SG1), and honest collecting non-forumites (Do we have hundreds? Thousands?). Whilst our goals may not be elitism, that does seem like an indirect end result and may be one of the first thoughts that come to the mind of a non-forumite pondering whether they should join/contribute.

Also, a child that knows very little about MP10 and receives it may end up offering the toy more attention than an adult collector with hundreds of toys (my mini-grails are still in packaging because I don't have the time to enjoy them, and MP10/MP TC are wrapped up and stored under my bed because I'm not sure about opening it or maybe trading it) -- eventually becoming adult collectors themselves for years to come.

(I periodically go through the member listings and upgrade people every few months, so don't feel left out if you think you should have it... I may not have had a chance to do it for a while)

Ahh that explains why Bidoofdude and I Poke-evolved at the same time

EDIT: The best way of protecting a highly sought after item for other forumites is really to buy it up on the spot - you can always refund Of course this calls for another level of altruism.. But hey, if supply gets lapped up quick enough, then its a good sign for any corporate buyer/analyst to see success in those numbers right? Which would eventually mean more exclusives making their way down to Oz at possibly cheaper prices (read: fat chance).

[Lint]

Which means, people can still post in the regular section all they want, especially for the newer or junior members who need the info or want to post sightings... but if a portion of the sightings (big or small) are hidden from those who don't contribute here, it improves the chances of those who do contribute. It also gives the people who keep sightings to themselves, an additional option, to post it where scalpers can't see it....
....the regular sightings section would not be "cleansed" of specific sightings. The smaller number of those sightings will still help out guests and newbies... along with "the news posts, the tweets, the header, the toy review topics, and the global fansites". It's not like this would cut off anyone from knowing where and when... it just improves our odds.

Well I'm far more satisfied with this proposal if the postings in the regular section are not be affected . However I would presume that this would impact the efficacy of keeping sightings 'private'.

This may have indeed happened, at least in your case (which is great), but how many of those regular people who bought those items never became fans? Are we willing to let established fans (who are more likely to keep and cherish these items) miss out on dozens of rare figures, on the off-chance that we might convert one or two of the non-fan buyers into a fandom that isn't exactly a beneficial obsession (yes, I'm the first to admit that).
It doesn't sound nice, but when it comes to limited seats on the life-boats, tough choices have to be made as to who gets preference to survive the sinking ship... or else there's chaos, and women and children are left behind... figuratively speaking.

To me thats punishing people who haven't committed a crime yet. I still don't think a secret sightings section is justified however if the regular sightings are not affected I don't see any dramatic change in policy. It simply means existing unposted sightings and syndicated acquisition arrangements that were previously contained in SMS's and PM's now have an official home on the forums.

[jazzcomp]

Posts about children is probably not appropriate in this discussion as I doubt children are finding out when MP is hitting the store shelves or watching and waiting like us and skipping school just to buy toys when the shops open at 9am.

Much like the doubt that there are many scalpers around.

[Cat]

I'd also like to add that I don't think scalpers are a factor in this.

There's simply not many scalpers around (luckily).

[Shirokaze]

I'm not sure if a secret sightings section is a great idea, mostly for reasons already outlined in this thread. I do however, think that something needs to be done about the scalper problem.

I would propose simply that the same restrictions placed on the viewing of the For Sale section be placed on the sightings section. ie. you must first post an introduction. Once a member introduces themselves, we know a little about them and they become part of our community essentially.

So where does this leave the scalper? I would imagine that the majority of scalpers are fans to some extent, or else they wouldn't know what figures were in demand. At the moment, they're an unknown entity that's depriving the community of figures. Once they've signed up and put themselves out there by introducing themselves, the only difference between them and any other new member are their moral choices. Choices that I hope would be influenced positively by all the great members here.

It's not foolproof, but I'm sure it would have a positive effect.

[griffin]

That would still make it "secret" if it was hidden from non-members, and that would mean 100% of the sightings would be hidden from guests. This proposal would just hide less than 1% of sightings.

And I agree with Lint, that I don't see us having a scalper problem in this country... because the MP toys haven't been showing up on ebay.
I've actually found (through the recent purchase of Grand Max) that there are toy collectors in this country that aren't Transformers fans. They either collect toys in general, or just robot toys... some even specifically just collect Japanese Robot toys.
It's a whole new demographic that we are actually competing with, which would be utilising our site as a resource to assist them in their collecting... but aren't joining here to give something back to the rest of us collecting these toys. Those would be a more likely competition, not scalpers (or parents/kids, unless they are there at the time the toys are put out on shelves and buy it on impulse - which I've seen as well).


On a related note - I was just upgrading several people to "Active" status.... but I'm looking at changing the name "Active Member" to "Dedicated Member", as it is a ranking that is earned through active contributing here (through sightings and helping out other fans with info, news, meets, etc) after 100 or so postings.... proving their dedication to the local fandom and fellow collectors. And unless they become completely dormant/inactive (don't log in for 6 months or so), they'd keep that ranking they've earned. (the term "active" was starting to get a bit confusing for me when I was upgrading people, as they had been significant contributors over a couple years, but not very frequent/active - now people would stay Rank 5 as Dedicated/contributors, even if they go through less active phases of their hobby here)

[Defcon]

Maybe the demand for some of the rarer or exclusive figures is currently greater than the supply? if we are talking about Toysrus, they underestimated demand or couldn't get enough because overseas markets are buying up the stock?. On the other side Mr Toys toyworld seems to stock items in plentiful supply. I think its just think its mostly a supply and demand issue, and in rare cases scalping.

Im not really in favor of having a dedicated section for secret sightings. There really is no need, unless a particular group wants to network and send pms to eachother. Besides nothing is kept secret for long, people can always phone up stores and enquire, or ask in store.

Also on the subject of scalpers, anyone on this board could be a potential scalper. They could also collect as well, but choose to buy up popular (edit: sometimes rare) items to sell for small profits later. Why would someone do this? maybe to make this hobby less expensive. Of course this is a morally ambigious choice. Not saying I do this by the way, but I can see the rationale behind it, its like playing the toy stockmarket. Also what if you buy 2of something, 1 to open, or maybe 1 to trade later, or just in case one breaks or is faulty, or want to customize the figure to make another character.

[lj7369]

Its a really tough argument. I was quite hesitant to post my sighting today, as i wasnt sure who may be watching..... After a while i did post it, as i think more people will benefit from this than it be a bad thing.

Mp 10 in my opinion is 99 percent poor retail practice by tru. It was underprogrammed when their buying team assessed the need/want it was conservative (at best). The feedback they now recieve from customers and collectors is crucial in this not happening again. Scalpers havent posted on australian ebay, so unless they are holding for things like parra or nexus they are either just not there, or smart enough to wait for a post on a forum that the mp10 well is 100 % dried up, making their investment worthwhile.

My 2 cents ( i work retail and stuff up the programming of specials for a number of reasons... mainly lack of information about a product eg price point.) Imagine doing the mp10 order for australia based off taktom pricing??? Only to find the $150 price point 3 months later.

Just a thought.