what to do with the scalpers?

[griffin]

All he did was relist it without the group shot, but still noting how many he has available.

[UltraMarginal]

but he's listed 5 instead of "more than 10".

he's at least starting to consider not being so overt.
if I get time before my trip tomorrow, I might see if I can spot a couple more scalpers.

others are more than welcome to link to a scalper.

[Lint]

When you see a scalper on eBay or a similar sales sight, post a link to that listing here and then anyone who is irritated by the scalper/scalping in general can easily go to the listing and ask the seller a question.
It's better if the question seems legitimately about the item, that way they can't dismiss it out of hand and have to read and reply to it, taking up valuable time and effort. If enough people message them, it will effectively choke their dodgey business.

Or

Or they could just add you to their blocked buyer's list. Or better still, just completely ignore query emails for their lisitings due to the sheer quantity they are recieving. They're clearly there to make an easy dollar not pander to their customer's every need.

[UltraMarginal]

Or they could just add you to their blocked buyer's list. Or better still, just completely ignore query emails for their lisitings due to the sheer quantity they are recieving. They're clearly there to make an easy dollar not pander to their customer's every need.

True but all the ones I have seen have good ratings, which they need to upkeep in order to keep selling.
part of that is communicating with customers. I pinged the guy in post #2 and i've recieved maybe 10 or so messages from him and I was trolling hard.
as a seller with a good rating you can't afford to ignore messages that look like legit questions, no matter how stupid the question might be.


I'm not saying this will stop scalping, or work on every scalper but it might make it less attractive to scalp transformers over time. which can't be bad for any collector.

[Lint]

True but all the ones I have seen have good ratings, which they need to upkeep in order to keep selling.
part of that is communicating with customers. I pinged the guy in post #2 and i've recieved maybe 10 or so messages from him and I was trolling hard.
as a seller with a good rating you can't afford to ignore messages that look like legit questions, no matter how stupid the question might be.


I'm not saying this will stop scalping, or work on every scalper but it might make it less attractive to scalp transformers over time. which can't be bad for any collector.

But if he's got generally good ratings then he's either set up a shill buying system to get good ratings or he is legitmately getting frequent good feedback from legitimate (although arguably poorly informed or desperate) buyers. I don't mean to highlight the futility of this effort but you know what, if this is your evil plan to save the world then go for it champ

[UltraMarginal]

sellers need to maintain good communications to keep a good feedback rating.

if fifty people sent 1 message each to a seller that was in some way a legitimate question the seller would at least have to read them, and respond to some.

that's easily an hour of time for one person and a mere minute or two for everyone else.
look at it like a rundown play (in baseball) 3 fielders put in some effort and the runner puts in all the opposing effort.

If the Transformers online community banded together and all got involved, certain eBay accounts would literally block up.

but thanks for your support.

[millhouse]

If we look at the current US retail price at being $138.xx (as I heard, possibly including sales tax?), so $140 for easy maths, at $185, it's not an insane markup (32%).

Keep in mind that it's better than a lot of places (Robot Kingdom has it at $199), and further, there's a lot of places globally that don't have any news of this coming to them locally. If TRU are unable or unwilling to ship internationally (and after the bullshit I went through with their piss-poor partner i-Parcel, I know I'll never try and buy internationally from TRU again), then what options do they have? Not everyone who wants want has the time to devote to a message board and would quite frankly pay the difference these guys are selling it for.

Frustrating? Yes. But it's coming out in Australia later this year, and the option to wait is there.

Put it this way, if I wasn't a part of this board, I might pick up one or two extra to make a bit of profit on and lower my costs. That being said, as I am a part of this board, if I hear or see anything, I'll throw it up here and try to help.

Add to that, correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't communication ratings only matter if its between the seller and the buyer?