Acquisitions Etiquette?

[Doubledealer]

Nobody's talking about scalping here. Scalping is an entirely different (and evil) practice.


This tends to happen more because of scalpers not because of active toy-hunters. Remember that toy-hunters are basically only buying for their own needs. Scalpers will take _everything_ - as in, fill up an entire trolley full of toys and then purchase them. There's stories of scalpers fighting with children over toys. Scalpers also tend to camp outside stores when they know there's a new stock coming out and they rush in and scoop everything up before anyone else can have the chance to get in there. They then sell the toys off to collectors at inflated prices.

A person who buys a bunch of toys for him(her)self and his(her) friends is an entirely different thing. First of all, they usually don't take as many toys as scalpers do, and secondly their motivations are far more altruistic. It's one thing to grab a bunch of toys to help your friends/fellow collectors and basically sell them at the same price that you paid (i.e.: you're not making a profit). It's an entirely different thing to grab everything and then sell them at an increased price, with the intention of making a profit. The former is effectively doing a favour for other people, the latter is exploitation of collectors.

And as I said before, if you're worried about other people missing out then the only thing you can do is _stop_collecting_ because every toy you buy is a toy that someone else can't have!!

On some rare occasions toy stores have been known to enact anti-scalping policies, like restricting the sales to say a limit of 3 of the same toy to any one customer. I remember some toy stores doing this when Star Wars The Phantom Menace toys first came out - there was a limit of 3 per customer (of the same figure). The vast majority of stores don't do this though.

I remember in late 1986 Kups were shelf-warming and they were marked down to like $5 each or something really cheap like that. My mum went and bought a crapload of Kups! I got one, my brother got one and she kept the rest as presents for my cousins and her friends' children... so for the next year it was like, "Happy Birthday!" "Oh wow, Kup!" or "Merry Christmas! Oh wow, Kup!" over and over again. It wasn't scalping or anything, she was giving them away as free gifts to children. d:

So blame Santa. ;P


The one we went to last time.

Just for the record, I didn't say what you've quoted me as saying.

[GoktimusPrime]

Sorry Doubledealer - I've corrected my last post.

Apart from that I don't really think that we have that much of an issue with scalpers... after all our shelves are full of cheap plasic toys that are way over-priced.

We do have a problem with scalpers on some toys. As you said, movie Bumblebee was heavily scalped and so was Masterpiece Starscream. I wonder if you would find it so amusing/charming if it was happening to a toy you wanted. :/

I don't care what the toy is, if I see a scalper I will hurt his janglies. A lot.

[JuzMel]

Guys I think we should stop "arguing" about whether it's right or wrong to help friends buy TF figures (otherwise this might get to be a "heated" thread.)

Everyone has their own perceptions and no one's bound to agree. From what I have read, there's no right or wrong in wanting to help your friend buy a TF. Maybe it's just a different way to approach it and also a compromise.

Instead of buying say 6-8 packs of the same TFs for yourself and other friends from one store (and other fans or parents nearby have less chance of buying), why not just buy extra for a couple of friends? In that way the shelves will still have more stock for parents and other fans who go over and buy for themselves later.

Some of us here have their little mini-groups of 2-3 who are on the look out for each other more as compared for other members (and we all know that) . There's nothing wrong in that, so sometimes when we see in acquis that Member A bought extra for friend B or C, no one is really fussed about it.

But when it becomes heaps like 6 or more of the same TF item, then yes that would cause the jealousy, "why-was-I-left-out", "you're a scalper, you buy so many of the same item" factors that will come out.

Remember, not everything is on your "MUST HAVE NOW" list. And certainly no doubles, triples of quadruples or more in this festive season. Unless they are shelf-warmers of course.

[d*r*j*]

Did masterpiece Starscream get scalped? really? I saw it twice in Toys R Us and purchased it the second time... and that was the northland store so I must of had plenty of competition.
I liked the toy but thought that $100 was pretty steep. Am pretty sure you can still order it online for $100-110ppd... could've probably got it cheaper from the US before the US shipping skyrocketed.

And GP when you say;

if you're worried about other people missing out then the only thing you can do is _stop_collecting_ because every toy you buy is a toy that someone else can't have

I think you are talking to the wrong person... My collecting is really based heavily on G1, I'm not a completist and most of my purchases are agonisingly slow and well thought out. I do not own one single Animated toy, I consider them toys for the new generation of children along with every other post G1 series (with the exception of the 2007 movie line... even then this was simply treated as a curiousity).

[DigDug]

Did masterpiece Starscream get scalped? really? I saw it twice in Toys R Us and purchased it the second time... and that was the northland store so I must of had plenty of competition.
I liked the toy but thought that $100 was pretty steep.

Only a handful were available to begin with in Brisbane but it appears that MP Starscream, among a few other toys, has been scalped heavily here (hence my assumption about what you were getting at when you said collecting was a bit like Monopoly ).

I thought $100 was steep but scalping is all about shrinking supply to artificially create demand. Even at $100 I was prepared to buy a couple of spares (*NOT* to scalp). It turned out I got the last one at TRU Garden City the first day they were released! They showed up online and elsewhere, often for several hundred $$ to begin with. This scenario was foiled for MP-3 scalpers with additional releases in the US but still continues to be a problem here, esp. with exclusives. *cough* MP4 *cough*

My Brother is a manager at a non TF-retailer (but owned by one of the big 2) and says, with some disappointment, that it is better to ignore 'retail quantity' rules that prevent scalping when the stores are usually under a lot of pressure to continually grow their sales... So this situation is unlikely to improve until management culture changes

Edit: BTW I am in no way affiliated with the Melbourne buying group, nor do I benefit from their arrangement.

[d*r*j*]

...continues to be a problem here, esp. with exclusives. *cough* MP4 *cough*

This is where you cease to make sense... at least from a melbourne perspective... I must have seen MP-04 50+ times at Target on the shelf. It lasted (at least) two sales the first was 10% off the other 15%... I saw one last week in a target and could probably find another one if I so desired. This thing is close to a shelf warmer, and it's quality is comparable to the new Hasbro 25th prime.

I think that your scalper theory is baseless and just a result of stores not really believing that grown men can buy expensive toys in great numbers.

[DigDug]

This is where you cease to make sense... at least from a melbourne perspective... I must have seen MP-04 50+ times at Target on the shelf. It lasted (at least) two sales the first was 10% off the other 15%... I saw one last week in a target and could probably find another one if I so desired. This thing is close to a shelf warmer, and it's quality is comparable to the new Hasbro 25th prime.

I think that your scalper theory is baseless and just a result of stores not really believing that grown men can buy expensive toys in great numbers.

I have only got access to one Brisbane store regularly and a couple of others up here on a more incidental basis. I can't speak for Melbourne...

The local store filled their shelves and then sold all of their 20 MP4s a week before their first catalog sale. The other stores sold out in short order too although I didn't follow closely enough to say how soon.

About that time the nototrious quality problems also became apparent, meaning the savvy buyers would still avoid them. Too late for the eager buyer(s) from around here, but not for those who were waiting for the inevitable catalog sale to be put off...

Be that coincidence or not, please note that my observations above are just that. A theory would take research, which sounds all too much like hard work for a Friday afternoon I only intend to voice suspicion of the situation. You may not have faced this sort of behaviour before, but if it were happening to you, I'm sure you'd be damn suspicious too

[GoktimusPrime]

Did masterpiece Starscream get scalped? really? I saw it twice in Toys R Us and purchased it the second time... and that was the northland store so I must of had plenty of competition.
I liked the toy but thought that $100 was pretty steep. Am pretty sure you can still order it online for $100-110ppd... could've probably got it cheaper from the US before the US shipping skyrocketed.

I saw the toy plenty of times when it came out and it was in plentiful supply. I mean plentiful. Shelves were full and the extra storage shelves on the top were also packed. Then after Xmas/New Year there was _nothing_. Unfortunately this occured when this board was at the old location so I can't pull up the old Masterpiece sightings thread as reference.

I think you are talking to the wrong person... My collecting is really based heavily on G1, I'm not a completist and most of my purchases are agonisingly slow and well thought out. I do not own one single Animated toy, I consider them toys for the new generation of children along with every other post G1 series (with the exception of the 2007 movie line... even then this was simply treated as a curiousity).

In that case this entire discussion about acquisitions/hunting/scalping of current TF toys is irrelevant to you then?

You really didn't read that twice before posting, did you?

I was attempting to clarify a comment D*R*J made earlier and you chided me then turned around and did exactly the same!

No ill-will was intended dude. m(__)m

I was just trying to clarify a point. I agree with you about how scalping is indeed the darker (evil) side of mass toy purchasing as it's done out of selfishness whereas mass buying for friends is done with more noble intent.