Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
Take leave from work to buy a toy... yeah... that's totally not unprofessional at all. </sarcasm> And if I can get a toy myself I'd rather do that before imposing myself on others.
Yeah, professionalism is required for buying toys

Also, understand that after work I have to pick up my daughter from preschool. Like I said, I have both work and family obligations... so being able to make a phone reservation makes things much easier for me.
My personal obligations don't afford me the time to take such a risk, I'd so I'd rather make the reservation.
Our individual situations do not provide an excuse to buying any item.

And I totally fail to see what your ethical objection is in the first place. It's a matter of first come first serve. What does it matter if the person who beat you got the toy over the phone or got the toy off the shelf?Either way, someone else got to that toy before you did. Nobody's stopping you from making a phone reservation too when you call ahead. If you choose not to then you choose to accept the risk that the toy may not be there by time you get there.
First call doesn't equal first come. That's how simple it is.

Let me put it this way... if I took your suggestion I could chuck a sickie and go to the shop at 9am and buy the toy straight away. Or I could still go to work and call at 9am and reserve the toy. Either way I would still get the toy at 09:00. The end result is the same, so what difference does it make??? I find the idea of taking a paid day off work (and lying to your employer about being sick when you're not) just to buy a toy to be much more ethically questionable than reserving a toy over the phone (which I fail to see the ethical objection to).
Who says ethics is involved? The end result is the same but the effort isn't the same.

^Precisely. This is not something I would normally do. In fact, MP Optimus Prime is the only time I've ever done it, and I might do it for MP Acid Storm too.

99.99999999% of the time I buy what I can find on shelves when I physically go into stores. Which I already do spend a lot of time doing since, as you know, I really do not like shopping online.
This is what people do - sample pics below
http://ggurls.com/images/stories/line-for-jordans.jpg
http://static0.demotix.com/sites/def...os/1606114.jpg
http://foundryintheforest.files.word...2/imag0458.jpg

I know it's not a concept you are familiar with.

If you really wanted something, you go to great lengths to acquire it or pay the premium. This is what scalpers hope for. They make the effort so that you will pay for the premium because you can't afford a sickie or can't be bothered to exert that extra effort because of personal circumstances.