Unreleased Gen2 toys on ebay

[Metallikato]

Menasor cruch, destroy (your bank account & faith in the fandom/hunamity..)

[spiderken17]

Wow. Serious stuff over toys. Glad I am not involved in it.

[Defcon]

Have any of you guys been reading the g2 menasor thread on tfw? Getting pretty interesting

Buyer's Remorse the buyer must feel like he overpaid, this is to be expected. Although the buyer and others do have somewhat of a point. But then again not really. If you are buying a house, agents use those kind of descriptions and wordings eg. "once in a lifetime opportunity" the thing is its designed to appeal to the emotions, to grab potential buyers, sometimes and usually someone who becomes emotionally invested they spend more than is necessary. It's not been dishonest its sales talk and a perception all people need to take responsibility for actions and decision making. This rule applies to buying a car, a house, or a high priced collectible.

[Shirokaze]

Buyer's Remorse the buyer must feel like he overpaid, this is to be expected. Although the buyer and others do have somewhat of a point. But then again not really. If you are buying a house, agents use those kind of descriptions and wordings eg. "once in a lifetime opportunity" the thing is its designed to appeal to the emotions, to grab potential buyers, sometimes and usually someone who becomes emotionally invested they spend more than is necessary. It's not been dishonest its sales talk and a perception all people need to take responsibility for actions and decision making. This rule applies to buying a car, a house, or a high priced collectible.

I agree!

Paypal really shouldn't find in favour of the buyer in this case. I understand how people could feel the seller was being dishonest, but it was always made clear that he was in it for the profit and from that point of view, withholding the additional items was the logical choice.

[griffin]

I agree that paypal must rule on the wording of the actual ebay listing, not what the seller stated elsewhere... and as such, paypal would be forced to side with the seller (who didn't claim on the auction that it was the only set).

However, there is a telling post by the seller in that TFW topic...

They said something about how when something like this surfaced there was very often a whole bunch of these found at once. This is not the case with the Menasor, everyone can forget about there being several of these. Look very closely at the auction, on the paperwork at one time there was two of these shipped to the United States from Hasbro's Hong Kong plant. The paperwork states quantity of "2", the declared value of $2 (anyone who ships overseas knows that any item must have a customs value of at least a dollar.) It is been my experience (I think everybody else will agree that the bigwigs at Hasbro/Kenner know exactly how rare certain items are and sharing/trading amongst insiders (executives, engineers and designers) is very commonplace. So based on the paperwork found there were two originally shipped from Hong Kong to Hasbro, who knows if the other will ever surface; if it still exists. Two of something this rare will not effect its value, several would. I think if any collector/Hasbro employee owns the other one and sees this auction at $10k they would certainly do well to post it very fast.

I am going to make it my future policy to NOT note the quantities of any of my future listings of prototypes and unreleased items, so don't ask. Suffice to say that I have a variety of items, but nothing in any great quantity to hurt anythings value on the secondary market.

A first read makes it sound like he is confirming that he only has the one set... but when you read it again as if written intentionally deceptively, you realise that he never came out and said it was the only one. He words it so that it looks like he he doesn't know about any other sets, but since there was a video of him removing three sets from the one box, only then does this sentence become the only lie he told - "who knows if the other will ever surface; if it still exists."
Between that sentence about two being sent from Hong Kong, and the last sentence about there not being a great quantity of any item he has... it was almost like he was admitting that there were a small number, but wouldn't come out and say it.

He may not have said it was the only one on his ebay listing (because "once in a lifetime" is actually a true statement when referring to buyers), but by claiming that he didn't know of any others existing while the listing was active, was definitely deception to drive up the price among the fan-community.

If he hadn't said that before people bid on the item, it's unlikely to have gone as high as US$27,000.

It is still a very valuable item, so if the seller gave a partial refund to the buyer, the matter between them would be resolved.

[Trent]

Buyer's Remorse the buyer must feel like he overpaid, this is to be expected. Although the buyer and others do have somewhat of a point. But then again not really. If you are buying a house, agents use those kind of descriptions and wordings eg. "once in a lifetime opportunity" the thing is its designed to appeal to the emotions, to grab potential buyers, sometimes and usually someone who becomes emotionally invested they spend more than is necessary. It's not been dishonest its sales talk and a perception all people need to take responsibility for actions and decision making. This rule applies to buying a car, a house, or a high priced collectible.

True, but that does not excuse the actions of the seller. If he was intentionally deceptive by leading the community that he only had one set thenwhile he has done nothing wrong legally, on an ethical level he has certainly acted questionably and the buyer has a right to be upset.

Also he hasn't helped himself either. When he puts the next set up, no-one is going to believe a word he says. The first question anyone asks this guy from now on will be "Are aware of/Do you have any other of these figure/sets in your possession?" and then he will be faced with the option of flat out lying, or being honest and risk not fetching as high a price as he otherwise could have.

Shady business practices are shady

[Sinnertwin]

I don't know what to think of this.

I am going to make it my future policy to NOT note the quantities of any of my future listings of prototypes and unreleased items, so don't ask. Suffice to say that I have a variety of items, but nothing in any great quantity to hurt anythings value on the secondary market.

Buyer beware indeed.

[kaiden]

i read a bit and it comes off like diamonds. there's a shit lod of them and so they really arent worth much but when you make women desire them and limit the amount gloablly -that creates the value.

basically, i would agree that its a rare valuable item and that there are more than a few in the world - but if they all went on the market at the same time their value would drastically be reduced. to say 'hey you know that rare valuable item that you severely overpaid? i've got 3 more that im going to sell.' is a shitty thing to do.

[Defcon]

True, but that does not excuse the actions of the seller. If he was intentionally deceptive by leading the community that he only had one set then while he has done nothing wrong legally, on an ethical level he has certainly acted questionably and the buyer has a right to be upset.

Also he hasn't helped himself either. When he puts the next set up, no-one is going to believe a word he says. The first question anyone asks this guy from now on will be "Are aware of/Do you have any other of these figure/sets in your possession?" and then he will be faced with the option of flat out lying, or being honest and risk not fetching as high a price as he otherwise could have.

Shady business practices are shady

Ok fair enough, the seller has acted questionably and with his future sales, potential buyers will be wary. I guess I was all harsh on the buyer. The seller of course has damaged his reputation. I would feel upset about a sale like this also, especially after revelations about other sets in the seller's possession. It would make me feel like I paid to much, but my first reaction is that the buyer already knew he paid to much. The revelation just pushed him to the point of non-acceptance.

[Trent]

I agree. I think the seller had one of those "What the hell did I just do?" moments because yeah! he paid $24K for a set of G1 toys but probably justified it in his mind by thinking of the "investment" he was making. Then being told that there are more, he would have seen his "investment" dive in value instantly.

And I just noticed that you corrected a mistake in my post when you quoted me