Probably just a fan. Vehicon? Show character troop-builder that's generally been a pain-in-the-ass to find due to the case assortments, makes sense a fan take the opportunity to get one. Rumble and Kup? The two newest Deluxes that haven't come close to saturation yet, makes sense a fan might want those. Dreadwing? Show character, only packed one-per-case, notably absent from future Voyager waves, hasn't hit saturation...also something a fan would probably snap up quickly. And the revision Deluxes not scanning properly has been a widely-reported problem, so that's not proof of buying figures from the back or what-have-you. Sometimes, you get lucky on a hunt and just happen to stumble on multiple desirable items all at once. I can think of any number of times where I've gotten lucky and come into a store at just the right time to snag an entire new wave of Deluxes or a bunch of other toys I was looking for. It's kind of sad that we seem to have gotten to the point in this fandom where a glimpse of anyone buying a couple of desirable toys is enough to start the "RARRGH SCALPERS!!!!!!!" outcry. EDIT - Almost forgot...Damn you, scalpers! Damn you!!!
The warehouse is getting them, not that store. The warehouse provides stock for all of southern Virginia which has no less than at least 8 major cities.
Wrong, just wrong.. If someone like the comic guys wife, is having someone order those cases, so she can get the rare items out and buy them, she is costing the store money. Essentially what she's doing is using them are her own personal warehouse and making them eat all loses. She gets them to order the cases, she takes the rares, and leave the shelf warmers for the store to eat once they eventually hit clearance. This argument alone can get that comic guys wife fired, esp if it can be proven she's done it more than once. I'll explain why in a second. Am employee can get fired for this, I know they have before at least at Wal*mart, my mother has worked there for over 15 years, 10 of them being a department manager, and has seen lots of employee's get fired for taking stuff from the back before it hits shelves and buying it. For ordering cases that they intend on just taking the rare stuff out of and leaving the other stuff for the store to sell. It makes a bigger difference if that person is the department manager and are the ones responsible for making those orders. The specific incident I remember was for Tickle me Elmo, the Deparment Manager order 20 cases, which is 2 per case, 1 Elmo, 1 of another character, and she took everyone of them and bought them before they hit the stores, at this time they had a line outside (before 24 hour walmarts) waiting for the store to open. They all knew they were coming in that day, when they got back to the toys there was only the other character. When the store manager showed up to watch, he was pissed cause there was no Elmo's and he wanted one. He started looking around and found them all in the back on a pallet, with a copied receipt on them showing they were all paid for. He pushed the pallet out and sold them all anyways, firing the clerk (dm) and refunding her money, since she couldn't have the product he just sold to the people in line. She wasn't supposed to be buying anything while on the clock, and for hording them? I don't know what you call it, but she was fired. The rarer stuff is what brings people into the store, if all they ever see is the shelf warmers, then customers will go elsewhere. This includes parents, who are looking for a couple figures and only see one or two on the shelf. They decide not to buy the one (bumblebee) because there are no bad guys to fight him, they leave the store and go somewhere else that has a better selection. Thus causing the store to lose a sale and possibly lose that customer permanently.
I would prefer eager fans. If I ran a shop, I'd blacklist any scalpers I know of. You could say other retailers only care about making money but it won't change my mind.
You can identify scalpers by the following: -They fill their carts with multiples of the same item(sometimes they will have the entire case in their cart if they can) -They look at you if you are looking at their cart -They sometimes tend to be aggressive (like ex:"what are you looking at!? did you loose something!?) -If you pick the item before they can they will ask you to put it back because he/she NEEDS all of the stock.... -Sometimes if you beat the scalper to a HIGHLY sought after item and he/she sees you purchase it, they might ask you to return it or sell it to him/her immediately (like what happened to me with MP Grimlock fiasco... -.-) -They are sometimes intimidating towards children or other collectors in the area they are scalping (i.e. Transformers isle, Lego isle, etc) Of course this is just me basing my profiling towards scalpers I have seen...
I like to buy two of each toy. That way, I can hang them up in my room for decoration or replace the one I open if it breaks. What's most important is not to sell to people who I know for sure are scalpers if they have a store or ebay account (I can say, "if he's not a scalper, i don't know who is), than accuse innocent people who are interested in Transformers of scalping.
"Scalper" DOES get thrown around WAY too easily. If you were in his shoes, you'd want to nab the new items if they became available to you, wouldn't you? Why can't others? I have directly raced a known scalper at a Toys R Us once. Beat him. The next week, he tried to strike a deal with me to "split the case" before getting to the aisle with nothing new there.
I'm going to say collector. Personally I tend to buy 3 of whatever I'm getting when I'm hunting. 1 for me, and 1 for each of my kids in hopes of avoiding any cries of "no fair". Surprisingly, the "when you have a job you can buy toys whenever you want too" rationale doesn't work with six year olds.
I'm sorry, that one just strikes me wrong. I have problems with people looking at my cart, because it's absolutely none of their business to see what it is I'm buying. Besides, that's just rude. Not to mention the few stories here on the board of collectors who've openly admitted to taking figures they want out of somebody's cart when they weren't looking. Awful, awful behavior.
Do you mean looking at your cart, or looking in your cart? I don't necessarily think it's rude if someone happens to see what I have in my cart, but if they start sifting through the contents of it while I'm away, then there's certainly a problem.
wow, that's stealing imo. if someone has put it in their cart, it expresses intent to buy. until they've decided against and put the item back on the shelf, it's theirs. I'd beat the fuck out of someone who decided to steal from me or my wifes shopping cart, no matter what the product was inside. you just don't do that shit to people. I'd expect nothing but the same aggression if I did that to someone else. people put their purses/wallets in their carts too, what do you think that is if someone ganks it? but yeah I agree. people don't need to be looking in my cart and I'll be more then happy to give them a weird look, I'll tell them to fuck off. think I'm a scalper? good. you can post about it on the boards while I'm enjoying the new additions to my collection.
Being that I dont live in the states anymore, and that TF distribution here is zero, I have to rely on BBTS or other online retailers to get stuff. Now when I do take a trip back to the states I hit up every walmart, target and tru that I can get to, and on occasion if I find alot of stuff, I pile it all in, and sometimes get doubles. Theres been times where I have a cart full of TF's, but its alot cheaper than paying online retailer prices and shipping, so I go crazy. I am mindful of taking doubles like when theres possibly only one other figure left, but most times I'm taking whatever I see thats new, because I am literally not gonna get another chance to go hunting again until I revisit (which to this point, has only been once a year) I can understand the scalper rage, but the fact is that theres too many variables to try generalising who's scalping and who isnt.. there are cases when you have a pretty good hunch that scalping is taking place (an entire cart filled with one figure only, generally the newest and short packed figures)..but I'd say about 80% of the cases of 'scalping' have been eager fans with a dash of dissappointment and paranoia
oh god those guys, I was over in Fargo, North Dakota at a Target back when the ROTF Bruticus and Superion were still at retail ( Never found either one) to try to find them and as i got to the toy section of the store I heard swearing and what sounded like a brawl so I took a look and two grown men were fighting over a hand full of hot wheels. I was like WTF checked to see if they had what i wanted and got the heck away and told the first employee i saw.
No lie, I once had a dude follow me around the store because apparently I grabbed a figure he wanted. From aisle to aisle, I kept eyeing this guy always being within sight of me and staring right at the figure (I think it was a Thundercats figure, it was over a year ago.) I decided to do a test and acted like I was stashing the figure. Sure enough, when I doubled back to that aisle, there was this guy looking around the section digging around for the figure. I paid for my stuff and got the hell out of there. It was just a creepy experience all around.
Fighting over Hot Wheels? That's nuts. XD But I can believe it at this point. Worst I've dealt with with Hot Wheels is shill-bidding for Knight Rider and Ghost Busters Hot Wheels (sure enough, I get a 2nd chance offer the minute I lose after refusing to bid any higher; ignored that auction right quick; I don't want the cars that badly). I've seen grown men race to the aisles at TRU upon opening. Was my first time seeing that; was pretty strange since I don't make it a habit at all to stalk TRU at opening hour (was off from work that day, as I recall). I was there to see if MP Thundercracker v2 came in and so were about 2-3 other guys there, and we chatted about random stuff while we waited for the doors to open. The TF guys (myself included), calmly walked to the aisle (MP TC wasn't there, sadly). The other old dudes (I'm talking gray hair and beards and such) there were shuffling/jogging/running. I have no idea what they were after, but it wasn't TFs, thankfully. That experience kinda put me off hunting at TRU at opening; I think I'll stick to online buying for a while. XD
Originally Posted by SouthtownKid I don't know about the guy the thread-starter saw, but the guy I saw was buying the entire line several times over. But I love how people jump in to offer defenses for people doing this. I actually HOPE the guy I saw was a scalper. Because if he was, then whatever, he's a d-bag, who cares. But if he wasn't a scalper, then he has a very serious problem. It's seriously diseased behavior to buy in the quantities this guy was buying, if he wasn't doing it for profit. Well the person is either scalping or is a classic hoarder if thats what they are doing, kind of like the people on that show hoarders with the dirty homes. I believe its an extreme form of ocd.
Yeah, I'm not talking passing a glance or anything, I mean standing over your cart looking at what you've got in there. That's what sucks about it, because it isn't stealing, legally, if they were to take an item out of your cart because you hadn't purchased it yet so technically it's not yours either. But otherwise I agree, you have stuff in your cart because you intend to buy them.
