Honestly, I think the best thing we can do is not to buy from them, scalpers don't have limitless supplies of money, if people don't buy from them, they'll eventually fold.

 

I would like to make a few points to add to the discussion, because it's about a problem which, at least where I live, is getting absolutely out of control.

1. The scalpers here DO make tons of money off of the toys because they WORK at the very place where the toys are "found". The local TRU had 3 KNOWN scalpers at once working there for the last 2 years. 2 guys and a girl whose boyfriend would give her a list of things to watch for. Finally it's down to one, but he is def the worst. These are people who know the market. They know what to keep in the back.

What this guy pulled recently with MP Thundercracker was by far the most disgusting thing I've seen yet. There are 3 or 4 of us local who communicate daily about toy hunting. In one week, this guy told 3 different stories to 2 different people about why there were never any in stock for 2 WEEKS while the tag was on the shelf. It went from "we sold them all" to "we still haven't got them in" to, finally "we never got it and we aren't going to". Then after the one morning he didn't work, they got a case in and one of the older ladies there had to go and reset the tag on the shelf and put them out.

And of course it isn't just Transformers. My wife tried to get the Walking Dead figures there and every truck day we were expected to believe that only RIck Grimes came in every case pack.


At the Target across the street, there was a scalper working there for around a year. After he figured out I was there to get Tfs every week, usually leaving in disappointment, he actually approached me, admitted it was him, and told me it was "useless to come here, just go to Big Bad and order it online if you want it."

2. Distribution is the key. Without a doubt, the movies convinced Hasbro that the more hardcore fan-rific the toy, the more shortpacked or exclusive it must become. The 3 year onslaught of BBs we are just beginning to recover from was a massive waist of plastic which should have been used on Prid and MP type releases which aren't of the over priced deluxe or yellow and black variety. Fortunately some of the noise out of Hasbro lately seems to indicate that they realize this.

3. The economy plus heavy scalping = the end of the hobby. Many people reported this past year that they were done collecting, being tired of tracking EVERYTHING that you could possibly see at a convention and think, "hey, I like that". When Tf Prime ended up being a BB and Optimus fest with ONE or (gasp) TWO of the single toy from each wave everyone wanted per case, even more dropped out.

So, here is the losing formula. These toys are already overpriced at retail thanks to inflation. When you add to that the amount of gas spent looking for them to the in store emp scalping, fueled itself by totally CRAP distribution practices, the end result is people just look online. But the problem then becomes the expense of buying from the very scalpers who stand in the way of the retail experience. And they are getting pretty bold with their prices lately. On Amazon right now, you should take a look at Airachnid or the Vehicon.

Last but certainly not least, there's the online shops. Now some people can say they have no choice, and if you think that, fine. But my opinion, from watching over the last 2 or 3 years, is BBTS and Tf Source have realized that they, too can overcharge dramatically, even though they buy much of their stock at the same rate any retailer does. And after the debacle of Prid Soundwave, they have discovered that it really is profitable to not offer that one figure you really, really want separate from a whole case. Sympathize with them for the BB madness if you want, but there weren't any BBs in the first wave of Generations this year now were there? 2 Shockys a case and they didn't offer him separately for a long while. Or how about the new Prids in wave 5? Are there 3 bbs per case keeping them from offering Rumble? Or Ironhide at the retail price? Hmmmm??
Go back even further. They received their RTS stock at retail rates, so why on earth did they need to charge you what they did for Windcharger or Wreck Garr!?!?

Bottom line is money. If something isn't done about the distribution in general, and the scalping in particular, then fans will have no choice but to pay WAY too much for their toys if they want to keep collecting. And guess what? With this economy, they'll stop buying. A lot of them. And that should concern those with great amounts of money to throw around who always talk about how a "real collector doesn't complain about paying more" as much as it does me, because you guys need to realize that when people stop buying the product, soon the company will stop distributing it either locally or nationally.

So in the end, this distribution plus out of control scalping equals END OF HOBBY. If not on the macrocosmic scale then for all those fans who are tired of not being able to EVER, EVER find anything or who can't afford to pay waaaaaay too much for it online.

And I suggest that we do something about it.

Some people above claim that this rage and threads like this one don't help the problem. They are only half right. Threads and forums like these are CRITICAL to fighting this monstrous urge to scalp and/or hoard. Both scalping and hoarding can both be defeated, but it starts with you. Ghandi said you have to "be the change you want to see in the world". From now on, you need to turn your outrage into action. If you already have 2 Vehicons, why not leave that one you stumble across on the peg for another lucky collector? Or buy it and then hook someone up right here on these boards whose quest has met with frustration. At retail cost. How about letting the sites you buy from know that you don't appreciate unreasonable markups? You can be perfectly nice about it. Finally, we need to network with our fellow collectors locally to organize. That's right, organize. Let's make out of town trips together and pool money for gas to go to those places that always have stock, but which are miles away. Let's put together lists of things each person wants and if we have the extra cash and find it, buy it and resell it to them.

Of course these ideas are just a start and others may have better, more effective means to starve the beast to death. And don't forget, this isn't something that upsets you just because of the price of scalped toy on the internet. It upsets you because it's wrong.

 

You made some great points. The scalpers frequent TF boards all the time to gauge whats popular/short-packed. I think most local collectors are becoming aware that only if they band together can they have a chance against distribution and scalping. Theres workers at TRU,Target around here that are collectors and will help a collector over a scalper when they can. Its become a crowded hobby with poor distribution and the Online stores, which were the last option, are ebaying out the prices.

 

True, but I think it's tough for people to think so rationally when they want something immediately.

You know, it might be worth people's time to develop a network, especially if their local area stocks everything they could want, but scalpers/hoarders keep swooping in to buy stuff up almost as soon as it's stocked. I'm sure some folks here have that. It might be a good idea if every collector at least attempted to do the same.

 

Been saying this for years... Scalpers will never go away because there will always be the secondary market. For most of these people, scalping is extra income.

I frequently post in the Wanted section and comment on the ridiculous comments from those publicize they are willing to over pay to get a figure that JUST came out. If people had more patience, the complaints over lack of money might decrease, but not much. When the GDO Hot Spot was announced or the TF 1st Edition Prime figures came and went, people all of a sudden NEEDED these. There was no ruckus until the figures vanished. Now, after months, Hasbro announced the 1st Editions are coming back, and the GDO figures will hit Toys R Us in the USA. Rather than paying $60 online, by waiting you can save about $40 per figure.

Some people have the bank to spend whatever they want. It must be nice to have unlimited money rolling around. I do not have that luxury and likely never will, so I resort to having patience and more often than not, it does pay off.

I have posted this comic from Shortpacked in another thread, and I think it fits quite well with the discussion here:

 

I can date scalping back to the first wave or Power of the Force 2. I think that was 96 or 97, may have been earlier.

 

I remember the first scalping I experienced. It was Shockblast at my local walmart.

 

We had to for our area and its been very good as a community. We help out as much as we can with sightings and even buying an extra figure here or there of hard to find items to sell at cost to our local memebers. You know I was thinking, if we are fighting scalpers, competing collectors, and distribution what chance does a kid have to get a chance to get some other hard to get figures. I guess thats why there are tons of BBs and Optimuses to go around. Transbot90210 I can remember the craziness of the Cabbage Patch Kids and how parents and scalpers went balistic over those dolls.

 

This is what I want for my area. A community of friends to help each other.

 

Yup. Then when ep I came out. Remember the .00 cards vs the .01 ? Sheesh. Beyond madness! Thank god my Star Wars collecting days are over.

 

Well, to be fair, something like FE at the time seemed like a limited window of oppertunity to get the line. Miss out, and you would most likely never have them. I'm no rich man, but at the time I just bit the bullet and bought 2 of each. Looking back, it was the kind of stupid. Not stupid because I knew what I was doing........ but stupid enough that it made me re-think everything about collecting.

My intention all along was that Prime was going to be my last TF collection. Not due to my lack of interest, but because of 12 years of collecting.... having so much stuff. So I splurged on the FEs. Thinking okay, it's my last horah.... lets go out with a bang. That was fine by me, until the PRIDs came out. And, I couldn't find anything past wave 1. I simply was not willing to keep paying really inflated secondary market prices for nearly the whole line. ..... and that's the only way it seems I could get the whole line. That and Hasbro isn't even going to release some figures in the US.

So, I just gave up. It was a little hard on me and at the same time..... very easy. I think I have grown some-what over these 'second childhood years'. I do love the hobby, but I no longer need it like I once did.

I took a bold step. Did something I thought I would never do again. I started selling stuff off. I think I've sold off nearly 2/3 of my whole collection. Getting rid of anything that didn't hold a real meaning to me. TFs/Star Wars/DVDs/comics/manga/games/magazines/books... you name it. And, other than a tiny sting of sepiration anxiety... I feel great about it. It's so wonderful to not have to worry about keeping up with the line, or hunting in vein for that latest wave, or paying the crazy prices. Which allows me to easily buy those items I really want, like MPs. I've got money now to catch up on a back log of DVDs and Blu rays that I wanted. I even went ahead and bought an anime series I thought I would never get because of it's high price tag.

I know in the end, I am still collecting, switching one habit for another. But, I am having fun again. Collecting higher ticket items like Animation Cels from my favorite movies, cartoons, and anime. Building onto my already large library of movies and anime. I now feel I have the right focus. One which keeps the clutter to a minimum. One that is far far away from bad distrobution and scalpers. I can buy all my videos at stores or at reasonable prices online.... and Cels are worth high prices (to me)because they are one of a kind pieces of history.

So if the scalpers want them, they can have them. It's not my problem any more.

 

I remember the madness started with dot vs stipe hand Bobba Fett and ugly face vs less ugly face Leia. LOL

I enjoyed collecting Star Wars and then episode one happened. That and TF's started getting bigger and bigger and I decided to just collect TFs.

 

I remember that disaster. The .00s... weren't even different than the regulars? Hell, I think a year later I saw those in the $.99 bins. That turned out to be a complete waste, didn't it?

People went nuts for MP Rodimus, thinking it was another MP Grimlock situation, and those who stocked up are kicking themselves. Looks like the same is about to happen with MP Thundy, since he was hard to get on day one, and now more and more sightings are popping up all over the country. Again, those who couldn't wait paid more than retail. Those who did wait, saved a few dollars.

 

It's a frustrating point of view, that's for sure. Why do we have any rules or laws? My observation of when this attitude usually gets trotted out suggests that scalping must be pretty lucrative.

As for community response, I don't have the local network to build on. My weapon in the past was bypassing retailers entirely by ordering cases from BBTS/Diamond/EE/etc. With limited access to distribution channels now, I should be able to help other people out that way too. But of course Hasbro's penchant for stuffing assortments with Bumblebee or other undesirable figures is a major roadblock. I guarantee, if Hasbro went back to longer waves and more homogenous cases, they'd snap the spine of scalpers practically overnight. But they either can't or won't, so we're stuck with scalping and its ugly cousin the shelfwarmer.

 

Toy scalping probably goes back to the 80's if not earlier and not only with tfs, but with star wars especially. Hell, there are stories about g1's being scalped near Christmas time to parents, who paid over $200 for G1 Prime in '84.

I remember reading articles in Lee's toy magazine extensively about this, before the internet, so scalping is nothing new. All the tactics, such as befriending a stock boy at tru or paying them under the table to get access to rare or exclusive toys is nothing new.

I think today, the window to successfully scalped ash been narrowed so much because of ebay, amazon, and boards like these. I listed an mp thunder (just slightly above what I paid several weeks ago with numerous replies, I posted another one a week later with no interest). Because, the market saturation exceeded what little demand there is left.

Now, were back in the same cycle with tru mp prime.

 

Cabbage Patch Kids and the original Star Wars figures were scalped pretty heavily.

To be honest though, any "must have" item is going to be scalped. Toys, tickets, shoes... if there's a profit to be made from the aftermarket demand, someone will find it.

I don't care for it either, but I do my best to avoid buying excessively overpriced anything to avoid feeding into the problem.

 

Remember the original tickle me Elmo and furbies? Yeesh.

I also still have my original buzz lightyear toy, which I remember when that came out, holy crap was it hard to find and scampers were going nuts with it.

 

Scalpers gonna scalp. Just dont buy from them. If i cant buy at local stores, i will buy from online stores.

 

people are just too damn eager to get everything NOW. thats what fuels the sclapers. I remember when mp skywarp came out two or three years ago and a shit ton of threads just like this one popped up. then, four months later, you could buy skywarp in the store for 15 bucks. Ok, mp thundercrakcer will never be that cheap (tru people), but he's popping up more and more, and is very easy to get now. people (including myself) are seeing 4+ sitting on shelves.
Part of the problem is this board itself. As soon as there is a sighting, EVERYONE runs out to find it, and when they cant, "well oh shit, must be the sclapers" then a few weeks later you can find it everyhwhere. Just look at thundercrackers on ebay, they were going fo 150+ three weeks ago, now you can get them form 75. People need to learn that patience is a virtue.

 

I worry for the rationality of anyone who pays a premium for any version of a Masterpiece Jet mould. It's not like you can actually play with them, the jet mode is OK but huge and the Robot is a poor likeness and not very playable and it's frighteningly fragile to boot.

Considering I feel toys are for playing with ; I consider they a failure. I paid only £15.00 for MP Skywarp when new and I still feel slightly ripped off. The idea of paying over $100.00 for any version of those (that isn't an i gear one) to me seems quite silly.

But then I consider Masterpiece a damp squib of a toyline anyway if a fortune feel from the sky I'd not be buying MP's regardess of how wealthy I was. It's like Soul of Chokogin - I can see why someone might like to have them as a display piece (like buying a ceramic model of a Horse or something like that) but If some thing has no play value as a toy collector I certainly am not going to buy it - and that holds true for actual Transformers busts and statues too. they make even Actionmasters seem worthwhile in terms of brand concepts.

And no to the general point I don't feed scalpers as I'm not one of those sort of people who has to have things now. In fact it's people who have to have things "Now" I consider worse than a scalper sometimes as they are the ones who actually create the market in the 1st place.