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eBay seller starwarsprotos is at it again with another rare item. This time it’s Beast War’s Optimal Optimus, in prototype form. The figure is mostly black plastic with hints of orange. He comes from an estate of a former Kenner/Hasbro employee that starwarsprotos is slowly auctioning off.
Check out a full set of pics over on eBay here!
Dark Jedi
They way he posted the videos and editing with background music just to say it was a waste of time and destroy them sounds like a waste of a life.
Quickstrike2013
Maybe all the criticism he got or didn't want it shown how many of each he had. Looks like he had most the G1 boxed figures graded
harveydent
10char
Primal Sabbath
I agree, although in some cases it's the pocketbook I'm missing… Other cases I'm just not interested in the generation
I wasn't aware this was being made a public spectacle on both the BotCon & TCC website, with Pete and Brian at the helm representing Fun Publications and their stance on busi… Oh wait.
On a less sarcastic note, in what way has FunPub been unfair, or "shady" in their business practices?
Primal Sabbath
Or double of what the First one sold for… I think for these "firsties" he lets the market declare the value, regardless of what he thinks it's worth. Then he lists the others for what he thinks they should sell for.
That isn't even close to the same thing as scalping.
"Yeah I'm going to go to Widows R Us to pick up all of the ex-Hasbro/Kenner employee collections… I'm totally going to own the market, bro."
It makes a lot less sense once you think about it for a minute. This guy hardly scoured the earth for a clean-sweep of all the prototypes & unreleased items he's selling…
Prior to starwarsprotos being put in the spotlight for the way he conducts business, did ANYONE PM him via eBay or this site to ask if that was the only piece he had for any of his auctions? Likely not.
On the same hand should we all know or think about asking him or anyone else to give us the answer to that question? Not really. He and any other seller could be a total prick about it, but at least the dude is being truthful, and entertaining these questions in private.
Do I agree with the way he's doing things? Not really.
Does it make him a scumbag? No.
Does it make him a scalper? No
He's just "doing business" and like it or not, there's nothing misleading about his auctions or the way he goes about conducting business.
I totally see both sides of this, and they're both reasonable. The collector in me is shaking his head thinking "dick move, buddy." The business man in me is nodding thinking "ah, smart move; disclose the necessities, but leave the guesswork to the buyers."
barrelks
Interesting watch in this thread, and while I don't know what I would do with such a quantity of toys, it has been a fun read. It is times like this that I feel fortunate to not have the pocketbook where this affects me directly. I do find it ironic that the botcon/club would be banging the drum on business practices. The tables have been turned and we have entered a bazaaro world.
rdarkstream
Well in my opinion what i am seeing is the OP is posting an auction, saying he has a rare blah blah blah and he is unsure of how many are left etc. So bidding happens and the price goes up. The object sells and a week later he tosses up another blah blah blah for the price it sold for.
Its the same as scalping to me because scalpers buy up all the product they can find so they can turn around and sell them for a marked up value. They by buying up all the stock can set the price on the market. What do you think the diamond market is? Same deal.
It most likely is just semantics in the end because there is only a slight difference or none at all from Scalping and artificially inflating the price of something. Like i said my opinion on this ordeal. Its wonderful we get to see some of these things out in the open, but im not about to spend silly money when there is more out there.
LegendAntihero
Optibotimus is still better
chaosanderson
+1
I would love to afford to add something to my collection but I'll have to be content to watch the videos and go OOOh Neat.
still want that Black rotor Ransack though
Triformis
At the risk of getting into a battle of semantics, I am unsure how you consider e-bay auctions for rare prototypes and such scalping when it has nothing to do with current items, which is what the term scalping is applied to.
Terms that are more apt and could apply depending on your viewpoint: artificial price inflation, what the market will bear, keeping mum, etc. I know you have stated it that its your opinion, but I am simply perplexed by it.
I swear I am attempting to engage in friendly debate and nothing more.
Hollywood Hoist
I see no problem with what he's doing. He has rare items that he's listing on Ebay, he sometimes has more than one of an item. His job whether he selling for a third party or for himself is getting the most money he can for any particular item. People seem to have made assumptions that he only has one of a particular item, but as long as he never said he only has one, then he hasn't done anything wrong. No lies were said, only assumptions on other peoples part.
These are rare items, their value is subjective, you can't point to 50 other similar auctions to determine a value. All we have to go on is one or two auctions that were bid up to a specific amount, but that doesn't mean the item isn't worth more or less, just at that given time the people watching the auction were willing to pay that amount.
I give great respect to StarWarsProtos for sharing this stuff with us, sure it builds interest in his auctions, but he doesn't have to post videos and answer all these questions. Thank you for your contributions to the fandom and sharing the treasures you have before you put them up for sale.
Warnen
Don't know much about g2 stuff but me likes those dinobot.
rdarkstream
Well to me, and only me i find it as a form of scalping, but like i said that is solely my opinion.
I remember on Facebook this guy bought 6 or 7 MP grimlocks all up at once so he could resell at a higher rate. Hell we had that here as well. 60$ toy for 150…Who doesn't remember that? Scalpers are not some rare unicorn or anything.
Regardless Starwars wants a set amount for his toys he has. If they are that high priced the market will ignore him and just let him sit on those items.
Thats why typically you try to find the average price of something and auction it for about that.
Pete Sync
I think all people are asking (and all I have been asking from the very start) is just admit what we all already know. You don't want collector's to know your quantity because you know that most will assume (as pointed out by 03Mach1) that you have only one each, allowing the price to be bid up. Then, once a price is set, you have a "retail" price to work from for the remaining quantities. The error in this strategy though is assuming multiple people will pay the winning amount even though they weren't willing to pay that when there was only one being auctioned. That is why the Autorollers, the Gobots and the last Megatron ATB just sat on eBay. (And I am still perplexed as to why you think someone would pay double what an auction for Tarantulas/Waspinator went for. They are test shots. They most "common" of TF proto's.
Anyways, back to the main point, while it is NOT scalping, it is misleading as the strategy specifically targets a group who is use to seeing these items as one offs, not as multiple auctions i.e. the series 2 TF Gobots. The most RARE of the unproduced Gobots, the Jeep, is now sitting on eBay at $650 with a BIN. The value of these have plummeted. Maybe they will go back up, but there is a finite number of proto collectors. Again. This isn't Star Wars.
Now, of course you CAN do this. But let's at least call it what it is.
Triformis
Pity!? No way! Not when you've been almost knocked down by those jerks as they hustle past you or when they consistently stake out stores and buy everything on the pegs. *ugh*
No need to pretend, though, because I have had that situation happen, primarily with Marvel Legends (I rarely have issues finding TF's, which seem to be more abundant than some other toylines) and here is what I have done, no joke: either buy them for fellow fans that are also seeking them or, believe it or not, leave them behind. If I bought an extra, I offered it here for cost.
And, yes, if you sell them for more, then you are indeed a scalper because that's the definition as previously stated. Now, when does an item become okay to sell for more? I'd argue 6 months to a year when the initial hype dies down, but then you may be considered a speculator, which is a whole 'nother thing.
Please do not think I am attacking you whatsoever, I just like to debate such issues. People are free to do what they wish. Like I said, toy karma. Obviously, your karma level is doing okay since you've gotten access to this incredible stuff.
Good luck with the auctions and I look forward to more videos!
Matty
This thread, unfortunately, is taking a turn towards defining "scalper."
Which only leads to bad news.
starwarsprotos
I agree with all of this (however, I would use the word "pity" instead of "detest")
But I am curious, let us pretend there is some $10 transformer, that has some odd variation, that makes it instantly worth $100. You walk in to a store and there is 4 of them hanging on the shelf. Is ANYONE going to tell me they only buy one and leave the other 3 there to be "fair" to the next collector (who will then buy all 3).
If you buy all 4 and later trade or sell one of the other 3 for more than $10 are you then a "scalper"?
starwarsprotos
I agree 100%. If you expressly state something that is not true in your auction you're lying. If you say this is "my last one", it damn well better be your last one.
(that can be forgiven in a case where a dealer honestly found a duplicate of something at a later time, but people do not repeatedly keep finding "last ones".)
NOT preemptively addressing every assumption a potential buyer might make is not misleading, it makes you an ineffective seller.
Everyone has seen that ebay seller. The item has a three sentence description. And then six paragraphs of his terms and conditions that were cut and pasted in to the item description.
That is exactly what is occurring, an ineffective seller is trying to address every single problem that they have ever experienced by writing their eBay auctions like it's some sort of a binding contract. It is not a binding contract, EBay will side with the buyer on nearly every occasion. Regardless of the fact that you addressed his particular issue/assumption in sentence 12 of paragraph 4 of your terms and conditions. Instead one of two things happens, #1 the buyer never reads it. #2 the potential buyer who actually read it is so put off by the negative tone that he does not buy the item.
There are countless other subtleties to effective / ineffective selling
Wrong: I do NOT ship on Thursdays or Fridays
Right: I ship on Mondays through Wednesdays
Wrong: there are NO instructions with this cell phone
Right: this cell phone lacks instructions
Wrong: “Up for auction the highly prized, rarely seen, Whateverbot. I have 5 of these so don’t bid too high because as soon as the auction closes, I am going to post another one, then another, until they are all gone. So you may as well wait until the very last item to go all-in on this auction. ”
Right: “Up for auction the highly prized, rarely seen, Whateverbot. Contact me with any questions”
I understand the position I am in on this forum.
Since I want the most out of every item, and collectors naturally want to purchase things for the least they can spend. There is obviously a conflict there. This forum is made up of more collectors than sellers.
It is foolish to attempt to "win" such a debate, but the discussion is intellectually worth having.
Triformis
What an interesting thread! I must take umbrage with the defining of "scalping" by some in here. Traditionally, it means the following, taken from dictionary.com and backed by similar sources: "Informal. a small profit made in quick buying and selling."
Personally, I detest these people because I am in this for the fun and I love to help out fellow board members. In most cases, what a scalper can make off of a figure is actually very little (on average and factoring in gas/time) and I consider them to be a scourge of this hobby of ours. I will not buy from one, plain and simple. Sometimes it's tempting to sell things for wild prices in a hot market, but it's all about karma.
I should also add that starwarsproto is NOT scalping (well, currently, anyway).
I now return you to your regularly-scheduled discussion.