I'm the Scatman!

Ski-bi dibby dib

 

I've hid figures when I wasn't getting paid for a few days. Or a week some times. I'm also old school retail so know various tricks on how to hide stuff. Has it always worked? No. I don't condone scalping though. That's a bunch of bull. The unfortunate bit for a lot of people is that they get paid every two weeks instead of every one week. I will always abuse an item out of place if theres a number of them and I really want the figure, the corporate world cares little for their workers in brick and mortar, and so throwing those little punches at the company makes it feel pretty good. Usually only used this trick at Walmart. Seriously, fuck Walmart. If I see something that's high in demand, and I know scalpers will flip, like the G1 Reissues, I still won't get them, or hide them, though maybe I should to get them out to people at retail prices as opposed to Ebay prices(I did this for people for Red Wing for instance for a while.).

When TRUs were closing down and discounts were rising, I hid a giant Mega Blocks Halo ship in a spot noone would really look in, and also put several price tags from the bike section on one side of it to cover up the graphic and help create the optical illusion that it was part of the tiles, because I knew noone really looked in that corner, let alone closely. Eventually it sort of became a game to see how long it would sit there. Went three months before someone finally found it, put it out, and it got sold. Alas. Had Mega Bloks gone down to 80% or 90% off I'd have bought it.

 

I don't mind hiding figures for fellow collectors. I see no problem with it.

 

I’m lucky to have family and friends that know I collect and have on occasion sent me a message when they see the section had been refreshed. If there’s anything I’m looking for, I will usually have them hide it in the same general area, but behind stuff on pegs so I can swing over and pick it up. It’s not so much hidden as “misplaced” on the pegs. Such was the case for the reissue Soundwave that my daughter found and texted me about while shopping with friends. She took one of the two available and stuck it across the aisle behind some board games. I promptly made a trip to Walmart to grab it.

 

There you are, Forky.

 

Considering there are some people who hide figures with the intent that a friend/fellow collector comes along, how does everyone feel about searching out these hidden toys and buying them yourself? Either just accidentally happening upon them or intentionally looking behind Legos and the like to see if anything's been put there?
I remember seeing Red Hot and Stakeout at a Walmart and on a whim, it occurred to me that someone may have hidden Ravage and Laserbeak. After a little bit of looking around, sure enough there was one stashed away.

 

I agree.

Out of all the "ethical" things in this thread, hiding figures for a friend/collector is not a big deal.

Heck, I've had a fellow TFW poster hide a figure I was looking for, message me where it was with directions to where to find it, and then me go an get it a few hours later when off of work.

If there are multiple people hunting for a figure that is hard to find and someone spots it and knows that their buddy won't be able to make it to the store until later in the day, where is the problem?

 

One thing I really don’t like is if I go to a store and I come across more than one copy of a new character being tucked away and hidden. It happened recently with Siege Impactor. Came across 5 of him stuffed at the back under the lower shelf.

I sell the duplicates on my eBay at normal retail price, genuinely don’t do it for profit. It isn’t fair for genuine collectors to miss out because some greedy bugger does it for the money.

Also caught an employee taking 3 Titans Return Overlords out of the stock box to put under his checkout until he finished a few years ago. He was boasting about it to his other colleague.

If I see more than one I tend to bring them to the front but I’m guilty of spending way more and buying the extra copies that were hidden just out of spite

 

When I lived in Seattle someone years earlier had taken to stashing things *UNDER* the shelves in Target. The bottom row you can lift the shelf and there's a kick plate in the front, so there's just enough height to stash a Deluxe or marvel legends figure in there. Once I discovered it I hit every Target and Fred Meyer in Seattle and ended up with a bunch of stuff that would ring up for $.03: some 25th GI Joes, the Batman figures from the Bane movies, a Darth Mail for $4 when he was selling for $90 on eBay, tons of stuff from like 5-6 years before then.

So remember kids: when you hide things, don't hide them TOO well!

 

I've never hidden a Transformer or any other item, but I see hidden albums every single time I go to the record store.

 

There’s the hiding type in every hobby by the looks of it  

 

It's a way of getting a street-dated figure prior to the street date. The street date is the date on which a retailer is allowed to start selling a figure. For example, say you go to Target and find a TF on the shelf that they won't sell to you because the street hasn't been reached yet. You get around this by taking the street-dated figure AND an older figure of the same class (deluxe/leader/voyager/etc) to the self checkout, scan the older figure, toss the street-dated figure into your bag, pay and leave the old figure there. It is common courtesy to return the old figure to its proper place in the toy aisle afterward.  

 

Again, I don't have a problem with this either. If it is on the shelf, it's fair game.

 

But in doing that you could also be hiding figures FROM other collectors.

 

I have heard of this seriously backfiring, it is still essentially theft and the store could press charges if you get caught. They can catch you out by putting the street date hold on all of the same assortment of figure no matter the length of time it has been sat on a shelf. It is shit but it can happen, I don’t think that it is worth the risk myself personally. I’d just rather wait even if it is agonising.

Management: I’m about to end this whole mans career.

If I do this, I’ll announce what store and where on the UK toy discussion board so those in my area can swoop down and snatch it up.

Then I would consider it fair game as everyone gets a fairish chance

 

I m thinking in a way if that causes a loss of a sale ,
that kind of contributes to the store not ordering many if not any at all “as” it kind of make it look less popular.

 

Not really. They usually go get it. If not, I put it back the next time I’m at that store.

When I hide a figure (it’s almost always a new release), I let everybody in the sightings forum for my state know where it is. I hardly ever hide a figure for just one person.

Again, don’t put it on the shelf if it isn’t supposed to be there. As a manager of a toy section once told me, “If it’s on the shelf, it’s for sale.”

 

It is completely contradictory I agree with that, but they still have to follow the corporate rules. I guess that most just don’t want the hassle of facing legal action.

Most of those goons have no idea what is old af collecting dust or hot off the truck these days

 

Recently I was on the finding end. I was looking for ages for Siege Starscream and when shopping at the local Wal-Mart saw they had 4 Springers. I new SS was packed with him but alas, no SS to be found. My daughter was looking at Peppa Pig toys and came to me with SS saying Dad do you have this one? LOL. I doubt it was put there by mistake by an employee.

 

Looking forward to taking my future kid to the store on toy hunts, will send them picking apart the lower shelves so I can save my poor old knees   I’m 20!