Collectors Ruined Toys for Everyone!

[Tan Djarka]

When they announced the Black Series of 6" Star Wars figures, I have to admit I was anything but excited about it. I haven't collected toys since, well... Never. Yes, I had just about every original figure when they were new, but they were toys then, NOT collectibles. So, when I finally saw the 6" figures in the store, I had to admit they were cool. Not $20 worth of cool, but pretty decent. I heard Boba Fett wasn't going to be released until the second wave. No, I had no intention of buying one, but I least wanted to see one.

Well, the second wave hit the shelves a few weeks ago, but Boba Fett was nowhere to be seen. Had I been misinformed? Was it delayed? No, apparently every last one has been snatched up for collections or resale. There's no shortage of them on Ebay. Come on people! What about that kid that just wanted a six inch Boba Fett? What about them? Why should their parents pay as much as twice retail for something that will end up in the trash or donated to a thrift shop in a year or so? Or is it JUST adults who are buying these things?

I'm sorry, but I was raised to feel bad about taking the last of anything, even if I am paying for it. It's possible someone else wants or even needs it more than me. But to go out of your way to make sure no one else gets it? Perhaps it goes against the very thing this community is about, but something about it seems so very, very wrong. Maybe it's just me, but that's what I think...

 

[phase pistol]

While I completely agree with you, I have to point out that scalpers started ruining toys around about the mid 1990s.

Plus it's worth noting that the toy companies are complicit in this travesty by releasing short-run figures that are made in lower quantities.

k

 

[Vivek]

It's a similar case with lot of other collectibles where the limited edition aspect of the hobby drives the market value to ridiculous prices (Looking at you Mondo).

The Black Series appears to be targeted towards the adult collectors market and though many parents will also buy these figures for their kids, it's the adults who will be willing to pay twice or thrice the retail price to add it to their collection.

The only way to safe guard yourself to these price gauging of toys is to remain informed about the product release and pre-order them.

 

[Wes R]

Sadly scalpers are the reason a lot of toy collectors are getting out of it. It's been happening with transformers and marvel legends for years. I go to walmart about the time they open boxes and you see folks with lists on their phones of what they know they can sell on ebay for twice as much. It doesn't help that hasbro likes to make some figures harder to get so there is a massive demand either.

 

[jcoffman99]

When these came out I just resigned myself to ordering them case by case from bbts. I wasn't even going to try and hunt for them in stores.

 

[Amish Trooper]

I've had no issues. Maybe because I reside in a more rural area

 

[Funky]

Yeah, I was part of the "toy scalpers" guild towards the end of the 90's. It sounds silly because it's just toy hunting, but I really saw the cold heart of many adults looking to make a buck. I got wrapped up in the whole "every man for himself" mindset. I saw relationships, friendships and trust between people deteriorate because of the hobby. After I sold my store, I resigned to just stick to prop collecting and yes, I am much happier. It appears the "adult collector" steam has lost it's drive for the most part making toys for kids much easier to get.

 

[Wes R]

The economy has helped slow things down too as people are learning to preorder. Plus you can go on bigbadtoystore and such and buy and entire case of figures for what 3 of them are at walmart after tax. i bought entire waves of transformers that way and in some cases the figures only came out that way.

 

[NormanF]

I remember when the Playstation 2 came out and the same thing happened.

Sent from my Etch A Sketch.

 

[Rotwang]

My policy these days is that if a company makes it hard on purpose for me to buy what they are selling, then they obviously are doing so well they don't need my business anyway. And if everybody did the same, all this nonsense about limited editions, exclusives, "only available on that glacier on Greenland between 07h37 and 07h41 on Octember 87th fourteenhundred and green, but only if you bring the egg of a phoenix and can answer the 87 riddles of death." Would end overnight ...

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

It´s funny that because of the collector´s market a lot of "old" rules don´t seem to apply to developing a toy line anymore. I remember reading that the vintage 12" line was dropped because there was not much interest in the "dolls" due to the lack of available vehicles. Now there is that 6" line of action figures, but what playvalue do those figures offer to kids without a decent vehicle or playset?

 

[dropshipbob]

I thought the $10+ price tag on most action figures would change things.



Still waiting.

 

[NakedMoleRat]

I remember when Phantom menace came out, going to Walmart looking for a Darth Maul. There were none on the shelf but a sleezy guy in a leather jacket told me that he had gotten the "last 6 of them this morning" and still had them in his car. For $40.00 he would sell me one. I laughed and told him that I could wait another week or two when the shelves would be full and all of the "Gotta have them ALL right NOW!" folks had paid a retarded price for them.

He didn't like me....

I had a casual interest in the black series, at least to see what they would look like. The R2 was cool in that scale. When I heard that Slave Leia was coming out, I had decided in advance that that was the one I would get. Then I saw her at Target and saw the weird way that her head was put on, like it was sticking out and forward at a wierd angle as if her neck was bent too far forward and decided to just save my $20.00. I may still get R2 and wait for a 3PO to come out though.

 

[Lear60man]

There is a TRU next to a collectable shop by the airport here. The owner of the collectable shop used the TRU as his personal supply. Wellllllllll One day I was in TRU when they opened just killing time before a flight and gravitated toward the Action figure isle. The TRU employee had 3 cases of SW figures on the floor. He looked at me and asked if I was looking for XXX. I said no, why? He said there was only one to a case and collectors snap them up for resale. I said like the guy next door? 'Yes, we hate that guy but management said there is nothing we can do.' I said, "you cant but I can, lets open it up." I scooped up the rare figures, bought all three and gave back 2 to the employee. I told him to put them out in a couple days. We were rolling laughing.

Befor getting in my car, I popped into the collectible store and told the owner that I had bought all the figures already. He was not happy.

 

[Dracosfire83]

Never realized the toy scene got this bad but then again I wasn't much of a collector. Grew up playing with TMNT toys back when they five bucks. Other then them my brother got me into collecting Mcfarlane's Movie Maniacs but I always used his account to order the complete sets from the company.

 

[kibosh]

I lucked upon the Boba Fett the other day at Target. It is way overpriced at $20, but I'm a sucker for all things Fett, and it is a cool looking figure. I think the big problem for the Black Series is there is only one of each fig per case, and I have never seen more than one case out at a time.

I'll pick up the rest of the figs I want on the secondary market when the prices go back down.

 

[Monkey67]

When I worked at toys r us a long time ago. You would get the pricks that would run you over the minute you opened the door to get to action figures. Once there they tore the area apart looking so certain items / figures. Once I learned what they were looking for, me a few others started to take them off the shelf. I would have them in the locked storage room in my area with the video games. When a kid or normal person ( someone didn't look like a comic book guy from the Simpsons or the regular collectors) asked about them. They were sent over to me, in which I would give it to them to buy. Sure it made the collectors really mad, but I didn't care nor did management. Made more kids and parents happy in the end. Collectors tried their kids too, but I seen those kids before. The best one was then a fight almost broke out over the WWE Owen hart figure. He died the night before by falling along way down. Anyway, I walked into work and saw a hug line at the door of the collectors. Asked my buddy what the deal and we took the figures ( only 2 were in the store). He placed them behind the customer service desk. Dudes came in running a chick almost over. No figures were found until they saw them behind the counter. Manager said those were on hold for 2 employees ( huge wrestling fans). They started complaining about it not being fair and we can't do that. Manager and sloppy joe ( our nickname for him) started to get lippy with each other. Needless to say we didn't have many collector / hoarders at the store for awhile.

 

[third3ye]

More reason to preorder a figure to guarantee you'll at most pay retail. I only recently started buying Hot Toys figures, not the exact same landscape as these are for the adult market not kids, but you see a lot of the same things going on. Plus the $ markup for Hot Toys in the secondary market is simply out of control, which is why I only preorder or buy a loose figure.

 

[Funky]

When I worked at toys r us a long time ago. You would get the pricks that would run you over the minute you opened the door to get to action figures. Once there they tore the area apart looking so certain items / figures. Once I learned what they were looking for, me a few others started to take them off the shelf. I would have them in the locked storage room in my area with the video games. When a kid or normal person ( someone didn't look like a comic book guy from the Simpsons or the regular collectors) asked about them. They were sent over to me, in which I would give it to them to buy. Sure it made the collectors really mad, but I didn't care nor did management. Made more kids and parents happy in the end. Collectors tried their kids too, but I seen those kids before. The best one was then a fight almost broke out over the WWE Owen hart figure. He died the night before by falling along way down. Anyway, I walked into work and saw a hug line at the door of the collectors. Asked my buddy what the deal and we took the figures ( only 2 were in the store). He placed them behind the customer service desk. Dudes came in running a chick almost over. No figures were found until they saw them behind the counter. Manager said those were on hold for 2 employees ( huge wrestling fans). They started complaining about it not being fair and we can't do that. Manager and sloppy joe ( our nickname for him) started to get lippy with each other. Needless to say we didn't have many collector / hoarders at the store for awhile.

Sorry, bro, but I have to call you out on this. I have several issues with your story. Let's just chalk it up to the way "you remember it".
You see, I went to train for a managers position for TRU back in the day. I only stayed for a month after I found out any employee could be fired for doing some of the things you described. I LOVE this one, "No figures were found until they saw them behind the counter. Manager said those were on hold for 2 employees ( huge wrestling fans)." I KNOW the other manager at the only other TRU was reprimanded on paper for doing something VERY similar.
You see, TRU coorporate was more than aware of the collector issues at the time and TRU was constantly battling the issue, so much to the point that we were instructed to hole punch each package of every Star Wars figure that came in the door. Needless to say Hasbro quickly put a stop to that! :lol
But to blatantly tell a customer that the emploees come before they do so customer service means absolutely nothing???
Sorry, man, don't buy it.

 

[Monkey67]

Call what you want, just telling you what my store was like. It wasn't a nazi style store and was in the burbs. Depending where the store you worked at I could see it being as you say. But maybe you showed too much interests in collecting toys yourself or for friends that they made sure it wasn't gonna happen. I wasn't there for the Star Wars massive toy run. Thus I can't say anything on those toys release of the phantom menace. With the Star Wars toys there could a whole different set of rules to go by idk.

Yes she told the customer that those belong to employees. It was a plus side in our store to get your hands on items before the public. I got stuff from the game makers & reps of Sony. I had 6 ps2 between 2 friends when they came out day 1. Some got the Barbie dolls & pokemon cards. No one ever got I into trouble there. Unless you stole or fought with someone.

Hot wheel guys were able to open the stock boxes when they came in due to being friends with store bosses. That's a crazy scene to see somedays.