Scalpers or Not?
Alex
Try to find a Leia. It's not easy. Ii took me a long time to get that
piece for my wife's collection. I spend 20+ hours per week looking for
toys. Guess What? I also have a full time job and a family. Am I a
scapler because I sell Leia for $15, which is less than 1/2 of what she
is listed for in the price guide? I collect pieces but I also trade and
sell them. As long as you have FUN who cares about the "scalpers".
Eric G. Myers
Alex wrote:
>
> Try to find a Leia. It's not easy. Ii took me a long time to get that
> piece for my wife's collection. I spend 20+ hours per week looking for
> toys. Guess What? I also have a full time job and a family. Am I a
<snip>
Yes, you are a scapler. You are also a scaffold and a skyscraper.
Those are your three wishes. Now stop rubbing the lamp.
:)
EGM
--
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|e...@worldnet.att.net / Eric G. Myers / emy...@utmdacc.mda.uth.tmc.edu|
John J. Forbus, Super Genius
On Fri, 11 Oct 1996, Alex wrote:
> Try to find a Leia. It's not easy. Ii took me a long time to get that
> piece for my wife's collection. I spend 20+ hours per week looking for
> toys. Guess What? I also have a full time job and a family. Am I a
> scapler because I sell Leia for $15, which is less than 1/2 of what she
> is listed for in the price guide?
Yes, you are a scalper. I'm sad to say it, but it's true. The amount of
time spent to find a figure does not come into account when determining
the price. I don't care how much gas you used looking for it. I doubt
very much that anyone asked you to make the effort to remove their chance
of finding a toy at retail prices, which means that charging extra for
time or gas is simply an excuse. In my opinion, if you personally do not
want the toy for yourself or have not been specifically asked by someone
to purchase it for them, then you should leave it alone. Trust me, there
are much better ways to invest your money than little plastic men. Look
to Wall Street, not Wal-Mart.
As to the price guide issue, the Toys 'R Us point-of-sale system lists
Leia at $4.99, the Kay-Bee Toys system lists her at $5.99 (or maybe $6.99,
depending on what part of the country you're in), Wal-Mart list her at
$4.76, and Service Merchandise lists her at $3.87. I don't know what
"guide" you were looking at, but it's prices seem very skewed.
Additionally, please note that this figure is not rare. If Leia (or Ben
Kenobi, or Lando, or [insert scalped item here]) was rare, there wouldn't
be 30+ posts a day trying to sell multiples of them, and there wouldn't be
several dozen tables, each trying to sell their scores or "rare" toys, set
up at toy show across the country.
> I collect pieces but I also trade and
> sell them. As long as you have FUN who cares about the "scalpers".
Some people care very much when they are asked to pay a 200-1000% markup
on a toy just because someone made it to Target 5 minutes earlier. I
honestly cannot understand what prompts someone to sell a
current-production-run toy at more than retail value. Is it pure greed?
If there's another reason, please tell me.
Thanks for listening.
----- John Forbus ----- http://users.intur.net/~forbus
su...@doom.fay.ar.us
for...@intur.net
Michael Mierzwa
Alex (al...@datadoctor.com) wrote:
: Try to find a Leia. It's not easy. Ii took me a long time to get that
: piece for my wife's collection. I spend 20+ hours per week looking for
: toys. Guess What? I also have a full time job and a family. Am I a
: scapler because I sell Leia for $15, which is less than 1/2 of what she
Have you also sold scalped baseball tickets? BTW: did you report your new
career to the IRS ... not that they would care, but I bet that you might
qualify for some great tax write offs. Just think, your car, your gas,
your lunch business french fries ... oops make that meal.
You are a Vanhead ... that is a scalper of toys!
Michael Mierzwa
JSV
----- John Forbus wrote
> about Leia
> Additionally, please note that this figure is not rare. If Leia (or Ben
> Kenobi, or Lando, or [insert scalped item here]) was rare, there wouldn't
> be 30+ posts a day trying to sell multiples of them, and there wouldn't be
> several dozen tables, each trying to sell their scores or "rare" toys, set
> up at toy show across the country.
Ummmmmmmm...good point..yes, yes.......very good point!
Anyone else that needs to ask this question can just pull out a copy of Toy Shop. Take an
hour of your time and count the number of "dealers" selling Leia, Ben, Lando, whatever.
Just an hour. Not individuals...just the dealers who repeatedly have ads selling these
figures.
<tick tock tick tock tick tock> <ding!>
Time is up!
Okay how many did you come up with?
50? 100? 150? 200?
What are the chances that these dealers have 2, 3, six maybe even a dozen of each character
you could ever want? Hmmmmmm.....let's do the math now.......;)
Okay skip the math. :) The point is........all of these people have a LOT of these
characters for sale at inflated prices.....while many people here on this wonderfu thing
called an internet know for a fact that the figures are not rare....they are quite common
as the large number of people wanting to sell them confirms......
No one asked these people to do them any favors. Why do they continue? Answer: Because of
the price guides and their misinformation. Yes some of the characters are popular....I will
concede the point....but that does not mean we need a few hundred people to go out of their
way every week to pick up popular character for us to sell it to us at a marked up price.
If they were left on the shelf to begin with....the problem would not exist.
Jared
Ye old man Ben
Alex (al...@datadoctor.com) wrote:
> Try to find a Leia. It's not easy. Ii took me a long time to get that
> piece for my wife's collection. I spend 20+ hours per week looking for
> toys. Guess What? I also have a full time job and a family.
I admire your persistance. However, if you have a full time job
and a family, where do you find 20+ hours to go toy hunting?! I WISH I
had that kind of time! :)
> Am I a scapler because I sell Leia for $15, which is less than
> 1/2 of what she is listed for in the price guide?
Suck in your gut and brace yourself. The answer is YES. Scalping
involves buying a toy that is currently on the mass market (or shipping)
and then selling it at a significant markup (usually 2-5X it's retail,
although it can go higher than that). According to most stores I've been
to, Leia goes for $4.99-$7.99 tops (plus appropriate state tax). By this,
$15 is about $6 over retail already wouldn't you?
> I collect pieces but I also trade and sell them.
There's nothing wrong with collecting and getting toys to use for
trade OR to sell at a reasonable price. If a person asks you to find a
Leia, and they agree to pay all your travel expenses etc., then that's
between you and that person. However, when someone buys the toy with the
express purpose of creating an artifical market to sell toys at prices
higher than retail, that's just plain bad.
> As long as you have FUN who cares about the "scalpers".
Heh. As funny as it sounds, YOU should care. Did you have fun
spending all that time away from your family hunting for figs? (Maybe you
did, I'm just asking because you stressed it in your opening statement).
Do you enjoy having to spend 20+ hours a week to find ONE darn toy? If
you answered NO, then wake up. Scalpers help create an artifical
'secondary' market which asks unfair prices AND prevents TRUE toy
collectors from getting the toys they want for their collections at a fair
price. IMO, it's a disgusting and terrible practice that I will NOT miss
once it has disappeared.
**********************************************
*Name: Benson "Ironfire" Yee *
*a.k.a. Wonko the Sane *
*e-mail: ye...@is2.nyu.edu *
******************************************
*Transformers Beast Wars web page: *
*http://acweb.com/ben/beast.htm *
***************************************
"THAT, was some cold slag..."
Rhinox - "Fallen Comrades"
Aaron Newton
Ye old man Ben (ye...@is2.nyu.edu) wrote:
> I admire your persistance. However, if you have a full time job
> and a family, where do you find 20+ hours to go toy hunting?! I WISH I
> had that kind of time! :)
Me too. I might spend 45 minutes every weekday after work, and then a few
hours on Saturday... I don't think I ever spend more than 7 hours a week
looking for toys... and I'm a 20 year old bachelor who is currently living
out of town, away from all his friends, and has nothing *else* to do outside
of entertain himself.
That guy before Ben wrote:
> > Am I a scapler because I sell Leia for $15, which is less than
> > 1/2 of what she is listed for in the price guide?
Yup.
> > As long as you have FUN who cares about the "scalpers".
For exactly the reasons Ben points out, *I* care, *he* cares, ALL collectors
should care. Do you realize how much scalping contributes to the difficulty
of finding new toys?
--
Aaron Newton <*> 1:1 * After Doctor Who on Fox:
amne...@starbase.spd.louisville.edu * Me: 27 years...
http://www.spd.louisville.edu/~amnewt01* Mom: Huh? 27 years? For What?
IRC: FigNewton * Me: Well for nothing apparently
The Hamster
ye...@is2.nyu.edu (Ye old man Ben) wrote:
> There's nothing wrong with collecting and getting toys to use for
>trade OR to sell at a reasonable price. If a person asks you to find a
>Leia, and they agree to pay all your travel expenses etc., then that's
>between you and that person. However, when someone buys the toy with the
>express purpose of creating an artifical market to sell toys at prices
>higher than retail, that's just plain bad.
>>
I'm almost terified to step into the fray but there seems to be such a
level of moral indignation if someone makes a mistake in this group I
thought I'd ask for some clarification. I recently bought a TJ
Aquaman. I bought it because I knew it was somewhat rare. I only
bought it because I felt I may be able to trade for something I wanted
now here is the kicker. Do I have to trade the aquaman for a figure
only worth 7.99 (what I paid) or can I trade it for a 9" ST figure
worth maybe 15.00. I don't want to SELL at a higher than retail price
but knowing that there is a greater demand for this figure I figured I
could leverage that in a trade... GOD HELP ME FOR ASKING FOR IT.. AM
I....A SCALPER??!!!!!! I know this sound facetious but I'm seriously
asking for clarification.
>**********************************************
>*Name: Benson "Ironfire" Yee *
>*a.k.a. Wonko the Sane *
>*e-mail: ye...@is2.nyu.edu *
>******************************************
>*Transformers Beast Wars web page: *
>*http://acweb.com/ben/beast.htm *
>***************************************
>"THAT, was some cold slag..."
> Rhinox - "Fallen Comrades"
"I am a man not a meal."
HAM
Michael Mierzwa
The Hamster (H...@dapo.com) wrote:
: ye...@is2.nyu.edu (Ye old man Ben) wrote:
:
: > There's nothing wrong with collecting and getting toys to use for
: >trade OR to sell at a reasonable price. If a person asks you to find a
: >Leia, and they agree to pay all your travel expenses etc., then that's
: >between you and that person. However, when someone buys the toy with the
: >express purpose of creating an artifical market to sell toys at prices
: >higher than retail, that's just plain bad.
:
: I'm almost terified to step into the fray but there seems to be such a
: level of moral indignation if someone makes a mistake in this group I
Well, even if you state an opinion some times (as I've recently found)
people will start harassing you at home, even after you ask them to stop.
So being terified that somebody will stalk you is a very justified fear.
IMO only cowards stalk, but be assured that what I have to say is only my
opinion and theory ... I will not stalk or do anything inappropriate such
invade your private e-mail with disturbing and irrational babble.
: thought I'd ask for some clarification. I recently bought a TJ
: Aquaman. I bought it because I knew it was somewhat rare. I only
: bought it because I felt I may be able to trade for something I wanted
: now here is the kicker. Do I have to trade the aquaman for a figure
: only worth 7.99 (what I paid) or can I trade it for a 9" ST figure
: worth maybe 15.00. I don't want to SELL at a higher than retail price
: but knowing that there is a greater demand for this figure I figured I
: could leverage that in a trade... GOD HELP ME FOR ASKING FOR IT.. AM
: I....A SCALPER??!!!!!! I know this sound facetious but I'm seriously
: asking for clarification.
I see trading as different than scalping. Trading is usually done amongst
other collectors, while scalping (ie selling a hard to find in some
regions Leia for $15+). A general rule to follow _can_ be:
A market transaction should guarantee fairness between _all_ parties
involved, since each must be made better off. Otherwise neither party
would complete the transaction. However, markets do not
always guarantee fairness to third parties who may be negatively impacted
by a market exchange, because market transactions often fail to reflect
negative externalities (such as regional depletion/surplus).
If you can trade an aquaman for a 9" ST fig, and you both are pleased,
then clearly you've made a fair 2 party transaction. However, in the long
term it is possible that by removing the aquaman from your region and not
purchasing a 9" ST fig from your region it is possible that in the future
your retailers will notice that locally there is more of a demand of
aquamen and less of 9" ST figs. But, this danger is slight, as I suspect
that few retailers follow past sales that religously.
It is possible that somebody else will have lost the opportunity to get an
aquaman, but the company should really have better distributed them.
Plenty of people have been purchasing all the ST limited edition figures
and selling and trading them for a value much higher than retail. As I'm
not aware of aquaman's value/collectiblity/etc, as I causally collect Star
Wars toys, I can not see either the ST Limited edition or your aquaman
transaction as anything close to scalping. The answer is "no" IMHO.
Michael Mierzwa