[Axonrey]

I once hid a GI Joe Gung Ho 50th two pack at TRU, but revealed its location on the appropriate forums so any actual collectors in the area could get after it. People were, and still are, scalping that set hard. I tried to save it that fate.

[Skoob]

I’ve done it in the remote past, but like others here have stated, it becomes a game with others who come in at different times with their own agendas, like the scalpers, other collectors, and of course that wholesome type who deliberately goes around picking up behind the rest of us, “making things right.”

Nowadays, the process of restocking is so unreliable, and hoarding of the high-demand stuff is so ubiquitous, that there’s no longer any sense of urgency about getting down to the local retailer. If I can’t pre-order online or find something accidentally in the wild for a good price, I generally just do without, although that said, I spend more time than I care to admit, browsing the online stores of resellers and (probably) scalpers...