Yeah, I can understand and respect those points. There's no difference for me in one guying putting 10 on ebay or 10 arkers putting them on ebay, money is the most valuable commodity in the world and I won't begrudge someone trying to make some.
I cut good deals with the guys I dealt with and I'm only asking the same. You can see the completed listings at what the Iron Man 3 packs are going for, I'm just looking for a direct swap with Archangel and Fury.

Well, the Ark isn't the best place to find people willing to help each other out anymore. When someone posts about these figures being in stock here they are probably alerting more scalpers than anything.

All I wanted was one Angel for the $15 but the $32 flat shipping charge made me get another AA and a Doom. Thankfully I'm able to hook a couple people up and make the shipping cost hurt a little less.

I'm of the opinion that scalpers don't really exist, they're just other collectors cashing in

I guess that is just semantics then. I think that the idea of someone with no job or who works part time and spends all this time going around grabbing up rare figures doesn't really exist at large. Maybe in a few big cities you get some people on welfare doing that but I'd wager most scalping is employees that work at toy and comic stores and collectors who stumble onto something. If they don't visit forums or know any other collectors then I get them just going to ebay and charging the going rate but when you know people who would appreciate them at a good price I think it's best to do that 9 times our of 10. I don't begrudge anyone selling a high value piece of their collection for the market price. It's the rare people that wait outside TRU nearly every morning or go to Comic-Con and spend half their time trying to get exclusives to sell for 3 or 4 times the price that annoy me.

Oh joy... yet more figures that nobody outside the US can get... after their initial US only release too - how nice!

You don't sound like a broken record, you sound like a collector who's sick of one of the largest toy companies in the world treating the rest of the world - Europe especially - like they don't exist, then justifying this with... nothing at all. If US collectors had any idea what Hasbro has not bothered to release over here throughout the years - and I mean going right back to the 80's - I think it would make them vomit in collector sympathy.

See, I *don't* get where they're coming from - tons of US sellers ship internationally. If Hasbro are worried then they should use registered trackable shipping - problem solved. Shipping to the UK (for example) is no different to shipping to Hawaii and Alaska.

They're just fucking assholes, and until they give a legit reason for this kind of shit - that's how I and everyone else who collects in Europe will think of them.

Not only do they not ship overseas, but they actively try to make it impossible for foreigners to order the stuff. They decline payments from foreign paypal, and if you pay with credit card with foreign address, their screening process freaks out and they want you to call them to explain the fact. The operator once literally interrogated me whether I want to export the toys abroad.

All this happens even when you use US shipping address.

Amazingly, Nick Fury is still available!

That is surprising (less so than him being offered on HTS though). I would imagine more collectors signed up for a Marvel Digital subscription to get him when he was first offered, as the subscription deal was not so bad at the time, which is what I did. However, I never used the subscription and was not willing to purchase one (at what seemed a higher price) to get Archangel or Victor von Doom. I think a lot more people weren't willing to pay the subscription price for the later two figures. I also can believe the MU figures offered didn't cause a huge influx of Marvel Digital subscriptions, that or people cancelled their subscriptions after getting their figures.

Which 3 pack are you talking about?

I think he is referring to the cancelled Target exclusive Iron Man 2 3-pack that has Black Widow, James Rhodes head War Machine, and Tony Stark head Iron Man.

Spot on

Speakng as someone who is actually from America I can say they are pretty different. To ship with tracking or confirmation to Alaska or Hawaii doesn't cost much more than any other state for most packages. Getting tracking to the UK or even Canada costs 2-3 times more. Sure shipping without tracking isn't too much more than shipping with tracking in US but that is apples and oranges since they clearly don't want to ship untracked. Yes, others stores do it but many decide not to I can understand why. Once your business has had a few international packages "lost" and your are forced to eat the cost from dishonest people you start requiring confirmation and a direct signature.

I had to stop shipping to China for this very reason, lost big time twice, then shut it down completely. It's bad enough getting scammed by an asshole buyer, it's worse when you can't understand what he's typing to you. Google translator is widely used and REALLY terrible.

That reminds me of the shop sign during the Beijing Olympics that was just a 404 error code.


Similar to this but just the error code.
http://i1253.photobucket.com/albums/...psd296cea1.jpg

It's interesting that the next MU wave is considered wave 1 for 2013. I take it means that they're behind?

I had a guy ask me about shipping to his country. I explained that i will only ship priority mail because it is trackable. He says to get him a price, i come back with $36.30 and he had a fit. Sorry if you international people feel your getting screwed but this is what it has come to.

I have to agree with you! It's all about protecting ourselves....

It's weird, I can ship stuff MOC to the states and other countries for less than half of that with tracking. It just feels like, half the time, people use the old ebay trick of bumping up the shipping. Personally, I don't mind paying the extra tracking but you can tell when some are giving an incorrect shipping

Look, I respect what you’re saying, but as I said – all they have to do is charge for registered / trackable and then if something goes missing they claim from the PO. It’s pure laziness, which for an individual eBay seller who may not have time is understandable, but for the website of a huge toy company it just isn’t. Even Toys ‘R’ Us US now ships internationally.

US to UK is literally from sorting office to sorting office (US) then across the ocean with a zillion other items / people per day. Madre above says he had issues with China, but there are big differences between mainland Asia, Africa, etc and Europe – and I’m not just talking languages. Heck – even South America is less reliable to ship to / from than Europe.

I can understand that. I usually only order First Class International, and have only ever had one or two things not make it out of several hundred. The tracking is there to protect people, but if it’s not that valuable it often isn’t worth it. Also, tracked items will go through customs and will get charged import if they’re above a certain value.

This is also true, many sellers give the option but hike up the cost just to cover the added work it might involve.

All I'm saying is that if Hasbro US has a market that it will happily use to make money - like the UK, Ireland, or wherever - then it has an obligation not to constantly disrespect that market. Hasbro UK is totally under the orders of Hasbro US and has no power whatsoever when it comes to obtaining or selling toys. They sold MU in UK supermarkets with Nick Fury proudly proclaiming the option to subscribe and get him etc – which you couldn’t even do! That’s just one example of a toyline that got maybe a 50% UK release – if that. Hasbro will then justify this by saying that the line (every single one) didn't sell as well. But really, would any US toyline sell better or worse if the buyers knew that 50% of everything in that line was only going to be released outside the US?

Don't even get me started on Mattel...

I will never ship international first class mail ever again unless we have done business before. The issue isn't that the package doesn't make it to it's destination. It's the fact that when it does get to where it's going because there isn't tracking the buyer can file a claim with paypal saying they never received the item. Paypal will side with the buyer and now the seller will be out the item and forced to give a refund. This very thing happened to me last year and it will never happen again.

Happened to me twice....also one time I didn't give the tracking number to a guy who bought a fan projects springer from me. Just to see if people are honest. I knew he got but low and behold a week later he started acting like he didn't. I knew he had it but let him play his game. He finally went through eBay and PayPal trying to get the money back. Once case was open I gave them tracking number.....he got booted lol......people are not honest....

You last two guys are absolutely correct. If anyone I don't know wants to buy from me they're paying for tracking. Sorry it's expensive, but TS. End of story.

Just something else people may not be aware of with Ebay, many months ago they changed the policy on payments so that the seller fees apply to the shipping as well as the cost of the item.

Sadly with this change Ebay just increased shipping costs for everyone by about 10% since ebay takes a cut and then paypal gets a cut as well.

They claimed it was an attempt to stop people putting in excessive shipping fees but they were really just after more money, all they had to do to stop the excessive fees is investigate them a bit.

I really hate what ebay has become, I just wish something else could compete

I wish a company with some name recognition would come up with an international marketplace to rival ebay as well. They have monopolized the market and the people have to suffer with their idiotic policies.

Sellers used to do that on ebay because they wouldn't get charged fees on the shipping portion. Now it's all the same so most have stopped. It does still bug me that in Asia or other parts of the world they can ship to me for next to nothing and it gets here quick, yet it costs me an arm and leg to ship to them.