while I agree with most of what you said..i define a scalper as someone who intentional get all the stock of an item they can with the intent to resell at high out the sky pricing. I actually saw a guy "selling" 5-10 MP soundwaves for $200 just because they were hard to find. to me that's scalping and gouging just for the sake of being able to do it. but in the end if someone is willing to pay the asking price then I cant call it scalping cuz they could have did like I did and walked away. to put it in perspective even more so if there was a job(the same as both companies) that you wanted at 2 companies and company A offered you $120000 and company B offered you $65000 which would you take?

I believe nearly if not 100% of us would take Company A because they pay more...its the same principle with our collecting hobby..."scalpers want the most $$ for the least of what they paid"
that's why no one hardly accepts the make an offer on ebay...the perceived value to the seller dictates asking the price...unfortunately over zealousness on our part lead us to spend more than we wanted to no matter what the circumstances are.
As late I have found that patience will be rewarded as I found BW for retail instead of the Ebay asking prices. Hopefully I can do the same for GOTG.
Ending rant...exiting stage left...................

Honestly we can blame Hasbro's team for shortpacked figures, and the cost of figures being what they are partially driving collectors and scalpers to insane levels of collecting. In Canada for a ML figure I'm paying $21.99 at Walmart, $26.99 at TRU, and $22.99 at Target, plus 15% tax, shit isn't cheap. That's why anytime I happen to see stuff on clearance I buy them all or as much as I can afford. I got like 2-3 ML IM3 Ultrons for like $7 each at retail, not gonna resell them but if I wanted to down the road I could. I also went into TRU and bought 2 Aim and 2 hydra the day they opened a case. Does that make me a greedy scalper? or a dedicated collector,... still cost me like $100 for 4 figures.... I was lucky to find a Mcfarlane spidey for cheap, and if I needed to I'd be reselling him for $100+ easy loose, and wouldn't feel bad about it. Past couple weekends I've bought a few small collections off a local guy, and he knows what he paid for them retail, I know what he paid for them retail, but for some reason he is reselling the stuff for like 1/4 or less of the price,... is it my place to overpay? I personally live paycheck to paycheck so for that $40-100 I get to spend on a paycheck after bills is taken care of is going towards items I want at a price I can afford, it may take me a lot of hunting online, and locally but things come up when you least expect it.

Some sellers will take the make an offer, I've dealt with a few especially when I buy multiple items, I always check out sellers other listings to see if I can bulk package a deal and then ask for the items to be shipped loose to save myself even more.

A scalper is another name for a seller or reseller. We all complain when a seller is asking $100 for a $10 MU figure that was just released last week, but we don't complain when they sell a $200 Mcspidey figure for $2, ... it's the seller's job in any case to get the most value for their product, and it's out job as a responsible consumer to shop around and try and get the best price for the item we want. Think of how many jobs/careers revolve around upselling, hell Hasbro designers have to upsell their figures to marketing people who have to upsell their pitch to head share holders and retail owners... Farmers and fishermen want the most for their haul, painters want the most for their works, Kanye says " step into Def Jam building like I'm the shit, tell em give me $50 million or I'm a quit. lol. Some people are able to resell items and not care about what they get back in return, or possibly don't know what they have/current market values are, in any event, most people need/want something back on their investment. My local Walmart has like 4-6 Waspinators in stock... I don't collect Transformers, but I know they're going for decent bucks on eBay and if I wanted to I could buy em all and flip em for a profit, but the amount of time taken to drive there and back, gas, initial investment $$ to buy said figures, paying eBay, Paypal, post office fees, I have to charge more just to get my fucking $$ back. I try to be fair as possible, and do prefer trading myself, as that way I don't end up blowing the $$ on something stupid and it goes back into my collection.

AMEN to that Brother!!

Personally a lot of it has to do with availability and demand. I basically don't include Con exclusive stuff because it's only available in one place and for a limited time. If you didn't pay all that money to attend and then wait in line when paying double Con price is to be expected unless someone is doing you a favor. There is no "retail" price for such items.

Beyond that it's mostly about what effect it has on the hobby. Buying up all the Boba Fett or Black Widow figures and doing preorders for 3X the retail price CREATES a bad situation that didn't have to be that way. Every figure you see up on ebay early on is probably one that is now missed by a collector in that area. Less demand is being met BECAUSE of such actions.

On the reverse side if a store has stock of something and it's been sitting for months (or years) but people in other locations want it then buy that stuff up and sell it. I've done that with a number of things and hooked people up at cost or just put on ebay lower than anyone else so I still made a profit. This rare case gets product out of your local store so that, hopefully, they will order more stuff that you want to buy and actually helps get it out to people that are looking for it. There is nothing wrong with doing this as it doesn't create any demand, only fills it.

I've been looking for an IM2 where machine for a while now.. Saw this at Ross a few weeks ago, not sure what's worse, the guy who ripped it off or the fact they are still trying to sell it months later.

Hilarious!

I just did my weekly scan of eBay and saw a Toybiz War Machine listed for $39.99, but there was a sticker on the clam shell with a price of $6.99! You gotta love it!

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wow....

Scalping ticket prices same as figure process. I think 35 bucks for aim soldiers is scalping. That'd almost twice the normal going rate.

I guess in my head i have a number 10 bucks more than normal upsets me. I guess scalping is buying an item in hopes off reselling it imo. If people like the stuff great, but buying for retail prices and wanting to resell for huge profits piss me off.

If you have any maxway roses or freds they have been getting iron man 2 and the armored avengers im 3 inch lines.

Never understand when people leave stickers on a plastic bubble. They come off safely lol. Guess it adds value...

Something happened to me today that really pissed me off.

Its Free Comic Book Day today.

I went to a local comic shop, that I haven't gone to in a while because I bought a Minimate set and one was damaged from the factory, but they wouldn't let me exchange it for another set because they said it wasn't their fault I didn't notice it was damaged in the store, fair enough. That made me mad but Diamond Select was nice enough to mail me the piece that was damaged.

Today I went to a Comics N Stuff since that incident because it was Free Comic Book Day. I'm thinking...let bygones be bygones. I went in to buy some comics and maybe get a few Free Comic Book Day Comics...wrong.

They told me I could only have ONE single free comic from the whole table they had. I only wanted 2...just 2 (Guardians Of The Galaxy & Rocket Raccoon...1 of each...that's it.) but they said no. That I had to buy a store membership card in order to get 2 comics. The store member ship costs $10 annually. I said no and left. I called the main store manager and he said that's the rules.

Oh well...they're never getting my business again. The store in question in Comics N Stuff on 555 Broadway in Chula Vista, California. They have more stores that have just as shady business tactics but that was the one that soured me for the last time.

It sucks Free Comic Book Day was ruined for me but that's how it goes sometimes. I'm gonna write a complaint to Free Comic Book Day site itself and see what they say because I think people are getting cheated.

I've seen comic shops do that and and I've seen them try to charge for the comics. That isn't the point of FCBD. The point is to get people in with freebies. I do hear that the stores have to pay something for those comics (come people say they don't so I'm not sure) but it's all marketing. Even when they put the comics into categories and say "you can take one from each category" I always wonder what the point it. Nearly every store ends up with leftovers after today and the morning rush is the whole point. If people come in tomorrow or late today and the free comics they want are gone then at they should have been there sooner the mission is still accomplished, they came to your store. Better to not piss off the people that show up early with a tactic like that. What do I know, I'm just a customer.

It makes me mad because they tell me all the time Torrents and Illegal downloads are killing their business...which always stays in the back of my head like, "Yeah...I'll buy this too, they're struggling."

Now they kick dirt in my face the one day I want 2 free comics?

Oh well. What's done is done. I'll just shop elsewhere...

That's just an easy scapegoat. A 50 year old model trying to compete with modern entertainment that offers a better value for your dollar is why comic shops are having a hard time. They basically are selling an outdated product. A lot of the guys that used to come in to shops are buying digital but many have just quit reading and the industry isn't drawing kids like it used to. Granted, kids still love superheroes but it makes a lot more sense for them to watch a show/movie or buy a toy/video game.

Diamond is pretty awesome like that. I once got a walking dead rick figure that did not have a shotgun and they mailed one to me with a letter. I never did get a replacement for my Picard with two left arms though, but it was during toy fair so they were probably busy.
I had the same thing happen to me at Rogues Gallery in Round Rock TX. I was picking out two comics for my wife and I and they said only one. Its less about getting people into comics and having a good day than it is about getting traffic into crappy comic stores that should probably just go out of business already.
No offense to anyone, but when is the last time you found a comic book store that didn't have at least 50% of the back devoted to war hammer and D&D and such? That is gaming, not comics. That tends to take over the store and they care more for their gamers than they do people that buy comics or the scarcely heard of "toy". Very few around here actually have anything worth going for, it is quite sad really.

I dislike Toybiz, very much.

Just to clarify - the seller on eBay clearly paid $6.99, but was asking $39.99. If he was asking $20, I wouldn't dislike his style as much. I see it a lot on eBay that someone bought a figure at a blowout price (as their picture of it clearly shows), and they're asking an LCS price for it. I think they should just melt it and make a door stop with it instead of wasting people's time.

that kinda sucks man. It makes me feel pretty lucky to have such great shops near me. Shops that actually remember your name and greet you by name is great.

Ive been to shops like you've described, and its not a pleasant experience. What REALLY baffles me is the membership thing. NEVER have I ever seen a LCS do a paid membership structure. That is absurd, and not only that, but it separates the customer base. Surer than shit, those members get preferential treatment.

Best to never go back there.

Gaming stuff, like heroclix, or even magic cards, or yugioh, or whatever, is part of the modern day LCS' bread and butter. Just like a restaurant relies on alcohol sales to turn a profit. I don't buy any of that, but i've seen the turnout for those "gaming nights." and they but alot of stuff.

Yup! My LCS has a huge room for gamers, and every time I'm in to pick up my stuff there are 4-5 men, women or children buying magic cards (or some kind of cards lol, I really know nothing about them). The stores will definitely need to carry as much as they can, related to our collective indie needs just to pay the bills some months.

When I was in my teens I played D&D and every chance I got I was at my 'gaming' store, if they didn't have any new dungeons or manuals, I would buy another set of dice or some puter figurines or anything they had really lol, ahh the good old days before jobs and responsibilities!

I have a pretty good relationship with my LCS guy/ owner, and he runs a good store, lots of staff who are all in the know about 5-10 different things each and they all work game nights when it's their turn. IMO, they have theirs and I've got mine, good on all of us! I think even if your LCS turns more towards games, and carries fewer of the things you're looking for, it really isn't their fault, they need to do whatever it is to survive sometimes, and everything comes full circle eventually. We're really lucky as comic fans, collectors of figures and all things connected to the genre right now. We may never get a chance like this again in our lives, because of the popularity of superheroes I'm getting the things I dreamed of as a little kid - today.

But that's just it, unless a figure is still at retail how sure can you be that they paid that price for it? Also, if the figure is 10 years gone from retail then it shouldn't really matter what price tag it has on it. Either the person bought it cheap and has been storing it for years or they could have bought it from someone for 2 or 3 times that stick price and are now selling it themselves. It annoys me when it is a fairly new figure that I know was bought at a discount store and now sitting on ebay but old stuff just cracks me up. Remember when action figures were $5 at retail?

you wouldn't expect someone to sell there mego figures for what they paid, would you?

Figure swapping is a collecting sin, but there was one bloke that found a MU box set swapped out with DC character customs (including a Kyle Rayner if I recall) and if I'd seen that in the store you bet your ass I would have bought it.

That was my point. I don't care if someone paid a dollar 20 years ago. That has nothing on today's value.





I found found this odd gem. Don't know why they swapped with that Sea Drone as that thing is considered rare.

http://www.toyark.com/members/iceman...g0082-1691.jpg