Time for another essay. :D

I stopped reading about halfway through mainly because my brain started getting numb but I will say this. This is in no way an insult to anyone (typical prelude to a symphony of mudslinging, LOL.). It's just a lot of the same thing and I could be adding to this. I literally went physically numb, not figuratively.

When I go to stores to buy toys, if I see a bunch of rares, I pick up multiples, not so I can make a buck but because people are always asking for them on here. I'd rather trade someone one for one on here with one rare for a rare than have to fork over 40 bucks for a toy that I can't get just because of my geographical location and poor distribution. Or if I like/know the person well enough as a fair person, I'll mail it out with nothing more than a "Surprise! Enjoy, and if you ever find something I've been looking for, please remember ol' Chris."

Toys have become a sort of currency on here. Sometimes if someone asks an unreasonable cash value on a figure, for example "$60" for Deathmask Angel and I have an equally sought after figure that I bought for $10 at the local TRU, I can offer it up for trade. Most people on here are quite reasonable, though, and I have made a lot of good fair trades without money being an issue. We kind of just shrug and see what we feel is a fair trade and go for it. I've come across a few Stretch Strike Venoms and Sewer Attack Lizards. I picked them up.

I look at it this way, and people can hate on me if they want, I don't care. Yeah, I'm buying the good stuff and keeping it out of someone else's hands but who else would buy it? A reasonable collector? Yeah, that's a possibility. And it's a real shame if it were the case but more likely, it's going to be the jerk who's actually going to ask $80 for a $10 figure on eBay and probably doesn't even collect the stuff anyway or wittle Jimmy's chew toy.

Not that I don't appreciate wittle Jimmy's passion for grating Norman Osborn's cornrows across the concrete steps or adding his own flavour of battle damage to X-Force Warpath by hammering a nail through his chest, I've been "that kid" but he's going to get the same satisfaction setting Multiple Man and classic Ms.Marvel ablaze. I know this. I was "wittle Chwis" at some point. Plus I'd dare anyone to step forward and say, "Chris, if you find THAT figure, leave it behind JUST in case someone else wants it."

I'm no "toy saint", that's for sure. And yeah, I think collectors who eat, sleep and breathe these toys deserve it just a little more than the jerkface scalper and the little brat I once was. Now I'm sure there are a lot of parents on here who are already thinking of chiming in about how their son or daughter already has the collector bug and how wrong I am and how with it they are. That's great, that's awesome. Those are special cases, though. And shit, guys, it's usually not the popular characters we're all shitting our pants over. Little kids aren't going to be rushing out to their stores to buy Dr. Strange, Warpath or Vision.

You get a little kid a MOC Vision figure for his birthday and he will cry, he might laugh at you, he'll tell you it sucks, rip it out of the package and destroy it. Maybe even pee on it. You give him that crappy Jim Lee Xavier School Wolverine or the Team X Logan that nobody wants and he'll cheer. Let's get real, guys. More often than not, the only ones who will pick up a Vision or Dr. Strange figure will be a collector like us or the aformentioned "possibly" portly scalper lacking in both hair in the central region of the scalp and adequite personal hygiene. More likely the latter because he's made a second career of it and has a large income dedicated to hording toys for future inflated resale.

Reason being the distribution sucks here... or we're cooler. Whichever paints a better picture for Canadians.

And yes, we've established that the scalper was visually unappealing to either gender despite his androgynous hairstyle and manboobies. Now leave the poor fat smelly bastard alone... Artist77, by any chance was this rotund individual's pants held up by a piece of rope used as a makeshift belt? Ok, I'm sorry. I'll be good now. :D

Do those coupons work at any store?

"that kid" goes to my church and stayed with my family last week. He was 8 years old, knew more about Iron Man than I ever have, and recognized both Cable and Apocalypse when I brought them home from the store. It's kids like that that I left the other Cable and other ool figures for. A collector may nab em first, but there are always kids like us too.

Coupons do work!!!! Just got a scorpion for 2 bucks :)

No...I thought they were legit.
Too bad...

Still, I bet Wal Mart would fall for them.

Somehow, the scene with "Kenneth the Badass with a heart of gold" from Family Guy comes to mind. Like I said, rare commodity. Personally, I'm not going to take a chance on "that kid" picking up the toy that I left for him. If you knew him, you should probably have called him or picked it up for him. Instead, the aformentioned scalper was more likely the guy who bought it in the end.

I definitely don't know one in my community. More likely Fatty Arbuckle will find it. Hey, I admire your unfallible optimism. I just don't share this sentiment. We're all free to think what we do. One of these days, I might have something that you want that I bought in excess instead of leaving it for a one out of twenty chance that "that kid" will come in and buy it and you'll appreciate what I do a little more. :)

Anyway, don't take it personally. I just don't have any connections to any local kids. Not everyone has the same positive experiences with local kids. I'm sure if I met a little Ricky here who liked comics and toys as much as I do, I might feel differently. For all I know, I may have sent a toy to a kid on here or to a parent who was getting it for their comic enthusiast child. The point is, I don't know a child toy prodigy or any local collectors. The geek culture is a lot bigger in the US than it is here in Canada.

I wasn't waging war against little kids, I was explaining why I don't do it, not that I had to explain myself. I just like talking.

They are legit. What's to fall for. They scan the bar code and it works. It's not like they are just typing it in manually.

So any of you guys get the new Marvel Megabloks collectors?

Use coupon at own risk!!!

Read this link:
FBI Busts 4chan Man For Extreme Couponing | The Smoking Gun

No, but there was some guy with a beard saying "Earth, wind and fire,"... :D

Wow, I thought they were legit. I only have 4 months left to use them anyway. :)

Im still giving them a shot ... nothing in that articles suggests this guy made these specific coupons ... if they work at the store im good to go ...

edit: This was posted by omega.
http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2011/...-alert-hasbro/

Still not about these coupons in particular but I guess they can still be out there.

ive used those coupons twice with zero problems.

I've been out of the figure selling game for a while, went to ebay on completed auctions for those items and my prices are the same if not less than said completed final auctions. You're not a friend of mine, so I don't owe you any kind of discount... plus I would have taken prices down if bought in a lot. Besides, it's not like you can still find these toys on store pegs. I don't see the problem here... it's not like I'm going to a TRU, picking up a toy, tell a scalper off, brag about it on a toy forum, then post said toys for a markup. My memory could be wrong, but I was mostly talking about the 20/30 dollar Dr. Strange.

EDIT: I have no problem with the OP for buying toys and selling them at a markup. It's just... I thought the story was just in bad taste is all.

I'm not going to lie, I used those coupons when they first came out, which I said was 2-3 years ago. I'm not surprised that they're still in a lot of the systems, but it's a fake coupon. I don't know if I'd really want to risk getting busted.

Where is the line drawn here, though? What if I'm not hording retail items and I'm selling items out of my personal collection like I have several Jetfires and Shockwaves from the 80s as far as TFs go, original run Heroclix and Pokemon cards? Or even newer out of print items like the original X-Force Warpath and original Vision.

Am I supposed to sell these for what I originally paid for them? What's fair market value and who defines it? If you're my friend, I may even GIVE you a rare toy for nothing in return or at most, I'd have an IOU where you might pick something up for me that I needed, but if I don't know you (like at all), why would I sell you a rare item that I won't be able to buy again for retail? I've been offered $8 + shipping for rare MUs before and I won't say by who, because I don't want to embarrass anyone. When I wouldn't sell, I was called a thief. I have to pay $10 to $12 at retail and our money is worth more. I'd already be losing money on the exchange rate alone. And I don't mean ones that just came out, I mean ones that came out ages ago that I couldn't rebuy if I wanted to or would cost me 5 to 10 times their original purchase cost.

And how the heck would I know that they won't just turn around and sell it for 10 times the price later anyway? I mean some people are just cheap and some people are worse, they take advantage of someone's good nature and then stab them in the back. I have no problems paying a little more for an item that's around 10 years old and kept in good condition. I do, however, have an issue paying double for something that just came out just because I can't buy it here in Canada. Am I a hypocrite?

I send a lot of Americans stuff that is common in Canada that's still in retail circulation at cost plus shipping or fair trades. Rare for rare, MOC for MOC, MOC rare for 2 MOC commons, MOC rare for 1 loose rare and 1 loose common, etc. Whatever works out to a fair trade. Sometimes I budge or will lose a little on trades for Arkers who are nice.

Im gonna start picking up figs that my fellow Arkers want and selling them for retail+$1+shipping. I kinda figured that would be reasonable. And I still make a profit. Do this 10 times and I've earned 10 bucks for free.

EDIT: BTW If you want to trade with honest even traders here. Try out Mastersteef. He was the first person I traded with here (I've done more on TFW), and the trade I made with him is one of the best ones I've made so far.

That's generally how I do it. I charge a 5-10% 'convenience' charge on the base price and that usually figures to about a dollar or two that I pocket.

I agree. Omega is pointing out that I'm selling toys from my own personal collection that are rare and out of print for above retail cost. Though he posted my expensive SOTA SF figures, he failed to show the <8 dollar Marvel Legends that I quoted as well. Apples and oranges mate, he's just bitter I'm not going to give him my toy for practically free I guess. If it was a toy on a store shelf, I'd have traded/sold at cost but it isn't. Sorry bro, but Omega's an idiot... especially since the language I used in my original post was very civil. I didn't call anyone out either. He must have taken it personally.

I'm sure he didnt mean any harm. He seems like a nice, honest guy

I have done almost all of my trading with Omega, and he has been nothing but a cool guy. I, personally, came to this site to help finish my collection and help fellow, honest, arkers finish theirs. I only charge cost+shipping. I don't put time, gas, hours spent into the equation. For me, it's not about making a profit or anything like that, I personally wouldn't want other arkers charging me extra for their time. This is a great forum to fill in the holes in your collection, or start all over. If I wanted to make a profit off of some one, I'd put the items on evilbay. I could easily make 40 dollars off my SS Venom and Taskmaster/DP 2 pack, but I choose to hold onto them and sell at cost+shipping to some one who wants and would appreciate them.

Although, that's me just putting in my two Canadian cents

BTW thechris I see what your saying completely. But alot of younger fans like them as much as you guys. I'm not TOO old myself.