Best place to hunt - City, Suburbs or Country?
 

I live in a major city surrounded by a huge suburban area so there are tons of big box stores and even specialty shops (toy stores, comic stores) within 15 miles of my home. Despite having so many nearby options to look for figures, I notice my most exciting finds have been in small towns and rural areas a fair distance from where I live.

Anyway, what would you say is the best environment for toy hunting?

Thanks to scalpers? None. They are all over the place. It's mostly a matter of luck and determination. That is the nature of the hunt.

I would say that most of my hunting is done in suburban areas. Occasionally, I'll come across something rare in a rural area. But honestly, it just comes down to who's managing the toy department at a particular store. If a manager is letting the pegs sit empty for most of the year, then you're not going to have much luck.

I live in the middle of nowhere, but commuting distance to a decently sized city. I find all sorts of stuff. I’d be a great scalper if I had the get-up-and-go to do it, because my local stores typically always have the chaser figures. I got the Target TMNT figures with minimum effort, but I know many here who still haven’t seen a single one of them. I saw the Target exclusive baroness, transformers redwing, and some other “online only” figures at my local target on the clearance shelves.

Definitely worth the trip to the middle of nowhere to get figures if you want to avoid the scalpers. Heck, got a PS5 the same way. Pays to be a hillbilly sometimes.

Some of my best finds have been in smaller cities. Not only is there less competition to find stuff but also things go to deeper discounts at big box stores.

Luckily I got to travel for work so I got to hunt for stuff all over.

It’s a mixed bag for me. Right when I think I have it figured out, I’ll hit a Walgreens or GameStop that changes my tune. You typically learn the “hell holes” pretty quick, and they are consistently bad. I have one Walmart near me that has been bare for over 6 months. Rural seems to be the best place to catch deals. I’ve found some good clearance product out in the sticks. I’ll try to find reasons to visit other cities within 75 miles once every few months and hit a few locations along the way.

All it takes is one hardcore scalper to decimate an area for years. Where I live we only had one TRU in the entire state. There was this old man who would be the first in line at TRU when the doors opened every single day for almost a decade. He only stopped because TRU went out of business... he was mostly a Hot Wheels collector though, but after looking at his Hot Wheels he would inspect the other isles too.

Toys r us just closed it's last reopened stores

I went to two targets out in the middle of nowhere near me and they had 3 rock soldier sets from Neca, two triceraton sets, a splinter/Baxterfly and a bunch of new bumblebee transformers stuff...

The suburb stores furthest away from the city are my go-to shopping sources. Great way to get exclusives.