[flaccideagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmorr

basically, a guy buys all the peg warmers at a certain store and returns them to another location in the hope that the store he bought them from orders new cases to fill the empty shelf.

That is one that is also very common, and usually I see people do it in areas where the "buy-online-return-warmers-to-store scam" I describe is prevalent. It doesn't really help anyone, it just passes the burden and lessens the chances of the store that was falsely returned to ordering anything new. I didn't mention pop-and-swap, but that is also incredibly destructive as well, as it results in massive amounts of unsold product that at the corporate buying level equates to "These didn't sell." What is better, save a total of $5-10 at retail playing these stressful destructive games, or buying a case online? If the difference between buying a set of a wave online, or buy & returning a ton of figures to WalMart- which in all honesty is usually $10-20- if that breaks the bank for someone, maybe they should reconsider collecting on a whole and wait until they're more able to do so. I love Hot Toys and collected them for many years, I can't afford to do that anymore; it was disappointing for a while, but hey, years later, and I've found lots of other things I can afford and don't feel like I'm missing out.

All three of those scams mentioned are not only illegal, they hurt everyone- your fellow collectors, the stores you buy from, and the company making the toys. They're not the only reasons for all the problems Hasbro and others have with distro, but they are a factor, and it doesn't exactly endear stores or companies to collector's complaints, when some of the same people are being dishonest, or other good-natured fans do nothing to prevent it. The people who do these scams have no honor, and taking the time to explain them to a store when it's happening takes less time that it did to read this thread.