[thechris]

Time for another essay.

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.