[Serious Lee]

Just to derail for a second...

Hasbro has nothing to do with any of this.

Thieves do.

Also, if any employee of a store accepts a return that clearly has missing parts in the package, then maybe they aren't the right person for the job. If we, as collectors continue to rely on retail for our figures, we will constantly run into these situations. Of course, if we're searching out army builders, then we take our chances on what we'll find.

I can't say the trend of buying online is because of the crap shoot that is retail, but you almost always get what you ordered.

What is a scalper? If I sell the next guy a figure for what I paid for it, and that's more than retail - Am I a scalper? Is the guy who sells his McFarlane Spider-Man for huge money a scalper? Is my LCS a scalper because he charges me often $10 more than retail per figure? I bought the X-Force box set for $110, only a month after SDCC, from a guy on another site, was he a scalper? I mean, what if he only had two of them and had to have them shipped to Canada? Do his costs come into play? What's a fair price for any figure off the top of your head? Is the MU Vision worth retail? Double? Triple? More?

What does a collector value his collection at? If I sold my 400+ ML collection am I going to break even? Is that even possible?

I really wanted that X-Force set and paid what I thought was fair at the time, would I do it again? I think I would. Scalpers will continue to exist, but it's really up to the buyer and what that person is willing to spend. I have never owned a McFarlane Spidey, or a Dragon Man, or a Spider-Hulk and I haven't completed Ares and likely won't for a long time, but I bet I'll spend about $350 for the last figures I need to build him.

So. Am I the problem?