Card Benders?!?

[statesofeuphoria]

About a month ago I found a new shipment of Star Wars figures at a Kmart in my area and on two of them that were UGH gold foil figures, I noticed someone had deliberately folded the card in half to make a huge crease, thus damaging the card and making it worthless to resale on the secondary market. I figured some collector was trying to ruin someone elses carded collection or stop scalping. About a week later, I found the same thing at Wal Mart only on the UGH figures. Today I went to Wal Mart and found all of wave two and a Flint. On Flint and Lady Jaye, the top right corner had been folded completely down and back making a huge crease, but I didn't care because I was going to open them anyway. First I thought it might be an employee, but it has happened at several different stores. It seems a rogue collector is in the area damaging anything that is desirable/hard to find. I scratch my head wondering why he/she didn't just buy them or hide them. Anyone experience anything like this in the hunt?

[djett]

I know of one toy store owner here in N.KY, that does the kinda same thing to all the "collectabe's" in his store, He cuts the corners of the cards before he stocks them. I asked him, he told me that the toy's were for the kids and his expierience with collectors has been negative, Pushing and shoving, buying up all of a particular toy and leaving none for the kids. He has flat out quit stocking BBI and G.I. Joe, because he said those guy's were the worst.

I know the owner and respect him, he is very Kid-centric. I also know many collectors and most arn't like that.... But some are. Its a shame a few Childish adults ruined what used to be my favorite store in town.

[polyphenus]

Can't a retailer get in trouble with the toy company for defacing their product or delivering it to the consumer in a manner less than the company desired? I know that Target has a sign about limiting the sale of "collectible" toys in their toy department and I remember ten years ago hearing how some stores went so far as to punch a hole in the card of Star Wars figures so the collectors could not cash in. I understand and appreciate the aim of these retailers looking out for and protecting a child's interest in buying toys but I do not agree with willfully mutilating the packaging to discourage collectors. I wonder if the store's loss prevention team has video of the toys being defaced...?

[stad]

Can't a retailer get in trouble with the toy company for defacing their product or delivering it to the consumer in a manner less than the company desired? I know that Target has a sign about limiting the sale of "collectible" toys in their toy department and I remember ten years ago hearing how some stores went so far as to punch a hole in the card of Star Wars figures so the collectors could not cash in. I understand and appreciate the aim of these retailers looking out for and protecting a child's interest in buying toys but I do not agree with willfully mutilating the packaging to discourage collectors. I wonder if the store's loss prevention team has video of the toys being defaced...?

I wouldn't think so, it is the property of the store at that point. Target was the one punching a hole in cards, I believe it was Hot Wheels, but it may also have been Star Wars.

Personally, I think this kind of "policy" is simply stupid, any good intentions aside. Who is anyone else to decide that I can't have a MOC collection? I also think most stores no longer do this, since it seems like it is a failed policy that only ends up hurting the store, since collectors are a good part of the market.

As far as this thread, you might just be seeing bad cases or packing/handling of cases. It happens quite a bit, especially around this time of year due to the volume.

[Reptilian Popinjay]

A friend of mine who lives in Cincinatti who is a Star Wars collector says there is someone who does that there. He has found cases worth of new action figures on the pegs and all of the cards have been systematically bent to damage their MOMC value. He is a carded collector so he has vowed revenge if he ever catches the person in the act. And he is the type to confront someone, so...that'll be an interesting story if it ever occurs. He also says they did it to the Target Mace Windu Squadron battle packs, used a coin or pen or something to make a scratch down the front of each box.

[DevilKing]

I've seen this a thousand times. In fact, when I found wave 3, this is what had happened to all the Zartans and Fireflys. I managed to find one descent Firefly and Zartan, which was all I really wanted, one of each. I open my figures, but I keep the cards intact and stored in case protectors.

I'm all for good intentions, but we've all heard what the road to **** is paved with. I can't imagine any adult toy store owner being silly enough to cut out the adult collector. I know it's been said a thousand times before, but kids don't care about these toys. I'm also aware that many collectors here have kids that are interested in these toys, but you have to understand they're interested because the interest in them is kind of expected...forced actually.

The card bending is actually a really weird solution to a non-existant problem. The loose collector goes into the store and bends the card, so that "people who really care about the toys"' will buy them, despite the card condition. The scalper isn't bending the cards, because they'd just as quickly buy the figure and make money off it, rather than destroy it's secondary market value. And the carded collector isn't going to mess with the cards, because they themselves would want the cards to be nice. And then there's the fourth guy. This is the guy that's just a miserable bastard or is ****ed off because he doesn't have the cash to buy the toys himself. So it's reasonable to assume the ones doing it are well intentioned employees or collectors. But all they're really doing is just screwing with other collectors. And the more collectors there are, the more figures will be made and the longer the line will be around.

Most people are bright enough to figure that all out, so the most likely candidate for the card bending is simply that there are some people out there who just get off on ruining something for others.

[Syna3sthesia]

Wow! I did not know collectors got down like that.

My Star Wars buddy that shops at the Toys R Us I go to sure would be in agony if he encounterd that.

[Urban Saboteur]

It's disappointing to hear that people are willing to go out willfully hunting the collectable figures and defacing or damaging them. With the trend of today most kids will be happy to get some figures and probably wouldn't be out to hunt all the hard to finds.
There is always one person willing to go that extra mile to ruin it for others, i guess this is where its better the consumer decides to do his purchasing from online stores.. i just don't know what availability and how custom the options are on selecting what you want.
At retail it's there in front of you isn't it, most online stores do 6 figures in a bundle and often leave you wondering what your going to receive.

It is disappointing to hear of this going on though.

[skullheadman]

I believe this is all the work of the AFLF (Action Figure Liberation Front), a paramilitary collector group who believe that all toys should be broken free of their cardboard and plastic prisons!

While this is a strange way of doing things to satisfy some bizarre sense of justice or fairness, it wouldn't affect me personally, unless the filecard was bent!

[FAKER II]

As a collector, I can’t condone the defacing of cardbacks. However, I have obtained a few rare Star Wars figures because of creased cards that I would otherwise probably never have been able to find. The only 25th Hooded Cobra Commander I ever saw in my small town had a creased card which was the only reason it was still there. The file card wasn’t damaged so I picked it up. So I guess I wouldn’t do it personally, but I have benefited from the people who are doing it.