"12-15 guys lined up at 7:45 a.m"

**Zombie F-Body** · 01-10-2008

Lots of the scalpers in my area are very well organized. They have people in their pockets from WM and Target. Most times things will never go out at WM because they get them first. The site owner is obviously a big time scalper, but these other guys I don't get. They are any where from late 30s to I'd say early 50s, but act like complete children. I don't think they are putting junk on eBay, but they never seem to get their fill. Be it one Bumble Bee or a 100, they grab them all like they have some kind of compulsion or sickness. Those harding type are worse than the actual scalpers IMO. One woman literally shoved a woman and her kid aside to get to the Star Wars stuff one Sunday morning.

**ghettoraider** · 01-10-2008

Would you mind linking me some of these aucitons that are selling for triple to quadruple retail on 25th Joes? The only ones even coming close are the new waves, and that is only because they haven't shipped in large quantities yet.

Every other wave, even army builders, I've seen on Ebay with $7.99 starting prices and guess what, no bids. These guys aren't making a killing like some of you guys seem to think.

Further more, who are you to decide what is a "real job". Just because a man is able to be at a store as it opens right away means he doesn't have a "real job". Perhaps he is a police officer that works overnight patrols. Is that not a real job?

Honestly what it seems to be to me is flat out jealousy that some of you have because you can't be there at that time. I bet if you could you'd be lined up right there with them.

Originally Posted by 80s_Joes

Ghettoraider,
I don't think we're saying (I'm not anyway) that Ebay is a bad thing. It's a great place for guys like me who are still "kids of the 80's" at heart that want to rebuild that collection of Joes or Star Wars figures that may have been sold-off at a yard sale or just simply thrown-away by our parents at somepoint. I have no problem going on ebay & buying a rare, hard-to-find figure that's 25+ yrs old for whatever their value or "going-rate" has accumulated to overtime.

I DO have a problem with non-collectors (just SCALPERS as someone called them) who stand at the doors of a Target or Walmart at 7:45 a.m. with the soul purpose of completely wiping-out all of a stores "popular" figures only to go home, take a pic of them & sell them on Ebay for triple-to-quadruple the amount of what they paid. Not to mention often paying double the actual true cost of how much is REALLY costs to ship the figure(s). Meanwhile, people who actually enjoy collecting these figures for their own personal pleasure & nostalgic-reasons waste countless hours & gas driving to sometimes 3-4 different stores per day hunting these figures down in the late afternoon (because we have REAL jobs that we need to be at at 7:45 in the morning) only to be told that some jackass' came in at the crack of dawn & wiped them out! You can paint this anyway you'd like, but it's bullsh*t & wrong!

**ClydeTheJackal** · 01-10-2008

Well. I was about to quote Hawk from a comic, but screw it. Yes, Scalpers have just as much right as anyone. but dammit! (do I get modded for that? hope not) I find it Morally unfair to people who actually care about this product and who aren't looking for a cheap buck, too be unable to find these items at the MSRP. I myself have had plenty of times to do this (Cobra Troopers and Red Ninja particularly) yet cannot find that one, single, version of a character I'd like to add to my collection. These jerks just make the love of the hunt frustruating and ridiculous.

**RAS ONE J** · 01-11-2008

Don't forget that some of these guys could be legit Joe collectors. As a former army builder addict I bought a lot of Joes years ago. I had my fun with them taking action photo shots and setting them up in diorama scenes.
However, I lost my drive for Gi Joe especially when Sigma Six came out and just started selling off my collection.

That's the way collecting is, anything hot with a lot of hype will get bought up by non Joe collectors. Some guys think they will get rich off it on eBay and don't pay attention to all the fees or think it will be worth something later.

I love eBay but the seller fees suck but I'm still a sucker for eBay. I find lots of rare collectibles that I just can't find locally. I use to love the hunt for over 10 years now with other figures but no time anymore.

Besides that, the sellers on eBay are doing me a favor. I work 8 to 5 desk job, so I do my hunting online. Why waste the gas and time and sitting in traffic and driving around like a mad man to get figures that will be lower than retail value in a few years. In time the figures will be peg warming once speculative sellers see they are not making profits or Hasbro starts flooding the market.

**themoney75** · 01-11-2008

[QUOTE=Zombie F-Body] Some Targets are the stomping grounds of the 40-50-year-olds. They're mostly the HW guys, but if they get wind of something being in demand, they're all over it.

so true marvel legends, star wars, gi joe and nintendo wii anything to make a fast buck.i guess some make a living off this stuff.

**80s_Joes** · 01-11-2008

Would you mind linking me some of these aucitons that are selling for triple to quadruple retail on 25th Joes? The only ones even coming close are the new waves, and that is only because they haven't shipped in large quantities yet.

Sure. This enough links for ya...

I believe their all different figures too!

At $4.88-$5.99/each, I think it's pretty safe to say with shipping fees of $4-$8 that buyers are definately paying triple to quadruple retail prices for these figures. Yes, no one is putting a gun to their head & forcing them to buy them off ebay, but with idiots buying all the store inventory when these stores are just opening leaves alot of us with no choice if we want to collect these figures.

And please don't twist my words around...you know exactly what I meant by "real jobs". Did you really think I was including a 3rd shift working police officer???

**Loose Cannon** · 01-11-2008

Alot of fair and good points rasied here. I, like a majority here, don't have the time to make the rounds to all the stores looking for the ones I'm missing. If you're playing devils advocate ghettoraider you're doing an excellent job. I'm sure we're all jealous of the guy who walks into Wal-Mart and sees the shelves completely stocked. Just like when we were kids only now we have money. But this is a free country no matter how wrong scalping seems. Even though the prices aren't triple or Quadruple on ebay, they are usually double because you have to pay shipping. This doesn't include the variants which seem to run Quadruple prices, but what do you expect.

I suppose some of our members live in areas where they may never be as much saturation, because there is only one Wal-Mart or Target. I have a few, and they are just now starting to carry more. They don't last too long though. The only peg warmers I see are the 5-packs. I'm waiting for that $6.48 clearance price I'm hearing about. But I've seen Firefly, Red Ninjas/ Snake Eyes/ Zartan at random times just sitting there. It seems like they're coming though, it just takes longer to get to the East Coast.

However the real problem here is Hasbro. If there was enough there wouldn't be any scalpers. Although I believe the majority of Joes are bought by collectors and not little kids. Just because there just doesn't seem to be enough to go around. Plus very little advertising geared towards children.

So in conclusion, Hasbro if you're listening, We basically all want two of everything. One for MOC and one to open. Plus triple the amount of army builders you put in the cases. I think it would be safe to assume that we all want at least two or three crimson Guards. Plus leave out the mistakes. If you make 50 Snake Eyes in a two month span there is only so many we want to buy. Why waste you're resources. At least spread them out Geez! Cobra soldiers have always had Red Emblems on there chests. (That one needs to be redone and re-released in mass like you mean it!) Nobody minds the reuse of molds so the original 13 can already have been made.

**ghettoraider** · 01-11-2008

Actually I was talking about items <b>that have actually sold</b>. Show me that these guys are making money off these figs.

I would even go so far as to not count wave 5 since as has been said before, they haven't shipped in large quantities yet.

So my point stands, the figs <b>are not selling for</b> triple or quadruple prices.

Originally Posted by 80s_Joes

Sure. This enough links for ya...

I believe their all different figures too!

At $4.88-$5.99/each, I think it's pretty safe to say with shipping fees of $4-$8 that buyers are definately paying triple to quadruple retail prices for these figures. Yes, no one is putting a gun to their head & forcing them to buy them off ebay, but with idiots buying all the store inventory when these stores are just opening leaves alot of us with no choice if we want to collect these figures.

And please don't twist my words around...you know exactly what I meant by "real jobs". Did you really think I was including a 3rd shift working police officer???

**ghettoraider** · 01-11-2008

A quick search of Ebay completed listings.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GI-Joe-25th-Anni...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/G-I-Joe-25th-ann...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ranger-Beachhead...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sgt-Stalker-GI-J...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/G-I-Joe-25th-Ann...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/GI-Joe-25th-Anni...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/MIB-25th-anniver...QQcmdZViewItem

That last one is my favorite, that guy made a killing his Beachhead went for $2.50!

The only figs going for more than retail and wave 5 which quite frankly is "rare" right now.

But lets continue to blame the people making a quick buck, don't blame the impatient fools that can't wait a month to get thier figures at retail.

**Satandy** · 01-11-2008

Scalpers make the toys we want to buy harder to find and more expensive. If they are all collectors lined up early I would say that sucks for me but obviously that isn't the case.

It's perfectly valid to complain about them, there isn't anything good about it.

I for one miss the early days of ebay when things were actually auctions instead of all new items being posted on ebay at or above cost for bidding to start.

yojoe.com

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