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Ha Ha Ha Man If This Is True


Mr.Sci-Fi

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Yeah I had a problem with some scalper scum a while back. Sorry if I told this story here before but it's a good one. I worked night shift at a 24 hr. store. My job was first to run all the new pallets out onto the floor then, work the stock in the toy dept.

 

There was a nice sized group of scalpers that would hit the store on a nightly basis. They had our routine down and knew exactly when to be there. I just started working the toy dept. so I was just getting familiar with these creeps and I didn't like them one bit. As soon as the pallets hit the floor they tore through them like vultures on a corpse.

 

It didn't take me long to really get sick of these guys. First I politely asked them not to keep making a big mess. I didn't mind them looking so long as they didn't get out of hand. For a couple of days they weren't as bad but then they started getting worse than ever. After several attempts at asking them to cool it I took action.

 

First, I started removing all the boxes of figures I knew they were looking for from the toy pallets. Of course they tore through the pallets anyway so eventually I stopped bringing out toy pallets at all, we worked the pallets by cart from the stockroom. The scalpers would sometimes wait for hours. They would walk around the store and stalk the toy dept. As long as I knew they were there I wasn't going to bring out one case of the figures they wanted. If I had they would have torn the aisles apart! I was going to be there putting out freight all night, so it didn't matter to me what time I put out new Batman or Starting Lineup figures. Needless to say none of them stayed around til 3 or 4 A.M. to see if I did.

 

It didn't take long before these guys, one in particular, began to realize what was going on. They would find find figures the next day that weren't there the night before while they stalked so they'd get up in my face about it, then my managers, but he was behind me 100%. We knew they were scalpers and not collectors and we felt what they did wasn't right when we had plenty of kids in our store trying to get the figures the scalpers were hoarding.

 

It got to the point where these guys started accusing my manager and I of taking the figures for ourselves and they tried to get us fired. They would talk to other store employees telling them that they were going to kick my ass. We had discussions about this with our top store managers and when they heard the whole story, they backed us 100% too.

 

From that point on collectors figures, and Hot Wheels were never stocked at night. They were put aside and the day crew would stock them at random times during the day so that way everyone had a fair chance of getting them.

 

Eventually we stopped seeing the regular scalping crew, though a couple of them did still come into the store from time. The playing field was leveled so to speak and none of them caused us any trouble again.

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The lesson learned... find some place lowkey to buy some crack... next scalper you see punch em out & place it on em HA!

 

FREAKNA PRICELESSS!!

 

 

I just hope viper watches his back & someone should tell him to do so. Mayhaps he should even look into getting a gun, cause when , yes when not if with the current law system he won't be in for long unless hes a dealer & even then... he may come a lookn for viper for all the trouble he caused em... IMO I won't be surprised if viper goes uhm... awall for a bit @loll@ From the sounds of it this guy was just some drugie scum though & will probly try & stay away from viper now, or at least keep his big mouth shut @loll@

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Yeah I had a problem with some scalper scum a while back. Sorry if I told this story here before but it's a good one. I worked night shift at a 24 hr. store. My job was first to run all the new pallets out onto the floor then, work the stock in the toy dept.

 

There was a nice sized group of scalpers that would hit the store on a nightly basis. They had our routine down and knew exactly when to be there. I just started working the toy dept. so I was just getting familiar with these creeps and I didn't like them one bit. As soon as the pallets hit the floor they tore through them like vultures on a corpse.

 

It didn't take me long to really get sick of these guys. First I politely asked them not to keep making a big mess. I didn't mind them looking so long as they didn't get out of hand. For a couple of days they weren't as bad but then they started getting worse than ever. After several attempts at asking them to cool it I took action.

 

First, I started removing all the boxes of figures I knew they were looking for from the toy pallets. Of course they tore through the pallets anyway so eventually I stopped bringing out toy pallets at all, we worked the pallets by cart from the stockroom. The scalpers would sometimes wait for hours. They would walk around the store and stalk the toy dept. As long as I knew they were there I wasn't going to bring out one case of the figures they wanted. If I had they would have torn the aisles apart! I was going to be there putting out freight all night, so it didn't matter to me what time I put out new Batman or Starting Lineup figures. Needless to say none of them stayed around til 3 or 4 A.M. to see if I did.

 

It didn't take long before these guys, one in particular, began to realize what was going on. They would find find figures the next day that weren't there the night before while they stalked so they'd get up in my face about it, then my managers, but he was behind me 100%. We knew they were scalpers and not collectors and we felt what they did wasn't right when we had plenty of kids in our store trying to get the figures the scalpers were hoarding.

 

It got to the point where these guys started accusing my manager and I of taking the figures for ourselves and they tried to get us fired. They would talk to other store employees telling them that they were going to kick my ass. We had discussions about this with our top store managers and when they heard the whole story, they backed us 100% too.

 

From that point on collectors figures, and Hot Wheels were never stocked at night. They were put aside and the day crew would stock them at random times during the day so that way everyone had a fair chance of getting them.

 

Eventually we stopped seeing the regular scalping crew, though a couple of them did still come into the store from time. The playing field was leveled so to speak and none of them caused us any trouble again.

Yes thats agreat story I wish more people who worked at these types of stores were like you. How do you, however tell the difference between a scalper & acollecter?:) I cringe sometimes thinking that store employes are doing that to me thinking that I am the scalper... I'm sure a couple of the guys that work at the zellers store think I do, & perhaps wallmart as well, though the main toy guy there knows I'm not cause I've chated em up a couple of times about whatever random action figure line I'm lookn for & even brought in collection pics to show em one time when he said he would like to see @loll@

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MADMAN THE TRANSFORMERS HERO!! WOW THAT VIPERLORD GUY IS LIKE ROBIN HOOD! (sorry for the caps but these guys deserve them) I dont think i have scalpers round my area... so thank god for that .... but for those who stands up for us collections.... thank you! way to go guys!

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Yes thats agreat story I wish more people who worked at these types of stores were like you. How do you, however tell the difference between a scalper & acollecter?:) I cringe sometimes thinking that store employes are doing that to me thinking that I am the scalper... I'm sure a couple of the guys that work at the zellers store think I do, & perhaps wallmart as well, though the main toy guy there knows I'm not cause I've chated em up a couple of times about whatever random action figure line I'm lookn for & even brought in collection pics to show em one time when he said he would like to see @loll@

That's easy. For one, sometimes they selectively purchased all the short packed figures (if not entire cases) and if we had 2 or more cases they would always buy multiples. Second, when I first took over working the department, I talked with a few of them and they told me that they were selling certain figures for 3x ,or more, than the shelf price. That's why they were convinced that I was keeping figures for myself, which I never did.

 

At first I really didn't care, but they started getting attitudes with me like they owned the place. If I had a lot of freight to pull out and couldn't get to the toys yet they would be hounding me for them until I pulled them out.

 

Before I stopped putting out the freight for them, there were times where a couple of them would find a figure somewhere that they didn't see the night before and they would come up to me all pissed off because they thought I was holding figures back from them (this was before I actually did it!). They didn't understand that figures could have come in toy repacks, or maybe a box was put out earlier that day that just came in or was in our backstock, or that possibly the figure WAS in the store for awhile and they just never found it. But they were convinced that I was purposely keeping figures from them. It was getting to the point of harassment. I think there were times where some of them even had to be escorted out of the store.

 

So that was another reason why I did it. These guys were wacko's and there was no reasoning with them and they just got worse and worse. On top of that, it was just before christmas and these guys were hoarding figures that a lot of people were asking for.

 

In the end, they did it themselves. If they had just kept their mouths shut and had been a little more considerate then they probably would never have had any problems.

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If scalping happens in the UK... which is does, but nowhere near the extent it happens in the USA, simply because we just don't get half the stuff, and the stuff we do we seem to just get far too much of ... you can report these people to the Office of Fair Trading within the government department of Trade and Industry. I've not seen it happen yet, but the legal system is in place for someone to be prevented from buying to resell like this, as it effectively gives them an unfair monopoly in an area!

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On a local note, I hate ebay seller timk26. Thanks to him I had to go all the way to Derby to find myself a reissue Prime.

 

I'll admit when I first found the Ultra Magnus reissue at TRU I bought 2 extra and sold on ebay, but I didn't clear the shelf by any means, and selling stuff that is still available in shops as well is more of a service than a business.

 

That story though, has made my day! @lol@ @lol@ @lol@

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Collector Vs Scalper

 

Karma?

 

Anyone here in the TF section ever get into a squable or altercation over A TF? tell your toy story.

I nominate that guy for coolest collector of the year! That was awesome! Damn scalpers. What a bunch of bums to try to "make a living" off of the hoarding of toys to try to force people to pay more than they're worth.

 

 

Reading that made my day. I have to print it out and show it to some other scalper-haters, including a couple of parents who have had Christmas ruined on a fewe occasions because of scalpers.

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Dude I hate scalpers with a passion. If I actually saw one in the act, it would be a struggle for me not to say or do something. And if the man dare call me a kid toucher (which is one of the most despicable acts) like the guy said to Viper, I would whoop the S#!t out of the dude......friggin meth heads.

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I liked the end, "Leave me alone and get a life. What's a grown man doing buying toys anyway? You a pedophile or what?"

 

Isn't...the scalper buying the toys too? Moron.

 

And agree, Collector of the Year right there.

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I am also afraid that sometimes ppl would think my brother and I are scalpers even though we don't scalp. We usually visit the toystores once a week and in Walmart, we usually wait when they bring out the boxes, if it is ML figures, we open the boxes and see what they have. Most of the time, we pass since they are usually figures we have.

 

Another reason I might be afraid as one is when my brothers and I went to TRU since afterwards, we going to buy Crickets from a store across the street. When we got there, the employee just finish putting the ML9 figures. My brothers and I snagged all the ones we didn't have in that wave(everyone except Iceman and Ironman.) However, since they have multiples, we took our sweet time, comparing the paint jobs. During that time, the employee was pakcing other figures and I had a short conversation with him, finding out he was into ml figures too, but only the ones he likes. Anyways, one of my brothers got bored and decided to the other store. My other brother took an extra Blackwidow, Storm, Doc Ock, and Man-thing to hide since I was thinking to get another female for a custom and the brother who left, loves swamp monsters, so he badly wanted a man-thing for himself. As for Doc Ock, my brother loves to hide a short pack figure of each so that the scalpers won't find it; he never intended to buy Doc Ock. I also hide one extra that are most likely to be scalped, but reveal my hiding places to collectors and kids who are looking for them.

Before, grabbing the ml figures, the ml figs that were on the pegs were 5 storms(grab two to buy one and hid another,) 3 BW(grab two to buy one and hid another,) 2 Doc Ocks(grab two to buy one, hid another,) 2 Man-things (grab two to buy one, hid another,) and at least 10 of each: Ironman, Iceman, and Ultimate Captain America(grab one to buy.)

 

So I left in the toy asle by myself, while this dude went to me and politely asked where I got them. I showed him where and he skipped all the figures. He was looking for the two short pack figures; Doc Ock and Man-thing. He then realize I was holding Man-thing and ask if he can look at it. I showed it to him and Doc Ock; if he runs away and buys it, I wouldn't really care since I have an extra hiding, but my brothers would be disappointed because my other brother was planing to buy the extra man-thing to keep misb. Anyways, the guy return the figs to me. So I am still holding the figures I need for my collection and walking back and forth for my brother to return(I gave him my money) to leave. Once he returns, we left and seen the guy who was looking for Doc Ock and Man-thing leaving.

 

When we going home, I felt really guilty hiding the extras since he may be a collector, but my brothers assured me he wasn't since he passed the rest and wanted the short packs only.

 

The next day, my brothers went to TRU(I was at college) and bought the hidden man-thing, but didn't get me the storm or Black Widow despite having my 10. Stupid brother(the one who hid the figures) controls what I buy and usually hides the figure for me "promising" me to get them for me, but he usually don't. He also hid me a Venom versus valor Bazooka pack which I really wanted the previous day since I also collect joes. He doesn't do it to the other brother for some strange reason. Maybe because I am the baby in the family.

 

Sadly, we went to TRu to pick the VvV set, however it was gone. So I am still very pissed at my brother and refers to him as "dumba$$" since I had enough money to get another figure when we picked up the 4 ml figures. I know I won't see that Bazooka set anytime soon since that wave seems rare. Also, the ml figures were found and gone too, which I wasn't that mad, but I really wanted either the Storm to paint white or Black Widow to make it more like the current outfit(getting ready once I get the blonde version since I don't want to customized that body, but just swap heads.)

 

Anyways, I am just afraid that employee may see me as a Scalper since we grabbed 4 ml figures and an extra man-thing and doc oct, which wasn't on the pegs. We didn't have a cart or a basket, so it looked odd.

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Collector Vs Scalper

 

Karma?

 

Anyone here in the TF section ever get into a squable or altercation over A TF?  tell your toy story.

I nominate that guy for coolest collector of the year! That was awesome! Damn scalpers. What a bunch of bums to try to "make a living" off of the hoarding of toys to try to force people to pay more than they're worth.

 

 

Reading that made my day. I have to print it out and show it to some other scalper-haters, including a couple of parents who have had Christmas ruined on a fewe occasions because of scalpers.

I agree. I like his story and remember reading something similar from a guy at fwooshnet.com

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......but my brothers assured me he wasn't since he passed the rest and wanted the short packs only.

 

Maybe he had all the others already? Just because someone is looking for a short-pack doesn't mean he's a scalper.

I was thinking the same thing at the time, but I seen that guy and his gf there before just walking around the store time to time. He is around 40-45 years old.

 

Besides, it makes me feel less guilty to assume he is. @smilepunch@

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dang... stupid scalpers. didnt know this was such an issue, but it's wrong! and prolly illegal, right??! most of the toys are not for "Resale".... :angry:

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As long as it says not for resale, it is not, however, I think one can resell new figures, if they cant, ebay wouldn't allow it.

 

Too bad toys here are not like the games in Japan, where resell isn't allowed or so it says on the game packaging.

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