Is it wrong to hide action figures at the store?

[pooda]

I equate stashing with misdemeanors such as grafiti and jaywalking. And scalping as a felony like bank robbery.

 

I hate scalpers. :angry:

 

im going to stash like theres no tomorrow! i am getting my figs even if i dont have the cash in hand...ill be back!!!

( i also hate scalpers)

I hide them all the time. Especially when there's something I want and I don't have the cash for it. Totally normal.

 

 

yes sir!

[Wheeljack35]

So what happens if someone steals a bunch of figures? The store waits with empty pegs until the shoplifters bring these back?

 

 

A bunch of figures?

 

LOL I would say don't bend over in the prison showers @loll@

[Blackmada]

I hid figures in the past but not in a long time. These days if I don't have the money on me to get something then I probably don't have it anywhere else either so there is no point in hiding it for later.

 

Even if I did I would be one of the ones who goes back within an hour to get it. I have done that for my brother if I saw something he collected and he was not with me to get it and I did not have the extra money. If I knew he never went back and decided to not get it I would unhide it the next time I was there.

[Mullog21]

I guess I don't see the point, if it something I want I buy it, I have never had to hide something to come back and get it later.

[joenubb]

So what happens if someone steals a bunch of figures? The store waits with empty pegs until the shoplifters bring these back?

 

A bunch of figures?

 

LOL I would say don't bend over in the prison showers @loll@

 

Yikes! That makes action figure collecting a painful hobby.

[Dagger]

Just don't get pissed when I find them and buy them for myself.

[CLAM]

I hate stashing and I think its kinda unethical to do.

 

the only exception I would think is okay is if u stash something while u run to the atm and come back and buy it immediately or within a few hours.

 

 

the worst are people who stash something they aren't sure they want. Or the guys who see something and stash it until they know if its "rare" or "valuable" @rolleye@

 

It all just slows down the process for everyone else. I can't find toys, but the store thinks they have some still.... so no more toys are coming in for me because some dork has a bunch hidden all over the store while he ponders his purchasing decisions for a couple weeks.

 

then he decides he doesn't want them... while I have wasted my gas money looking for them or gone to ebay

 

(just a hypothetical, cuz I never driver all over anymore, or buy from ebay)

[Jaxxon327]

I equate stashing with misdemeanors such as grafiti and jaywalking. And scalping as a felony like bank robbery.

 

I hate scalpers. :angry:

 

 

 

Or how 'bout...

 

Hiding (or stashing) is like masterbation,

 

while scalping is like prostitution?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@loll@ @loll@ @loll@ What an Anology LOL

[Jaxxon327]

I can remember hiding something at a TRU one time when I was driving home to see my parents and 10 days later when i was driving back, stopped by and it was still there. Either the place was not busy or no one cared lol. Oh well.

[Cyber Bishop]

The only time I have ever stashed something is when I did not have enough $$$ and needed to run to the ATM.

Of course I have my debit card now so I have not stashed things in about 10+ years.

[yojoebro82]

Good topic!

 

It's not wrong.

 

If a guy found a BAT and needs to come back later, he has two choices. Go hide it or walk a few steps to lay away, 24hr hold, whatever it may be called. Either way, it's off the floor and is more or less unavailable to everyone else.

 

Now, say I'm looking for a BAT, I come to the store and see no BATS on the pegs. What does it matter to me why there is not BAT. It's just not there. That's all I need to know.

 

Say an employee told you, "Oh yeah, we had one but a guy went and put it on lay away." What are you gonna do, storm lay away and demand you be sold the BAT instead? (actually, I wouldn't put that past some people).

 

Now, of course, a found hidden BAT is fair game and should serve as a lesson to the person who hid it that he SHOULD have walked the few extra steps to lay away.

 

In any case, the last toy I stashed was a Playmates Wesly Crusher Star Trek fig way back when. I remember he stayed in the spot I hid him for quite a while. My mom never did get him for me....

[Cyber Bishop]

I know of and have read that plenty employee/collectors stash stuff in the back, so if it is ok for them to stash then it is ok for everyone else to stash.

 

I used to work for TRU in 1990 (I worked there for 2 days.. The hours were BRUTAL) and they had a policy that the employees could not hold collectibles in the back for themselves. If something came in it had to go to the floor first.

 

And yes there was a couple employees that were fired through the years for trying to sneak and stash stuff.

[Dragon66]

Hey, if you have to stash a figure that is up to you, but I have found that if it is a TRU or Target that you frequent, they might not know your name but recognize your face every time they unlock the door in the morning, take the figure to the customer service desks and they will hold something for a few hours.The first time I tried this was a Double-reverse ML Pheonix that someone had stashed in the bin above the other ML figures, I didn't have the cash or credit on me at that moment and explained that to the lady up front, and she was more than happy to hold it until after lunch. In the case of longer term stashing, people are going to do it and that makes it more exciting when you do find their secret stash. It's the thrill of the hunt and anything that is in the store is fair game for anyone who is willing to spend their money at the time.

[joenubb]

I have asked them to hold things for me before and I hide stuff occasionally. In terms of finding someone's stash or someone finding my stash, I think it adds to the thrill of the hunt.

[Wheeljack35]

About 10 year ago I was a toy dept mgr in a store chain of 140 stores called Caldors, which used to be in the Northeast till, 1999 when it went bankrupt

 

We were tearing down the Gondolas and when we ripped up the base shelves we ran across tons of figures stashed below

 

Marvel ,Star Wars you name it

 

I remember trying to order more Star Wars figures a few months before the store went Chapter 7 and I was told we had 57 in stock and I never got in any new Star Wars figures.Then when we lifted the base stack up there they were.

 

So it does hurt everybody when the figures are hidden not only the people who can't get it because the figure isn't there but for those who hide the figures too because their making sure the store never gets any new items in

[Viper Hunter]

Good topic!

 

It's not wrong.

 

If a guy found a BAT and needs to come back later, he has two choices. Go hide it or walk a few steps to lay away, 24hr hold, whatever it may be called. Either way, it's off the floor and is more or less unavailable to everyone else.

 

 

Good point!

 

Stash or layaway? Either way, it's taking the item out of sight from another potential customer, so that YOU can purchase it later, and "later" is obviously up for debate here as to how long is TOO long and is it unethical or not if it goes beyond the allotted time frame? People stash, or layaway something, because they obviously don't have the money to make that purchase at THAT very moment (for whatever number of reasons) and don't want to simply leave it and take a chance on it still being there when they DO have the ability to make the purchase. Hardly a puzzling thing to comprehend or even understand, unless you're so damn rich and uppity that you even make your chauffeur go into TRU and buy the stuff for you?

 

ANYWAY...

 

Like I stated earlier, I think it's getting harder and harder to find stores that even have layaway anymore, so that option is being slowly eliminated, however...

 

Hey, if you have to stash a figure that is up to you, but I have found that if it is a TRU or Target, take the figure to the customer service desks and they will hold something for a few hours.The first time I tried this was a Double-reverse ML Pheonix that someone had stashed in the bin above the other ML figures, I didn't have the cash or credit on me at that moment and explained that to the lady up front, and she was more than happy to hold it until after lunch.

 

That's an excellent thing to know and definitely would make a "stasher" feel less silly about it. I'd almost bet MOST stores would do this, maybe not, I dunno, but seems worth the effort to ask in advance. A "hold" for only a few hours is more likely no problem, but any longer, I doubt they'd comply if they have no layaway system already set up and established there.

 

 

In the case of longer term stashing, people are going to do it and that makes it more exciting when you do find their secret stash. It's the thrill of the hunt and anything that is in the store is fair game for anyone who is willing to spend their money at the time.

 

That's so true!

 

Stashing doesn't put any kind of REAL hold on an item for you, like layaway would, so if you aren't very good at it (stashing that is) you still might end up sh@# out of luck, if some other "ready-to-buy-NOW" customer comes in, that doesn't have anything better to do than comb EVERY aisle (even in the old womens underwear section) looking for hidden (stashed) action figure toys. They'll not only get the joy of finding the item they wanted, but the joy of knowing they thwarted the plans of an evil toy stasher. @loll@

 

OH...the idiotic things, we collectors of toys, find ourselves in the middle of sometimes?

[Wheeljack35]

Lay away?

 

Mosts stores don't have it or don't have it anymore

[Viper Hunter]

The end of layaway is pretty much what gave birth to..

 

HIDEaway!

 

 

 

 

[Wheeljack35]

Well if you hid them at Walmart up until last November that would of been stupid because there was still layaway

 

But today it would be expected

[Viper Hunter]

Well if you hid them at Walmart up until last November that would of been stupid because there was still layaway

 

But today it would be expected

 

 

I don't hide anything anymore....I've been cured of the excessive compulsiveness of it. I just sympathize with the illness. @smilepunch@

[Wheeljack35]

I haven't done it in almost two years myself

 

But I know how it can become a bad habit

[canprime]

I don't really care one way or the other. I personally don't like the idea, but I understand people doing it.

 

There is one instance where I am still baffled by someone:

 

On another board someone was stashing stuff, usually new "hot" items, in apparently hard to find areas. Most likely not in the toy department. However, the person was doing this as a "service" to collectors. Or so they were saying at the time. Basically they would stash and then announce on the board that they had done so with the latest figures that people were looking for at the time. However, they would only tell you if you sent them a message about where in that particular store the figure was hidden.

 

To some it was fine because it meant finding the figures. To others, myself included, it seemed like a petty thing to be doing, and that the person needed some kind of validation through their actions.

[Viper Hunter]

I usually try to talk myself out of such things by thinking to myself..

 

"how would I feel if this THING I'm about to do, was put on the front page of the newspaper, for ALL to read?" and as harmless as it is, I'd still be pretty embarrassed.

 

 

VIPER HUNTER PHOTOGRAPHED STASHING G.I.JOE TOYS UNDER LINENS AT LOCAL TARGET STORE!!

[CLAM]

its not harmless, as wheeljack said, it costs the collecting community and stores big time.

 

the collectors get a slower flow of figures, the stores get less money or lose money because they aren't ordering more and are losing sales.

 

It's like this, let's say I own a store and I will only carry 24 GiJoes or so at a time because that's how much space I have for them. I have an electronic inventory system that automatically orders more when the quantity gets too low. So I sell 15 figures and the computer tells me to order 2 more cases (16), great! I get 2 more cases in and somebody else comes to buy them... everything is working wonderfully. Now, somebody or some people decide that they want to hide figures because they don't know if they want them yet or they don't have the money yet. Let's say I now have 12 figures hidden in my store, and 5 Buzzers clogging the pegs. My computer tells me I have 17 in stock, not enough to trigger the automated order. Yet, all the customers coming in to buy my Joes only see 5 Buzzers on the pegs.... I am losing money and potential customers are getting screwed for as long as these 12 figures remain hidden, or until we have our inventory manually checked once a year. Or, somebody decides they don't want those figures and put them back, and now I have 12 old figures nobody wants on the peg. I can't sell those.

 

Hiding is dirty. If you think its an okay thing to do, just ask the store if they care. Or let's put it this way: Do you care if I hide toys in the store that you shop at? You might say no, just based on principle. However, if somebody is hiding toys at your store, it only hurts your collecting experience.

 

 

And its not the same as layaway. In layaway, the store knows the item is being sold and they have a record of where it is. They will order more if they need to, they don't think its on the peg waiting to be sold.

 

anyways, don't do it, or you suck @lol@

[Viper Hunter]

its not harmless, as wheeljack said, it costs the collecting community and stores big time.

 

the collectors get a slower flow of figures, the stores get less money or lose money because they aren't ordering more and are losing sales.

 

It's like this, let's say I own a store and I will only carry 24 GiJoes or so at a time because that's how much space I have for them. I have an electronic inventory system that automatically orders more when the quantity gets too low. So I sell 15 figures and the computer tells me to order 2 more cases (16), great! I get 2 more cases in and somebody else comes to buy them... everything is working wonderfully. Now, somebody or some people decide that they want to hide figures because they don't know if they want them yet or they don't have the money yet. Let's say I now have 12 figures hidden in my store, and 5 Buzzers clogging the pegs. My computer tells me I have 17 in stock, not enough to trigger the automated order. Yet, all the customers coming in to buy my Joes only see 5 Buzzers on the pegs.... I am losing money and potential customers are getting screwed for as long as these 12 figures remain hidden, or until we have our inventory manually checked once a year. Or, somebody decides they don't want those figures and put them back, and now I have 12 old figures nobody wants on the peg. I can't sell those.

 

 

You're acting as though HIDING toys is something that's done to them PERMANETLY? @hmmm@

 

The scenarios that are being shared or explained in this discussion are all about the TEMPORARY stashing of a particular toy whereas a purchase is soon to follow, so I don't see the "harm" in it the same as what your discribing above, as though a collector hides a toy in a spot so that it's never ever ever found nor ever BOUGHT? Who does that?

 

 

Hiding is dirty. If you think its an okay thing to do, just ask the store if they care. Or let's put it this way: Do you care if I hide toys in the store that you shop at? You might say no, just based on principle. However, if somebody is hiding toys at your store, it only hurts your collecting experience.

 

No moreso than any other act of a fellow collector who might be army building, buying extra's for customizing, buying extra's for friends, buying several of the same item to keep one MOC and to have another to display loose. It ALL makes the collecting experience a little frustrating if it's cleaning the product out BEFORE we can get to it. If layaway is available to them, they could come in a clean out the entire stock, just to make payments on it over the next month or two, and until that last payment is made, the items still show as in stock don't they? In anycase, the items are NOT there for me, when I come in to check for them.

 

 

I don't think it's all that big a deal I guess, not like it's all that "dirty" or illegal. It's just a little desperate and silly is all. I mean, what if a collector has to WORK 12 hours a day and can't be at the stores when they open to get to the skids of toys as they bring them out for stocking (like the real sharp collectors do) and instead, ops to send in their Mother to do it for them? Is that really fair to all the 12 hour a day workers that don't have a Mother to do this FOR them? if they can't do it for themselves, they shouldn't do it at all, just like if you can't BUY it now, don't move it or hide it so that you can buy it later! There's RULES to collecting...come on people!!!

 

 

@hmmm@ I sure hope you're laughing, because that analogy couldn't have been any GOOFIER!!

 

 

 

 

@smilepunch@