Collectors vs. Scalpers

[lolaandbean]

Definitely scalpers, I'm not even just saying that as a collector. I'm saying that as someone who works RETAIL and has SEEN the havoc they wreak in honestly? The name of greed. It's sad.

This. I spent way too many years in retail hell.


Why should stores set limits? I mean, I know why they do. Why do they care who buys it? If a scalpers swoops in and buys them all aren't you just going to come back in their store later and look again? I looked every where for the Jason Wu Target bag. I'd go to one Target and remember that I needed milk. I'd check another Target and get toilet paper. See what I mean? Why wouldn't they want you to keep coming back in the store looking for it?

[NoDivision]

I am with the above poster who gets frustrated with the resellers who are not licensed and not reporting for taxes- at the volume that a lot of the ebay sellers are working at, there really is no way to deny they are running a business.

If they are selling at that kind of volume, they are paying taxes on it. Income through ebay/paypal and amazon (as well as other online retailers I'm sure) is reported to the IRS and if it's over a certain amount (which is determined by the IRS using the same sort of guidelines as any other income tax) you pay tax on it.

[DiamondDreams]

I am with the above poster who gets frustrated with the resellers who are not licensed and not reporting for taxes- at the volume that a lot of the ebay sellers are working at, there really is no way to deny they are running a business.

If they are selling at that kind of volume, they are paying taxes on it. Income through ebay/paypal and amazon (as well as other online retailers I'm sure) is reported to the IRS and if it's over a certain amount (which is determined by the IRS using the same sort of guidelines as any other income tax) you pay tax on it.

Good to know . Obviously I've never approached that amount in my dealings with eBay

[NoDivision]

Yeah, that policy has only been in place for a few years, but the IRS got wise to how much money can be made selling things online.

[saply]

I am with the above poster who gets frustrated with the resellers who are not licensed and not reporting for taxes- at the volume that a lot of the ebay sellers are working at, there really is no way to deny they are running a business.

If they are selling at that kind of volume, they are paying taxes on it. Income through ebay/paypal and amazon (as well as other online retailers I'm sure) is reported to the IRS and if it's over a certain amount (which is determined by the IRS using the same sort of guidelines as any other income tax) you pay tax on it.

Good to know . Obviously I've never approached that amount in my dealings with eBay

Not only that, but if they're buying them en masse from a toy store they're paying the sales tax as well.

This thread has been very informative, and everyone has some good points! My only concern would be if, hypothetically, Mattel increased their production, would the quality suffer even more than it does now? It's no secret that as the MH line has flourished and the factories have been cranking out more dolls we're seeing many more instances of mispierced ears, wonky eyes, sloppy rooting jobs, and the like. It's almost (almost!) worth it to me to pay more for one of fewer stock, if it means I'll have a nicer and better-made doll.

[coinoperatedgirl]

When it boils down to it, this whole debate seems to be two sides of the same coin:

a) scalpers buy all the things we want and sell them at crazy prices
b) collectors want to buy all the things right away

Collectors want to have everything NOW.  We want to be the first to post that we have the newest dolls.  Some of us want to bask in the limelight of internet fame while everyone fawns over the fact that we have a new toy before everyone else.  We are impatient.  We collect - sometimes multiples of the exact same item so that we can play with one and keep the other in a box under our beds or in our closets.  And if I can borrow logic that someone else used earlier in regards to why the scalpers are bad, every doll we buy is one that some child doesn't get to have. 

To me, as I've said in a previous thread, reselling anything is a job.  They have to be constantly out buying everything.  Not every store has a set truck delivery schedule.  Walmart, for instance, gets a truck every day, and there's no set schedule that says "Toys are going to be delivered on Monday, Electronics will be delivered on Wednesday."  Eddie's TRU gets its big truck deliveries on two days a week, and right now is getting a couple of extra smaller trucks during the week, but again, there's no set schedule of what is coming in on each day.  This means that anyone reselling items is going to be forced to go to the store(s) on a daily basis in hopes of getting whatever it is that they are reselling.  Where I live in Rhode Island, it's easy enough for a buyer to make the rounds of two Targets, a TRU, a Walmart, a Kohls, and a Justice all withing about 4 miles of each other.  Expand things a bit and you can add a K-Mart and a Super Walmart to your rounds.  At this time of year, it will take you a minimum of 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot for one of those Targets, and TRU is a madhouse even at midnight these days.

In addition to travelling around the state every day, they've got to research what it is that they're selling.  They've got to know which toys out there have people buying to collect as opposed to playing with.  They have to know what new releases are coming out, they've got to know which of those releases are going to be hotter than others.  They've got to be able to figure out that one series is going to sell better than others.  They've got to read forums and boards (yes, even this one) and see what it is that we're most excited to see coming out.  They have to spend time posting items for sale, be it eBay or Craigslist or forums dedicated to whatever it is that they're selling.  They've got to package and post the items that they sell, and relist the ones that don't.

Scalping, whether we agree with it or not, is a job to some people, and these people have every right to buy the dolls as we do.  Would I do it?  Probably not.  I'm lucky enough to have a job at the moment, but I can definitely understand why people resell dolls - people will buy them at crazy prices.  They know that completionists are going to buy things to fill up a spot in their collection.  They know that some parents will pay crazy amounts of money to get something for their kids.  Toy companies don't care about scalping - as has already been pointed out, at the point that the doll is on the shelves at the stores, the toy company already has their money. 

We, as collectors, are mad because we don't have dolls and they do.  We're mad because we can't afford to spend a morning driving around to buy toys, we're mad that few of us can afford to buy an entire shelf full of dolls for our collections while these people can load up two shopping carts full of things that they don't enjoy the same way that we do.  If the stores were implementing rules saying there was a limit to how many toys were bought, then I'd be upset, but for now, I just wait until things are more plentiful and be patient.

[rayedelsol]

Collectors want to have everything NOW.  We want to be the first to post that we have the newest dolls. 

  This is so true.

[Yurusumaji]

Collectors want to have everything NOW.  We want to be the first to post that we have the newest dolls. 

  This is so true.

That depends heavily on the collector. I know that I am not personally like this. I collect MH, but I haven't even gone out looking for the new Scaris line and I likely won't until the holiday season is over. I passed on Zecora and the MLP Collector's Set with Nightmare Moon because I wasn't sure the cost was justified.

Some collectors are very patient and don't give in so much to desire for "internet fame". Sure, I'm getting my dolls much later than others, but I also have several expensive collections I try to keep up on to some degree. I'll never be best in any of them, but I enjoy each of them equally.

Personally, in the case of Monster High, I'd rather see the dolls more readily available through their own online store.

[rayedelsol]

Sorry, I meant for me, that the fact is true for me. I love getting new dolls while they are brand new. Don't get me wrong, I still love finding a doll or getting one that I haven't had a chance to, but there is something about finding a brand new doll when you know she hasn't been sitting on that shelf for long. But that is just me, personally.

[coinoperatedgirl]

Collectors want to have everything NOW.  We want to be the first to post that we have the newest dolls. 

  This is so true.

That depends heavily on the collector. I know that I am not personally like this. I collect MH, but I haven't even gone out looking for the new Scaris line and I likely won't until the holiday season is over. I passed on Zecora and the MLP Collector's Set with Nightmare Moon because I wasn't sure the cost was justified.

Some collectors are very patient and don't give in so much to desire for "internet fame". Sure, I'm getting my dolls much later than others, but I also have several expensive collections I try to keep up on to some degree. I'll never be best in any of them, but I enjoy each of them equally.

Personally, in the case of Monster High, I'd rather see the dolls more readily available through their own online store.

I'm not saying that all collectors are like this.  I'm saying we like to show off our new toys, and some people are willing to overspend by a great deal to do so before anyone else.  I collect ponies and MH, and I'm content to be patient with my collecting because I can't afford not to be, but there are others who aren't in my position. 

And what would stop resellers from buying loads of them from the online store?  Look what happened with the SDCC pony this year.  Between the con itself and the online sale, I'd hazard a guess that a great part of those sales went to people simply to resell them at a profit, limits or no.  There is no way to prevent people from buying what they want to buy.  Store limits a buyer to two dolls per transaction?  Fine.  They're going in with a spouse, their mother, and three neighborhood kids, all equipped with cash, all buying two dolls.  There goes twelve dolls - two entire cases.  There was a discussion a couple of pages back on how to outsmart Amazon's limit on dolls.  Until people - collectors, parents, anyone buying the hot items - are unwilling to pay these prices because they're either too impatient to wait or don't realize what the normal retail prices are, the problem isn't going to go away anytime soon.

[Yurusumaji]

Sorry, I meant for me, that the fact is true for me. I love getting new dolls while they are brand new. Don't get me wrong, I still love finding a doll or getting one that I haven't had a chance to, but there is something about finding a brand new doll when you know she hasn't been sitting on that shelf for long. But that is just me, personally.

I apologize, I was more trying to denote that the original statement was very generalized and failed to take into account that all collectors are different. No two people collect the same and that's part of what is so cool about collecting.

It's fine to be a collector who wants to be the first to get all the new goods. However, that's not the only way people collect. Generalizing an entire group of individuals gets under my skin, because this is how social stigma starts (all bronies are bad, adults who watch MLP:FiM are creepy, all collectors are out for first blood, everyone who reads a certain comic is addicted to abuse, etc).

I'm not saying that all collectors are like this.

Except that you did. If you misspoke, that's alright. Still, you said "collectors". As in, all collectors. Not "some". Not "many". Collectors, in general.

Collectors want to have everything NOW.  We want to be the first to post that we have the newest dolls.

[coinoperatedgirl]

Sorry, I meant for me, that the fact is true for me. I love getting new dolls while they are brand new. Don't get me wrong, I still love finding a doll or getting one that I haven't had a chance to, but there is something about finding a brand new doll when you know she hasn't been sitting on that shelf for long. But that is just me, personally.

I apologize, I was more trying to denote that the original statement was very generalized and failed to take into account that all collectors are different. No two people collect the same and that's part of what is so cool about collecting.

It's fine to be a collector who wants to be the first to get all the new goods. However, that's not the only way people collect. Generalizing an entire group of individuals gets under my skin, because this is how social stigma starts (all bronies are bad, adults who watch MLP:FiM are creepy, all collectors are out for first blood, everyone who reads a certain comic is addicted to abuse, etc).

I'm not saying that all collectors are like this.

Except that you did. If you misspoke, that's alright. Still, you said "collectors". As in, all collectors. Not "some". Not "many". Collectors, in general.

Collectors want to have everything NOW.  We want to be the first to post that we have the newest dolls.

Fine.  As an average, collectors want to show off their collections.  Better?

[Yurusumaji]

Fine.  As an average, collectors want to show off their collections.  Better?

I don't get why it's a completely different statement now. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to start a fight. I am really just trying to make a counter-point.

I like showing off my collection as much as the next person. I don't, however, need to be the first one at the store buying whatever merchandise is hitting the floor this very instant. It's not the same thing that you said earlier.

Rather than stating it as "Collectors are/do this ...", it could be "There are collectors who are/do this ..." or "Some collectors are/do this ...". They exist, but they are not the only example of collectors.

[coinoperatedgirl]

To me, those phrases are awkward with the point I was trying to make.  I'm sorry if they offend you, that was not the point.  The point of my rant was to speak a hard truth that applies to many collectors out there, and I chose harsh words for that reason.  A great many collectors reap what they sow, thus the generalized language.

[justkitter]

I think everyone is a little to blame here (except for the children, of course )  I'm waiting until after Christmas to get the newest MH lines, so I'm not a gotta-have-it-now person, but I'm scared outta my mind any one of the dolls I'm waiting on will mysteriously vanish out of the cases.  Mattel has trained me to panic and buy whatever I need as soon as I see it.  I don't mean to clear a shelf, but if that's all that's there.......

Some people think selling Wave 1 dolls for more than $25 is scalping.  Some think wanting to get $100 for their Gil is scalping.  I don't understand that.  Why can't I get a fair price for what I own, without feeling guilty?  (hypothetical.  I don't sell dolls.  People are much to picky about their dolls which makes selling way too stressful!  Just about all my trade points are purchases )