by Jarrett Kruse
Scalper. Scammer. Flipper. Words without any real endearing qualities. No matter what context you use it in, a scalper or scammer is not who you want to be. It used to be that just buying tickets to a professional sports game outside the arena before a game was the only “scalping” that was done. It was hip and cool - and somehow you thought that you might actually be getting a deal when in reality you were overpaying for nosebleed seats at a crummy game. Unfortunately, the toy game has become just like the sporting events of yore; overpaying for something that you thought was going to be awesome but turns out to be just “eh” in the end. Don’t get me wrong, you may find that diamond in the rough that makes you pick your jaw up off the floor after scoring such a deal but that is really the exception to the rule. But their is a difference between the two and it is important for the seasoned collector to understand what it is. A scalper is the guy wheeling around a cart filled to the brim with Target exclusives and is at the ready to sell them asap. A scammer is basically just a troll that makes shady deals on Facebook, eBay and other sites with no intention of ever really following through on said deal. Toys; its a complicated world we live in.
My first story goes back over a decade when I found an unmasked Marvel Legends (ML) Wolverine with his fierce teeth showing at a random K-Mart for under $10. I was only back to collecting for a few years and ML was a pretty new line but had suddenly taken the industry by storm with their fancy packaging and amazing points of articulation. Toy junkies were finally getting their due. So after taking the item home I decided to check up on this still relatively new site, you’ve heard of it - they go by eBay. As a goof, I listed the ten dollar figure for sale without knowing anything about shipping and all of that. Sale price: $238! I was floored at how deep the pockets of some die hard toy collectors were - but man, what a sale. And my first time too. But I knew this was a slippery slope. Was I a collector or was I dare I say, a scalper? A term I had only just been introduced to after this transaction. I felt good making the money, but at the same time a little guilty knowing that maybe this was not the "business" for me.
Years later it was still a heck of a sale but I know better now -- BUT -- and this is a big but, everyone has a right to make a buck. If there are buyers out there, they will find you, making it a consistent cycle, a sellers market. But therein does not lie the problem. The big hullabaloo is that their are indeed professional scalpers, one’s that even know the delivery truck schedules at TRU, WalMart & Target and show up like clockwork weekly to cherry-pick all the very hard to find (VHTF) toys. By the time you get out of work or out of bed for that matter, you have been virtually cleaned out by these guys who already have their product up on eBay or another secondary market site (Ed. Note: Remember Whoville, he Grinch?). It is an unstoppable cycle. And Con’s? Like SDCC and NYCC? Don’t even get me started on those war stories. Its like toy hit squads descend upon the city that stays classy to clean out the joint before the average collector who has spent a good deal of cash just to get out there can even get anything.
So the rub is a big one and it is an ongoing problem with no end in sight. On Action Figure Junkies, the Facebook page I founded, not a day goes by that there is some sort of scammer crisis on the boards. We try to implement the rule, “if you don’t like the price, please move on,” but it is a moot rule. People are going to complain no matter what, that much I have learned. The free market is driven by money and as long as there is someone with money burning a hole in their PayPal account, there will always, always, always be buyers willing to shell out the coinage for whatever toy is super hot that week. PART II: NEXT WEEK...
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