darkSpyro

Quote: groovemachine

Where the h-e-double-hockey-sticks are the moderators? I've never seen a forum allow this kinda stuff, but yet ban people like kappapopm.

Kappa deserved it. He made a dummy account, impersonated an actual non-fictional human being and even used that person's likeness without permission, specifically to heckle another forum member. That alone broke about five rules at once, and more serious ones than this. At least the people here are expressing their opinions on their own accounts, and regardless of who agrees with who, everyone is coming from a place that they believe is justified. It's not mindless trolling. There's some flaming, a little offensive language, and arguably it's way off topic, but for what kappa did, I'm surprised his ban was only temporary. Dark had to ban him; what he did bordered on actually being illegal. What we have here is loud, but harmless.

Ok UncleBob, you know, I can agree with that. But, I don't believe I directly referred to them as scammers. I did say that some things don't look kosher, and I referred to some comments that indicate there have been some issues - BUT, I also very early on said I didn't think they were trying to pass off a fake variant - I said I thought it was legit - scalping, but legit. I even provided some ideas where they might have gotten their cases legitimately. My main beef is the scalping prices. I loathe scalpers, and think they harm fans and make collecting harder than it should be.

I do think commenting on appearance of Facebook pictures isn't right. I wouldn't call it misogyny, or call it "prostitution" for saying the slang term in question. Had you said "Hey that isn't cool to rag on her picture" I probably would have backed you up.

And as Tash said, what kappa did is explicitly against the rules. Debating isn't against the rules.

Quote: defpally

Ok UncleBob, you know, I can agree with that. But, I don't believe I directly referred to them as scammers.

You didn't. Bahamut did.
Twice. The second time even *after* a TFB rep confirmed that it was real.

Quote:

I do think commenting on appearance of Facebook pictures isn't right. I wouldn't call it misogyny, or call it "prostitution" for saying the slang term in question. Had you said "Hey that isn't cool to rag on her picture" I probably would have backed you up.

The Facebook thing isn't misogyny, it was just tacky. As for the second half, I may have been overly defensive about it because I honestly don't *think* that it would have been said if we were talking about Greg's Beans. But, I have no proof either way, so it was wrong for me to accuse him of a misogynistic statement - although I still feel I was in the right to call him out for saying it in the first place. Misogynistic or not, it was, in my humble opinion, in pretty bad taste.

As for 'scalpers' - I have no real love or hate for them. For the most part, I feel their influence on prices is temporary and so long as you're patient, you'll have a fair shot at any of the regular figures. And, unless it's a new Nintendo console, I can be a pretty patient man (although I have went to plenty of midnight/morning releases...)

W/r/t the chase figures - I just simply disagree with the way they're distributed and I don't feel that primary resellers really have a *huge* influence on the prices of them. Truth be told, if there were fewer resellers and more fans getting them off the pegs, it'd drive the secondary prices up even higher. Lucky fans would keep theirs and unlucky hardcore fans would have less of a secondary supply to buy from.

I sort of wish it was like a code you got when you bought the figure. Like they say there a purple eyebrawl and when your parents/you go online to register it you could win the variant. This way its more random and not something you can see from the outside package.
They could also allow one offer per address as i know they have to ahve a way to get stuff without a purchase, like mcdonalds has with its monopoly game etc.

Quote: UncleBob

So, it is your opinion that the Purple Wrecking Ball topic shifting into Bahamut's third thread of personal and unprovoked attacks on an individual is a natural evolution of the topic. Yet my comments directly on Bahamut's comments are somehow trolling?

You REALLY need to stop using the word "unprovoked", you don't seem to understand what it means, and I already explained how these attacks are NOT unprovoked, they were earned, fair and square. (I might try explaining it AGAIN in a minute)

Quote: UncleBob

Please quote a previous post from you where it was explained to me. I must have missed it.

Ummmm, no. Quoting THAT many messages would make for a LOT of quote blocks, making the reply a long, messy one. And probably longer than the limit. And if you ignored them once, it seems likely you'll just ignore them again anyway. TOO much work, and for nothing. Sorry, you're just not worth the effort.

Quote: ZapNorris

just read through le thread

bahamut makes perfectly normal comment referring to clearly underhanded practices
uncle defends
war breaks out
???????
profit!

Fixed!

Quote: UncleBob

*You* don't like CindyBeans. I get it. That's okay, and you are welcome to your opinions (opinions which are *not* cold, hard facts).

Ummmm, actually, these comments WERE based on cold hard facts. No opinion, no conjecture, not jumping to conclusions, none of that.

Fine, ONE more try explaining.

Cindy's Beans is too small to be getting these boxes. The reason for this policy is so that they only go to companies with the "morals"/policies to charge the proper retail price for them, $10 for normal sized Skylanders, $15 for giants. They're charging, what was it, $300? $400? for this one? Now, it COULD be argued that such a price is acceptable based on the rarity. That's only true of REselling. That means someone found it and paid $10 for it, and is now selling it based on market value. Cindy's Beans skipped that crucial $10 step. Or do you think they got these cases for retail? There's 12 figures per box I believe. Do you think they paid $120 per box? That's a LOT of money! 200 boxes, that's $24,000! Pretty risky for a blind purchase without a guarantee of resale. Merely having these boxes, especially that many, almost guarantees they paid store cost, or at least somewhere between cost and retail, the cost is just to prohibitive otherwise. So:

Fact #1: They have retail boxes (proven by the picture they themselves provided)
Fact #2: They are charging above retail price (proven by going to their own website, their own listing)
Combined, this means underhanded practices. At the very least, charging more than they should, but more likely obtaining boxes they shouldn't be able to.

See? Cold, hard facts, exactly what you asked for.

Quote: UncleBob

So, you don't like attacks on people, but you tolerate them if it's against someone you don't like? Do I understand you now?

No. This wasn't me, but I still feel I can say that with confidence. But, as a troll, you seem to be misunderstanding on purpose, a truly obnoxious behaviour, so it's a good bet. It's not SOMEONE he doesn't like, it's an underhanded company. Companies don't HAVE feelings, they can't get offended, they are faceless corporations. THAT'S the difference. I know, "Cindy's Beans" makes it sound like a person, especially since it was revealed who "Cindy" is, but there's a difference between Cindy the person and Cindy's Beans the company. And the original comment was really fired at the company, despite how it sounded. It's the company who is operating in bad ways. It really gets me when companies do bad stuff and people feel the need to stand up and defend the crappy behaviour!

Quote: UncleBob

Seems like she's got more than a couple of happy customers.

C) Where'd the cases come from? Maybe I'm confused, but I'm not really familiar with the idea that someone has to reveal their source and shipping documentations to any random joe who sends them an e-mail on the internet. Honestly, Cindy should have just said "None of your business" to begin with.

Firstly, just because she delivers and satisfies her customers doesn't change that they're doing something wrong. If you buy a Rolex off of the back of a truck, a true Rolex, it would probably work fine and you'd be satisfied. Does that change that something criminal is clearly going on? Rolexs don't usually come off the back of a truck, that's a big fat clue.

Secondly, "Oh, who cares how that terrorist group got that government bomb-grade plutonium? I'm sure they have the best of intentions". There's evidence that there's something wrong, it's perfectly reasonable to wonder what it is.

Quote: UncleBob

Or to post her personal Facebook page and, basically, make fun of the way she looks (I mean, seriously - the only think you can see are a few headshots... to make any comments based on that alone is pretty tactless).

Okay, in all this ranting and raving and psychotic rambling, this is the ONE thing we agree on, really. It WAS quite questionable to share her Facebook (except to settle the "him"/"her" question), and disparaging her based on her Facebook pictures was quite tacky, stating "she looks like a scammer" is certainly based on nothing. I'm disappointed that he took such a low road, it devalues his arguments.

I'm sorry for posting a link to Cindy Beans' Facebook page. I believe the wording I used at the time was along the lines of, "it's hard to judge a book by its cover, but she doesn't inspire a sense of trustworthiness."

Right there, from the start, I tempered my statement by prefacing it with "it's hard to judge a book by its cover"

This goes to the heart of Defpally's legitimate beef with you, UncleTroll ... you don't read entire statements. You seem to skip words and phrases, either intentionally to suit your trolling, or unintentionally due to lack of attention to detail. I'm not sure which is worse.

I stand by my assertion, whether it's "tacky" or not, that Cindy Beans doesn't inspire a sense of trustworthiness. It's quite obvious that she's been doing what she does since the heyday of Ty Beanie Babies, which was like 15 years ago. She's acquiring brand-new collectibles through some back-door or illicit means, and selling them as if she were a retailer, but not at retail prices. And yeah, if someone randomly put her Facebook photos in front of me and gave me 5 seconds to determine whether she appears to be trustworthy or sketchy, I would choose sketchy. Disagree with me? Fine. Call me out for being "tacky"? OK, I guess; not sure I really care about the higher-end of social graces on an internet forum. Call me a clown? Sure; as admitted earlier, I was clowning around; again, it's an internet forum. I'm sure that most regular Users of this board would say that I'm too serious most of the time ... and in a unique moment of humor, I suddenly become UncleTroll's flavor of the week. Lame.

So, there's your apology, UncleTroll. Take it or leave it; I don't care. In the future, try to do a better job of reading thoroughly, and less overreacting; thanks.

Quote: niceguy1

Secondly, "Oh, who cares how that terrorist group got that government bomb-grade plutonium? I'm sure they have the best of intentions". There's evidence that there's something wrong, it's perfectly reasonable to wonder what it is.

Ha! I get it now. No one who compares the selling of tiny plastic toys to terrorism and WMDs can really be serious.

Where's Ashton Kutcher? I assume he's hiding around here somewhere...

On a side note, I did some checking around... found a source that can get me 100 new cases of figures for about $12,500/shipped. That's about $10/figure. If I was going have a similar profit margin to what the mega retailers get (who buy their figures for much, much less than $10/figure), I'd have to charge $15/$20 per figure.

Just something to keep in mind.

That's just it though .... why on earth would a consumer pay $15-$20 to CindyBeans when that consumer can acquire the same item for $10 or less at a retail store, or $12-$13 on Amazon or Ebay?
I can understand that resellers like CindyBeans may have hard-to-find items in-stock when major retailers are sold out ... but for every Slam Bam, Wrecking Ball, and Flameslinger in those brand-new Wave 5.1 boxes ... you also have to sell a Shroomboom, an Ignitor, and a Stealth Elf. If you take a small loss on the latter characters, it essentially negates the small profit from the former characters ... and all that assumes that there are enough uninformed/careless consumers who will overpay for easy-to-find characters.

So, spend $12,500 and invest loads of hours shipping 1,200 Skylanders (IF you can sell them at your inflated prices), just to turn a modest profit of maybe $1,000 from a couple of lucky purple variants? And that doesn't even account for your website maintenance, shipping supplies, and paying any staff you've hired to assist. I just don't get it .... it doesn't make sense from the consumer's end, nor from CindyBeans' end. And thus ... the presumption that CindyBeans is "sleeping with someone" (it's a metaphor; relax!) to acquire those brand-new boxed of Skylanders. It makes zero sense to buy 100 cases for $12,500. She *must* be getting them for less ... probably MUCH less. As I've mentioned before, either they're "hot" goods, or they're imported from Chinese wholesalers, or CindyBeans has a connection inside a major retailer that is doing her favors. I don't know which, but I'd bet money that it's one of those three things.

I seriously, seriously doubt they're stolen. It takes a special kind of stupid to steal thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, then post pictures of it on the internet. Not saying it's impossible, just unlikely.

It would be my guess (and just a guess) that there's an outfit that has an account with Activision for purchasing LARGE quantities of stuff, probably to source them to smaller game stores and such. This particular outfit probably orders thousands of cases (at, say, $7/figure) direct from Activision. They, in-turn, sell smaller quantities of cases to the smaller businesses at a profit (say, $8.50/figure). The smaller businesses (this likely includes folks like Cindy's Beans) then get the chance to carry the product *and* get to resell (which, at this point, would fit the above definition of reselling) for whatever prices they want, since they're under no agreements with Activision.

But the funny thing is, you just completely explained why Cindy's Beans and others sell the figures for more than the MSRP of $10. Even at the inflated prices for the uncommon figures, there's not a lot of profit. eBay resellers aren't swimming around in a giant Uncle Scrooge-esque money bin of profits.

GUYS! the show is back on!

*Grabs soda and blanket*

This is gonna be good!

The world is filled with stupid ppl, like that chick that had a hit and run then went on facebook bragging about it. Goodjob on the police jailing her ass.

Love this show!

The comments are so long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I guess the show is over.

Trying to explain something to this guy is like trying to hammer a banana into a boulder!

That thing in sports, where if one side is leading by an insurmountable lead, what's it called? The Mercy Rule?

I'm calling Mercy Rule. I'm out.

FYI. I have blurple Wrecking Ball in hand and it does register as a new skylander "Series 2 Special Wrecking Ball". Just thought I'd pass it along.

How much did you pay?

Wut's going on in this thread

Quote: Matteomax

How much did you pay?

Too much Blurple Eye Brawl on the way. Just Lightning Rod remaining...AND my boxed Gnarly and boxed Pumpkin Eye Brawl

Of course, I'm getting the feeling they are going to offer Giant variants well into Swap Force...I hope not.

Yep--got our wrecking and lightning purple, and have eye brawl

Agreed GhostRoaster--paid too much--but we decided to do it and are happy we did. Are you opening yours? We are going to do the thing I mentioned earlier and let our son "find" eye brawl
at the store. It'll be interesting to see if he decides to open it. He likes just collecting them in the box for the most part. We will encourage him to open it but ultimately we will leave it up to him.

We were readying ourselves for Swap Force release and it looks like the Giants figures just keep coming---pretty ordered Pumpkin and Gnarly, and LC hex w/ starter. Now we need jet vac and remaining two triples. Oh, and whatever additional figures that pop up. Ugh! But fun.

Once upon a time, this was fun... seriously scoping this for Swap Force. If I do decide to get the game...I'm only getting the new figures and NO variants. I do NOT plan on opening my blurples. The others for which I have dupes (and is cheaper)---yes I do plan on opening.

I have a nice display glass case to show it off with. I actually need a new one because it's full LOL.

Yep--we are not collecting "all" swap force--it's just gotten to be too much for us. Still enjoy the game and hunting--so that we will continue.

I wish these were easier to find..

Quote: Matteomax

I wish these were easier to find..

In my mind, the white flocked were TOO easy to find, the blurple are near impossible...the glitter variants appear to be in the middle of the two. Granted the blurple may be "easing" its way into market, so who knows.

Shelly--I love the chase...but like I was telling others the other day...it would be nice to take a vacation from this even if just for a couple of months. They are making sure we are chasing down stuff 24x7x365. That frankly doesn't fly with me.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Matteomax

I wish these were easier to find..

In my mind, the white flocked were TOO easy to find, the blurple are near impossible...the glitter variants appear to be in the middle of the two. Granted the blurple may be "easing" its way into market, so who knows.

The Rocks were the easiest to find.

Quote: Matteomax

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Matteomax

I wish these were easier to find..

In my mind, the white flocked were TOO easy to find, the blurple are near impossible...the glitter variants appear to be in the middle of the two. Granted the blurple may be "easing" its way into market, so who knows.

The Rocks were the easiest to find.

Forgot about the stone/granite/rock variants. They have been difficult for me; maybe you got them right when they came out...they don't appear often on eBay. I do have one of each, but they don't pop available like the White Flocked Eruptor/Stump Smash.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Matteomax

Quote: GhostRoaster

In my mind, the white flocked were TOO easy to find, the blurple are near impossible...the glitter variants appear to be in the middle of the two. Granted the blurple may be "easing" its way into market, so who knows.

The Rocks were the easiest to find.

Forgot about the stone/granite/rock variants. They have been difficult for me; maybe you got them right when they came out...they don't appear often on eBay. I do have one of each, but they don't pop available like the White Flocked Eruptor/Stump Smash.

Well, those 2 and Clear Stealth Elf were the variants I found in stores.

^ Rock Zook and Rock Sonic Boom? Good for you. I think I would poop my pants if I actually saw a variant in store.

Quote: GhostRoaster

^ Rock Zook and Rock Sonic Boom? Good for you. I think I would poop my pants if I actually saw a variant in store.

Um.. Whirlwind, Sonic Boom was Glitter.

The game has still gone to the birds.

Quote: GhostRoaster

The game has still gone to the birds.

I do notice prices for completed listings on eBay are dying out.