darkSpyro

I was at my local Toys R Us when they opened this past Sunday. There was only one other family there with my son and I when they opened and I think one or two more families showed up after.

My shopping cart had one of every figure and the starter packs we were buying, with Legendary Jet-Vac sitting on top. While I was looking for a Dive Clops with a nice paint job, a mom from one of the families that came later, looks at my cart and asks me if I was "buying all of those". I said yes, my son and I collect them. She says something like, "for your son or for frank and sons?" I didn't understand what she meant, so I said, "what's frank and sons?" She didn't answer.

Then she abruptly asks loudly to the Toys R Us employee near us who was still unloading boxes, "do you have more of the Toys R Us exclusive"? I'm thinking she's talking about the Dark Wii starter pack, so I tell her where they are and point to them near the bottom of the section. Still talking loudly so the employee will hear, she says, "not that, the Toys R Us figure. This guys is buying them all".

At this point it hits me about what she's implying, but before I can point to the 8 or so pegs filled with Legendary Jet-Vacs, her husband sees them and tells her, "they're right here".

Man, I hope that lady felt as dumb as she looked.

Jeez, what a loser. I wouldn't worry about it. Simply collecting all the characters, like Skykids do, is not scalping. You had one Legendary, and she freaked out. Anyways, you tried to help, and she was a witch about it. I would've been mad. Watch out if she's at the Toys R Us again.

I didn't get called a scalper..but did have a bad experience with a mom at TRU on day one of superchargers. I bought 1 of everything including all three darks and all three regular starters...my cart was full...was going to check out and a small child in front of me says..look mom he got them all...and I said yep ..been saving my extra money for this release... And she said yeah...its people like you who make it hard for us single parents ...and I understand not everyone went to school and got a good job...but I didn't Ruin your life or cause you to get pregnant young...or buy into a game you can't afford... I made the choice not to have kids so that I can have things I want... and not struggle through life!...I didn't say it just keep my mouth shut because her kids was there...but it was hard!

Meh. Folks on this forum have been blindly accusing folks of being scalpers and resellers for about 5 years now.

Instead of being accused of being a scalper, I met one or two. This lad who showed up about 30 seconds after I got in line (literally less than a minute.) and started talking to me. She kept talking about "all her family members" she had to ship some to, because they wouldn't be able to find them. I told her that it's wave one, it would be easy to find, and she muttered something like "well, I'm sure whoever buys them on eBay needs them." Once the store opened, sure enough, she was buying about 5 of everything.

Feels like the lady - not just in the OP's case- is trying to just throw frustration at you guys for other things happening. It's unreasonable enough that it feels like they're just trying to pick a fight. Haven't had any experience with this(probably because when Skylanders was still here kids were allowed to run alone to the pegs and I had to explain them how Zoo Lou wasn't going to work in SSA myself), but I definately had with stressed people who think their anger will be justified if they find someone else more "wrong" than them.

My question is this...who is making even a penny off scalping wave 1??? I pity the person buying 5 of everything. If it were that easy, I and many others would go nuts with their Best Buy GCU discount...if it meant a reasonable profit. On the flip side, I can't relate since I've never resorted to buying a cartful of Skylanders at once...I usually wait for sales, and even then, it's usually 2 figures (4 at most) at once. Buying in moderation and in little spurts let's me stagger playing with new figures and increase my appreciation for each one. I guess it'd ruin the fun for me and be a bit overwhelming if I did have the full armada of launch Skylanders on the first day. Even as a child, all my toys came in moderation and centered around birthdays and holidays for the most part.

Same. Even last year where I could've saved for several figures at once, I kept telling myself to wait another week,to think ONCE AGAIN if I really wanted to play as them, if it wasn't better to check some other gameplay video to see if it's my cup or tea,of if it isn't better to save more and get a favorite. Definately don't regret it, not spending so much on figures then got me the WiiU and SC this year even with the reais currency devaluation issues keeping me from getting them on Ebay.

Quote:

I didn't get called a scalper..but did have a bad experience with a mom at TRU on day one of superchargers. I bought 1 of everything including all three darks and all three regular starters...my cart was full...was going to check out and a small child in front of me says..look mom he got them all...and I said yep ..been saving my extra money for this release... And she said yeah...its people like you who make it hard for us single parents

She's just mad because it showed that she didn't REALLY love her kid. I'm being snarky, but she didn't even know what you were buying. TRU had plenty of starter packs and you were buying **1** of each. That hardly makes it difficult for anyone coming behind you.

I remember at launch of Trap Team, a mom with 2 kids snickered at me for having a list for the traps. I shrugged it off, but it was satisfying later when I saw she and kids were having trouble trying to figure out which traps to buy.

You should've pointed at the amiibo section and said "If you're looking for scalpers, you're more likely to find some over there. Skylanders has enough figures in stock that I'd actually lose money if I tried to resell them."

Frank and sons is a hobby store that sells collectibles.

Eh, whatever. Scalping isn't a crime so there would be nothing to feel ashamed about anyway, and there's not even a point of buying all the Legendary Jet-Vacs, you wouldn't be able to make money on them.

Well my wife and I have been excused of this once or twice.For example when the last wave of trap team came out I ended getting 3 of everything and they asked if i sold these on ebay in which I said no we each collect our own set, which then my son not knowing what was going on was already opening his set by the coin rides so he could toss out his trash and give me the cards/stickers to hold for him.


Ppl tend to think your a scalper if you buy more then 1 thing, look like your buying alot or buying toys when your kids not around.

You can't do anything without people jumping to conclusions. Like Zook said, scalping isn't a crime anyway. It's annoying, yes, but not illegal. You could make next to nothing on any Skylanders figure except for chase variants anyhow.

On day 1 at Best Buy for SuperChargers, I got called a Scalper by some mom who got pissed off at my mom for letting me buy the last Steel Plated Smash Hit, so they started yelling and eventually got in a fight, so I told the women to shut up because it was your fault you didn't pre-order the game there. I saw out of the corner of my eye her trying to grab Steel Plated Smash Hit out of my arm, but I pulled him away. Her child sat there crying, because I got the last Steel Plated Smash Hit. So I went to the counter to ask if they had more, so they gave me another and I brought one to the kid and he took it. I looked at his mom and told her she was childish right in the face and we left.

The ironic thing is that Legendary Skylanders are some of the easiest to find if you live in an area that has TRU.

Jeez, some people.

Not really relevant but
Sometime around wave 2 I was at the shop looking to see if there was anything new and there's this kid and his mum also looking at stuff, the kid sees a kaos trap and tells his mum about it, I pick up the trap to look at the box and the kid starts crying , I think he thought I was going to buy it, He said he wanted it, I told him I wasn't buying it, but he's still acting mental and PUNCHES ME IN THE CROTCH, the punch was quite tough and I fall to my knees in pain and he grabs the trap ( which I droped) KICKS ME and runs off, his mum just goes after him, no sorrys, she just goes off, I recover shortly after and I go to look at other stuff, when I go out of the shop i see the kid again, he screams and runs after me, I run attempting to lose him, but he tripped over somthing and the shop has.. Somthing like concrete for floor and he got up with a bloody nose, he swears at me and I think he was about to beat the crap out of me, but his mum took him away thank god

God that was a weird af day, I REALLY hope I don't see him again.

Wow things like this never happen where I live .

Quote: Dark Snap Shot

Jeez, some people.

Not really relevant but
Sometime around wave 2 I was at the shop looking to see if there was anything new and there's this kid and his mum also looking at stuff, the kid sees a kaos trap and tells his mum about it, I pick up the trap to look at the box and the kid starts crying , I think he thought I was going to buy it, He said he wanted it, I told him I wasn't buying it, but he's still acting mental and PUNCHES ME IN THE DICK, the punch was quite tough and I fall to my knees in pain and he grabs the trap ( which I droped) KICKS ME and runs off, his mum just goes after him, no sorrys, she just goes off, I recover shortly after and I go to look at other stuff, when I go out of the shop i see the kid again, he screams and runs after me, I run attempting to lose him, but he tripped over somthing and the shop has.. Somthing like concrete for floor and he got up with a bloody nose, he swears at me and I think he was about to beat the crap out of me, but his mum took him away thank god

God that was a weird af day, I REALLY hope I don't see him again.

!!!!
That kid must have had really wanted the kaos trap.

I somtimes hide stuff aswell.
The trick is to go into the toys isle and put it behind the stuff that's like $100

Quote: Dark Snap Shot

Jeez, some people.

Not really relevant but
Sometime around wave 2 I was at the shop looking to see if there was anything new and there's this kid and his mum also looking at stuff, the kid sees a kaos trap and tells his mum about it, I pick up the trap to look at the box and the kid starts crying , I think he thought I was going to buy it, He said he wanted it, I told him I wasn't buying it, but he's still acting mental and PUNCHES ME IN THE DICK, the punch was quite tough and I fall to my knees in pain and he grabs the trap ( which I droped) KICKS ME and runs off, his mum just goes after him, no sorrys, she just goes off, I recover shortly after and I go to look at other stuff, when I go out of the shop i see the kid again, he screams and runs after me, I run attempting to lose him, but he tripped over somthing and the shop has.. Somthing like concrete for floor and he got up with a bloody nose, he swears at me and I think he was about to beat the crap out of me, but his mum took him away thank god

God that was a weird af day, I REALLY hope I don't see him again.

If I were you I wouldv'e ran at him and beat him the **** up. I wouldn't tolerate some little **** punching me in the dick.

Yeah but he was like 6+ or somthing
Also how does one 13yr old get away with beating up some 6 yr old

Also @Dahvoo , frank and sons is a collectible show, or somthing. I jus googled it

It'd have warranted at least calling the shop clerks. Someone pretty much beat you up to steal something you wanted to buy(yes,even if you weren't going to, you were holding it),age doesn't matter,at least to give the mom a wakeup call about what's going on.

The more and more I read this thread, I don't think the random public in stores has any right to make an accusatory comment at anybody of being a scalper. If you happen to encounter a "you're a scalper" comment, I do not recommend having to defend oneself and instead I suggest a smug "Why yes I am, what's it to you?" followed by a loud, diabolical laugh. That'll show 'em!

Quote: funnybone

Quote: Dark Snap Shot

Jeez, some people.

Not really relevant but
Sometime around wave 2 I was at the shop looking to see if there was anything new and there's this kid and his mum also looking at stuff, the kid sees a kaos trap and tells his mum about it, I pick up the trap to look at the box and the kid starts crying , I think he thought I was going to buy it, He said he wanted it, I told him I wasn't buying it, but he's still acting mental and PUNCHES ME IN THE DICK, the punch was quite tough and I fall to my knees in pain and he grabs the trap ( which I droped) KICKS ME and runs off, his mum just goes after him, no sorrys, she just goes off, I recover shortly after and I go to look at other stuff, when I go out of the shop i see the kid again, he screams and runs after me, I run attempting to lose him, but he tripped over somthing and the shop has.. Somthing like concrete for floor and he got up with a bloody nose, he swears at me and I think he was about to beat the crap out of me, but his mum took him away thank god

God that was a weird af day, I REALLY hope I don't see him again.

!!!!
That kid must have had really wanted the kaos trap.

Reveal Spoiler

Well about that. I used to do something similar to that when swap force was around. I used to hide figures that i wanted under the shelfs so i could get them when i had enough money

When I worked at kmart we all hid stuff under the bottom shelves in domestics. I use to find random things there from pokemon red for the gameboy to random clothing and shoes.

Had a guy today tell me to get what I wanted because he was about to buy everything they had at TRU. I got what i needed and what my best buddy needed and walked away. The guy ended up cleaning the racks of almost everything. He spent over $1,200 just on Dark Starters and that was with the bogo 40% off

Quote: DGAFPolar

Had a guy today tell me to get what I wanted because he was about to buy everything they had at TRU. I got what i needed and what my best buddy needed and walked away. The guy ended up cleaning the racks of almost everything. He spent over $1,200 just on Dark Starters and that was with the bogo 40% off

Probably another scalper.

Quote: Dark Snap Shot

Jeez, some people.

Not really relevant but
Sometime around wave 2 I was at the shop looking to see if there was anything new and there's this kid and his mum also looking at stuff, the kid sees a kaos trap and tells his mum about it, I pick up the trap to look at the box and the kid starts crying , I think he thought I was going to buy it, He said he wanted it, I told him I wasn't buying it, but he's still acting mental and PUNCHES ME IN THE CROTCH, the punch was quite tough and I fall to my knees in pain and he grabs the trap ( which I droped) KICKS ME and runs off, his mum just goes after him, no sorrys, she just goes off, I recover shortly after and I go to look at other stuff, when I go out of the shop i see the kid again, he screams and runs after me, I run attempting to lose him, but he tripped over somthing and the shop has.. Somthing like concrete for floor and he got up with a bloody nose, he swears at me and I think he was about to beat the crap out of me, but his mum took him away thank god

God that was a weird af day, I REALLY hope I don't see him again.

This kid probably was 9 and has no friends. Can't blame them either.

Quote: DGAFPolar

Had a guy today tell me to get what I wanted because he was about to buy everything they had at TRU. I got what i needed and what my best buddy needed and walked away. The guy ended up cleaning the racks of almost everything. He spent over $1,200 just on Dark Starters and that was with the bogo 40% off

I'm always amazed at stories like this. Tax is around 10%, so he's getting 15% off each one. Ebay/paypal gets about 10%, so he is only making 5% if he manages to sell them at retail. And there is lot of competition out there. Ebay has tons of dark starters at retail. He'll be forced to sell them at retail and make perhaps a mere $5 a set? Or they can break the sets up and get stuck with a lot of dead stock Stealth Elves and unmovable portals and perhaps break even or make a couple bucks? I never saw the logic in this as you'll get dozens of people doing the same thing and undercutting each other where you end up with pennies profit if you're lucky. I guess first week sales are important and people pay insane prices, but it's still rather risky and foolish to me.

ANYWAY, I did get a $25 360 SuperChargers disc this year without having to buy a starter set so I won't complain too much even though the logic behind hoarding and flipping these things really escapes me. I can see the gold Hot Streaks and rare variants, but never the more common dark starters.

Quote: DGAFPolar

Had a guy today tell me to get what I wanted because he was about to buy everything they had at TRU. I got what i needed and what my best buddy needed and walked away. The guy ended up cleaning the racks of almost everything. He spent over $1,200 just on Dark Starters and that was with the bogo 40% off

Also good luck with that guy scalping the wave you can find pretty much everywhere.

Hello all, long time watcher. finally decided to make an acct. Anyways, on superchargers launch we ran into this problem as my son and daughter were each getting a set of everything (figures, cars, all the starters needed to get everything etc) as you could would think our cart was quite full. I was asked when buying them if I was reselling them and I just looked at him and went "no these are for my two kids here". I guess it was because of how many starters we got but whatever ppl will think what they want. Im just a proud mother of two skylander fans :

Everyone's trying to make a profit off of you. God forbid you try to make a profit. I have no problem with scalpers and Skylanders, there has always been enough to go around. I could drive to 10 or 15 stores today and get almost every Skylander that has ever been available. Flipping a house is probably wrong too. All those reality shows where they fix up junk and sell it for way more than they spent on it...thieves. Good luck feeling like you came out ahead selling Skylanders on eBay. Cost of gas, time spent, listing fees, packaging...gimme a break. I collect for myself, and have made probably thousands of trips to stores on release days, and random checks for skylanders and I have seen someone loading a cart up 1 time with multiples of the same thing. Even then, there was still plenty left. Rant over.

Last year for Trap Team, when I was at Target asking about Wave 3 traps (I had the DPCI number and asked them to please look for the box). While waiting, a supervisor came by and asked how many I was planning to buy. I said 7/8 different ones, and he said I'm a collector (like it's a bad thing or equal to a scalper/reseller). He said their policy is not to sell to collectors, and that they might not be able to sell me any.

Luckily it took them a while to find the box, so the supervisor had left. I got my 7/8 traps and got out of there.

Scalpers don't like Skylanders anymore...Amiibos is where the real stress is. I totally get the frustration she is feeling--we've all been there. It's probably good to get a handle on the situation first though. The Trap market was totally scalperific though....simply due to limited volume because shared sku and gazillion water traps.

The trap situation was made worse by the fact that no major online resellers sold individual traps beyond the element.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

Scalpers don't like Skylanders anymore...Amiibos is where the real stress is. I totally get the frustration she is feeling--we've all been there. It's probably good to get a handle on the situation first though. The Trap market was totally scalperific though....simply due to limited volume because shared sku and gazillion water traps.

The bubble has burst for Amiibos as well. Everything which was released in the most recent wave has been either available in stores or online the past week. While shopping yesterday, I saw 25 Bowser Jr figures at my local TRU and a wall filled with a 3 pack of Amiibos which was released at GameStop on Friday. And this is in central NJ where people scoop up any hot collectibles from stores fairly quickly. Scalpers have moved onto Star Wars trying to place their bets on which underproduced item will be hot this holiday season. A few years from now, people will be laughing "remember when those silly people that used to scalp Skylanders and Amiibos?"

Ya Amiibos have gotten easier since this past wave and other stuff will be back soon so i figure by xmas everyone will prob ahve what they want that has been released.

the only thing that will always be profitable will be the rarer items for the games - dark editions, chase variants, variants, contest skylanders. most of the rest won't really be worth the issue of resale due to the fact what retaillers that sell them keep them in adequately and everyone is selling them.

Amiibos only have a few more noteworthy ones like the dlc characters left, etc as most are plentiful. while they may make more amiibos for future games, i think as people have said the bubble has burst pretty much on obtaining them since the rarest ones have been released and people have moved on.

As much as scalpers will try to find something profitable with infinity...i think this will be the last year there will be a lot of scalping going on. there's just too many different toys to life games, etc now and most people aren't playing them as much anymore.

Exactly. The Amiibos would have to be really unique to be scalper-worthy. The yarn Yoshi would fall in that category. The only one I haven't seen since the last release was the 30th anniversary Mario, but plenty of the others.

Scalping Skylanders seems really silly. The High Volt chase variant, and maybe gold Hot Streak, warrant it. Darks won't be worthy until the stock dwindles considerably. By then, most people won't care, since the people that really wanted them would have bought them.

Even then the dark characters will be readily available for a slightly inflated price on eBay or at game stop, if they keep selling the used ones. By slightly inflated, I mean you could probably still round them all up for less than the $99 people are paying to get them when they come out. Maybe the ammibo dark figures will change that, but in the past they have been readily available well after the games have run there course. The only figure I don't ever remember seeing on a shelf, was fire bone hot dog. That might be because it seemed like one that would be there forever and I was focusing on the new characters or it was never there. I have seen it second hand at GameStop a couple times though. Always thought they would end up releasing a bunch later on, kinda like happened with wham shell.

Quote: Zook

Eh, whatever. Scalping isn't a crime so there would be nothing to feel ashamed about anyway, and there's not even a point of buying all the Legendary Jet-Vacs, you wouldn't be able to make money on them.

This post made my day. There is a skill to being a good scalper of re-sellable merch. Never let these uptight parents get in the way of a smart buy. Those kind of tightwads are really upset about something else in their lives.

Best,
Flaccid Hot Dog

i had an experice with a scalper once. it was when my gamestop got 30 kaos traps, went home for ten minites to get money came back they were all gone.

So "Frank & Sons" is a collectibles/autograph warehouse in the City of Industry in Ca. They sell/trade almost everything ever made toy wise. If you live in SoCal you must make a trip there. They have a few skylanders there but my family and I go there for the conventions and cosplay shows. You can spot the scalpers there and see which 1s also work the swapmeets. Some of the people there are ok but others rude. I know this is crazy but I actually made friends with a few during my Star Wars hunts.
I don't really see skylanders there, maybe once in awhile. I've had better luck making friends with workers in the retail stores. When my son and I waited for the midnight opening at ToysRus for skylanders ppl in line made sure the scalper in the front of the line was made known to the employees there and he wasn't allowed to buy multiple items. And yes he was a scalper/vendor from "Frank & Sons"

Quote: SkylanderDude9

i had an experice with a scalper once. it was when my gamestop got 30 kaos traps, went home for ten minites to get money came back they were all gone.

One time I found a scalper taking all the kaos traps off the shelf and I needed one. So I stole a kaos trap from his basket, and he was about to snatch it back from me when I dropped in in my mom's basket she got from the front of the store. The dude gave me the evil eye, but I didn't really care to be honest.

Quote: PwnageFTW

Quote: SkylanderDude9

i had an experice with a scalper once. it was when my gamestop got 30 kaos traps, went home for ten minites to get money came back they were all gone.

One time I found a scalper taking all the kaos traps off the shelf and I needed one. So I stole a kaos trap from his basket, and he was about to snatch it back from me when I dropped in in my mom's basket she got from the front of the store. The dude gave me the evil eye, but I didn't really care to be honest.

What you did fits your avatar perfectly.

I should give that scalper the evil eye. Scalpers are quite controversial, making kids cry.

I agree with Francis/Boogie2988 when he says "YOU ARE RUINING CHRISTMAS, YOU ARE RUINING BIRTHDAYS, YOU ARE MAKING IT SO THAT A NORMAL BUYER GUY LIKE ME CAN'T EVEN GET THE TOYS HE WANTS."

I'm so glad Skylanders doesn't get scalped as much these days.

All except for the Starters this year. I just want a Spitfire and a Hot Streak, and they are both going for $30 on Amazon...I could buy the 3DS starter for less than that on Black Friday(hopefully)!