darkSpyro

In the style of McSweeney's Open Letters (http://goo.gl/ky7aB) and related to these forum posts (http://goo.gl/NP6Di) on scalpers:


Dear Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay,

I know I haven’t written you in some time. Actually, I’ve never written you before. Therefore, I feel it is time for you and I to connect on a more intimate, personal level. So I’m writing you this letter, since I don’t actually know you. Please do accept however that this letter is truly heartfelt, because that’s how I feel about you.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, I really do appreciate that you are offering me the chance to acquire highly collectable and constantly sold out Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure figures, at only a 10% to 1000% mark-up above their actual retail value. God only knows what a bore it would be to me to perhaps pick up one of these characters off of a peg or a shelf at the local retailers I frequent throughout my week. Why, having you scoop up all of these wonderful characters from the local stores allows me more time to concentrate on purchasing what I really need; items like toothpaste, underwear and dog treats. Of course, I have to budget less for these items to be able to afford your markup on the Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise you offer on eBay, but hey! The economy is still in that downturn, right? I SHOULD learn to budget my money better! So thank you Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay for caring enough about me to help me learn this important life lesson.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, your humanitarian work on behalf of the children of the world continues to astound me. Who else but you, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, would care enough about helping children with such afflictions as ADHD regulate their naturally exuberant behavior by making certain that no special, rare or variant Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure figures are available in stores. These children will never have their hearts race and hands shake when they magically come across a blue Bash, or gold Chop-Chop, or crystal Wham-Shell (or any Wham-Shell of any kind, because you’ve grabbed those up too). Keeping these children calm and quiet is a herculean task, and you Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, make the care of these children so much easier. Bless you!

Finally, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, I must personally applaud your commitment to making searching and purchasing Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise so painless and simple. Why would anyone want to be able to search for just the item they want in a massive marketplace like eBay? Your ability to add additional keywords to your auction headings that have nothing to do with your particular auction, but truly clue buyers in to the whole range of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise, is as humanitarian a gesture as anything done by the likes of Ghandi. Being able to search eBay for Warnado, but getting results for twenty other figures thanks to poetic phrases such as “Wham-Shell NIB HTF MIB (not camo - warnado) [search pearl hex, toy fair, cynder] RARE!!!1 Impossible to find!!1!!” really helps me understand the expansive nature of this little hobby I find myself thrust in to.

And as a special nod to you, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, who have been painting these rare and hard to find at retail figures with gloppy glitter and lurid pink paint: your artistic skills are truly unbound by nature, and are indeed untempered by the bounds of normal human convention. To take a product that is yearned for in it’s natural state, and making your mark upon it with such broad swaths of creativity and skill? BREATHTAKING I say...simply BREATHTAKING! You are avant garde MASTERS of your medium.

In closing, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, I hope that having taken the time to write you this letter, you better understand the place you hold in my heart. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure merchandise sellers on eBay, you are the wind beneath my wings.

Sincerely,

Matthew Gerber

Too funny

Don't like it, don't buy them and support them.. The value of an item is what someone will pay for it... You think ebay is the only place with marked up merchandise? Hell, Toys R us marks up 99% of their inventory to ridiculous prices, but they stay in business because someone somewhere will pay it..

Haha, good letter.

I agree with Soberranger, if you don't like those who are scalping Skylanders figures, just don't buy from them! If everyone followed that advice, there wouldn't be a reseller market.

Sure, it sucks to not be able to find Skylanders that you want in stores, but the blame lays squarely on the shoulders of those that continue to feed the machine, those who are impatient and willing to pay ridiculous amounts for a standard figure.

As long as there are people out there that are willing pay ridiculous markups for regular Skylanders, there will be other people out there that will wipe out the supply and that includes harder to find figures at retail.

Quote: Soberranger

Don't like it, don't buy them and support them.. The value of an item is what someone will pay for it... You think ebay is the only place with marked up merchandise? Hell, Toys R us marks up 99% of their inventory to ridiculous prices, but they stay in business because someone somewhere will pay it..

Agreed, this includes most of us here, myself included, with Skylanders. It's always blown my mind that Toys R Us gets away with this. I miss my younger days, when Lionel Kiddie City was still in business. A great toy store that had a truly awe inspiring Lionel Trains isle. They had fair prices, from what little I can remember.

wow that letter was pointless i dislike scalpers but i've learned something whether people hate them or not there will always be scalpers and not just with skylanders and they don't care if you don't like them or if i don't like them. they care only about making money and to be honest whats wrong with that? there's only a few people i've learned are to blame TFB & Activision and stores that don't have limits on what people can buy (surely they must know 1 person doesn't need 50 of 1 character)

the only thing you can do is either pay the eBay prices or be patient and buy them in store for retail

People say to just not buy from them but that will only work if 100% of the people do not buy from them. This will not work because there is always someone out there that has nothing better to do with $80 but to spend it on a skylanders character. The scalpers hold out for the suckers.

Its a viscous cycle and not clearly black and white. Simply put scalpers exist because their is a market for them to exist. If people didn't buy from them they would have no one to sell to.

Also people convert to scalpers when they see how much they go for online.

"Hi I'm your average retail employee, I make **** pay and have to deal with *****y customers. Whats this? a Clear Wham-Shell, wow that's cool looking. I've never seen one of these I wonder how much its going for. Oh wow, that more than what I make in a month! Why would I not buy this and sell this."

I don't agree with it, but generally in this world everyone looks out for number 1.

I heard my local Kmart had their entire truck shipment bought by 2 guys within seconds of unloading... so I have been looking on ebay within 10 and 25 miles of my zip... hmmm.... seems they are making less than 50% markup... tons of them on ebay not being bid on at all. They should really just save themselves the trouble. I do not want to buy Skylanders online because I don't want one with a bad messed up paint job.

I thought the letter was funny

I love this letter, I truly understand how you feel. Now just like everyone has mentioned of course if no one bought then the majority of the scalpers would lose. Yet, with things like this there will always be scalpers and resellers. The way I look at it is that since I don't care for the business I won't support nor promote, which means if I found a rare I won't turn around and try to sell it on ebay. Even if I get extras I would rather give them to friends who are missing then keep promoting a business that hurts people.

Also, Sobberanger yeah TRU may have a $9.99 skylander which is a 1000% markup from what it costs to manufacture, but paying $50 on that same skylander compared to manufacture cost is an even hugely greater markup, and much less affordable. Plus I won't deny stores the prices they put on their items because if you actually have worked in retail like I have and not as just a grunt you would be able to have the knowledge of what goes into manufacture. With things like overhead, maintenance, employees, insurance and whatnot many low end stores, not stores who sell jeans for $200 or whatnot, can barely reduce prices while still making a profit. The amount of money lost when things don't sell and are put on clearance is ridiculous. So yeah everyday stores, like Target, Wal-mart, Kmart, and TRU have to make their money and a reasonable price is a reasonable price even if you thing the quote, "that toy only costs 10 cents to make based off parts", is accurate.

LOL omg I laughed so hard at this. I truely feel the same way yes!

Quote: icecube7731

I love this letter, I truly understand how you feel. Now just like everyone has mentioned of course if no one bought then the majority of the scalpers would lose. Yet, with things like this there will always be scalpers and resellers. The way I look at it is that since I don't care for the business I won't support nor promote, which means if I found a rare I won't turn around and try to sell it on ebay. Even if I get extras I would rather give them to friends who are missing then keep promoting a business that hurts people.

Also, Sobberanger yeah TRU may have a $9.99 skylander which is a 1000% markup from what it costs to manufacture, but paying $50 on that same skylander compared to manufacture cost is an even hugely greater markup, and much less affordable. Plus I won't deny stores the prices they put on their items because if you actually have worked in retail like I have and not as just a grunt you would be able to have the knowledge of what goes into manufacture. With things like overhead, maintenance, employees, insurance and whatnot many low end stores, not stores who sell jeans for $200 or whatnot, can barely reduce prices while still making a profit. The amount of money lost when things don't sell and are put on clearance is ridiculous. So yeah everyday stores, like Target, Wal-mart, Kmart, and TRU have to make their money and a reasonable price is a reasonable price even if you thing the quote, "that toy only costs 10 cents to make based off parts", is accurate.

Honestly, I'm perfectly okay with a mark up on items to cover the costs you mention. It is a business after all and I understand that there are more factors involved than it costs X to manufacture said item so we charge X +. However, Toys R US being the store I mentioned marks up way beyond what other retail stores are marking up....

And while what I said would technically work if EVERYONE decided to partake, it's just a thought and isn't practical. As long as there are items out there with such a high demand, there will be the people out there "scalping" them. Some people willing to pay to have a *guaranteed* purchase of said item for whatever purposes (birthday, collector, etc..) and in my opinion it is a legitimate service for people to charge a little more for their "hunt." These people are sitting at home getting the items that we are driving X miles a day to find! The only real problem with this whole situation to me is there is such a limited supply, that real collectors are the ones that miss out in the long run. There actually IS a market for people with excess cash that don't enjoy the hunt like we do, they would just rather have the collections done and be done with it. $0.02

You are right sober, which is why I refuse to support or even partake in the whole act. I have probably enjoyed running around collecting more than anything else, and meeting everyone here checking for updates. But knowing I can't be leisurely about it and I "HAVE" to go immediately or else I will never find is what annoys me.

EVILBAY + FRAUDPAL = HITLER

YOU ARE NOW WARNED!