I stumbled across this amusing account of my encounter with the oft-reviled “scalper” collector from 2004. This was posted to RTM and the AFi forums, before it was deleted during the Great Hack of the 2005. Keep in mind, I have obviously added anecdotal aspects for the sake of entertainment, and reflects my feelings and my reaction to the events of that morning. While my personal views of so-called “scalpers” have changed over time, I kept the original writing intact for the sake of authenticity.
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I’ve read these types of stories many times on the different boards, but now I have to share a wild and dramatic tale of my own. My up-close encounter with…
A Real, Live Scalper!
(cue dramatic ‘dum-dum-dummmmmm‘!)
The dangerous but exciting liaison took place this morning, at the new Wal-Mart store near my workplace. The Grand Opening was today, and I thought I’d swing by on my way to the office, just to take a curious look. 
The parking lot was nearly empty, and I had hopes of finding some new figures. As I entered the store, it seemed nearly empty, save for a dozen people standing around the front, so I headed back to the toy aisle. I passed a 30-ish guy in a ginourmous puffy red parka and white shorts, who I noticed was peripherally eyeing me. I noticed his clothes because it was barely 40 degrees on this Colorado morning and thought shorts were an odd choice. At the Marvel Legends section I happily discovered the 1-per-case Apocalypse, Hawkeye & Vision, and I proceeded to grab them as Parka Guy comes up and starts rapidly searching through all the Star Wars figures on the pegs.
I thought to myself, “He must be another collector…”.
Just then an Associate comes down the aisle and tell us both we can’t be here yet, because the store hasn’t officially opened. She ushers us to the front of the store where we have to watch a truly unique event – the Grand Opening Ceremony.
The sometimes-bizarre 30 minute display included, among other things, a dramatically out-of-place flag-folding with WWII veterans; a giant fuzzy Twinkie The Kid & a big Keebler Elf lurking about and high-fiving people; a lengthy speech by the Mayor of Centennial; various awards for employees; and an awkwardly loud and way-too-happy “RAH-RAH TEAMWORK” screaming cheer by the store manager, attempting to rally the sleepy troops. I guess he wanted to pump everyone up, but it was so odd and uncomfortable in the quiet store, and he received little support…I really felt bad for the guy while silently watching all of this.
So, during all of this activity, Parka Guy comes over to stand near me…actually, right next to me, like shoulders-touching-next-to-me. So being my friendly self, I attempt generate some small talk. “Find anything good?” He says, “Nah. The only good stuff is what you saw”………and then he asks “so are you gonna sell them?”
Oh boy, here we go. I said “I’m not selling them, these are for me.” His response:
“Oh, you should totally sell them on eBay; that’s what I do.”
I just stood there and stared, giving him a slow nod, my mind feverishly processing.
One of the Evil Empire, standing before me!
I said (half-jokingly) “Oh, so you’re one of those guys driving up the prices on eBay, huh?” He replies, “No, man, not really, it’s not my fault they are worth money! I drive around to all the stores and buy stuff to support my Hot Wheels addiction! (laughing) I gotta pay for my Hot Wheels somehow!” He then goes on to tell me that the Toy Manager at this particular store is his personal friend, and whenever new product will come in, she is going to hold it for him in the back. He told me he knows all the dates when toy items will be stocked in this store.
I’m stunned. My mind is reeling. Can all this be true??
This freaking store has been open a week and this guy already has the place permanently staked out? And then he tells me, “those Marvel Legends are pretty hot right now, but the ones you found aren’t even worth much anymore. I’m surprised you even want them.” I explained that I don’t care what they’re worth since I open them up, and he just shook his head and laughed. At that point I realized that he was trying to talk me out of buying those ML figures, hoping that I would not go back and get them because he wanted them for himself. And he was really starting to get on my nerves. Who wears shorts in winter in Colorado?
As the ceremony is coming to a close, I realize Parka Guy is slowly inching closer to the edge of the crowd to get the early jump towards the aisles once they let us filter back into the store. Like a dummy, I take the bait. I quietly make my way through the crowd and move over near to him, and begin to ponder what wrong turn I took with my life to be in the position of racing another middle-aged man through a Wal-Mart to grab little plastic men at seven in the morning.
Finally, the ceremony is over and the store is officially open, and we both silently begin to walk toward the aisle. He then picks up the pace a bit, and I match it, thinking the whole time about this great new story I have for the forum.
All of a sudden he mumbles, “Oh man, there’s Leann” and points ahead of us. “Uh, I’m gonna go this way!” and he quickly darts to his left, into his planned shortcut. And he starts running.
Running. A full-on sprint. In housewares.
I pass this “Leann” associate, smile, and head right into the aisle, ten feet in front of Parka Guy, whose shortcut wasn’t so short. Yatzee! I grab the Marvel Legends figures, and then I see my new buddy head toward two other guys who appeared out of nowhere at the end of the aisle. They were all buzzing around the aisle like insects, and, of course, they all unfortunately fit the stereotypical scalper appearance that is so often discussed on the forums. Big Guy and Flannel Guy joined up with Parka Guy to discuss the situation. I was vaguely looking around the aisle, but mostly eavesdropping and looking in their direction every so often. Here’s a rough concept of what I saw:
Big Guy says to Parka Guy “Find anything good?” and his buddy says unhappily, “Nah, no Treasure Hunts or anything. The only good #@&% was what that guy got…” and I see him half-pointed towards me.
I turned my back to them and froze, while trying to pretend I was oblivious to their presence. The adrenaline shot through me, as I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, and just awkwardly stood there and listened.
They were obviously not happy that I beat them to their payday. I thought it was a good time to go. As I walked off in the opposite direction, I hear Flannel Guy call me an “a**hole”. As much as I wanted to hop on my soapbox and confront them, I chickened out and decided it would be best to get outta there with the figures.
Unbelievably, Flannel Guy and Parka Guy follow me all the way to the register; not right behind me, but about 20 feet away. I’m feeling a bit nervous now, wondering if they are going to confront me and wondering if I should just wander around the store or find an employee. I decide to just head to the register and buy the items.
As I head to the exit, I see the two guys are waiting, talking to each other and glaring at me. At this point, I’m expecting they are gonna either challenge me in the store or jump me in the parking lot. There are no employees around, so I just walk by and ignore them, and head out the exit. I can hear them following me out of the store.
Crap.
But for whatever reason, they stop just outside the entrance, at the edge of the crosswalk and just stand there, arms folded, watching me get in my car. Maybe trying to intimidate me? Keep me away from their “turf”? I had no idea, but was very glad to just get into my vehicle without incident. It was very, very bizarre.
So I guess today is a victory for the little guy VS the big, bad scalpers…but I was really taken aback by their behavior. I’ve heard some really strange stories about meeting scalpers in stores, and honestly not really believing them – but to witness it this morning firsthand is totally surreal, and now I understand just how odd some of these people are. It’s just sad and pathetic that these guys are acting like this over toys.
But perhaps…I’m the sad one, to sit through the Wal-Mart Grand Opening Ceremony and race another grown man in order to buy action figures…
i’m sure this story will not amuse most of the members on this board as they ARE the people you just had an encounter with and just hate it when anyone points out their deplorable behavior. The honest collector is out numbered to scalper on this board. However, the grand central, the Meca as you will for scalpers is The Fwoosh. Personal i have experienced your experience pretty much each time i go hunting for stuff i need. Now if i see their cars in the parking lot, i just move on and don’t even bother going in store.
Welcome to the 21st century age of collecting where the honest collector has a very slim chance of landing anything when the deck is so stacked against him. With managers, store employees and scalpers all in on it, it is a miracle that any of us finding anything at all, unless we lower ourselves to their level.
To be fair, the whole ‘scalping’ thing has been around for decades – I remember seeing guys at local toys shows back in 1989 selling the Batman figures for double retail. This story took place over 8 years ago, and the division between the two sides has only become more contentious.
As long as demand exceeds supply, we’ll always have people looking to make a profit from collectors and fans willing to happily pay for that service.
Jeeeeeez…I”ve been collecting for DECADES?!?!
Thanks for making me feel old, ‘Fly!
HA! I had to read that part again and truly ponder when copying it over…I realized that 89 toy show was TWENTY THREE years ago.
damn.
This story brings back memories. I write this as a collector myself and a lesson in the dangers of hobby: I worked at a Toys R Us back in 1997 – 2001 and I’d see this daily. Scalpers all knew each other and tried their hardest to “buddy up” with the employees – which isn’t a bad thing on its own, but the intention was to have us hold back things, which I wasn’t for.
There are many stories but one of the more extreme cases: A hot wheels scalpter lost his cool when we told him we didn’t have anymore in the back. He told us that another guy gave him information that we had them and we were lying. So he’s trying to go into the back room, literally making his way into the storeroom and looking around to prove us wrong. That didn’t sit too well with management, and after a fair amount of yelling, cussing, and verbally attacking the employees he was trying to ‘buddy up’ with, security was called and he was thrown out for life. After I stopped working there, he would see me at places and run up to me and ask if I could work there again (or any retail place) to help him out. He’d lost all of his insiders apparently. Again, one of the more extreme cases, but its terrible to think of anyone just in it for the resell value.
Don’t get me started on the out of shape, middle aged mothers run down the isle for Tickle Me Elmo. That toy brought out the worst in all humankind.
Ha! Good stuff Ryan. It’s gotten to the point now, that the circle of people that I discuss my collecting habits with has gotten extremely small. I just can’t expect very many people to have altruistic intentions.
problem is human kind is the worst by default, so all we are seeing temporarily is what is behind the mask. Kinda reminds me of V the series – human on the surface but nasty lizard behind it. In my experience, given the choice, human kind almost always chooses to side with their worst half. Sad and pathetic i know.
Before ebay, i never , ever had an issue finding anything. Some things took a little longer but i never did not find them.
Those soccer moms are the worst of the bunch of scalpers and even worse are all those who use their kids. The most obnoxious of the scalpers are those that like to tell everyone they open their toys and are collectors like everyone else but they are only in it for the money.
This one time at a kmart cars collector event, this scalper brought his entire family 25-30 people each staked out at 2 stores. Suffice to say he walked away with 90-95% of them and then offered to sell me a set at 4 times retail, all while telling everyone who attended how he was a collector and opened his toys and only bought 2 of everything, one to open and one to keep MOC. At another similar event a kid asked his dad why there were so many old men (50+) buying all the toys and was worried they would be nothing left for him.
In the end though, it really comes down to us collectors and what we are willing to pay. We are our own worst enemies, if we want change then we need to be more disciplined about how much we spend and bank roll these scalpers, stop complaining and take action and make our voices heard with the manufacturers. There is a lot they can do to make this easier but they care not to as this is the mechanism on which they profit. Hasbro has reps who place teaser cases in certain stores just to stir the pot and create a frenzy. We also should report any store employee(s) who scalp to their respective companies should we have proof. But honestly if a bunch of people complain about the same person, it is likely they will let them go. Overall big box stores do frown on this practice and some have weeded out some of them but as they get rid of one another two take there place. Some places the managers are in on it. Some of the stock people also call their buddies and say come get it. As i said earlier the deck is stacked against us and it is a miracle we ever find anything.
For me the worst ones are those that go on forum boards asking which figure is the rarest or basically asking questions to find out what is most valued and should be scalped. The forums are basically a manual for scalping or say market research. Social media also has really multiplied the difficulty. As my grandpa always says, “loose lips sync ships”. Also to add to Joe’s comments we should also report ebay auctions that go into the abusive range.
I also feel the charitability of people on this board has waned over the years and they have become more cold and lost their sense of community.
Collecting is difficult and we all know how bad it feels like to strike out on our hunts. These hunts are often exhausting, depressing and sometimes soul crushing (and of course exhilarating when you do find stuff and a strong possible motivator to paying ridiculous sums on ebay), but to rub it in people’s faces is really cruel, rude and low class.
Especially the ones who will comment after someone has posted how extremely bummed they are that they did not find what they wanted and they are like i saw x amount of these everywhere and i had no issue and basically mock you for not finding it. That is cruel and in my book makes you a super d bag. If it is that easy for you and God has chosen you to be the lucky benefactor of the toy hunt and you have seen so many, how about doing a kind thing by offering it up to those you mocked? It will go a long way for your Karma or just doing a nice thing by putting positive energy out in the world. If you wish to not do it for others then do it for yourself as it feels great. Way better then mocking someone or scalping your bounty.
So if you are going to SDCC, offer to help or if you see stuff you know people are looking for pic it up and offer it to your fellow AFIer and tell them to pay it forward.
surprised the scalper did not sneak in the store while the ceremony was going on to get his cash cow.for any hobby there is always going to be some one who will try and make as much as they can from it toys being the big one espically with things like ebay and also social media giving the scalpers a new tool.
I feel like breaking something just reading this. Those hooligans sound like the sort of scumbags I put up with while working retail. They were always sweet talking my managers into letting them go into the warehouse section of the store so they could hoard all the Hot Wheels and Star Wars stuff soon as the truck arrived every Thursday. We almost got fired thanks to those bozos. I don’t miss those days one damn bit.
I know what you guys mean. Do any of you remember when Playmates made Star Trek action figures from ’92-99? Well my friends, I can write a book on how these guys acted and even had one shove me violently out of his way to the action figure aisle and I nearly git hurt. By no means was this jackass a Star Trek fan and was only buying them to resell them. I was able to still find the action figures I wanted but thanks to this jackass, I almost didn’t.
This is a hobby that everyone should enjoy but thanks to these jerks we can’t. Regardless, I still love the hobby and will always love collecting.