Money for nothing and your kicks for free.

So I'm a crazy toy collector. This is not news. I spend hours upon hours stalking toy stores and flea markets and auction sites; I follow toy news blogs and read all the latest developments in the world of little plastic people. I'm a play-with-it collector, rather than a leave-it-in-the-box, look-at-it-smugly collector, and my room is basically the one I used to fantasize about when I was a little girl. The biggest scolding Thomas has ever received is when he whacked Draculaura off the shelf to see what would happen. (What happened? He got yelled at and felt bad. He has not repeated this offense.)

Being a crazy toy collector means, among other things, that I wind up acquiring and treasuring some things which are limited, and some things which are no longer available through anything but the action figure black market. It's all part of the game. And that includes the limited dolls made for the San Diego Comic Convention, or for the various Tonner Doll Conventions.

I have a point, I swear.

While I was in New York, I missed the 2011 Tonner Doll Convention, because, well, BEA. Several people on my Evangeline Ghastly Doll Collectors mailing list attended the Tonner convention, and were excited to get the convention-exclusive dolls. They started lining up at 7AM to get them. Supplies were exceedingly limited, and not everyone got a doll. There was much wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the first dolls started showing up on eBay less than twenty minutes later.

Now, these are dolls which cost $150 new. Not cheap, but understandable for a limited-edition vinyl ball-jointed doll. And they went up on eBay at $450 each. Why? Because people would pay it. The same thing is happening right now in my Monster High community. People who can't get to San Diego are ordering dolls from eBay scalpers who promise them the exclusives at three or even four times the original purchase price. (These are people who don't even have dolls yet, mind you; they're selling doll futures, the promise that they will go to the convention and somehow find a way to obtain all these toys.) It isn't limited to exclusive dolls, either. Toy scalpers regularly clear the shelves of "new and hot" toys, listing them on auction sites at two to four times original purchase price.

This bothers me. I understand supply and demand. I understand "I bought this doll and now I don't want her and I'd like to make back my purchase price," or even "I bought her and I want my purchase price plus five bucks for me standing in line." But there's something that just seems faintly scummy about going into a collector situation and buying things to resell at that kind of markup when you know there are other people in that line. Saying "I'm doing it for the people who can't be here, I have to charge extra to pay for my time and effort" doesn't really wash for me unless you're doing it at the last minute, after all the people who are there have had the opportunity to get the toys for themselves.

I wish we didn't do this sort of thing to each other. I wish we'd share, and say "I need one for me, and you need one for you, and maybe if there's some left over, I'll take an extra for selling later," instead of forcing the conventions to put tighter and tighter restrictions on people, because they feel like we just can't be trusted. Maybe they feel that way because we keep proving, over and over again, that we can't be.

And it sucks.

Tags: cranky blonde is cranky, don't be dumb, toys are nice

wiredwizard

June 15 2011, 18:22:26 UTC 6 years ago

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I'm with you on this. I tracked down a LEGO set I was after & was totally boggled. Original retail price: $5 - Resale price w/ mangled box: $99.95. Hell, even the resale prices for the minifigures is insane. $50 for one minifigure?! Insanity...

Money for nothing and your kicks for free.

Error

I hate speculators.

Re: I hate speculators.