Dr. teeth scalping, blaming the symptom instead of the disease

[MM-III]

I'm mainly a lurker here, but there's one thing that is being brought up that I feel warrants comment.

There seems to be a lot of anti-scalping rhetoric thrown around here but I’m not sure I understand why? The common sentiment is to ridicule the scalper as a greedy opportunist and not a true fan. But let me ask you all this:

How do you characterize a company that makes a highly desirable product, makes only 400 of them, and only makes them available for purchase at a location not accessible by 95% of the interested buyers?

Yes, I'm aware that the dr. teeth is only a repaint, but the fact that it sold out in a day proves that there is a demand and one that will support a far bigger run than 400. Something like this is good for a company, horrible for fans. But this is America and capitalism is our system. If you want to complain about it, why blame the symptoms (scalpers) instead of the cause (limited run exclusives)? I guess it's your call who's being more greedy.

I do appreciate that Palisades is only doing this for repaints and not characters you can't get anywhere else... (YET!) but to blame the scalpers when there is so clearly a demand seems silly. The people buying those figures from ebay are fans who'd rather not spend hundreds of dollars on a plane ticket to philly, than another 20-40 for convention tickets, plus untold amounts of money on food and hotel only to take their chances in the hopes that they can grab a figure before they sell out. 75 bucks starts to seem like a bargain if you can't luck out and get someone to buy them for you.

For the record, I'm not a scalper and never have been... (although I have occasionaly bought from them) I just don't quite understand the hostility... Unless of course we're talking about the scalpers that buy more then their share against the rules (like the recent Star Wars Celebration II debacle) I would agree they are scum...

I'm not trying to start a fight or anything... just adding my 2 cents

 

[kane31666]

I'm with you. There's nothing wrong, because a person purchased an item, and is legally resaling it. There's nothing immoral. The fact that the run was limited and the figure itself was very hard to get, were not factors that the deal itself created.

 

[matleo]

Hey, I was onderin where you got the impression that there was such a negative attitutde on scalpers. I was just rereading lot of the treads and posts on the scalped Teeth fgis and haven't found anything. Just the mention that it was happening...not neccessarily nyone for or against it just stating facts.
I do agree that these have sold well and erhaps it might make Palsades consider selling them for retail. At last count though, they had only received 10 responses on selling the repaint Teeth. Also, in regards to the comment
"I do appreciate that Palisades is only doing this for repaints and not characters you can't get anywhere else... (YET!)" I don't think we'll have to worry about major characters in the line becoming exclusives (other than to playsets) It's been stated by the company sveral times that they really don't want to make it hard for peopl to have the entire series of characters. They're alreayd holding back on sveral figures that were to be "exclusies" cause our European friends couldn't get them, and are going ot market those figure differently so they can.
Like I said, I'm not disagreeing with you on the cause of the scalped figs, I was just wondering where you got your impressions from?

--Matt

 

[ElecMayhem]

I got a few of the Dr. Teeth exclusives at Wizard World East, but all of the ones that I purchased were for people on this message board who had asked me to get them one. I did not purchase any extras to sell on Ebay or anywhere else. As I mentioned in another thread, I don't think it's fair for me to make a profit off of the hard work that Ken and his team have put into these extrordinary figures. But that's just me personally.

I don't really have a problem with scaplers in general -- I have used them before to get things that I want -- especially concert tickets. But people are making it sound like they are providing a "service" for fans who had no other means to get this exclusive figure. I don't really think of it as a service. I mean, come on. They bought a $15 figure, and they're selling it for $75. That's a 400% mark-up... Which leads me to believe that they are not really providing a service, but are instead *gasp* out to make a huge profit, with no work. If it was really a service, they would just sell the figure for the same price (or maybe a little bit more) than what they paid for it. (I am charging everyone $15 for the figure -- NOW THAT'S A SERVICE!! LOL!!)

Plus, maybe there would have been more figures available for fans and collectors if scaplers haven't scooped them all up right away. Just a thought. Again, I am not out to start an argument or anything... Like I said, I have used scaplers many times. Often they do come in handy. But I would only go through a scapler once I was certain that all other means of getting the item I want had been exhausted. So while I have used scaplers, I don't like doing it. Just my 2 cents.


Travis

 

[MM-III]

Hey Matleo...

Well, it just seemed that everytime scalpers were brought up... comments like "let's stop them by not buying from them..." etc... were bound to pop up. I don't have time to search through and find specific instances but they're definately there if you look for them.

But hey, it's no big deal to me if people want to hate how the scalpers operate... as I said, I'm not one of them, just an occasional client. But the way I see it, you might as well be angry that the sky is blue or that water is wet...

It's just the way of the world and it can't really be changed.


Elec mayhem,

Scalpers only earn what the market will bear. I noticed that the guy offering a teeth for 75 bucks has already sold it so obviously, he was justified with his 400% markup. If he wasn't... it would not have sold.

As for me, I kept patient and finally found a guy offering a teeth for 35 buy it now... lucky for me the seller didn't notice other teeth going for 75 buy it now... So I paid a little over 100% markup... and I didn't have to pay for a trip to philly so I think it was worth it.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

My problem with scalpers is that it leaves you hairless.

GET IT?!
WOCKA WOCKA!!

FOZ