Is there anything that can be done about the rampant scalping on eBay?

[Psykodelik Vampyre]

Just putting this out there, as it's ridiculous the amount of not finding the Megos online except on eBay!

And I refuse to support that.

Any ideas?

[toothaction]

This? Shrug.

That and mass abstinence.

[palitoy]

I can't think of any action we can take, I wish it weren't the way we find out what figures are coming out.

[Eric]

If Target doesn't have the figures on hand, why can't we buy a certificate from them and then receive the figures when they're available? (Yeah, I've been going through the vintage toy store photos on Plaid Stallions :-) )

earlybird.jpg

[Ivaniski]

Wish we had a Mego store, to buy just exclusive Mego products online...Sorry to say but Target is the worse.

[Earth 2 Chris]

If Target could limit the number of figures you could buy at once, that may help. But it seems the case ratios per figure are pretty low, especially for the in-demand figures. I know Target did limit the number of Star Wars figures you could buy back in the 90s action figure speculation craze heyday, and maybe other lines as well over the years.

Chris

[Mary Canary]

If Target could limit the number of figures you could buy at once, that may help. But it seems the case ratios per figure are pretty low, especially for the in-demand figures. I know Target did limit the number of Star Wars figures you could buy back in the 90s action figure speculation craze heyday, and maybe other lines as well over the years.

Chris

The issue with this is when the legit customer finally does find them, he or she is limited to how many he or she can purchase too.
And I know we all have at least 5 or 6 we want, right?
Unless they'd limit it to 1 of each figure... so you can get 6 different ones, just not 6 Werewolves or Gorns all at once.

I appreciate the effort some of the Ambassadors were making to help others get figures, buying multiples and offering them for sale at cost or trade.
But even if you don't have a hookup in the group and you're seeing people post 3 and 4 of the same popular figures, that too becomes frustrating.
I just think Target just needs to get their ducks in a row and get the figures online and provide significant quantity through the website that they don't sell out in under 5 minutes.
So far we haven't even had an opportunity to purchase them.
If it means limiting the number of each figure you can purchase, that's fine with me.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Yeah, I meant per figure. I didn't explain myself very well. Multiple copies of the same figure often = scalper.

Chris

[MEGO Kid]

Obviously, MEGO needs to make more of certain figures

[Mary Canary]

Obviously, MEGO needs to make more of certain figures

I think they know this, and hopefully future waves will concentrate on the properties that have been more popular.
It's the good and the bad. Without Target, they wouldn't be back in a retail store. Also because Target had some say in the figures they wanted, we have lots of Alice and Charmed hanging around.

[MEGO Kid]

I don't know what their financial situation is like, but it'd be nice if they could secure the rights to some more popular stuff that the kids like these days. Stranger Things comes to mind. They could do a line of Game of Thrones for us older kids. But we can't buy the stuff if we don't see it in stores :/

[jwyblejr]

Can Target do anything to stop scalpers? No. They've tried before and it didn't turn out all that great. Like the time they tried stopping them by punching holes in the cards of figures. That didn't go over too well with collectors that have to have mint cards.

[mego]

capitalism.
This is a supply and demand issue. It does suck, but thats just how it works.

[ODBJBG]

The problem with purchasing limits is Target.com seems to only be getting in a few figures at a time. So even if you limited how many people could buy, they'd still disappear fast.

It's easy to blame Target, but the truth is the biggest issue is that they made a bunch of unpopular characters and a couple of popular ones. They should have made much more limited quantities of certain characters and made double maybe even triple the amount of say, the monster figures. There may have still be scalpers on the more limited figures, but since they aren't that popular it would have corrected the issue overall.

[smonte00]

This my not be a popular thing to say, but I wonder how many museum members are buying these up and selling them on eBay and using this site for intel on where the figures are turning up. Just sayin’. I hope I’m wrong, because I personally have given up plenty of repeats since wave 1 (I could’ve easily had at least a half dozen of the Draculas, Franks, Gorns, etc.) in the hopes that another museum member can take advantage and find them in the stores I frequent. Sorry, just venting a little here, ‘cause something in this system is definitely broken.

-Steve