Keven Smith and Toy Scalping
I’m not a huge fan of Kevin Smith’s movies with the exclusion of Clerks, which I absolutely love. That’s why I find it crazy that I’m obsessed with Kevin Smith’s weekly podcast called Smodcast. While at times it does got a little too much into the “poop is funny” kind of stuff, his candid stories and takes on the different news items are intriguing and highly entertaining. I can’t count how many times I’ve laughed out loud at work because of something said in a Smodcast. In a Smodcast I recently listened to Smith and one of his cohorts and manager of one of Smith’s comic book stores, Walter Flanagan, discus toys in great detail, specifically how their comic book store called Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash would employ the tactics of scalping in order to stock their store.
It’s best if you listened the this episode for yourself, but basically Flanagan would go toy hunting at Toys R Us stores and buy out any of the most wanted figures to sell in the comic book shop at a much higher price. You can’t get any more close to the definition of toy scalping than that. It didn’t end there, either. Not only did Flanagan scalp, but the duo discuss a method invented by Flanagan of returning unwanted merchandise. He would buy a bunch of figures that he knew he could sell at his store from Toys R Us and he’d use that same receipt to return figures that wouldn’t sell, because the receipt listed them all in quantity and not individually. The example he gives is buying all the Boba Fetts he could find to sell at the comic shop and then returning unsold Princess Leia peg warmers to Toys R Us for an “even” exchange.
But wait, that’s not all! Flanagan then took it to another level. He’d buy figures that were hot and marked up considerably from Suncoast and he’d also buy another less expensive figure at Toys R Us from the same toy line. He’d then peel off the Suncoast UPC and put it on the less expensive figure he got from Toys R Us and then return it at Suncoast. In this way they could sell the more desirable figure at the comic book shop and get the difference back on what they paid for it at Suncoast.
Even though it’s a highly entertaining story, at no point does Flanagan or Smith acknowledge that the tactics are in the least way unfair for regular toy collectors, which is rather disappointing. They come off as not caring that they were screwing large corporations without ever thinking of the individuals who can’t afford to pay more than retail for figures. There’s the rub too, scalpers almost never recognize themselves as such. They see themselves as performing some sort of service for collectors who don’t want to search everywhere for a figure, not as middlemen that cause toys to artificially inflate because of their actions.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Well, maybe they just assumed we knew what they were talking about and that scalping really is a bad thing, like how people parody things…I should watch those videos when I’m less drowzy z_Z
June 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am
And on the other side, overpricing is part of why I don’t buy things from comic shops.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Sounds like Smith’s ethics are about as admirable as his directing skills.
…not that I can talk; I’ve spent hundreds at Borders by “returning” my old books.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
…shouldn’t have written “spent,” but rather “stolen.”
June 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I’ve never been a big Smith fan, and his rave review of Revenge of the Sith, his hatred of Family Guy, and his lame “Inaction Figures” haven’t exactly won me over.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I suppose when its been ten years since you made a decent flick, you gotta make a living somehow.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:35 am
To be fair everyone, he wasn’t the one scalping. He knew about it sure, but I hope I made it clear it was the store manager that was doing it.
Poe… I really liked Revenge of the Sith.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Ouch! Not cool. …Why the hell is his rich ass worried about a few extra dollars anyway? I would think and hope that a comic shop owned by Smith would be the only comic shop out there that doesn’t have a nasty mark-up. Am I crazy?
June 6th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Quote: “They come off as not caring that they were screwing large corporations without ever thinking of the individuals who can’t afford to pay more than retail for figures.”
Well, then the corporations should start taking notice, IMO.
What if action figures were sold the same as music CDs? Because they’re not right now and everyone is acting like they are.
Coldplay —> Album title —> single.
Star Wars —> OTC collection —> C-3PO.
Just an idea. . .
-PJ
June 6th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I heard the pod-cast, you guys need to listen to it too, it’s a lot less sinister than I thought. They’re reminiscing about the old days when it was tough times and they were doing whatever they could to keep their business afloat, great story, thanks for sharing, Paul!
I agree though, I wish they had made a point of saying hey, this bugs people, do it at your own risk.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I sent this to a neutral friend of mine who doesn’t have the collector-bias. Here’s his reply. Keep in mind that you live near multiple shopping districts, then it’s far more profitable.
Quote: The Suncoast bit is straight-up theft, or at least fraud. Perhaps only at a buck per figure or so, but still stealing.
UGH, [see] Wired dot com (”Man Allegedly Bilks E-trade”), probably higher over all dollar totals…. but fewer per transaction. Not quite the same racket, but it echoes. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/man-allegedly-b.html
In the case Paul cites, that would be even worse, because you would be taking the monetary value of the figures from the places you mentioned, without ever doing business with them, except to defraud them.
Yeah, I’m saying they crossed the line.
-PJ
June 6th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
“…his hatred of Family Guy…”
Hmm. Perhaps there’s hope for Smith yet.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
actually, the “buying rare figure, returning common figure” at Suncoast thing I have no problem with. If I was willing to make extensive repeat trips, I wouldn’t be above doing the same thing. But then, I’m not a store. I’m not doing it for my own profit, but to slow down my own expenditures.
I’ve also returned old toys with new receipts: I ended up with two of a GI Joe comic pack without realizing it, and after buying a new one I wanted, returned one of my duplicates.
But what I never did was any of that in bulk. I got my one, but didn’t screw a dozen other people out of theirs…
June 10th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Good luck chortling about getting a buck or 2 profit from a figure return with the price of gas nowadays.
Paul I suggest you do a blog about gas prices and figure hunting. I also suggest everyone vote: PAUL FOR KING OF SPACE!
Coming to you this July.