Comic-Con figures confirmed to getting stolen by Scalpers days before

[MAB]

I didn't notice that - every time I have tried to order parts from LEGO direct (which is only really in the last year) it has been more cumbersome and expensive than Bricklink. It was Bricklink where I had to pay 50c per fleshy hand, vs 1c per cheese slope.

Yes, I did it by phone. It was worth it to get enough hands for my fleshies.

BL prices are crazy for hands. Often it is better value to buy a cheap minifig like the Lone Ranger and pull the hands off rather than buy a pair of hands there!

[TotallyNewLegoFan]

This is exactly what I'm talking about in my other post: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=98015

The SDCC Exclusive system is what causes this. If they did away with it, the artificial supply / demand imbalance would simply disappear.

You seriously need to stop hijacking other people's threads with your own agenda....

This same guy said last year he was responsible for the Ebay auctions that went up days before the figure was given out. He is posting on this board for years with the same name, this is way too elaborate when he wants to blame someone else.

Why are you defending a criminal? Do you know you could get in trouble for something like this?

EBAY AUCTIONS

WENT UP

BEFORE

THE FIG WAS GIVEN OUT

Someone was and is stealing figs there and is (or at least in contact) with someone who works there for two years in a row.

2 things.

First. People should be 100% sure before accusing someone of a felony. If he stole them, arrest him definitely. Until then I would be very careful accusing people of crimes on a hunch and not fact based.

Second. Haste to break the news to you joda, but handful's of eBay auctions are listed before ANY Comic Con toys/collectibles are available. Anyone can do it. It's called a pre order and eBay allows it. Those foolish enough to bid and pay for things not actually in hand are fools who end up paying too much.

Not only that, any kind of "promotional" items like this always leads to shenanigans depending on how strong demand is.

A perfect example is Hello Kitty in Asia. I'm not sure how many people are aware, but it's incredibly popular in Asia (particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore). Whenever McDonald's holds these Happy Meal type Hello Kitty promotions -- it's pandemonium. If you just Google "Hello Kitty McDonalds Singapore" there were incidents where there were fist fights breaking out, accusations of McDonald's employees pre-selling these to friends / families, items popping up on eBay even before they were released publicly, items selling for hundreds of dollars (sound familiar)?

It's simple greed. And as long as LEGO continues this system of artificial supply / demand with these SDCC exclusives, the system will be abused, scalpers with seek to turn greed into profit and meanwhile the vast majority of LEGO customers will continue to feel "excluded" by this "exclusive" system.

LEGO please change this broken system. My suggested solutions appear on my Open Letter thread here: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=98015

You seriously need to STOP hijacking other people's threads dude.

[TotallyNewLegoFan]

None of the collectible minifigures series, the Simpsons not withstanding, are licensed. You're correct in that the minifigure as a whole has lost it's generic properties, but I balk at your suggestion that collectible minifigures are 'rude':

What exactly are you implying with this? You ask where the 'build ability' has gone and what the 'avenue for creativity' for collectible minifigures would be. I submit that the minifigure is now more creative and features more possibilities than ever before in it's long history. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different minifigures in stock configurations and untold millions of combinations.

Now that our parts selection is no longer limited to a single expression, a handful of torsos and a smaller handful of headgear, the creative opportunities are virtually limitless. An element of imagination has been exchanged since the earlier days of the minifigure where one was made to imagine that a smiling, featureless face in relatively plain clothes might be a doctor or lawyer or construction worker.

In it's place, minifigures as they leave the factory have become increasingly specific in nature, but the vast variety available means that the combinations possible when you piece together your own - creatively - are mind-boggling to imagine. Not everyone is a fan of this - there are a number of fans who prefer the older style of minifig that is more of a blank canvas that you must imagine into some sort of profession or role without a torso or leg or face printing expressing it for you, but by no means does it detract from the creative possibilities.

I sincerely doubt that people find the idea of collectible minifigures - or collectibles in general - as 'rude' aside from a handful of users in this thread and the other.

"Shot" or no, your insistence that exclusives either 1). cease altogether or 2). lose their exclusivity after a period of time is narrow-minded and childish. You claim that the idea isn't fair, but your suggestions aren't either. In the first case, it would mean that no one could have the items at all as they would not exist. In the second, you're not being fair to the recipients as you're taking away their exclusivity. Having an item earlier than others is not nearly as special as having an item many people do not.

These are rewards. Giveaways for attendees The Lego inside tour sets are no different and they are far more limited in number. You're not entitled to a chance to get one unless you attend the event Lego has chosen to give them away at. What the people who receive these items choose to do with them after they've gotten them - the people you like to cry 'scalper!' over - is their business. It was given to them at the venue at which Lego chose and it is now their property to sell for as much as they'd like, which is often as much as people are willing to pay. It's not as though they were dumped in a bin and people grabbed up armfuls to hold for ransom.

If some actually stole them, yes, that's unfair - to the people that attended the con and expected a chance to be given one. Throughout all of your posts in both threads I cannot see any further reasoning behind your logic, to paraphrase, other than 'it's not fair that other people should get the chance to get something that I won't' and that anyone who sells an item for a price higher than which you are willing to pay is a person to be loathed and despised. Life isn't fair. You're not entitled to a "shot" at everything, no matter how much you may think you are.

DItto...

[Meatman]

Can I add my two cents to this topic? I feel that a really key thing is being misunderstood here.

I have only recently rediscovered Lego. My favorite sets were always town buildings, and when I found out about the modular buildings I instantly wanted to collect them all. But I soon found out that the first 5 are already retired, and the only ones left are listed for insane prices! It is my understanding that none of these sets were especially rare, except for the first three - and even then, there were thousands of those at the very least. Fire Brigade was out for over 4 years - there's no way that it's rare! But that doesn't stop everyone who has them listed for having them as way above MSRP, for example.

Now, compare the exclusive (at the very least temporarily) figures from SDCC. These are extremely limited. There are fewer than 1,000 each, given away in a raffle, ONE day, in ONE location. Even if these figs get released in sets later on, they will never again be in the same packaging or production run. They are really, truly rare and hard to get.

I've been watching the SDCC Unikitties since the very first one went up - the pre-order linked earlier in the thread. This was not a Buy it Now price that some seller set at a crazy high price - they were bid on. The people who wanted to buy them determined the value by how much they were willing to pay. It's not like the modular buildings are, where they are all widely-sold sets listed at really high prices above what they were originally available for. These are genuinely limited things that the collectors - not the sellers - are determining how much it's worth to themselves personally. Naturally, people will follow that pricing as a guide. Sure, there will always be someone posting something like an outrageous $999 Buy it Now option, but for the most part the sales are based on what the collectors initially determined they were willing to part with to have it.

I do not think it is fair to call the sellers 'scalpers' in that situation. They are not going out and buying up all the Lego sets on the shelves, preventing you from getting them, and then setting some kind of ransom for their release. I also do not think that is fair to blame Lego for making promotional items when every other merchandise company does this at Comic-con as well. Lastly, I think it is especially wrong to blame the collectors who are willing to pay the money for these kinds of items. No one is judging you for your Lego hobby. Why should you judge them and accuse them of 'making things worse' just because they have access to something you don't? That's a very childish way to act.

If someone genuinely stole figures just to sell them off, then that really is an awful thing to do and yes, that person doesn't deserve the kind of money they might get. But you have to consider a few things. As mentioned earlier in the thread, bribes are very common in the convention center business and that person may have legitimately been given those figures as part of it. Is it fair to the people they would have ordinarily been raffled off to? No, but it also isn't fair for Lego to have to bribe someone in the first place. It's just how business works. Additionally, not everything you read on the internet is true - not the least of which 4chan, which is notorious for hoaxes and lies. I saw the thread linked before it 404'd, and there was no 'confirmation' of being stolen - simply a picture of a hand carrying a bag full of Collector minifigures. No report from the show floor, no 'confirmation' from anyone but those who are jumping to conclusions.

These are scarce items that fans have determined are valuable. Lego has every right to make them, the recipients have every right to sell them, and collectors have every right to buy them. What is so hard to understand?

Really great post. :thumbup:

[BrickG]

It's not about rights. Of course they have the right to do whatever they want. It's about "are they being too dickish".

I think there's a valid argument for it. "Bizzaro is your favorite character of all time? Too young and poor to go to the one place to get a chance to get one? Oh well, too bad. We're going to limit this so much it makes it unrealistic to collect. Sucks to be you! MARKETING POWER!!!!"