Here's a question for you...

[onions]

case assortments are determined by the manufacturer. so if a tru retail location only gets one of a figure, they probably only received one case from their distribution.

[thepatient]

After reading through these posts, I can't help but notice the new term that's popped up, hoarding. I don't recall reading that in old posts. that term has also become a popular TV theme for reality shows lately, so I was compelled to look up the definition of it.

hoard n : a hidden supply or fund stored up -from Webster's
hoard vt : to keep to oneself -from Webster's
hoard v : to save up as for future use -from interwebs
hoarder n : one who hoards; one who accumulates, collects and stores -from interwebs

I think as collectors we are all hoarders to a degree. The only difference between a collector and someone with compusive behavior would be we have a clearer way of organizing our loot. The term scalper was more accurate, though it sounds meaner and degrading to the reselling community. Even if its a possible "life saver" down the road.

To the question about taking the last 2 sets on a shelf, personally it depends. I rarely buy 2 sets, the exception being battle packs. If I wanted 2 and there were only 2 left, I'd buy them both. I can only assume that kids had bought up the rest already. If there was a kid right there and says,"Aw man, I wanted to buy those." At that point it would be easy to give them up and let the kid have 'em.

Like Jay Leno and Doritos used to say, "Go ahead, we'll make more." I would have an oppurtunity to get them later in the next shipment.

[zithy]

Wow, way to hide a thread

I resell Lego sets and don't care if anyone else does it or not. What gets to be the problem is the stores themselves. Locally, TRU and the Lego store have limits on some sets that are in limited quantity. I have absolutely no problem with that and actually support it. I bought a few Prince of Persia sets, but only 2 of each to get the TRU bogo discount. So if there were 2 of a set left on the shelf, I put them in my cart without a second thought. I have no idea who bought the dozens or hundreds before me and this was towards the end of the 3-4 day sale.

I didn't buy any of the chromes and I don't really mind. But for one person to buy 100 is a little "eh?" First, TRU was stupid for allowing it. Second, if you can, then fine, but don't brag about it. Third, if a store only received 100 and I was able to get the case, I wouldn't take all.

As far as hoarding goes, there's a big difference between one guy going to multiple Targets as soon as the store opens and depleting their inventory of specific sets, which to me = Hoarding as opposed to someone else who has say, 50 of a certain set bought throughout the set run. There's quite a few sets that I have a good stock of, BUT, almost all are bought online and on sale. You could buy Echo Bases or Separatist Shuttles from Amazon at a 25-30% discount but only 3, which gave everyone a fair shot at them.

Also, and I don't know how, but there's been sets that people sold on Ebay for close to half MSRP. So buyers/collectors could even get better prices than those who stocked up.

I just don't see a difference between person A buying 20 sets at TRU to resell in the future vs person B who buys the same sets at the same place for the purpose of adding to his collection(Diorama or troll army, as examples). The same quantity gets depleted from the store shelf which affects the crying kid equally. Either both are hoarders or neither are.

As regards resellers, they do the exact same thing that Targets and TRU's do - they resell product, just at different times.

[Solo]

[zithy]

No idea how I missed it then, but I was just razzing ya for "hiding" it in the sticky section. For some reason, I usually make the assumption that I've already read the stickied threads and my eyes skip over them.

Although, reading it all at once made for some good reading, that worked nicely

[Peoples_General]

If it weren't for LEGO resellers on BrickLink... I would not have my 10,000+ minifig armies.

[Marty]

While I have no-doubt resellers do a valueable service, there are some resellers are in it purely for profit.
I have dealt both with small-time and large scale dealers, some even on this site, I have been offered a small fortune some some of my sets while others very little, (knowing full well what there true value is?)
I have also let things go at below price because I'm a collector, not a money grabber, but I can't abide people who buy 20 or 30 sets then hike the prices up just because they can! That in my book is not a collector, and for this reason I sold off most of my collection a few months ago. Batman, SW, indie, Adventure, pirates etc to name a few, and they where full sets.
I did most of you a favour at one stage or another, and I hope in some way I made your collection complete.
I plan to leave the Lego collecting to the younger gens, as no doubt they'll have better Luck, Marty

[lowlead]

Great thread. It's discussions like these that inspire me to return to my former level of activity around the boards.

I voted in strong favor of resellers simply because secondary market sources, primarily Bricklink, have given me the opportunity to purchase sets that I missed out on for whatever reason. I have often paid well above MSRP and didn't mind at all, I was happy that the seller had the set in stock so long after it disappeared from the stores. I guess it's all about timing, and how one personally values a set. Sometimes I'm floored by the speed at which a set vanishes from the shelves, e.g., the Droid Gunship, never to be seen again. I may very well end up shelling out big bucks to have that set in my collection. Or maybe not. Either way I prefer to have the resellers out there to fall back on just in case my search strategies fail.

I currently have a modest, but ever-increasing collection of NISB SW sets that I may decide to sell in the future, but I'm a collector and avid SW LEGO fan, so I would be just as content forming a nice collection of my favorite sets to enjoy for myself. However, should I open a store one day, they would be priced to sell!

[walsh_Fever]

In general, I don't really bother with non-Lego brands. I know they exist .. but they don't exist in my world.

[WarlordJHW]

tohst and uoldpirate are like the only nice people around(sorry if you are too) I really hate hoarders, they just ruin your community. when someone hoards, the people who didn't get it has to get it shipped for time and money, while they could have gotten it themselves