Disney needs to crack down on merchandise scalping.

[mousehockey37]

Ahh, the 3rd party seller thread....

This happens with every special event and from time to time, and certain Orlando based re-sale sites.

There honestly is never going to be a way to fully control the scalping. It's going to happen and there won't be an end to it. As far as limits are concerned, well, if Disney can't hire people that can count to 10, that's an HR issue.

Anyway, the scalping thing, take the certain 3rd party sites... They'll take a crew into the park and they'll all go through the line. Person 1 will get their limit, Person 2 will get their limit, so on and so forth, well, when they all work for the same company posing as guests, it's very easy to run up an inventory. We've all seen the cartoons where the character goes through a line, puts on a disguise and goes back through the line. This is basically a real life version of that.

Scalping hurts things, but others see it as a great business opportunity. There's a ton of people who want the limited edition things that can't get to Disney for every event. There was a ton of D23 stuff on eBay as people were getting it, same for MNSSHP merchandise, etc., so this isn't going to end anytime soon.

The best way for these practices to end is for people to never buy the items. If scalpers can't sell their inventory, they're out of a job.

 

[KBLovedDisney]

Ahh, the 3rd party seller thread....

This happens with every special event and from time to time, and certain Orlando based re-sale sites.

There honestly is never going to be a way to fully control the scalping. It's going to happen and there won't be an end to it. As far as limits are concerned, well, if Disney can't hire people that can count to 10, that's an HR issue.

Anyway, the scalping thing, take the certain 3rd party sites... They'll take a crew into the park and they'll all go through the line. Person 1 will get their limit, Person 2 will get their limit, so on and so forth, well, when they all work for the same company posing as guests, it's very easy to run up an inventory. We've all seen the cartoons where the character goes through a line, puts on a disguise and goes back through the line. This is basically a real life version of that.

Scalping hurts things, but others see it as a great business opportunity. There's a ton of people who want the limited edition things that can't get to Disney for every event. There was a ton of D23 stuff on eBay as people were getting it, same for MNSSHP merchandise, etc., so this isn't going to end anytime soon.

The best way for these practices to end is for people to never buy the items. If scalpers can't sell their inventory, they're out of a job.

I have a relative who bragged about possibly scalping new game consoles once. (Not sure if that is something you ought to brag about honestly.) No matter how you look at it, it just seems like cheating. Kind of like the whole eclipse glasses. I heard scalpers went nuts online selling cheap $1 cardboard solar eclipse glasses for $50 bucks a pop! Crazy people.

 

[mousehockey37]

I guess it's me, I don't understand the whole Funko POP, Tsum Tsum, etc. crazes.

I think they were great collectibles until they went mass market on it. Sure, there are limited ones, but the Tsum Tsum thing spiraled out of control. Then they upped the price of them (sure, only like a $1, but it was $1 too much when they're selling a set of 7???) and it adds up.

Same can be said for the Disney trading pins. It was fun to do, but then the scrappers hit the scene and destroyed it. I have my legit pins bought in the parks. I'm picky with the ones I get.

 

[JohnD]

I think they were great collectibles until they went mass market on it. Sure, there are limited ones, but the Tsum Tsum thing spiraled out of control. Then they upped the price of them (sure, only like a $1, but it was $1 too much when they're selling a set of 7???) and it adds up.

Same can be said for the Disney trading pins. It was fun to do, but then the scrappers hit the scene and destroyed it. I have my legit pins bought in the parks. I'm picky with the ones I get.

Again, I'll purchase random pins because I like them (like my Avatar) or party-specific but I don't go overboard with it.

 

[KBLovedDisney]

I think they were great collectibles until they went mass market on it. Sure, there are limited ones, but the Tsum Tsum thing spiraled out of control. Then they upped the price of them (sure, only like a $1, but it was $1 too much when they're selling a set of 7???) and it adds up.

Same can be said for the Disney trading pins. It was fun to do, but then the scrappers hit the scene and destroyed it. I have my legit pins bought in the parks. I'm picky with the ones I get.

Sounds like the whole Silly Bands fiasco...

 

[mousehockey37]

I have a relative who bragged about possibly scalping new game consoles once. (Not sure if that is something you ought to brag about honestly.) No matter how you look at it, it just seems like cheating. Kind of like the whole eclipse glasses. I heard scalpers went nuts online selling cheap $1 cardboard solar eclipse glasses for $50 bucks a pop! Crazy people.

It's a shady business practice but still a "supply and demand" world. If you remember with eBay years back when the PS3 debuted, someone actually had for sale: "Picture of PS3 with controller and game" and the picture went for thousands of dollars. When the bid winner got their picture they tried to sue eBay, but the description was legit and accurate to what the winner would get.

As long as there are people who will reward the practice with buying the merchandise, the practice will continue.

 

[JohnD]

Didn't really have to go into a panic mode to get this, but on my one-day Disney trip back in August, I WAS going to get me A Great Movie Ride souvenir. Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of people waiting in the line for a tervis cup...but that is what I wanted and went after it. Other than that item, no I don't understand the hype like yourself. For some reason an item is marketed to become a collectible in the hearts of many Disney fans. They item is usually followed by something like "Limited Edition" or "For a short time ONLY".

Other than that, my normal WDW souvenirs are things I can use in the office, pens, mugs, calendars, etc (not to mention my favorite gummies of all time - Character Gummies). I do however have a few pins on my work backpack, but I don't trade. Not sure what that is all about.

I found myself purchasing monorail highlighters. Who knew?

 

[KBLovedDisney]

It's a shady business practice but still a "supply and demand" world. If you remember with eBay years back when the PS3 debuted, someone actually had for sale: "Picture of PS3 with controller and game" and the picture went for thousands of dollars. When the bid winner got their picture they tried to sue eBay, but the description was legit and accurate to what the winner would get.

As long as there are people who will reward the practice with buying the merchandise, the practice will continue.

Yikes!!

 

[mousehockey37]

Yikes!!

Someone else said it earlier in thread, these things are sold for insane prices. The best ones you could find Disney related, look for the MNSSHP SothMK cards. This year is a Country Bears card. If it's still the same, you go to the stand, show your band and you get the card for FREE. People are trying to charge $30+ for a free item. It is rather ridiculous.

Now, how Disney should handle limits and such? Well, most everyone has an MDE account. They could have you scan your band, and it tallies up limited edition purchases. Is it pushing privacy? Yes. Is it tracking inventory? Yes. Is it a way to control limits? Yes. Like I said earlier, you could have a party of 10 adults all managed by 1 MDE account go into the parks and each adult could get a limit of 10 items, well, that's 100 things for 10 adults... Manage it down that you get 10 per MDE account.

 

[durangojim]

Why not just make it 1 item per person?

 

[mousehockey37]

Why not just make it 1 item per person?

If you have a couple kids, each kid should be able to have one. Maybe limit 5. That's up to the parents though. 10 is too many. 5 seems about right.

Instead of per person though, do it per MDE account. That way once person 1 hits their limit, person 2-X can't get another limit at a different point in line or time.

 

[dolphinforces]

ebay pirates were getting 10 funkos, then doubling back in line

 

[mousehockey37]

ebay pirates were getting 10 funkos, then doubling back in line

Or they had others in line with them.

I just checked the site for a certain Orlando based reseller... They have everything limited from yesterday and it's all marked up. They've been on here before to "defend" themselves and claim that they get their stuff in a legit way.

 

[ford91exploder]

100% agree. Shame that some people are so damn selfish.

However how would this be enforced? Say an item was limited to two per guest, what’s stopping someone from buying two at one location, then going to another store across the park and buying two more there and so on. Likewise someone could buy two and then come back a short time later and buy more since the cashier would probably be different or they just wouldn’t remember them.

The thing is Disney is getting their money so I doubt they care. I’m sure they’d rather scalpers clear the shelves than have stock sitting around for months on end taking up space. The fact it was limited 10 per customers just shows this. It would be 2 per customer if they were being serious about it. Who needs 10 Figment Funkos? Obviously going to get sold on.

You are NEVER going to stop a determined scalper, But you can make it hard enough so that the casual scalper is deterred, You basically have the Lifestylers buying 10-20-30 of these (minus AP discount) to pay for their AP. If they could buy only 2 still nothing to stop them but they would need to visit LOTS of stores to get a saleable quantity.

 

[ford91exploder]

Or they had others in line with them.

I just checked the site for a certain Orlando based reseller... They have everything limited from yesterday and it's all marked up. They've been on here before to "defend" themselves and claim that they get their stuff in a legit way.

If they had 10-20 people in line buying 10 units apiece they did follow Disney's rules, The rule SHOULD have been 1-2 per person.

 

[ford91exploder]

Ahh, the 3rd party seller thread....

This happens with every special event and from time to time, and certain Orlando based re-sale sites.

There honestly is never going to be a way to fully control the scalping. It's going to happen and there won't be an end to it. As far as limits are concerned, well, if Disney can't hire people that can count to 10, that's an HR issue.

Anyway, the scalping thing, take the certain 3rd party sites... They'll take a crew into the park and they'll all go through the line. Person 1 will get their limit, Person 2 will get their limit, so on and so forth, well, when they all work for the same company posing as guests, it's very easy to run up an inventory. We've all seen the cartoons where the character goes through a line, puts on a disguise and goes back through the line. This is basically a real life version of that.

Scalping hurts things, but others see it as a great business opportunity. There's a ton of people who want the limited edition things that can't get to Disney for every event. There was a ton of D23 stuff on eBay as people were getting it, same for MNSSHP merchandise, etc., so this isn't going to end anytime soon.

The best way for these practices to end is for people to never buy the items. If scalpers can't sell their inventory, they're out of a job.

THIS - I refuse to buy scalped merchandise, As doing so just encourages bad behavior

 

[ford91exploder]

Someone else said it earlier in thread, these things are sold for insane prices. The best ones you could find Disney related, look for the MNSSHP SothMK cards. This year is a Country Bears card. If it's still the same, you go to the stand, show your band and you get the card for FREE. People are trying to charge $30+ for a free item. It is rather ridiculous.

Now, how Disney should handle limits and such? Well, most everyone has an MDE account. They could have you scan your band, and it tallies up limited edition purchases. Is it pushing privacy? Yes. Is it tracking inventory? Yes. Is it a way to control limits? Yes. Like I said earlier, you could have a party of 10 adults all managed by 1 MDE account go into the parks and each adult could get a limit of 10 items, well, that's 100 things for 10 adults... Manage it down that you get 10 per MDE account.

You do not even need to go that far, Just associate a band ID to the limited edition purchase, Does not stop multiple bands being used but it would slow it down.

 

[mousehockey37]

If they had 10-20 people in line buying 10 units apiece they did follow Disney's rules, The rule SHOULD have been 1-2 per person.

I get that. We had that battle with them back then. In the end though, Disney wants the money for the product. If the people pay it, it's not a known as to what Disney cares beyond that. That's what makes this issue very hard to bring to their attention.

 

[mousehockey37]

You do not even need to go that far, Just associate a band ID to the limited edition purchase, Does not stop multiple bands being used but it would slow it down.

Right. There are ways, now more than ever, to impose the limits. Also, if multiple bands are being used, are they still trying to crack down on all of that? Interesting crossover there. Scalper gets caught abusing multiple bands and their DME account gets locked and they have to sit down and talk to security... to bring out why they're using multiple bands to access limited edition special merchandise... That could get fun real quick.

 

[ford91exploder]

I get that. We had that battle with them back then. In the end though, Disney wants the money for the product. If the people pay it, it's not a known as to what Disney cares beyond that. That's what makes this issue very hard to bring to their attention.

Which of course brings us back to what the dusters call my narrative, Disney has prioritized mining cash over a great guest experience and so has sucked the value out of a Disney vacation.