Disney needs to crack down on merchandise scalping.

C

ColinP29

Active Member
Disneyhead'71 said:
It's not Disney's fault that you guys are crazy enough to feed a profitable "after market".

I have very little toleration for the "Disney Crazy" anymore. After I saw a 60ish year old woman, I refuse to call her a lady, physically shoved my 5 year old daughter out of her way so she could bull in a china shop her way to the front of the line to get the special pin at Mary Poppins Practically Perfect Tea. She was stunned when I placed both of my hands on her back and very firmly shoved her away from my child and informed her that she would not be touching my child again (ie: get your (expletive) hands off my kid). She puffed herself up real big and was about to unload on me when I pointed at the security camera and said, "they have you shoving my kid on tape, and Disney doesn't take kindly to adults assaulting 5 year olds at their resort. So shall we call security now. I'm sure Disney would LOVE to tresspass you and take your AP." She put on her indignant face, huffed, and walked away. And here is what it was all about.
RARE-DLR-Disney-Mary-Poppins-Practically-Perfect-Tea.jpg
Click to expand...

100% did not happen
 
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
thomas998 said:
Considering you can't offer a better description and you took issue my description of silly or stupid... well I rest my case. I gave you chance to provide a better term and you apparently couldn't.
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That was a cop out.

My point was you don't need an explanation or a reason; neither do I.

People buy all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons that don't have to make sense to you or to me.

That doesn't make them silly or stupid. It just means you don't have a use for it or just don't like it.
 
GlassHalfFull

GlassHalfFull

Well-Known Member
they also were available the next day on the disney shop app, for many hours, with a limit of 1.. this is how you let the scalpers lose their shorts.. a few more of these kinds of releases and their business model goes up in flames.. reselling things that people can get readily available then becomes a pricing war.. and the scalpers bought them for close to full price and charge shipping.. why would i buy from a dude on ebay, when i can buy directly from disney for approximately the same price, and have a much better/bigger customer service team to resolve an issue if the "collectible" comes broken or damaged etc..

As a person who has wore Jordans for years, the resale market has been a major problem with ANYTHING on limited release.. I have never, and would never pay a reseller a premium because they bought my size 16's when they didn't need them. Unfortunately, unless they come up with real restrictions on these things, or the resellers get hosed by a bigger release than they expected, the resellers will continue to thrive as long as people keep feeding their $$ hunger with their materialistic drive.
 
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Stephen Myers said:
they also were available the next day on the disney shop app, for many hours, with a limit of 1.. this is how you let the scalpers lose their shorts.. a few more of these kinds of releases and their business model goes up in flames.. reselling things that people can get readily available then becomes a pricing war.. and the scalpers bought them for close to full price and charge shipping.. why would i buy from a dude on ebay, when i can buy directly from disney for approximately the same price, and have a much better/bigger customer service team to resolve an issue if the "collectible" comes broken or damaged etc..

As a person who has wore Jordans for years, the resale market has been a major problem with ANYTHING on limited release.. I have never, and would never pay a reseller a premium because they bought my size 16's when they didn't need them. Unfortunately, unless they come up with real restrictions on these things, or the resellers get hosed by a bigger release than they expected, the resellers will continue to thrive as long as people keep feeding their $$ hunger with their materialistic drive.
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So resellers are bad guys. :rolleyes:
 
GlassHalfFull

GlassHalfFull

Well-Known Member
Tony the Tigger said:
So resellers are bad guys. :rolleyes:
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I think in general resellers will always find ways around whatever you do. I am simply stating resellers only flood the market, because the market is there to be taken.

I can disagree with resellers making their money solely by buying up things to create a much higher demand than the public actually has, and still understand why they do it.. I also have made it very clear previously, by doing limited runs, Disney, and Nike are creating this demand that causes people to do anything they can to get part of the $$ if the demand is there to artificially drive up the price
 
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Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Tony the Tigger said:
So resellers are bad guys. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
To a point, yes.

Like anything there is a point where it just goes too far. When an individual goes in a buys 2 LE items and resells one or both there typically is no issue. When it gets to the point where they game they system to the level where you almost can't buy one if not through a reseller then it has gone too far.

Concert tickets are a great example of the gone too far scenario. You quite literally can not get good seats to most large venue concerts unless you go through a ticket reseller or own seat rights.

The big rub is there is really nothing you can do about it. "Fair" is an abstract concept that just does not exist in nature and especially not in capitalism.

To quote WOPR "The only winning move is not to play".
 
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Master Yoda said:
To a point, yes.

Like anything there is a point where it just goes too far. When an individual goes in a buys 2 LE items and resells one or both there typically is no issue. When it gets to the point where they game they system to the level where you almost can't buy one if not through a reseller then it has gone too far.

Concert tickets are a great example of the gone too far scenario. You quite literally can not get good seats to most large venue concerts unless you go through a ticket reseller or own seat rights.

The big rub is there is really nothing you can do about it. "Fair" is an abstract concept that just does not exist in nature and especially not in capitalism.

To quote WOPR "The only winning move is not to play".
Click to expand...

I agree, there are situations where I feel it goes "too far." And I agree that is, to a large degree, subjective.

However, ultimately the market will bear what the market will bear.

I started my business 20 years ago selling mostly CDs on eBay. At that time, I sold most at auction. My cost on most was between $1 to $3, and I started bidding on most at $5.99. Some would sell for $5.99. Some would sell for $100. Some would sell for $5.99 one week, $100 the next week, and back to $5.99 or somewhere in between the next week (for the same title.)

I felt by starting them at a low price, I was being fair. Nobody had to bid higher than they wanted. I was happy with the $5.99, but sometimes I got a nice surprise.

I also learned the hard way about all the fees, the risks of losing money on transactions (which happens regularly) and other pitfalls.

And I saw some sellers who would start their common items at $100 or put them at fixed price for even more (when the fixed price feature became available.) I did not think that was fair, but if that was their strategy, so be it. I'll use my own strategy which I think is better for both me and the customer, and they can hold onto their item for years. Maybe it's worth it to them when it finally sells. Who am I to judge?

There are, to be sure, valid collector markets for just about anything. When I was a kid, there were books published that were price guides for coins, baseball cards, etc. What goes into making something valuable is partly supply and demand, partly desirability, condition, etc.

Today sites like eBay have become in a way default price guides. But unlike the books that were published annually, they fluctuate frequently, in real time, and are, for that reason, more accurate. They also reflect fads/trends.

At one point, I thought I'd expand into Disney stuff. I bought a few pieces from one of the outlets. Results were "meh." I decided to stick with what I knew.

But if I went to a record store in Pittsburgh that had 3 copies of something on clearance for $1 each because they thought it was worthless, and I knew I had sold it in the past for $100, you can be sure I bought all 3 copies and gave them a whirl on eBay.

There are people who are more than happy to pay these prices because, as I suggested earlier, it's a lot cheaper than traveling to get it where it is. I've had collectors send me messages offering thousands of dollars if I could find xyz. (It only happened once, LOL.)

The line is finer, IMO, when it comes to newly released merch. Again, I'd probably disagree with WDW's limit of 10 per person. That seems high.

OTOH, there are so many instances where we (retailers) and manufacturers just misjudge demand. Maybe if they limited to one per person in the parks, they would end up putting some on clearance in a few months and losing money.

Sorry to get deep into the weeds. Just offering another perspective in addition to the consumer perspective.
 
larryz

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member
Tony the Tigger said:
I agree, there are situations where I feel it goes "too far." And I agree that is, to a large degree, subjective.

However, ultimately the market will bear what the market will bear.

I started my business 20 years ago selling mostly CDs on eBay. At that time, I sold most at auction. My cost on most was between $1 to $3, and I started bidding on most at $5.99. Some would sell for $5.99. Some would sell for $100. Some would sell for $5.99 one week, $100 the next week, and back to $5.99 or somewhere in between the next week (for the same title.)

I felt by starting them at a low price, I was being fair. Nobody had to bid higher than they wanted. I was happy with the $5.99, but sometimes I got a nice surprise.

I also learned the hard way about all the fees, the risks of losing money on transactions (which happens regularly) and other pitfalls.

And I saw some sellers who would start their common items at $100 or put them at fixed price for even more (when the fixed price feature became available.) I did not think that was fair, but if that was their strategy, so be it. I'll use my own strategy which I think is better for both me and the customer, and they can hold onto their item for years. Maybe it's worth it to them when it finally sells. Who am I to judge?

There are, to be sure, valid collector markets for just about anything. When I was a kid, there were books published that were price guides for coins, baseball cards, etc. What goes into making something valuable is partly supply and demand, partly desirability, condition, etc.

Today sites like eBay have become in a way default price guides. But unlike the books that were published annually, they fluctuate frequently, in real time, and are, for that reason, more accurate. They also reflect fads/trends.

At one point, I thought I'd expand into Disney stuff. I bought a few pieces from one of the outlets. Results were "meh." I decided to stick with what I knew.

But if I went to a record store in Pittsburgh that had 3 copies of something on clearance for $1 each because they thought it was worthless, and I knew I had sold it in the past for $100, you can be sure I bought all 3 copies and gave them a whirl on eBay.

There are people who are more than happy to pay these prices because, as I suggested earlier, it's a lot cheaper than traveling to get it where it is. I've had collectors send me messages offering thousands of dollars if I could find xyz. (It only happened once, LOL.)

The line is finer, IMO, when it comes to newly released merch. Again, I'd probably disagree with WDW's limit of 10 per person. That seems high.

OTOH, there are so many instances where we (retailers) and manufacturers just misjudge demand. Maybe if they limited to one per person in the parks, they would end up putting some on clearance in a few months and losing money.

Sorry to get deep into the weeds. Just offering another perspective in addition to the consumer perspective.
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I reiterate my opening comment -- one man's "scalper" is another woman's "entrepreneur."
 
R

Rumrunner

Well-Known Member
FettFan said:
That's just it though....the demand of these limited edition items is so high that people are lining up for hours to get a chance at them. According to some of the posters on Orlando Attractions Magazine's facebook page, the wait to get Figment was nearly 3 hours.
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Just keep in mind the Beanie Baby craze-these scams usually burn the greedy. I just smile at the insanity of people thinking this merchandise will have some value in the future.
 
Pirate Magic

Pirate Magic

Well-Known Member
I was in EPCOT that day. The lines were ridiculous, the line for funko pop was past Spaceship Earth and it was heading to the front of the park. The pin line was going around the pin kiosk the end of it was heading to Mousegear. I got a EPCOT button and special EPCOT map for that day. I got the (I Was There) shirt on Monday at EPCOT. A guest at the Halloween party had the shirt on and a Cast Member asked him how long did the guest waited on line for the shirt the guest said he waited a 1 1/2 hours for the shirt. I know I wouldn't stand on any of those lines, I left and went to the Magic Kingdom to meet the rest of my family.
 
Tony the Tigger

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
Jim S said:
Just keep in mind the Beanie Baby craze-these scams usually burn the greedy. I just smile at the insanity of people thinking this merchandise will have some value in the future.
Click to expand...

You mean how all those $3 Star Wars toys from the 70s are worthless now? Along with a bazillion other examples...
 

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