Selling Toys - Horror Stories & "Happy" Customers

Recently my deluxe Deadpool "arrived" from Amazon in an empty bag. After going round for round with the AI chatbot, I was asked to send a photo of the item. I sent a picture of the empty bag. It took a little bit longer, but I got a replacement sent.
 
Schizm said:
People are suspicious of free. When I worked at Starbucks we'd have training days for the new drinks so we'd all know how to make them correctly. Trying to give those drinks away for free to our regulars was met with deep skepticism and suspicion.

I just handed you a drink - why would this one be poison?

So weird.

Mailed a 4oz figure today and the price shot up to $5.97. I'd charged $5.75 and that was with a 20 cent buffer from the previous lowest USPS price of $5.52. That's a huge increase and now I have to go update all my listings.
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When I started selling about 10 years ago, I was doing a lot of Basic Mattel WWE. They're not fragile, I could sell individual figures for $10 in a white bubble mailer with around $1.80 postage to anywhere in the country.
 
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One a FB group for 1/6 scale, I have a few Hot Toys listed. One of them is a Darth Sidious. The art box has a thumb indent on it from whomever originally packaged it when I ordered it, and since I planned on keeping it at the time I didn't care (I'm not a box nut). Anyway, decided to sell it, looking online at the going rates. Averaging around $230 or so. I put $200 on it to account for the dent, because I'm not a box nut but others are, and the figure has never been opened. I get an inquiry, I'll copy and paste the back and forth starting with him:

Him: "Do you have more pictures of Sidious?"

Me: "Sure!" (take more pictures, send them)

Him: "I'll give you $185 all-in."

Me: "...it's listed for $200, with $15 shipping. I'm already losing money on the shipping."

Him: "Well, $200 is the going rate and yours has a dent in it."

Me: "Actually, the figure is mint. The box has a dent."

Him: "Yeah, that's what I said. $185 is the best I can do for that."

Me: "...let me know if you change your mind."

Him: "It's just, I'm not going to pay full price for a damaged item."

Me: "Cool, because the item isn't damaged. Just a dent on the packaging. I'll be here if you change your mind!"

Him: "I'm trying to tell you you're priced WAY too high. I'm not changing my mind on this. And the box is part of the item, so it IS damaged."

Me: "Great. Have a nice day! Thanks for looking."

Him: "You don't seem to understand what I'm saying. $200 is too high."

<blocked>


I understand the economy sucks and the chances we'll probably be dead in a year or two are higher now than at any point previously, but c'mon man lol I know I should have ended that exchange much sooner, but I kinda wanted to see where it would go.

As I typically end these things..."these fuckin people."
 
I've been on a tear buying DC Multiverse characters to fill gaps in my new display and the shipping for all of them is sooooooooo f'ing.... sllllloooooooowwwww. One figure that was always scheduled to be here today just got delayed til tomorrow.

Sellers taking forever to ship is one problem, then USPS/UPS/FedEx just not moving shit for days. Is this on account of gas prices maybe they're trying to consolidate shipments? It's so frustrating to see sellers just sit on items for days after purchase. My account is set up to ship within two business days and usually I beat that.
 
No crazy stories, just the usual morons, but I did finally come up with rules since I'm valuing my time and energy and personality access much more.

- If your opener is best price, you're gone. Incidentally, those people are the ones who tend not to even respond or come through.

- If you don't know when you can get it, you're gone. Real buyers want it and move heaven and earth to get it ASAP.

- If you ask what else I have or if I have other X, you're gone. You can click the profile or search like anyone else

These three rules really make it apparent to me (I know, I have too much faith in people) that they're just treating the whole market like a flea market and just table hopping.

- I post pictures and copy. If you ask for something that isn't there, you're gone. I don't care to fuck around because you're a box collector or you want the flight stand. Find an MIB listing.

- I'm no longer entertaining lower prices in the first three days. Last month I had many bargain hunters, and I just kinda ADHD forgot about them. Then someone comes in and pays asking price and can pick up that afternoon or is willing to pay shipping no questions asked.

- I'm done answering questions beyond the basics. If you've never heard of Xes Ray, you can do the research. Also, if you don't know what you're looking at in any context, probably not a buyer.

And finally, I have repeat buyers, so I'm more and more just reaching out to them first. Turns out, toy collectors are like addicts and love their next fix.

Who would have thought.
 
That's a solid way to approach sales, I'd say. It's amazing how many times I've come home from work or something and my wife has had one or some combination of all of those issues with stuff she has up on FB for us. And she gets frustrated because my response is always 'so block them? Or have a good time expressing all the ways in which you'd like them to fuck off, if you're feeling froggy.'

She treats it like customer service still sometimes. Like we're a business and gotta put up with idiots to keep things going. But like.. we sell shit to get rid of it and maybe make enough off it for different shit we'll get rid of later. Not because we're financially unstable and need the money. So I literally do not give even the smallest, most discriminating fuck about any given potential sale. If the person gives you the hard eyeroll, they can fuck off into the sun.
 
@Alt those are some good rules, especially the "don't take lower offers for the first 3 days". If you're not desperate for cash, sitting on things is usually the way to go. I get a lot of guys in the first 20 minutes at toy shows who ask about taking lower offers, it's maddening.

I absolutely hate hate HATE the "what's the lowest you'd go on this?" type of question. "What's your best?" Get the fuck outta here lol if the tag says $100, that means I'd like to get $100 out of it. I wanted less, I'd mark it as less.

I don't mind the guys who ask if there's wiggle room, because some items absolutely have wiggle room. Some don't. "You got any room on this?" It's respectful, usually, and comes with no expectations. "What's your lowest?" just pisses me off. At shows, it's always funny to see the guys looking at prices on the table, and then scanning their phones. Like, I know what you're doing. Get out of here, you're blocking the table for actual customers.

There's this one guy who comes to every toy show I am at and every single time he comes to my table. He picks up the same types of things (usually NECA), looks them over, puts them down and walks away pulling out his phone. He'll come back at least twice during the day, maybe 3 times, look at the exact same stuff again. Never buys anything. Never talks to me. Never asks any questions. It's weird. Lots of weird people out there. I like a good deal as much as the next guy, but there are ways to go about it. Few seem to know these secret scrolls of ancient information.
 
I have a box FILLED witha good chunk of all the old, earlier Predators. I might want to fish out the Lost Clan and Big Red, but the rest might just go as a lot, because I don't want to have to sort through ALL THOSE ACCESSORIES. That was before I started bagging each figure and their accessories together. I think most of those are loose in the box. Ugh.......


I'm starting to organize for the local toy show in June and created a Google sheet for a friend to access when she's helping me at the table.
I'm currently thinking of the following cells
item image
item code (three letter and number; like MvL1 for Marvel Legends1) for each property that I have multiples of, to make it easier to find
item name
price I'm asking
did is sell y/n
was there a discount y/n
sale price

That way it makes it easier to inventory WHAT I'm bringing, what sells, what I make after factoring in the costs, and what I have left to sell online after, or donate, depending on the items.

I do plan on having $5 and $10 bins for at least Fortnite and DC/Marvel figures.

Now I just need to cruise eBay to get some general starting point prices for some of the higher end items (like Mezco One:12 figures) and go from there for in person selling.
 
I've been going through my 'to go' pile again lately. I've added a few things here and there, but every time I look at getting rid of it I just find it incredibly daunting. Not because I have any second thoughts about any of it, but just because I don't want to fucking deal with this shit. A lot of what I want to get rid of is Vitruvian HACKS stuff and I diassembled and reassembled those many times and most of what I have (or at least half of it, to be sure) isn't how the figures originally came and I am absolutely not going to try to reassemble everything properly.

So I'm left with just 'here's a bunch of my shit... buy it if you want.' And it's not like loose HACKS are lighting the world on fire even if they're complete/original. So every time I look at like.. an entire tote of HACKS stuff... I just sigh really loudly and shove it back in the closet.
 
I had a few items that weren't moving so I just asked around for any parents who want toys for their kids.

I've also dumped comics and MIB stuff at the hospital for the kids when I don't want the hassle.

I'd rather go direct to them than Value Village where they'll upcharge it and kids won't even see it.
 
Alt said:
I had a few items that weren't moving so I just asked around for any parents who want toys for their kids.

I've also dumped comics and MIB stuff at the hospital for the kids when I don't want the hassle.

I'd rather go direct to them than Value Village where they'll upcharge it and kids won't even see it.
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Yeah, I do that too if I think it's worth doing. I don't think that's going to work with any of my HACKS stuff, just because it really is deep into adult collector territory. They're fiddly to try to 'play' with, and many of the weapons are sharp enough to take a human life. Can't exactly toss those at the Stollery and be like 'for the sick kids!' as it would imply I think they should all stab themselves to death, or something.

But some of the Legends figures and stuff like that that I got rid of just got thrown at kids because I could not be bothered at all to sell something that's going rate on eBay is like 10 bucks. I'm not spending ANY amount of time trying to make a fucking ten dollar sale.
 
SalemCrow said:
I have a box FILLED witha good chunk of all the old, earlier Predators. I might want to fish out the Lost Clan and Big Red, but the rest might just go as a lot, because I don't want to have to sort through ALL THOSE ACCESSORIES. That was before I started bagging each figure and their accessories together. I think most of those are loose in the box. Ugh.......


I'm starting to organize for the local toy show in June and created a Google sheet for a friend to access when she's helping me at the table.
I'm currently thinking of the following cells
item image
item code (three letter and number; like MvL1 for Marvel Legends1) for each property that I have multiples of, to make it easier to find
item name
price I'm asking
did is sell y/n
was there a discount y/n
sale price

That way it makes it easier to inventory WHAT I'm bringing, what sells, what I make after factoring in the costs, and what I have left to sell online after, or donate, depending on the items.

I do plan on having $5 and $10 bins for at least Fortnite and DC/Marvel figures.

Now I just need to cruise eBay to get some general starting point prices for some of the higher end items (like Mezco One:12 figures) and go from there for in person selling.
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I've never thought about doing inventory for a toy show and having spreadsheets :unsure: I just rawdog the show when I go lol

"Will you take $15 for this?"
"What do I have it marked for?"
"$20."
"Sold."


"Do you have any Mythic Legions?"
"Uh.....maybe? Let's look" :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:


I mean, I have a cash box and signs for Venmo, Paypal, and I take cards via Square. But I've never gone all fancy with it. I suddenly don't find what I'm doing to be a lot of work anymore :ROFLMAO: This makes sense though, other vendors ask each other "how'd you do?" and they usually have pretty definitive numbers. They ask me and I say "I dunno, I have to count it"...it all makes sense now.

I treat it very much like a yard sale, I suppose.
 
TheRealSmallville said:
I've never thought about doing inventory for a toy show and having spreadsheets :unsure: I just rawdog the show when I go lol

"Will you take $15 for this?"
"What do I have it marked for?"
"$20."
"Sold."


"Do you have any Mythic Legions?"
"Uh.....maybe? Let's look" :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:


I mean, I have a cash box and signs for Venmo, Paypal, and I take cards via Square. But I've never gone all fancy with it. I suddenly don't find what I'm doing to be a lot of work anymore :ROFLMAO: This makes sense though, other vendors ask each other "how'd you do?" and they usually have pretty definitive numbers. They ask me and I say "I dunno, I have to count it"...it all makes sense now.

I treat it very much like a yard sale, I suppose.
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It's more that I need to be able to know what I have after the show so I can easily sell remaining items online with either Mercari or WhatNot, and not have to reorganize all the items again.

That, and having an easy list for my friend who's coming with me to help, so she can easily search the list to check it off.

I've done a large yard sale the local community college used to run each spring, and those events were just had the items priced and sold/bargained as people came in. Then I just counted the money when I got home to see what I made after the costs.
 
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