Selling Toys - Horror Stories & "Happy" Customers

Alt said:
Can you hold this for a week, I don't have any money.
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I get these a lot...it always makes me laugh, because if you don't have any money then why are you shopping?

Lately I've been telling everyone "sure, you bet. I'll set it aside" and I go on about my day. Item stays for sale. The item sells at some point. Recently though, I had a guy ask me if I could set aside this Hot Toys Batman I had for sale because he just WANTED IT SO BAD but wasn't going to be paid for a couple weeks. Did the whole sob story, will you hold it, blah blah. I gave my standard "you bet."

Well slap my ass and call me honey because a couple weeks later dude actually came back, said "yo I have the money, you didn't sell the figure right?" And...well, actually the figure had not sold yet lol So dude legit thought I had saved it for him, and he actually came through with the cash. He was a very happy camper and thanked me for being so awesome. He saw a Vader I'm selling and asked if I'd hold it another few weeks. I was tempted to legit hold it for him this time, but I assume the gods don't smile upon you twice lol
 
At least he came through! I stopped doing it after I had like 2 or 3 people in a row who either forgot or never responded. I messaged them all after the time they asked for, and the response was "Oh sorry bro, I forgot lol. I'm good." No thanks, no nothing.

If they'd like to arrange for a non-refundable deposit situation, perhaps I'll rethink things, but for now, no holds. Not that they'll read the description saying that, but still. Only thing I'm holding are deez nutz.
 
Question: when trying to sell a figure you never opened but isn't that hard to find are you tempted to open the figure to sell loose to cut shipping costs?

Like an average Marvel Legends. It will cost $2-$4 more to ship a boxed fig than a loose one.

It feels weird to open a figure just to sell it, but also - people want deals - *I* want deals. My usual way around this is if it's a figure I have an extra of, I'll take pictures of my open one and then not actually open the carded one until the listing sells. But that only works in a few scenarios, and obviously the figures have to be the same quality.
 
Personally, I'd keep it in box. Yeah, I may not get quite as much for it, but I feel like you double the amount of people who'd be interested in it, with all the in-box collectors out there. If someone buys it in-box and doesn't mind if it's open, I'd be fine opening it to save money on shipping, but would only do so if they asked. Sure, you open yourself up to people who nitpick tiny little scuffs on the box, but (usually) a descriptor saying it's "not mint" will fix that.
 
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More of a general UPS observation for today. I was at work just now and noticed the UPS truck pulled up to an unusual place at our building. It was a new driver and we started to chat. Most of these truck's floors are pretty messy with packages, this guy proceeded to walk on two large flat boxes from the front of the truck to the back door with crunching metal sounds after each step. I was cringing.
 
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mrboshek said:
More of a general UPS observation for today. I was at work just now and noticed the UPS truck pulled up to an unusual place at our building. It was a new driver and we started to chat. Most of these truck's floors are pretty messy with packages, this guy proceeded to walk on two large flat boxes from the front of the truck to the back door with crunching metal sounds after each step. I was cringing.
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I spent a summer and fall working third shift loading.

People would throw Dell and Gateway boxes like bags of trash and then step on them to throw bundles of off road tires onto boxes marked Fragile in order to maximize capacity.
 
Part of me gets it because I respect the hell out of someone who doesn't give a shit about things that don't really matter. But also, maybe I'll use even more bubble wrap on the next thing I sell...
 
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