Just last weekend, Hasbro had a warehouse sales at a community club for two days. Naturally people who heard about warehouse sales will think of cheap pricing. However getting cheap toys has it price not in only monetary but more to physical and psychological way. Reason being such warehouse sales are war zone between "Toy collectors" and Scalpers.
Here's a snapshot of what happened on ground zero last weekend at the Hasbro warehouse sale.
Such grabbing is common sight at Toys Warehouse sales. Who are those people?
"Toy Collectors"
These "true" collectors believe in getting the most of everything. For them they must "Collect them all" and they don't just buy one for one design but 2 or 3 on basis that they will open one and keep another 1 or 2 in packaging as they love the toy packaging. Whether one fine day they sell the unopened one on the genuineness of running out of space for a much higher prices for profits is a question.
Not only that, some collectors would pick the best package and some may even open the toy there and there to check the parts when chaos are everywhere. Once they checked the toy and they don't want it, they wouldn't be bothered to keep it back but move on to search for a better mint looking toys.
As for the Nerf blaster gamers or collectors that is a different story all together. In the video above, you have witness the grabbing were all Nerf guns and it is easy to relate that such grabbers are nerf players. As they play the Nerf games in groups (since they cannot be play alone anyway), it's a common sight to see them grabbing Nerf guns at warehouse sale. Now why do they need so many nerf blasters? They are getting not only for themselves but their friends too. Sound familiar? Well they won't want the scalpers to come and grab the toys and so that is their counter measure (organised grabbing). So if you are intending to get a Nerf blaster at warehouse sales, know your odds you are against.
Scalpers
These are another type of "toy collectors" (so they call themselves) who buy in low and sell high. Most of the time, they will buy off the whole supply of a hot items if they can. As they do not get from the main sources (whole seller), these scalpers get the toy at the secondary market making the stock scares and making the market demand. Only then they will get people to buy from them. To them it is nothing personal but Business. They don't do just once but all the time.
Often they deny they are the one who cause the market to have the lack of supply and push the blame to the toy collectors...
They are not operating alone. They have "helpers" who help them out in such warehouse sales as they will organized the resources to secure more "Stocks". Sometime such helpers can be family members, friends and even children. They are currently no authority to keep a system in place to stop such "businesses". The only way to stop them are stop buying from them and let them wither off by lacking of cash flow and having too much dead stocks.
As the behaviours of the scalpers on the rise, it bleed some Anti-scalpers movement where a number of collectors gather together to raid the toys like the scalpers and hopefully cut them down. However such action lower the odds for normal shoppers such as parents and kids to be able to get what they wanted at a low price.
The Organizer
When things turn ugly in sales, the organiser would be the one to be blame. However they would also push such responsibilities to the shoppers and lack of manpower to control the crowd. At such warehouse sales, the organiser main objective is to get rid of the stock and recover some earning. Who and how many one customer is buying, they won't careless as long they cleared their stocks.
Conclusion
So if next time you hear about toys warehouse sales, get yourself prepare if you choose to go to grab some good deals.
As for me, I have made a conscience decision to stay out of warehouse sales as I couldn't stand the sight of pushing and grabbing. As cheap as the toy maybe, it just disgusting to see the ugly side of human nature. Sure we can justify ourselves but we cannot deny it is selfish and ugly.
That being said, I hope we can reflect on such actions and know that we can always choose to be better.
PS: If you are wondering about the Toy comic above, the full story of Toy collectors/ Scalpers can be found here.
Here's a snapshot of what happened on ground zero last weekend at the Hasbro warehouse sale.
Such grabbing is common sight at Toys Warehouse sales. Who are those people?
"Toy Collectors"
These "true" collectors believe in getting the most of everything. For them they must "Collect them all" and they don't just buy one for one design but 2 or 3 on basis that they will open one and keep another 1 or 2 in packaging as they love the toy packaging. Whether one fine day they sell the unopened one on the genuineness of running out of space for a much higher prices for profits is a question.
Not only that, some collectors would pick the best package and some may even open the toy there and there to check the parts when chaos are everywhere. Once they checked the toy and they don't want it, they wouldn't be bothered to keep it back but move on to search for a better mint looking toys.
As for the Nerf blaster gamers or collectors that is a different story all together. In the video above, you have witness the grabbing were all Nerf guns and it is easy to relate that such grabbers are nerf players. As they play the Nerf games in groups (since they cannot be play alone anyway), it's a common sight to see them grabbing Nerf guns at warehouse sale. Now why do they need so many nerf blasters? They are getting not only for themselves but their friends too. Sound familiar? Well they won't want the scalpers to come and grab the toys and so that is their counter measure (organised grabbing). So if you are intending to get a Nerf blaster at warehouse sales, know your odds you are against.
Scalpers
These are another type of "toy collectors" (so they call themselves) who buy in low and sell high. Most of the time, they will buy off the whole supply of a hot items if they can. As they do not get from the main sources (whole seller), these scalpers get the toy at the secondary market making the stock scares and making the market demand. Only then they will get people to buy from them. To them it is nothing personal but Business. They don't do just once but all the time.
Often they deny they are the one who cause the market to have the lack of supply and push the blame to the toy collectors...
They are not operating alone. They have "helpers" who help them out in such warehouse sales as they will organized the resources to secure more "Stocks". Sometime such helpers can be family members, friends and even children. They are currently no authority to keep a system in place to stop such "businesses". The only way to stop them are stop buying from them and let them wither off by lacking of cash flow and having too much dead stocks.
As the behaviours of the scalpers on the rise, it bleed some Anti-scalpers movement where a number of collectors gather together to raid the toys like the scalpers and hopefully cut them down. However such action lower the odds for normal shoppers such as parents and kids to be able to get what they wanted at a low price.
The Organizer
When things turn ugly in sales, the organiser would be the one to be blame. However they would also push such responsibilities to the shoppers and lack of manpower to control the crowd. At such warehouse sales, the organiser main objective is to get rid of the stock and recover some earning. Who and how many one customer is buying, they won't careless as long they cleared their stocks.
Conclusion
So if next time you hear about toys warehouse sales, get yourself prepare if you choose to go to grab some good deals.
As for me, I have made a conscience decision to stay out of warehouse sales as I couldn't stand the sight of pushing and grabbing. As cheap as the toy maybe, it just disgusting to see the ugly side of human nature. Sure we can justify ourselves but we cannot deny it is selfish and ugly.
That being said, I hope we can reflect on such actions and know that we can always choose to be better.
PS: If you are wondering about the Toy comic above, the full story of Toy collectors/ Scalpers can be found here.
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