Once again, the SDCC exclusives are jamming up Ebay. Once again, I've read on Facebook and Twitter that these items are bought and sold so the individuals can afford to attend. I may be in the minority, but I wouldn't think of stepping out of my house without being able to afford to do so. I wanted to go, but couldn't get tickets. There's no way I would have gone and thought that I would be in debt by doing so. There are genuine collectors out there that are being priced out of the market because of the opportunists out there. It makes my blood boil that I'm being edged out because of the low morals of others. Who here feels differently?

I don't feel differently, but I do think that collectors have brought a lot of the most egregious behavior on themselves and, if it can not be stopped altogether, at least they could try and curb it.

What you describe as the low morals of others, they call being smart. If they can pick up free promos and then turn around and sell them at $30 a pop on the internet, that's pretty smart. You know who's stupid? The collector who is willing to pay $30 for an item he knows to have been given away free to someone who never wanted it for anything else but as something to sell.

I have gone to the Cons and picked up what I liked and left what I had no interest in and never once thought of using anything to make a profit or get back some of my investment. That's what promos and exclusive should be for, the collectors, not the opportunists.

Manufacturers will say that they can't tell who is getting it when they are handing out free stuff and certainly not when they have priced out exclusives. Sometimes that's true and I think sometimes it's less true. We all have stories about such things, but what matters is what comes after the show.

If there is money to be made, someone will try to make it. How much money is the question. Collectors are willing to pay a reasonable sum for items that they did not have the opportunity to get and those people who did get them have a right to expect some compensation. Should it pay for your weekend trip? No. Should you be allowed to take free merchandise away from real collectors that are there? No. That last one happens all the time.

The only way to curb it is to stop buying the promos and exclusives after the show. If that proves impossible to resist for collectors, at least pay nothing more than a minimum amount for a free item and nothing more than the original price for something that was sold. Collectors/buyers control the market. Turn your backs on these deals and the practice won't be nearly as profitable and the opportunists will have to look elsewhere.

But it will continue as long as there are collectors who don't mind getting ripped off and don't care to see how this hurts the hobby as a whole.

What specifics did you find?
I'm seeing a lot of toys like figurines etc that are in hot demand.

I agree with Graham completely imagine we used to attend shows because they were cool and we wanted to actually buy stuff and there were no freebies! I believe this is all a fad and will stop sooner rather than later how much of these items put up for sale at silly prices actually sell? The real losers here are these people who go to shows only to try to get things to resell is there any real enjoyment in that?

That Beverly Hills auction site seller seems to really rake in the dough after SDCC.
Now this seller uses more than one seller id just to handle the large volume of swag that is sold BIN style.

Seems to be enjoying it LOL but its not for me. I used to post a huge trade list of goodies here just after I got back from the Con.

Agree with Raven that you encourage this activity if you buy, and discourage it when you don't.

I still buy from sellers with prices that I consider reasonable (for that sellers effort) if I want it bad enough

Going to SDCC can be very costly these days & many of these goodies are much harder to get. Much more limited and huge crowds.
From my experience, its murder on your feet and long long lines too. Even then its right place, right time to score them.

Year after year I keep wondering when a critical mass will be reached by this colossal event. The result could possibly be a collapse due to its enormous size. Or maybe not.

In this case, morals walk hand-in-hand with $$$s. I suspect more people, for many varying reasons, will forgo SDCC eventually for less expensive holidays.

SDCC is not a show for collectors and has nothing to do with the hobby. It is a massive trade show run by big business whose sole aim is to sell you whatever their latest product is.

As part of their marketing they throw free stuff at anyone who wants it knowing full well that dealers and others will grab as much as they can lay their hands on and spread it all over ebay giving the product even more exposure for very little cost.

If you care about the hobby and want to meet like minded collectors you go to the Philly show, you keep as far away from SDCC as you can.

What I wanted was the Star Wars Topps Exclusive 5x7 Classic Card sets...there were 10 packs of (10)at $20 a set a complete set of 100 Cards was $200...Dealers are asking $300 on the bay.... bay takes 10% so the dealer gets $270 minus the Paypal fees... net profit is $65... for hours in line....


No Hotel, No Airfare, No Crowds, No Admission fees & No Disappointment that they were all Sold Out...The Set was a Bargain for me @ $300.

Not the necessarily with cards but try searching other sights. A Funco Flash figure from SDCC was also selling fron B&N for half the price.

quote:

Originally posted by Kryten67:
What I wanted was the Star Wars Topps Exclusive 5x7 Classic Card sets...there were 10 packs of (10)at $20 a set a complete set of 100 Cards was $200...Dealers are asking $300 on the bay.... bay takes 10% so the dealer gets $270 minus the Paypal fees... net profit is $65... for hours in line....


No Hotel, No Airfare, No Crowds, No Admission fees & No Disappointment that they were all Sold Out...The Set was a Bargain for me @ $300.

Topps selling them for $20 a set on website tomorrow

just saw that, I'll pick up a few for Space City Comic Con......

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:

quote:

Originally posted by Kryten67:
What I wanted was the Star Wars Topps Exclusive 5x7 Classic Card sets...there were 10 packs of (10)at $20 a set a complete set of 100 Cards was $200...Dealers are asking $300 on the bay.... bay takes 10% so the dealer gets $270 minus the Paypal fees... net profit is $65... for hours in line....


No Hotel, No Airfare, No Crowds, No Admission fees & No Disappointment that they were all Sold Out...The Set was a Bargain for me @ $300.

Topps selling them for $20 a set on website tomorrow

So then were those particular cards not an exclusive SDCC product?

If they were then Topps should not be selling them direct now, or they are different cards, or they were never truly exclusive in the first place. Take your pick, but it illustrates another problem when buying items after a Con. Do you know what you are getting when you pay the mark up or is this stuff not as hard to find as you may be led to believe?

I sympathize, but don't agree. First, back when I *had* to have everything...and couldn't, it used to tie me up in knots. These same issues exist in ANY hot collector area. As folks above have stated, I liken it to a bit of PT Barnum validation at play. If you survive long enough, you usualky see that so many people hoarded, or "invested" in collectible x...then years later find the demand is far lower and that golden "investment plan" collapses or the economy dips and fire sales start. Almost everything is available to those who wait. It just doesn't bother me any more. If it isn't available at my price, other items are. To those who expended the effort and expense, I don't even feel like they need to justify it. If they sell items they bought...or even picked up free...c'est la vie. There are those who must have everything...and when items first appear. They pay for that. I am no longer that person, nor do I have to have everything. I am still a collector...and I get what you're saying. But these days there is nothing I have a problem walking away from if it is beyond my comfort level. Like you, I weigh the cost compared to what else I can do with the same amount. Value is a wondrous beast.

I don't miss SDCC too crazy at my age!

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
Once again, the SDCC exclusives are jamming up Ebay. Once again, I've read on Facebook and Twitter that these items are bought and sold so the individuals can afford to attend. I may be in the minority, but I wouldn't think of stepping out of my house without being able to afford to do so.

Hit the nail squarely on the head, Graham! Everything else aside, this business of selling your freebies to "finance" your trip to Comic Con? Give me a break. If you're an out-of-towner, it's a vacation, people! Like, when I vacationed to the PNW last year, did I sell baskets of Oregon blueberries that I picked for free to offset my travel costs? No!! I set aside some money for my trip, like any other responsible, working adult, LOL!!!

On the subject of those Star Wars 5x7 cards; perhaps the reason they're selling them on their website tomorrow is because not many could find the Topps booth during the show to purchase them! I stumbled across their booth purely by accident. When I mentioned the Card Talk dinner later that evening and asked for a few promo cards to hand out, the guy gave me a stack two inches thick to give away. Probably in the hope that others would try harder to find them on Saturday, lol.

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:

quote:

Originally posted by Kryten67:
What I wanted was the Star Wars Topps Exclusive 5x7 Classic Card sets...there were 10 packs of (10)at $20 a set a complete set of 100 Cards was $200...Dealers are asking $300 on the bay.... bay takes 10% so the dealer gets $270 minus the Paypal fees... net profit is $65... for hours in line....


No Hotel, No Airfare, No Crowds, No Admission fees & No Disappointment that they were all Sold Out...The Set was a Bargain for me @ $300.

Topps selling them for $20 a set on website tomorrow

FYI....for anyone interested, those are now on sale from Topps.

I found the Topps booth by accident. The rep there was very nice and told me that the convention organizers moved their location and did not update it in the program guide so a lot of people could not find them. I bought a set of the new Garbage Pail Kids cards ($100) and was happy I had found their booth. I wish they had had a Mars Attacks! scavenger hunt like they did last year.

I used to buy a few things here or there and sell them to subsidize my trip the following year. I'm not ashamed of it - Comic Con is expensive and every bit of help I can get, I appreciate. Last year, I won two of the Lego mini figure raffles and selling those paid for my 2015 plane fare. Can I afford to go without doing that? Yes, I can. But again, I would rather basically have a free flight than a Lego figure of Unikitty.

I didn't get anything to resell this year - I could sell a few of the autographs or the two Mondo prints I bought, but I got them because I wanted them, and the few dollars I would make isn't worth it. Comic Con is my vacation and I do enjoy it, but I can enjoy it more when it costs less.

That show started with "genuine collectors." The people that went to first one talked about it and it became popular among the locals so they had it every year with people driving and flying in from out of the area because cool stuff was being shown off, bought and traded.

By the time I attended a few of the shows with my brother in the late 90's and early 2000's, it was a big deal taking up a huge hall at the convention center with talks and other events going on in other rooms and even elsewhere in town. Big companies were already buying big blocks of space (spots now pricing out the small dealers that set up there for years) and they gave out all kinds of freebies that they wanted collectors to talk about after the show was over. The old G4 network used to provide coverage. Now, Conan O'Brien sets his show up there.

I'm not sure what there is to get upset about. If someone can get $5 or $200 for something he got for free, because someone else, who couldn't get there to get the freebie himself, is willing to pay it, that is just someone weighing "opportunity cost" and deciding the item is worth the price. The "opportunist" makes money and the collector obtains some cool item that would have been a hassle to hunt down in person (transportation, food, lodging, time from work, time from family, etc.) for what he thinks is a fair to only somewhat unreasonable price. Let's face it, some freebies are worth more than others later but that is entirely up to each of us.

When I was there, there seemed to be at least three events going on at the same time. Do I go to the panel discussion? Do I stand in line at the Dark Horse booth instead to get a signing card and get it signed? Do I get in line to get a "Blade Runner" poster and then get in another line because a few of the cast members will be signing in an hour? Meanwhile, all kinds of stuff is being sold or given away at the artist and dealer tables and booths. I thought I did pretty well picking up the available promos but found out a few were missed. Oh well.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
Once again, the SDCC exclusives are jamming up Ebay. Once again, I've read on Facebook and Twitter that these items are bought and sold so the individuals can afford to attend. I may be in the minority, but I wouldn't think of stepping out of my house without being able to afford to do so. I wanted to go, but couldn't get tickets. There's no way I would have gone and thought that I would be in debt by doing so. There are genuine collectors out there that are being priced out of the market because of the opportunists out there. It makes my blood boil that I'm being edged out because of the low morals of others. Who here feels differently?

I agree with you. Yes. There are people who thought they were sitting pretty on some pile of hot items but they didn't remain hot because the average collector thought they were overpriced at the time and new hot items were always hitting the market. Like you said, when the economy dipped, so did the value of nearly every collectible whether it was rare promo card or classic car. When collectors started thinning out their collections (or even dumping them), a lot of once-hot items were heard to have to have sold cheap.

I think when you start saying to yourself "I need that for my collection" instead of "It would be cool to have that," that's when frustration and envy set in. You're probably not going after what you really want at that point anyway. You're just trying to keep up with the often-mythical Jones'

These days, I see a lot of stuff at shows and on the bay that was hard to get when it was new and it's cheaper. Rather than stew over the unattainable, look for and take advantage of the bargains you like.

quote:

Originally posted by BGH:
I sympathize, but don't agree. First, back when I *had* to have everything...and couldn't, it used to tie me up in knots. These same issues exist in ANY hot collector area. As folks above have stated, I liken it to a bit of PT Barnum validation at play. If you survive long enough, you usualky see that so many people hoarded, or "invested" in collectible x...then years later find the demand is far lower and that golden "investment plan" collapses or the economy dips and fire sales start. Almost everything is available to those who wait. It just doesn't bother me any more. If it isn't available at my price, other items are. To those who expended the effort and expense, I don't even feel like they need to justify it. If they sell items they bought...or even picked up free...c'est la vie. There are those who must have everything...and when items first appear. They pay for that. I am no longer that person, nor do I have to have everything. I am still a collector...and I get what you're saying. But these days there is nothing I have a problem walking away from if it is beyond my comfort level. Like you, I weigh the cost compared to what else I can do with the same amount. Value is a wondrous beast.