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Before We Jump to Any Conclusions
- 03/21/2002
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- I had an interesting experience at Walmart the
other night. I was there at about 12:30 AM, having stopped off after
working late, and there were eight fresh A cases on a pallet in the
toy department. I know they were fresh because I watched two
collectors open them. I know they were collectors because I talked to
them about their collections; how many they had, how long they had
collected, the focus of their collections. The whole process took no
more than 30 minutes, and afterwards they each left with a treasure
hunt Phaeton, while I got a first edition Saleen S7.
Although both admitted to trading on Ebay, I wouldn't label either of
them scalpers. Those cases contained some of the newest FE's on the
market, including the '57 Eldorado Brougham, and the Lancia Stratos
with gold PR5's,but they didn't rape all the newness out of the cases.
Each box was left opened, but neat, not tumbled and rumbled. Several
Walmart employees saw what was going on but no one objected or tried
to stop them. Everyone involved was polite and helpful to each other,
and we all left feeling generally satisfied with our finds. However, I
left with a few niggling questions in the back of my mind.
Those eight cases didn't get pegged that night--there was no room for
them. Therefore I assume they got wheeled back to the stock room
again. Now what is anyone seeing those cases going to believe happened
to them? Won't most people assume that a stocker got into those cases
before they even reached the floor? Or that a local scalper slipped in
and cleaned them out? Chances are, the rumors will fly that this
Walmart is infested with scalpers and no collector has a chance at
anything good. In fact,, the night before, there had been NINE cases
on the pallet and I had watched and waited while a stocker pegged one
of them. Then I picked up some four first editions I didn't have, plus
a treasure hunt Phaeton myself. (It's for trade if ya got any good
loose mid-1970's Hot Wheels I could use.) So the problem here is not
the store, the stockers, the scalpers, or the collectors. It is simply
perception.
It's very easy, when you see a pallet full of opened cases, to jump to
conclusions, and all too often, you won't be wrong. There have been
hundreds of stories of toy managers who set up at flea markets, and
store employees who consider their Ebay sales among their job perks.
There have been countless examples of scalping low-lifes who pay off
their back room buddies for access, and measure their success by how
many cases they've deflowered. But unless you were there, or can
review he security cameras, then it is just as likely that a group of
collectors happened to get there at the right time and got lucky. In
fact, considering some of the hunting schedules I hear some collectors
say they keep, I suspect the aggressive collector gets their ahead of
me far more often than the scalper--and I'm cool with that.
What is the point of all this? Just that this is a hobby built around
collecting little toy cars. There is no point getting angry or
frustrated over elements of this hobby I can't control, nor should I
assume the worst when I go to a store and can't find new cars to buy.
While it is true I find nothing far more often than I find something,
that just makes the days that I score that much the sweeter. After
all, if I had wanted a hobby based on anger and frustration I would
have taken up golf.
Keep it in scale.
- The Southern Gent--Raymond
McKee
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