Scalping and YOU.

Why not? Why these people who mentioned should not get an extra buck if they can?? Why is the other girl more deserving of the doll? Is it because she has set her heart on it?? I have set my heart on a doll as well. I just bought the head and it was very expensive. At least for me it was. I have no money left to buy the body and I am selling off my dolls. I still say that if someone has a way of making money, he should do it.

 

Not pointing at anyone's post in particular, but there seems to be a running thread to the effect that business is somehow moral.

Clearly there are many ways of making money that are not moral in the least - drug experimentation on captive populations, deforestation, armament selling... human slavery.

I wouldn't go so far as to lump scalping dolls in with these evils, but to say all's fair where a buck is concerned is, I think, overstating things a little.

 

My last point was just something to think about. Look at yourself though "I have no money left to buy the body and I am selling off my dolls" so if the doll was set at a fair price would you have to sell off so much of what you have or would you at least be able to keep some or all of it? It all so seems that you might be marking up what you are selling. I don't know you well but I have a slight feeling that since you got scalped your going to scalp other people to get the funding to pay for more price inflated dolls. This just fuels the fire and makes a price bubble. Lets just hope you don't help price yourself out of a hobby you enjoy.

I very much agree with your post. If only everyone could reason such a topic the same.

 

First: There was absolutely no way for me to get that doll, except from the secondary market. And I mean it when I say no way! I don;t live in the US nor in Japan, consequently I can't attend Dolpas. The head is question was a School head C and we all know it is hard to get one. it costed me 400$ That is an expensive price for a head imo! There are many really limited dolls that I like. Amelia, Madoka, Aya, Jun Tachibana, Kurumi, Vampire Lishe. Although I did have a chance to get one of these dolls from the secondary market, I didn't. Obviously because I have serious issues with their price. My tolerance to scalping has it's limits... I will probably never be able to have one of the dolls I mentioned above and I really do love to have a vampire Lishe so much.. I strongly believe that scalping exists not because some people resell limited dolls in extremly high prices, but because some people are willing to pay.

Second: there is a diffrence between marking up a price and scallping. Marking up a price could be 10% or 15% higher because the doll has some extra work on her or just because you want to make your wait for it worth your while or even both. While scallping could be 50% an up (depends on personal opinion) of the price just because something is hard to find.

Third: You are right, you do not know me well or even at all, next time do some homework first, before you start assuming things about other people. All the dolls I have ever sold, were sold on their base price and I was just able to compensate for what I had paid for them. For example now I am selling my new Narae. I have been waiting for her for two months. Her base price is 715$ including the shipping I paid for her. She is sanded (which costs 55$ on Dollfair)I have coated her, blushed her and given her french manicure and a face up. While I am not a pro with face ups, she does look rather nice and the body blushing is also very cute. I am selling her for 750$. Now there is a scallper in the making :ppp I did all these things for this doll because I inteded to keep her for me and just for me!!! Unfortuantelly I can't find the cash anywhere else. If in time I manage to find the cash I need and she still hasn't been sold, I will withdraw her from the market.

I really don't get it. This entire conversation just confuses me. I should be the one complaining about scalping. I am the one who has no way of getting something from a Dolpa and yet I stand for the people that make money this way. Sometimes I think that's because each person is raised and lives under diffrent circumstances and has a diffrent way of thinking. Have you seen what "scalpers" go through in order to get that limited doll? I am not willing to go through this test for no doll! Maybe because at the end of the day, I realise that these gorgeous dolls, are just artifacts that we don't need, in order to live. If I was forced to sell all my dolls now, I would be miserable for a short period of time, but after that everything would be back to normal.

 

lol It's funny how you got angry over my reply to you. I must have hit a nerve.

Please, do not factor in a mark up for work done to a doll. I have never even said anything about that. If there is work done yes I can see a reason for a mark up.

"You are right, you do not know me well or even at all, next time do some homework first, before you start assuming things about other people." Now your just taking me out of context. I read your post and took what info I got from it to base on my comment. That in it self should be all the reading I had to do on you. If you didn't want anyone to fill in some gaps for them selfs be it right or wrong then you should of said you don't mark up what you sell. This part "All the dolls I have ever sold, were sold on their base price and I was just able to compensate for what I had paid for them" would have done nicely.

Anyway, I'm done with the drama that is happening in this thread. The last thing I need is to get a warning PM from a mod on fighting in a thread at a site I just joined.

 

I have very little sympathy for those oh so poor scalpers who had to wait in line all day long to get a doll so they could make a 100% profit later on. I have much more sympathy for those people who really wanted the dolls and waited all day long only to turn up empty handed because of those scalpers.

 

Thank you!

 

I have some kind of a question/quote regarding the line. Limited dolls obviously come in limited numbers and so the first person to ask for one gets it and so on and so forth...The line is also very big and from what I have seen in a video it also involves a little bit of "running" and "pushing" other people. Now scalpers in order to get the doll first, they must have waited in that line a long time before the rest people. They might have actually camped there the entire night. If I really wanted a doll so much, if I really had set my heart on it, I would have camped there from the previous day to make sure no scalper gets it before me. Attenting to that long line at a time that is more convinient has certain pros and cons in my opinion.

Further more I have started realising that this disscution has no real point of existance. It is basically a subject that has been disscused before and this thread is actually a thread of complaining.

You know what? I hate scallping, most passionately I might add! Because the doll I want goes for 2000$. My logic though forbits me, to hate people that are simply try to make an extra buck in order to improve their lives.

This would probably be the last you are reading from in this subject. As long as people are paying these kind of prices, scallping will never stop to exist whether people complain or not.

 

Actually, that's not how it works. It's a lottery system not first-come-first-serve. So yes it's possible for a person who really wants the doll to have done the same amount of work as the scalper, but STILL come out empty handed. Unless they've changed it and don't use the lottery system anymore, but they still used it last I heard.

 

If that is true, then I am terribly sorry, because I did not know it. You are correct. I assumed that if is first come first served. I am very sorry for my mistaken assumption.

 

Aquiring a limiteds varies from company to company. For most volks ones that I know of, its my understanding that its lottery based. So, mostly luck of the draw, scalpers and those who want it for themselves. So far, I havent won a lottery yet (doll or cash) but I only have access to the web ones right now.
For other companies, that sell only on the web, its normally a first come first serve. All those who want the dolls sit poised by the keyboard, madly pressing the refresh button in the time leading up to the launch hoping to get one in their shopping cart before they run out. I think in these cases, there is no advantage to scalpers or anyone else, unless all scalpers have a higher speed internet connection.
So for most things, 'regular' buyers go through the same process as scalpers to get the dolls. Its only the intent behind the purchase that is different and much of the time the funding. A scalper will try to buy any and all limiteds, knowing that they will get the money back (and more) in a very short timeframe whereas for most of us, we have to save and hem and haw and try to decide if we can even enter the lottery.
I try not to buy from someone I know is a scalper, but where possible look for an owner who didnt bond who is selling so they can purchase another doll. I can't always tell who is a scalper or not and if I really, really want a doll, I'll pay through my teeth for it.

 

If we're talking Volks (which as far as I'm aware, are the only ones who have physical locations they sell limiteds from) it used to be first come first serve, but they changed it to a lottery system for precisely the reason you state -- that people were camping overnight. They thought it was dangerous. (And it was.) I was living in Japan before the lottery system went into place, and I camped out overnight to get my doll. I was the first person in line -- but I waited outside their store for twelve hours overnight in -4 degree weather in an area that some people might consider unsafe. (The porn district being only two blocks away and all that.) And the first scalpers got there a half hour after me. It was mind-numbingly boring, I was frozen the entire time despite wearing three layers, and I got picked up. In the end it was worth it for the doll that I had really, desperately wanted, but... would I do it again? I dunno.

(Oh, and I dunno what the Dolpa line is like, but the AE line was SO polite. Hell, twice I had to leave, to go to the bathroom and get coffee before I froze to death, and both times there was no problem with me having my place at the front of the line again. That would never have happened in Australia.)

Now Volks has a lottery system and your place in line guarantees you nothing. You pull a number out of a box and then the line is reordered according to that number. So you could be first in line and get #3000. Or you could arrive five minutes before they start handing out numbers and get #4. I've still stood in the snow for a couple of hours to be at the beginning of that queue to have a greater chance of getting a doll, but... there's no great advantage to it. (We were at the AE then too, so the queue was maybe 200-300 people.. we got 64 and 130, despite being about 15th in the queue.)

These days, scalping is more luck than anything... though there must be something that some people are doing right, because I always see the same half a dozen sellers on Y!JA who have every single limited every single Dolpa. And the only thing I like about scalpers on Y!JA is that they take clearer pictures.

 

I would all so like to thank you.

I know I said I wasn't going to post, but after reading that I can NOT hold back.
Next time do some homework first, before you start assuming things. Did you yourself not write that.
I do have to thank you though. You have been keeping this thread worth while to post on.


Anyway,


I very much do not like the lottery system. Yes it keeps you from camping out and all of that, but the person that has waited the longest might get nothing as said. I wanted tickets to the very last Smashing Pumpkins show. The line was insane, but I knew about the lottery system so I got in line and pulled the number for second in line. I thought everyone was going to kill me. So I don't think it keeps you all that safer. Well to say the least four people out of what looks like to be a 100 got tickets, they sold out in five min. The 50$ tickets I had where selling for 1000 an hour later. You would think I would sell them. I did not and saw one of the best shows of my life.

 

lol did I hit a nerve?? Or is it the you simply have a lot of nerve!

and yes I did my homework, but obviously from out dated resources.

 

Ill say this you are fun to debate with

 

you made me wanna comment again too XDD

very same thing happended to me last Smashing Pumkins show before the band split, november 2000,Igot the tickets and the minute later I heard people behind me reselling them ...I protected mine with my LIFE (I had a nice "surprise" math test the morning after a 8 a.m. massive failure but totally worth it).Only this was not a lottery, first come , first served and fair imo

My point? it might be dangerous to camp overnight or whatevs but that´s not for volks nor anyone to decide. If I had the chance I probably would just...for the fun of it and the chance...dunno if I were in Japan on a trip or something just the date of the AE I would not miss the oportunity. It is my decission at my own risk. What bugs me is the thought that someone who get´s there later might get it while you don´t.

And I am sorry I can´t pitty oh pretty poor scalpers standing in line for a zillion hours...oh poor little them, they had to go to a dollpa! someone please give them sweets!

come on... here in Europe we don´t even have a volks website! and much more difficulties to follow after events


I agree volks is the major problem, such "close" policies just encourage scalping

I am sure that if any of you guys are waiting for the after event to get a volks limited doll..you already saved more than the sales price..while as for any other doll company selling limiteds on line..you´re just hoping to be faster than the rest

 

See, I have to wonder if those people have some sort of "in" that the rest of us don't. (I'm not accusing Volks of anything untoward, mind you )

If they don't, and it's just one group of people who flood the Dolpa lines and buy as many dolls as they can in order to sell them at an inflated price...well, honestly, I don't see how that is any different than an import-export company or any other shopping service. It may seem unfair to the people in line who missed out, but these "scalpers" are the only means by which many people can buy Volks LEs at all.

 

I really hope this isn't the case, but I'm sort of on the look out to see what will happen with Masha after the NYC Dolpa - both on eBay & here at the marketplace.

I've wanted a School Head A head for so long simply because I couldn't get a Sasya, and it was a viable alternative. But since it wasn't really a limited head (just hard to get), I never bought a SHA because the price was too high. I did come very close a couple of times on ones with gorgeous faceups!

But I am definetly getting a School Head A at the NYC Dolpa, so I will be walking away happy. If I walk away with a Masha I will be REALLY REALLY happy. But if I don't, I will be looking on the marketplace and eBay for one. At the present time I do have a bit of extra cash, so I am willing to pay a bit more for Masha, even though I will probably be driving up the prices of future Masha sales.

Best case scenario I am hoping to get one from a fan who just didn't bond, rather than a scalper. Would scalpers even come to a NY Dolpa?

On a side note, I can not fathom why FDQ would order less than Olivia for Masha, especially considering there was a petition for Sasya to be resold! Only 75 of her, it is just asking for people to try to get extra & resell them

 

As one of the mods (sorry I forgot who) wisely said before...I bet we´ll get a pretty remarkable number of cats needing surgery and/or cars suddenly breaking down

XDDD

 

I'm sure the companys know all about "cold feet". That must be a reason why they are so gun shy on reselling. I hope they bring Vampire Lishe out again. they would have my order in a heart beat.