Craigslist robin hoods?

[remy1492]

I think its well known that Star Wars figures go up in value and its socially accepted that people have huge collections. Every garage sale i go to has at least one seller noting "no, the price is firm on those, theyll go UP in value ya know"

Using robin hoods logic. That perception of adult demand is pricing those 70s-90@ era figures out of the financial grasp of most 7yr olds. And should be morally wrong.

Its just sour grapes this guy has since he feels people in a capatalist country are entitled to products at COST, not value. Yet I dont think he'd sell me his Gold coins Today for what he paid in 2001.

I too complained about high retail Lego prices until i did my 30 seconds of google. Found this forum and found a way to buy cheap, sell the extra and make the legos i play with essentially free in the end.

Quote me (yes this is my original thought): Buy low, Sell high. Shhh its a secret.

[Lateral-G]

 

 

The Robin hood thing is an interesting phenomena, though. I wonder if it's some bitter investor that's broke, attempting to prevent anyone else from getting a decent deal.

 

More likely an AFOL that despises Lego investors. From what I've seen and read there is much animosity towards investors and resellers. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that the person doing this feels it's their duty to prevent someone from making a profit off of Lego.

[krayzie]

My local craigslist is full of people who hate resellers. They come out in full force during the holidays and flag all the posts that are over msrp.

[willy431]

Another run in with the mass robin hood....I won this "battle" though.  Emailed about a mixed lot for $50....that I would take it. Guy called me 2 hours later asking if I was a flipper?!  I played dumb..and said I didn't know what he meant. He said he was emailed from 2 different people advising him to charge more...and beware lego flippers who don't even have kids buying legos to sell for profit.

 

 I asked him if the others wanted to buy them...and he said yes...one offered 80 instead of 50. I told him that I thought we had a deal at 50....but if he was going  to break his word for $30...I wasn't interested...then he blah blahd about how he didn't mean to offend me...blah blah....and to come on over and get them for $50.  Got there...showed him my car seat..and pics of my son playing  legos on my phone....Nice guy...he said he was touched and sorry he accused me of things...and  told me 40 was plenty and threw in some megablocks he found.

 

My inner immature bad willy red devil on right shoulder suggested I tell him to stuff his megablocks since I couldn't get chit for them on eBay anyways..and pull out of his driveway sideways with squeeling tires laughing hysterically out the window...but I thanked him, gave him 50...and left quietly.  And  threw the megablocks in the recycling bin when I got home.

 

Decent lot ......I think...no instructions though...not sure what all Is  there...pics to follow in the help section.

[MartinP]

Another run in with the mass robin hood....I won this "battle" though.  Emailed about a mixed lot for $50....that I would take it. Guy called me 2 hours later asking if I was a flipper?!  I played dumb..and said I didn't know what he meant. He said he was emailed from 2 different people advising him to charge more...and beware lego flippers who don't even have kids buying legos to sell for profit.

 

 I asked him if the others wanted to buy them...and he said yes...one offered 80 instead of 50. I told him that I thought we had a deal at 50....but if he was going  to break his word for $30...I wasn't interested...then he blah blahd about how he didn't mean to offend me...blah blah....and to come on over and get them for $50.  Got there...showed him my car seat..and pics of my son playing  legos on my phone....Nice guy...he said he was touched and sorry he accused me of things...and  told me 40 was plenty and threw in some megablocks he found.

 

My inner immature bad willy red devil on right shoulder suggested I tell him to stuff his megablocks since I couldn't get chit for them on eBay anyways..and pull out of his driveway sideways with squeeling tires laughing hysterically out the window...but I thanked him, gave him 50...and left quietly.  And  threw the megablocks in the recycling bin when I got home.

 

Decent lot ......I think...no instructions though...not sure what all Is  there...pics to follow in the help section.

Finally. A craigslist robin hood story that has a happy ending.

[willy431]

Well.....not happy yet.  Going through it now...quite a few megablocks, a baseball, a rusty drill bit, McDonald's coupons,  chewing gum, distorts legos I have ever seen, and a dried up lump of clay or plays on featured at the bottom of the box.  When will I ever  learn to leave these mixed lots alone!   What.a  headache!  I recognize a couple older star wars sub assemblies so far...and there were a few figures....so I am sure there is fifty worth...but it's tough figuring  out what  is here with no instructions...and I doubt any of it is complete.   Calgon! Take me away!

 

Said that to my wife  today while struggling through the legos...and she never heard of calgon!  Or the commercials.  I am not THAT much older than her!  Come on TOK.  Post the old commercial!  I can't seem to find it.

[exciter1]

The key was to search for "Ancient Chinese Secret".

 

[Diabolos80]

Shot and a miss...

[segreto]

This is the beginning of The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp.  Great movie, but the beginning is a great example of how to get a great deal and ***** every else's deal down the road.  Had I not a soul, I think I would be doing this very same thing.

 

It's not a big part of the movie, but its a great scene.  Depp is a rare books collector/dealer/swindler.  He goes into an estate where a son is selling a huge collection of rare books that were his fathers, but the father is on his deathbed and cannot speak.  Depp tells the son that the previous offers from other dealers were insults and that his collection is actually worth 10x the amount the other dealers were offering.  He goes on to explain how the son can get a huge increase in the sale price by taking time and having each book evaluated, but it will take a long time.  When he is done inflating the son's ego and dollar-imprinted eyes, he mentions an almost worthless set of Don Quixote books that he could take off the son's hands for 5 thousand cash right now.  

 

Of coarse the Don Quixote are worth hundreds of thousands, and the others are nice, but no where near what Depp has suggested.  He leaves the estate with the Don Quixote in hand and another dealer approaches him on the way out.  He is screaming at Depp for ruining his own deal by giving ridiculously high prices to to son.  

 

It's all a mind game, and I can see how one could have fun manipulating sales like this.  Anyway, great movie, but that scene reminds me of this whole CL post.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Well.....not happy yet.  Going through it now...quite a few megablocks, a baseball, a rusty drill bit, McDonald's coupons,  chewing gum, distorts legos I have ever seen, and a dried up lump of clay or plays on featured at the bottom of the box.  When will I ever  learn to leave these mixed lots alone!   What.a  headache!  I recognize a couple older star wars sub assemblies so far...and there were a few figures....so I am sure there is fifty worth...but it's tough figuring  out what  is here with no instructions...and I doubt any of it is complete.   Calgon! Take me away!

 

Said that to my wife  today while struggling through the legos...and she never heard of calgon!  Or the commercials.  I am not THAT much older than her!  Come on TOK.  Post the old commercial!  I can't seem to find it.

 

Yeah I only touch them if I am pretty certain of whats actually in there.

[justafrog]

This is the beginning of The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp.  Great movie, but the beginning is a great example of how to get a great deal and ***** every else's deal down the road.  Had I not a soul, I think I would be doing this very same thing.

 

It's not a big part of the movie, but its a great scene.  Depp is a rare books collector/dealer/swindler.  He goes into an estate where a son is selling a huge collection of rare books that were his fathers, but the father is on his deathbed and cannot speak.  Depp tells the son that the previous offers from other dealers were insults and that his collection is actually worth 10x the amount the other dealers were offering.  He goes on to explain how the son can get a huge increase in the sale price by taking time and having each book evaluated, but it will take a long time.  When he is done inflating the son's ego and dollar-imprinted eyes, he mentions an almost worthless set of Don Quixote books that he could take off the son's hands for 5 thousand cash right now.  

 

Of coarse the Don Quixote are worth hundreds of thousands, and the others are nice, but no where near what Depp has suggested.  He leaves the estate with the Don Quixote in hand and another dealer approaches him on the way out.  He is screaming at Depp for ruining his own deal by giving ridiculously high prices to to son.  

 

It's all a mind game, and I can see how one could have fun manipulating sales like this.  Anyway, great movie, but that scene reminds me of this whole CL post.

 

I'm not clear if you're claiming Willy is as soulless as Johnny Depp, but there's a rather important difference between the items' owner (or agent) offering up a lot of Lego at $50 and Willy/Johnny paying the asking price without going into details on the ultimate fate of the items in question, versus Johnny coming in as an expert, claiming the items he wants are worthless when he knows differently, and offering a few cents on the dollar after lying about their value.

 

Any seller of Lego or rare books has every opportunity to do their own research on non-biased venues to determine what they're worth and then try to get that price. I am under no obligation to educate the lazy, shiftless, busy, distracted, or stupid; nor am I interested in humoring any bizarre notion that a pile of commodity children's toys ought not to be resold to anyone who isn't going to hand them to a deserving starving waif and/or the nearest spoiled brat they have jurisdiction over.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Even more now when all it takes to find out a price is spending a couple minutes online...

[Diabolos80]

Honesty is the best policy. Don't we all get bitchy about TRU making up MSRPs? Sure buyers can inform themselves of the true values, but that doesn't let TRU off the hook.

I've found that 9/10 times when I suggest the true value of lots (i'm referring to CL), most people stick to their asking price anyway, and I don't feel like I took advantage of someone's ignorance. For example, a recent Hero Factory lot I bought: I told the teen and his mom it was actually worth about 3x their asking price. I had my son with me, said most of the figures would be his and I'd sell a couple. She said, "we don't mess with ebay. If ya'll will enjoy them, take them."

I'm not judging willy or frog or anybody else, just saying I might be too nice but my pillow is comfy at night.

[segreto]

I'm not clear if you're claiming Willy is as soulless as Johnny Depp, but there's a rather important difference between the items' owner (or agent) offering up a lot of Lego at $50 and Willy/Johnny paying the asking price without going into details on the ultimate fate of the items in question, versus Johnny coming in as an expert, claiming the items he wants are worthless when he knows differently, and offering a few cents on the dollar after lying about their value.

 

Any seller of Lego or rare books has every opportunity to do their own research on non-biased venues to determine what they're worth and then try to get that price. I am under no obligation to educate the lazy, shiftless, busy, distracted, or stupid; nor am I interested in humoring any bizarre notion that a pile of commodity children's toys ought not to be resold to anyone who isn't going to hand them to a deserving starving waif and/or the nearest spoiled brat they have jurisdiction over.

 

No.  I was referring to the CL people calling ahead to say the lots are worth more than they are, and how that reminded me of a movie.

[justafrog]

No.  I was referring to the CL people calling ahead to say the lots are worth more than they are, and how that reminded me of a movie.

 

Ah, gotcha. I cry thee mercy.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Honesty is the best policy. Don't we all get bitchy about TRU making up MSRPs? Sure buyers can inform themselves of the true values, but that doesn't let TRU off the hook.

I've found that 9/10 times when I suggest the true value of lots (i'm referring to CL), most people stick to their asking price anyway, and I don't feel like I took advantage of someone's ignorance. For example, a recent Hero Factory lot I bought: I told the teen and his mom it was actually worth about 3x their asking price. I had my son with me, said most of the figures would be his and I'd sell a couple. She said, "we don't mess with ebay. If ya'll will enjoy them, take them."

I'm not judging willy or frog or anybody else, just saying I might be too nice but my pillow is comfy at night.

 

You know I agree with you on several things, but on this I just can't. I've done what you did with that lot some times and some not, but either way I don't think there is any difference between scoring a CL deal and one on eBay for way less than it is worth. I might be wrong, but I don't think you advice ebay sellers about the true value of their listings, judging by some of the great scores you get over there! (and that have very gently shared with me every now and then )

[Achilles]

I think there's a fine line between a good deal and ripping someone off. If you know something is worth $200, and you're willing to offer $20... :shrug: It just says something about your own morals, which if you're ok with it... :shrug: To me it's pretty scummy to take pride of screwing people over, which some people do. It reminds me of those pawn shows. But in this sort of game (You hear people complaining that resellers clean off the shelves), you kind of have to take a "If I don't do it, someone else will" attitude. It's amazing how fast you can find yourself doing stuff that would have annoyed you prior. I anticipate as LEGO reselling increases in popularity ( as it is ) the game will get nastier exponentially, and it will happen fast. Sites like this that kind of... Encourage more resellers to get involved kind of surprise me at times. I of course love the site, but... Loose lips sink profits. As more and more people get involved and have access to awesome information like this site provides, it wll mean smaller profits for all involved in the future. Anyway, I am kind of ranting and digressing...

 

It is frustrating when "nice guys finish last", which is often the case. I went to a garage sale once where a guy was selling a lot of Mid 2000's Star Wars sets. I honored the "no earlybirds" and showed up on time. I went and found the toys, and another guy who had been looking at other stuff (and had been there for 10 minutes already) ran over and was like, and I'll take those. He offered the guy $25 for probably $200 in legos, and right there I said to the guy, "I'll offer you $75 for the stuff, it's the only reason I came here and it's worth a lot more than $25" - And the Garage Sale holder simply said, "I'm not doing this to get rich" and sold it to the other guy anyway. So when people don't mind being ripped off, that's one thing.

 

Bottom line though, I don't really have sympathy for folks who are trying to rip off someone (or a store, like the guy who was blatantly abusing the TRU Price Match) and then that well runs dry.

[Fcbarcelona101]

At what % of the original price do you draw the line? If it was worth $200 and you offered $75 (way less than 50%) could you not make an argument that you were trying to take advantage of the guy as well? Just that at a smaller magnitude than the other guy.

[Diabolos80]

Barca you're right. I feel like eBay is an exam unto itself. Pass, and you get to price your item correctly. If you make a listing for a 4 year old Bionicle figure before you ever look at a Bionicle figure listing, you failed, and I exploit your weakness appropriately. Guilt-free.

But if you're a dude with PS4 on the brain and a few dusty Lego sets you think might be worth a few bucks, I'll offer you a few bucks. Then we'll talk about how I'll make a few more bucks, the hard way. Then you'll probably take a few bucks

[justafrog]

I of course love the site, but... Loose lips sink profits. 

 

This is a common assumption anywhere sellers of anything get together and share knowledge.

 

In reality, it turns out it doesn't make any difference. For every hundred newbies that sit at the feet of a selling guru and soak up knowledge, fifty will never do more than spend money without making dime one, another 40 will dabble a bit but decide it's too much work and go try something else, 9 will make a go of it but make enough mistakes they're out of the game within a year, and 1 will actually make some money. Out of the 1 in 100 that actually make some money, 1 in 10 of those will be successful enough to call it a real part time or full time income-earning business or significant investment.

 

I saw it when I started in books, I saw it when I was training dogs for a living, I see it here.

 

The only thing holding any of us back is the person looking back at us in the mirror.

 

Re: Purchasing from Civilians -- I know some people are squeamish. I'm just not. If people offer me something at a price and I buy it knowing I can make money, I purely and simply don't get that that's bad or that I am in any way taking advantage of anybody. If someone comes to me and asks me to give them my expertise in valuing a book or a Lego set or something else I know about, that's a whole different kettle of fish.

[willy431]

I am more of an Ayn Rand type....Everyone has free will to enter into a bargain on their own terms.  I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.  There is nothing wrong with being "selfish".

 

So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Is that evil.

 

Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil.      Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.

 

For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it

 

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose- because it contains all the others- the fact that they were the people who created the phrase "to make money". No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity- to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created.

[Anakinisvader]

Hey Kmart, I know you are selling this LEGO 70% off of retail, but I want to be honest...It's worth retail so I'm going to pay you retail just to be honest.    

 

Hey Walmart, I know you are selling this LEGO for 60% off of retail but it just retired and is worth double retail now.  Can I pay you extra?

 

Hey Target.............

[leaningjowler]

Retailers dropping prices can't be compared to someone on CL or a personal seller. Just not the same as handing some kid or his parent twenty percent of what something is worth. 

 

 

 

Hey Kmart, I know you are selling this LEGO 70% off of retail, but I want to be honest...It's worth retail so I'm going to pay you retail just to be honest.    

 

Hey Walmart, I know you are selling this LEGO for 60% off of retail but it just retired and is worth double retail now.  Can I pay you extra?

 

Hey Target.............

[willy431]

This is really annoying and silly.  The market prices are dictated by free will in America.  You pay what you are WILLing to pay for an item/service.  You charge what you are WILLing to accept for an item/service.  That is how business is transacted. There are only 3 ways to seperate value from their owners.  An agreed upon transaction price--between 2 parties, charitble giving, and the end of a gun.  And be aware--taxes are taking your wealth at gunpoint.  Don't pay and see what happens.  They will come and ask again.  Refuse, and they will come with cuffs to bring you to jail.  Resist further, and you will be led away at gun point.  Resist further, perhaps with arms of your own---and you will be shot.

I want to sell for the highest price possible, and buy for the lowest price possible.  The counter party to any of my transactions be they corporate, individual, or even governmental--should have the same goals.  This is how "price" is set.  This is how a "market" is made.   Any advantage I get in these transactions is from the hours and hours...and hours...I spend researching/testing the market.  Do the hours I spend have no value?  Should I not have an advantage in the market place from all of my research and experience?

 

Perhaps the federal or state government should institute wage and price controls on lego?  To protect the kids and the ill informed of course...We must, as a society protect these people from taking a loss on the sale of their no longer wanted legos....right?  Are you suggesting I am a predator, and the gentleman I bought this lot from was a victim---too timid, and ill minded---and in need of YOUR help to save him and his kids? He was over the age of 18, looked about 50--and didn't seem feeble minded to me.  This new America is making me feel ill.

 

This is a lego INVESTING site. Most of us here buy lego with the hope of turning a profit on them at some point in the future---whether that is 10 seconds from the point of sale, or 10 years, makes no difference---your morals be damned!  Nobody has a moral high ground selling lego products--new or used.  If it makes you feel good about yourself by helping widows and orphans by paying more of your money for their goods, I suggest you keep that foolishness to yourself..at least on a lego investment site.

[exciter1]