Why don't you get your toys at 7 or 8 am in the morning?

With the Sneak Preview wave and Bo Shek assortment hitting stores across the US, collectors are reporting all kinds of experiences, some lucky and others not. But one thing a lot of fans have in common is that they are posting in the forums and chat sites their positions on different strategies, experiences, and ethics in collecting. They range from new people just coming into the hobby, to seasoned veterans of the 12-back era. With the issues being brought up right now amounting to some very hot topics, SirStevesGuide brings you part 1 of our polls in the Collector Etiquette Series to see how naughty or nice you think you ought to be when it comes to the big bounty hunt!

With that in mind, our first question is:

Why don't you get your toys at 7 or 8 am in the morning?

Keep in mind, most Wal*Marts, Targets, and Toys R Us stores stock overnight.

Actually, my WalMart in Conyers, Ga. stocks at about 11 p.m.-12 a.m. I search the pallets, and if I see a case, I snag it and open it with my keys. I take one set for me, close the box back up, and return it to the pallet. The same toy dept. lady has been there forever. At first she used to give me hell for doing that, but when she saw that I always re-organize the figs. and return the case, she backed off. Anyway, yes.....mornings are the way to go.

Tycho, I haven't voted int his poll b/c I don't see an appropriate category for me.

I get off work at 9a and head over to my local Wal-Mart. They usually have nothing (or nothing new). Lately they have only been stocking the R2-Q5, Bespin Lando wave. The employees I've spoken to have no idea that preview fig's are coming out.

From there I go to TRU. They have a bin of E1 Maul on Speeder Bike and a few POTJ Maul's. Just recently they have been getting in newer fig's (FX wave). I found the AT-ST this past week, but the manger says new (E2) product won't be out until 4/23.

Do all Wal-Mart's and all TRU's get their shipment the same day? What days are they?

I live down the street from Walmart. I usually check late at night, infact I just got back, they had some pallets with Hasbro boxes on them but usually it takes alnight and sometimes till the middle of the next day for store employees to get to them. I was thinking about opening some but the last time I did that I almost got in to a fist fight with one of the emplyees and band from Walmart so usually I wait till the next day. Some employees are cool about it and some are just flat out #@#holes about it.

Dr. Evazan:

Good points. I phrased the "I can't stop on the way to work or school" response to sort of fit the general category of "I have work or school concerns at this hour." But I didn't want to write it the second way, because I intended the response to imply that some people who DO have to GO to work or school at this time, also DO stop by Wal*Mart on the way - thus finding all their figures. I was hinting at a recommendation I hoped someone else would bring up.

This has applied to me for school for the past 7 years I've been collecting, and I'm up and dressed appropriately for work at this hour for most of this past year. Friends in my collecting circle all work or go to college as well. Mornings require a committment to have things ready to roll in the a.m. and head out a little early to hopefully start the day with a happy find, and breakfast and phone conversations with the rest of the collectors in the course of starting a new, great day.

Do I do this, or recommend it for every morning? Not likely!

Watch the Just Found Forum and check for E-bay listings as things come out in Hong Kong and sometimes Europe, first. Typically stuff then starts hitting stores 2 weeks later in the US - starting on the East Coast. However, I've noticed before that when Target gets stuff first, the West Coast has priority.

Anyway, I list what I'm looking for, and how many of each figure. I make sure I know what my friends in my group want. And then I hit the stores when reports in Los Angeles start looking good, as San Diego is typically a day or two later. Sometimes it has taken a week of "no luck days" but with one friend in the North County, an architectural contractor for the U.S. Navy having to be at work very early in the a.m., I get Wal*Mart reports from my buddy who has a store that opens at 6 a.m. - just down the street from him as he's on his way to his job. What his store gets, the rest seem to within a day or so.

Once I had 5 Jango Fetts (well all found in one trip actually), I can sleep an extra hour until something else I want is shipping (uh...now it's the Jedi Starfighter I can just imagine seeing with my red eyes... :rolleyes:

Anyway, Dr. Evazan, I recommend that you vote for the school or work option, as you TRULY cannot leave the job to be in the toy isles and I feel for you. Another friend of mine who is an elementary school teacher leaves work and hits a close Target and K-mart during his break period he has during "home room assembly," so he had no trouble finding the Jedi Starfighter already.

It is a dedication required by the really OBSESSED toy collector to try and nail these things the first week they are released. But I have to be in a suit and tie and attend 2 hour staff meetings early most weeks - I'd rather go with a smirk on my face because nobody there knows I have Zam Wessel tucked safely away in my coat pockit with 10 Clone Troopers in my briefcase. :D

Well, since I hit the sack usually around 5-6 AM, I have to go with the choice of, "I want to sleep at this time". Yes, I am a horrible night owl, and probably don't get as much sleep as I should. Not to mention, I never hunt stores anymore anyway.

I have a few buddies on-line (can always use more :D) that watch for stuff for me, as well as I can order on-line for about the same amount and save me the trouble and gas for useless toy runs.

Around here is scalperville. I have to compete with one guy that's really bad who always cleans out the hot collectible toys, not to mention 2 comic shops. So even if I did do 7-8 AM toy runs, I would probably find zilch, 9 times out of 10.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

I work nights so when I get home its getting the wife and kid off and to bed. Around here it is a hit or miss when finding new stuff. There are a lot of collectors around here and I'm sure you just have to hit at the right time. I also think that some of the workers at Wal-Mart are putting back the new stuff which sucks big time. Lucky for me one of my friends runs the KB Toys in town which helps me a lot. He lets me know when things should hit the stores and when he can will help me get what I want.

Tycho,

I choose "I can't stop on the way to work or school", however that is only one factor. I wanted to choose all of the bottom three choices all at once. I don't know when to get what I need from my local TRU. I live in NYC so there is a tremendous amount of scalping and competition. Mostly from non-collectors. Just people who hear about things and want to get their hands on them. The new 42nd Street TIMES SQUARE store opened in November and I bet they have something but I don't have the time to make it over there three times a week at 8 AM. I have school to attend to. I am on spring break now, so I might make it over there a few times. But whenever I see an opportunity to go I am bogged-down by the fact that I probably will come home empty handed anyway. Is it really worth my while to go in a city where the night crews take everything before they hit the shelves?

-JD

In Wisconsin, most stores that carry Star Wars Figures don't open until 8 - 9 am. And lately the figures seem to turn up about a month (or longer) after everyone else is getting them. Plus, I don't know the last time I saw a new fig at TRU. They just started stocking the Luke X-Wing wave.

The best time around here seems to be Lunch time on Friday's, because Target and Wal-mart both stock the toy aisles on Friday mornings to prepare for weekend shopping.

Still most of my collecting comes from on-line retailers. The prices are about the same, but I don't have to waste my lunch running around.

I've actually got to the point that I don't care if I find them in the stores. The new AT-ST is out, and our Toys R Us still doesn't have it and they claim not to have a clue when it comes in.

I actually use a couple of SirSteve's Sponsors (Planetactionfigure, Toymaniacs) to get the newer stuff. Mostly Planetactionfigure. I have never had a problem with them and everything I've ordered has been in perfect condition.

For informations sake, I'm in the west burbs of Chicago, so you would think we should be getting a lot more than some small town (about 130,000 people where I live).

I was at my TRU recently, and they have Shmi, Bespin Security Guard and a couple others still on the peg hooks. They recently got the 25th Anniversary sets in. And I can still find Ep I items on the hooks along with the Leia (General) and Qui-Gon (Mos Espa Disguise). Wal-Mart is a whole other story and I'll spare everyone since you are probably all asleep by now. :D