Repacking Old Figures to Fraudulently Return Them

[Tycho]

At my Target, there is a Ganner Krieg / Antarres Draco comic 2-pack with 2 Luke Coruscant Guard Disguise figures (from 1996 SOTE). I've taken to the attention of one of the employees in toys there. What happened? It's right back on their racks for sale - as the rip-off that it is (unless you need those SOTE figures - but it doesn't even have their helmets and they got packed with Darth Vader lightsabers. )

Hasbro made it so you essentially get 2 figures and a comic book for about $12. That's a great deal. The comic is regularly $3.25 and figures are $7.20 approximately. 2 plus the comic would be $17.65 otherwise (plus tax on the comic book - the figures are after-tax for California)

So saving $5 is not enough? That just looks really cheap. I guess Target's cheap too - because if it's any kind of conscious decision, they're waiting for an unwitting mom or grandmom to buy it for a present and then be rid of it.

It's about time we'd be rid of guys who do these kinds of return-frauds. Grow up people!

[DarkJedi5]

Part of me wonders if Target and places like it doesn't put these figures back on the shelves for some reason. Is it possible that there's nothing they can do about it so they put them back on the shelves so that when they don't sell they can send them back to Hasbro? I would assume that any merchandice that is still on the shelves when it comes time to do a reset and it won't sell they get to ship it back to Hasbro? In which case it shows Hasbro what kind of tampering happens with their figures so they can come up with better packaging. And if poor fool buys it, it's no skin off of Target's nose. I'm not saying it's honest but I guess I can see why they may do this from a business standpoint, but I do agree with Tycho. Figure switchers are perhaps the worst thing for this hobby. Period. Imagine a shelf where all the figures had been switched and your local retailer doesn't care and puts them back out. People would never buy them and the store would never reorder because the pegs are full. And thus no new figs, ever.

[jediguy]

I have seen the figure swap out a few times as well
knowing that most of the big box store employees could not care less about something like that, I take the bad item and hide it elsewhere in the toy aisle, hoping that it won't be found until the employees do the reset and maybe then one of them will notice and care enough to remove the item from the sales floor

[JetsAndHeels]

It is definately a growing problem, I have seen it a few times in the past couple of weeks also. Not just with Star Wars, but also Transformers. I have brought it to the attention of the employees, and so far I have not seen any back on the pegs, so it may be working.

Also being a sports card collector, this reminds me of how some folks bend and feel packs to try and spot jersey cards. I have seen these people standing there just feeling packs and then they put back what does not appear to have anything and they buy the ones they want.

To me it is just like stealing. The collectors who want to buy packs and hopefully get something good are being robbed of the opportunity. Just like these people who repack old figures are doing to someone out there who may not know they are buying someone's leftovers. Hardcore collectors like us will be able to spot it, but what about a mother buying a toy for their child, or a grandparent buying something for their grandchild? I doubt they would notice, and in the end they are the ones getting ripped off.

[cookiemonster]

Hey Hasbro does it all the time, lets put these old figures in this new set, they will never know, and then people wonder why the staff at the toy shops dont realise, after all Hasbro does it to them.

But in all serious yes this is wrong and shouldnt be done, however can you see the point here, people can get away with it because Hasbro themselves re-pack old figures, so now the average punter doesnt know if he's getting re-packed Hasbro figures, or if someone is re-packing old Hasbro Figures.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

There has been discussion throughout the board here for many years about this. I've seen it many times myself, but thankfully not for a few months now. Usually it's whenever new clones come out, or at least new clone multipacks. But it makes me angry every time.

[pbarnard]

I haven't seen figures yet, but I have seen one solitary instance of a droid part being returned, it was for an R7 droid pack in returned with what appeared a Escape from Naboo leg badly mangleded in its place.

[DarkArtist]

i just think the stores need to have employees who are going to check to see if the figures match the package art on the the box. i mean the comic packs show the figures on the back of the package and most of the single card figures do this as well. how hard is it to see that if the figures don't match up then it's tampered and therefore can't be returned.

i can remember when stores would refuse to accept any type of merchandise that was opened. if the buyer opened it, they were stuck with it. perhaps we should return to that way of retail and these figure swappers would be stopped cold in their tracks.

[Qui-Long Gone]

I can't say I've ever seen this happen, but that's not to say it doesn't around here.

Sometimes I feel a little (just a little bit) like a loser for collecting figures in my 30s, but when I hear of stuff this, I take comfort to know that there are bigger losers than me doing something that would probably be too juvinile for a juvinile to do.


Can't these idots be content with living in mom's basement rent-free and downloading porn because they can't get laid by one-legged hookers with crooked teeth?

What a bunch of morons.......

Can't you just see these dweebs (man I miss that word) at home giggling like 13 year old girls. They probably feel as proud of themselves as that fat goon Francis did when he stole Pewee's bike (man I love that movie).

Seriously losers, get a life. To paraphrase Woody, You are a Tool! These are toys were talking about not stocks and bonds and life savings! At least elevate your crime to something respectable.

I bet the Joker would shove a pencil in your head for your lack of vision....

[Umbra]

I must agree with the hatred towards these individuals, I've I guess been lucky up until now, i haven't had the misfortune of seeing this until just recently. I ordered the Rebel Pilots Legacy 2 off amazon since I had no luck in stores and didn't want it to become another Revan for me (never finding it and realizing too late to find it online) got it in the mail, and found Luke Wedge and Han (which i think might have been the 95 deluxe Han) I was ****ed, but luckily I returned it for a replacement and got a legitamate pack this time, yay.