What waves of Action Figures did you Find?

[soultraveler]

Here's how I managed to find all 27 figures. I started-out by going to Walmart at 8:00 am on the 24th. This was exaclty one-hour after this non-24-hour Walmart opened. I found one Royal Guard and there were several Luminara, Taun We, Yoda and Clone Troopers. I then went to a "non-midnight madness" ToysRus when they opened at 9:30 am and picked-up the first 14 figures. There were about two dozen collectors at the ToysRus. All the figures at the ToysRus in the Colorado Wesminster and Aurora stores had the Background insert. (I believe the figures from the first batch with the BG insert are currently worth more because they have many small variations that have been corrected in later batches) About 2:00 pm on the 24th I picked-up a couple of Dexter-Jettsters and Geonosian Warriors from the ToysRus website. Lastly, I purchased one Count Dooku on Ebay on the 26th of April for $20.

[Swccg Horde]

I hit every store possible here in Flint, MI and the only figures I haven't seen are Dooku, Taun We, and Luminara Undulli. I did see 1 Royal Guard in a person's hand at Target. I found Yoda and the Hanger Duel Anakin at Kay B toys stores at the steep price of $7.99. But wanted them and was glad to pay it.

[Tycho]

Oooh. I cringe at the thought of E-bay.

Please go at 6:45 am or whenever it is that you can take the first crack at freshly stocked SW figures at your favorite retailers.

If you don't want to deal with "those people" that are out there in the morning, I've got news for you - you're buying your figures from them when you go on E-bay!

They'll be there so long as you are patronizing them.

$20.00 is too much! On April 27 (Saturday) I went early just because I was awake and needed some household supplies from Wal*Mart and an Obi-Wan Coruscant extra for customizing a young Obi-Wan from. I could have bought 6 more Dookus if I wanted to, but I didn't need them. They were gone by the time I returned to check the toys after I got my cat food. They are now also on E-bay (I'd bet) if you care to see them. And they used to be $5.88 each.

I mean to be critical, but please don't take me as being offensive. I can respect you even if you come out and say that an extra hour of sleep was worth $13.oo for you (plus the gas for a return trip to Wal*Mart). But at my store that morning, all the 'collectors' had gotten their figures on the 23rd and most had dropped out of shopping (myself included save for that one day on the 27th). It was the usual HotWheels guys only that morning. So 6 Dooku's times $13.oo each made one of your E-bay friends $78.oo profit by taking the figures away from the rest of us.

BTW, yes I bought 7 Dookus between 2 stores on the 23rd. But now I am done. (I used them for scenes: Dooku vs. Yoda, Dooku vs. Obi-Wan, Dooku watches the Arena, etc) But I am done. The point is that sometime this week at 7am at my Wal*Mart, Count Dooku will make some "HotWheels collector" another $78.oo if all of you who don't yet have this figure don't go over there. I'm sure you'll land your figure inside of a week and lose maybe 4 hours of sleep through the whole time? (If you work or go to school and need to be up early most mornings anyway). But it's your $13.oo of "convenience money" that buys you some sleep time which when multiplied, is the exact reason why you cannot go into most stores and buy Count Dooku on your lunch break.

Let's get that clarified.

[Tycho]

Also note, for those of you "smart guys" who ARE collectors, and think you can finance some 13 other figures in your collection just by getting your figures WHILE you are scalping / auctioning Dookus - you are screwing yourselves. Here's how that works:

If you sell all the Dooku's you want to scalp, the chances are great that they will go to people all around the country and not encourage local collectors to continue shopping at YOUR favorite retail store. Consequently, your store will very quickly note that it wants to have say 900 Star Wars figures on hand for the toy wall, and that it does. They sell furniture, toilet paper, food, and drinks and they DON'T CARE that their stock is full of 900 Anakin Peasant Disguise figures because they barely make a percentage on that. Other collectors who would have come to your store to buy the Dooku's you scalped, might have picked up some duplicate figures, like Anakin PD, to open or to customize, but you've also discouraged that.

Now you can take your $78 of E-bay profit money you would have spent on your other figures, and wish you still had it for gas because you're going to have to drive out of town to find a store that is going to stock the Vader, Bespin Luke, Mace, and new Jango Fett.

The jokes on you!

Think about it. I loathe scalping!

[Vortex]

Here, here Tycho.

I think we all need to band together and start boycotting Ebay, and the dirty dealers at the toy shows who tripple the price of an easy to find figure. The only thing we are doing, as collectors, is making prices higher for each other, and creating a frenzy over toys that will be abundant and easily available in the next few weeks or even after the movie. We are the ones who create the scalpers, and hoarders who live at wal mart, toys r us, target, etc. Because we can't wait and are willing to shell out major $$$ because we have this "gotta have it, need it attitude". These guys/gals pray on us and new releases, and there no reason for it.

A good example is this weekend. I went to a comic/toy show and every where I looked dealers had the Episode II figs out. They were charging, 15-20 for yoda, I won't even say how much for a Dooku, 15 - 10 for the figures you could drive 3 blocks to target to pick up for 6 bucks. 50-60 for Tie Bomber, and Snow Speeders that are just starting to hit the shelves. And kids and adults were going nuts trying to finish off collections and paying whatever price, when they know they can get it cheaper down the road or later on clearance. Ya ever notice that all the toys hit a massive mark down? The AT-AT, the queens huge star ship, basic figures, play sets, 12" collection... Even if they do try to sell it off at a later date, there's a slim to zero chance you could ever get that initial high price again once the stuff is in ample supply. Would you pay 80 bucks for a snow speeder on line when you could go to wal-mart and get on clearance for 15? I know some people don't have a wal-mart, but sometimes you get it from their on line store or from a fellow collector who's not a scalper. Isn't that why we have that trade forum here?

I do understand the mentality of "Its out, I gotta get it NOW" but honestly think about it, and take a breather. The toys are new, some stores are slow to stock, and some stores intentionally hold back cases (due to the morning scalpers who clear the pegs right after they are stocked. I know one wal-mart has started to fight back against the scalpers who circle like sharks every morning.)
But just give it time, check the stores when your out and about, and odds are the missing figures will be there. They have been in the past.

If we start to boycott the scalpers and ebay - I know its hard sometime - but the laws of supply and demand will take back over, and the scalpers will start to leave figures on the pegs when we the collectors aren't biting on their outrageous prices. Then we, the collectors, will find more than enough at a lower price haning on store pegs. If they can't turn a 200% profit, they won't buy 13 to 15 of the "hot" figs.

We just need to slow down and not panic about getting figs 1st. A week wait or two for collecting isn't going to make or break a diarama, or office desk. If you're selling or planning on selling, yes, a week or two could kill your 200% profit margin, but hey, aren't we trying to get away from that?

Or am I just alone in this thinking?

[KUPFERKOPF]

Here in victorville CA, I found all waves including the #27, I didn't get #27 but i did see the guy who got the only two in walmart at midnight on the 23rd, most of the waves were easy to find between walmart, toysrus, and target, including the majority of the variations. I found 1-15 with and without the BG's at midnight madness also yoda, and anakin HD, at walmart, foud luminara, taun we and the royal guard at target, found the rest at toysrus

[Turbowars]

.

[DarthBrandon]

Found them all except Bepsin wave so far.

[Tycho]

Good Brandon.

But this thread is pretty useless now.

As you pointed out there is

Collection 1, Wave 3 now...

Mace Arena Rescue (shampoo in his eyes, but for what hair?)
Jango Final Battle (cigarette lighting is for one who's lost their head)
Vader Bespin Duel (paternity test)
Luke Bespin Recovery (civil war hospital)

Then there's

Collection 2 Wave 4....

Massif and Geonosian (at least it's not a pitbull)
Senator Orm Fre Taa (opposition to Senators Jenny Craig & Oprah Winfrey)
Endor Rebel Soldier (Chris "Kenner X-wing" Bordeaux version)
Qui-Gon Jinn (I haven't warmed the pegs since 12 months ago)

and

Collection 2 Wave 5...

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (I love fair distribution of power, except at TRU)
Dejas Puhr (No drinks? I'm going to shoot before Greedo does - twice!)

I have a friend who got me the latter 2 and the Endor Soldier and I will pick them up tomorrow. They came into Wal*Mart.

I ordered the Massif times 5 from the Fan Club (retail price)

My friend got Orm Fre Taa, and we all turned down Qui-Gon. (poor Qui-Gon, I just don't need a figure of him right now)

Plus I've been able to find every one of the Bespin wave save for Luke (not that I'm sure I need that figure anyway. I already did nice Bespin scenes with the '98 figures - don't need this no matter how cool it is, really. Vader I can save for Episode 3)

Anyway, we're all behind again and this thread really only covers the first 27. We are now up to 33 about.