Scalpers Are Like The Boogeyman:  Neither Exist

We we're having a little discussion in the comment section yesterday that was best paraphrased by line from the Billy Joel song Keeping the Faith:

'Cause the good ole days weren't always good

We were discussing a major component of scalping that was prevalent during the early days of the modern line. This got me thinking that this particular component almost no longer exists today, and thus true scalping no longer exists either. Before we dig in deeper, it's a credit to this community that I never see the "s" word uttered in the comments, so this discussion isn't directed inward. I do, however, still see the dreaded "scalper" blamed for so many collecting woes in the larger community, but it's like blaming a a three-toed flying unicorn for being late with your tax filing.

What we were discussing what how common it was for store insiders to stash the good product during the POTF2 days. I personally recounted two stories where store managers pulled or otherwise prevented product from hitting the floor. In other words, if you wanted a POTF2 Slave Leia or Kordell Stewart's rookie Starting Lineup at these stores, you were going to have to pay some form of tax to the store manager. And that is the important part of true scalping: controlling the supply. Charging over MSRP is not scalping. That's simply normal secondary market mechanics. Artificially manipulating the supply by cornering the market is what defines scalping. This is virtually impossible today.

Back in the day, local brick and mortar was the only way to access the primary market for toys. Ebay didn't even exist yet. At least Ebay has such volume that it demands somewhat competitive pricing. The secondary market back then was either the classified section of Toy Shop magazine or local comic book stores, both of which had a take-it-or-leave-it attitude with their pricing. Often times neither knew a number between zero and twenty five when setting their prices for POTF2. In case there is a younger reader here, that's five times the MSRP. These dynamics made true scalping possible. With the primary market being strictly local, it was possible for either store insiders or van driving "Hot Wheels guys" to corner that market. Today, that is virtually impossible. That handy dandy interwebs makes numerous access points to the primary market only a quick away.

There is, of course, one notable exception, and that is store exclusives. That's the one case where scalping might creep up today. The Hot Wheels guys have traded their vans and velcro sneakers for bots that can, and do, corner the market. Fortunately for us, they're usually more drawn toward the latest video game system than action figures.

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