How much fun is a hobby if you can't share it with anyone?
#126
Posted 06 June 2008 - 08:49 AM
I doubt i'll ever be able to justify the price on one myself (well, maybe one day ), but it kind of really bothers me that a bunch of them are in such a precarious spot right now.
#127 Guest_General Veers_*
Posted 06 June 2008 - 09:26 AM
But honestly, he’s not going to just up and quit not that he’s banned. I wouldn’t expect him to sell those pieces for quite some time.
Having said that, they will probably end up in the hands of a new collector willing to roll the dice.
#128
Posted 06 June 2008 - 10:56 AM
#129 Guest_General Veers_*
Posted 06 June 2008 - 11:23 AM
Not to be a negative Nancy, but if he could do that – he would have done it after Yapiel.Hopefully you can learn from what happened when it all caught up with you, re-evaluate your priorities, and grow as a person.
#130
Posted 06 June 2008 - 01:54 PM
Not to be a negative Nancy, but if he could do that – he would have done it after Yapiel.Hopefully you can learn from what happened when it all caught up with you, re-evaluate your priorities, and grow as a person.
Some people have to learn everything the hard way, while some just won't learn at all. Alex, unfortunately, seems to have been a case of the latter.
Current collecting goal: obtain all 148 Monster In My Pocket Series 1 figures in regular colors (71.62% there)
So many toys, so little money!
#131
Posted 06 June 2008 - 02:31 PM
DK, I agreed with your entire post until you got to the part about me being a BB expert. Now, ask me about BBSD and I can help -- but otherwise... not so much.
Hahahaha....I thought the same thing too.
Well, since you are so well informed on SDs,
I figured you probably knew 'bout the rest of the BBworld too. \
dAROOkIE
#132
Posted 06 June 2008 - 02:53 PM
He may have been shady, but I don't think he ever welched.
Not only is it unlikely that he can grow from this anymore than he could have grown from "yapiel", as Veers said, but 1) he did "welch" by passing off crappy, damaged, inked-up figures in sales and trades, and 2) he never had to completely welch (i.e. take the money and run) because he used his scams to make sure he got the price he wanted. Better to be stealthy, get the right price and keep making sales than to blatantly screw someone on one sale and cut off all future business. So, his lack of 100% welching is not a sign of good character--it's consistent with self-interest. I don't think he has any moral compunction against welching, so I could see him resorting to that.
On the other hand, given that he has so much to sell, pulling hit and run scams would probably be too much effort...you have to set up account after account once you burn each one, and at some point, the complaints on big ticket items could lead to more serious investigation and legal action by ebay.
Edited by hunterrose2000, 06 June 2008 - 02:54 PM.
#133
Posted 09 June 2008 - 09:32 PM
http://www.youtube.com/Jamesullivan
Free videos that I don't get paid for, but unfortanately collecting is not free. I have lived in NYC my whole life and I am well aware of the buy and beware unwritten law. Example 1-I still buy hot dogs from vendors in the city when I know the ingredients are that of pig's intestines and the vendors are usually not the cleanest of people, but the hot dogs are good.
Example 2-I buy hot dogs at NY Mets baseball games when I know they cost $4.50 and they are just regular ballpark brand, though the slightly enhanced taste is worth it to me.
My only friend on this board is gone, well I would be lying if I said I didn't get banned from the Christy Hemme(Red Head's Society Forum), and to this day I still do not why, but I never pressed the issue and just let it be. However I will tell you my buying tactics with my collection.
Before I got the internet ('06) I did want to reattain the complete set. Pink figures only. To be honest I probably would of paid $5,000.00 for a complete set, until I discovered how cheap these toys still were. This did not change my mindset though, and I was willing to still spend this amount on a complete set, and I had no intentions of buying numerous lots to make it. My plan was to get the poster, find a set for sale, and then spend whatever was left over from the $5,000.00 on M.U.S.C.L.E. related items. Before I ever got a Ebay account I use to search for the items I seeked on Ebay. I noticed a Dr. Bombay for a high price. Since I still had some figures from my original collection, I never forgot which figures were in the set. I also told myself that anyone can duplicate a different sculpture in the 1980's made to look like a M.U.S.C.L.E. and sell them as "super rares". Am I the kind of person who will live on tea and cheap breakfast, lunch, and dinner so I can budget these things into my life, YES I AM.
Example 3- I have a gold and white gold cross I had casted, platinum bail, NESW engraved on the back, a stone set in the center in the front, and some other nice attachment in rose, white, and yellow gold attached, with silver rings and a UN symbol. It cost alot to put it together, but I am a crafty artist for my myself like that.
My_World1.jpg 21.4K 22 downloads
Then I found out I was going to Arizona for work for over a month stay. I looked at the Bombay auction, contacted seller and met him there. As soon as he started to try to explain the authenticity of the figure, I immediately cut him off, told him I was committed to buying the figure all myself, asked him if he wanted tea, as I drank my tea I gathered all I could on my list and a few others for a couple of thousand. I was more happy with the complete set, and was always optimistic about the others. The point I am trying to make is that if you consider how much it would of cost to obtain the complete set in the 80's-lets say over a $100.00, then factor in the fact they are no longer sold, well you all should really be expecting to pay more than some pricing list in a ToyFare magazine(IMO).
So do I care if I was lied to, to be honest I could care not. Do I even know if Alex is his name, or perhaps that picture of him was just a worker for someone else in the "Forbes" family business, I do not really care. I got what I wanted from him and if I didn't want to make the deal, there was nothing he was going to do to make me change my mind. So before I get on him, lets note that some people regret after the fact, and that is really a bad trait. Yes its possible I could of got everything for free in a little unknown store in Japan(probably with some Samurai Ninja guy working there, LOL), but buying should not be the problem. Now knowing that he intently tried to make a market of his own, is the same as M.U.S.C.L.E. making colored figures(again IMO).
I have no plans to collect more figures, though I think there is a Ultimate Muscle figure that looks pink(no offers please, I will get him on my own) to go with my figure or 2 from each similiar toyline. Its alot of fun and if someone is interested I have even more fun sharing my hobby, but I keep my figures, unless I feel generous, and its not from my only complete set.
Since AF is still shown as a friend of mine here on LRG, then he still is, if his picture disappears then he is not. Just a message to Arforbes, and I quote"there is nothing worse than a sales pitch, not even a uneducated buyer" but also remember, and I quote"You are a good salesman, so remember in another 25 years you can continue all this insanity;)
How do I feel about 2 Bombays, well I am fine with it, if I ever wanted a figure there was no ther of(like my cross) I would give "GodBeast" an offer and a design he could not refuse, and also a contract stating any other finding of this mold will be very costly, LOL, and let me add I think those creations by GodBeast are very educational and awesome peices.
So in truth I only got to the top of the second page before I decided to skip the rest of the reading and post. Maybe someother time as its getting late.
To finish let me invite everyone here in a challenge. That challenge is do something you like with your M.U.S.C.L.E.s in your spare time(like make wrestling videos, you can all be a part of the U.M.W.(Universal M.U.S.C.L.E. Wrestling- which noone owns)), and if you have no spare time then just look at them once in awhile to make sure they are safe. Also as a reminder, it is nice to save 1 set, and let the other figures(on Ebay, ETC.) go to people who are hoping to have their own.
P.S.P.A.M. Check out who sent me a signed picture I bought on EBAY, I am a sucker for pretty wrestling chicks like Stunt
Christy_Hemme_hot_picture_Myspace_comment.jpg 16.03K 30 downloads
or Christy!
On second thought, just watch.... M.U.S.C.L.E. Wrestling Videos
#134 Guest_General Veers_*
Posted 10 June 2008 - 05:57 AM
#135
Posted 10 June 2008 - 06:20 AM
I think what Veers might have been trying to say is...
#136
Posted 10 June 2008 - 08:28 AM
Are you saying that Alex sold you a super rare, the figures on your list (to complete your flesh set I assume), and a few others, for a couple of thousand?
Dollars?
Like, American Dollars?
No wonder you were willing to pay $138 for that common figure a while back, Alex had you thinking these things were all worth thousands of dollars.
Edited by asator, 10 June 2008 - 08:28 AM.
#137
Posted 10 June 2008 - 11:13 AM
#138
Posted 10 June 2008 - 11:31 AM