DEATH TO HOT WHEELS GEEKS!

[RootedPhoenix]

Ooh... ANY customer that goes through a merchandising cart pisses me off.

When I worked at FAO, I had to keep a close eye on my carts because people would start going through them. This was especially dangerous because the carts we used were collapsible and HEAVY. On one or two occasions I've had to pointedly tell customers to wait until I was finished stocking.

At the thrift store, we barely could get the clothes rack out the door before people were trying to shop from it. ARGH.

If they'd just wait 10 minutes, it would likely be on the racks, and you could get it then. But as we all know, SCs are allergic to waiting.

[Nyx]

God help you if you're stocking toys off a truck, which most trucks I am. He'll get right up behind you, in that old stinky jacket of his that has to have been marinating in cigarette smoke and old-man smell for years. He's got no concept of personal space, so as an added bonus you get his stanky, coffee and cigarette breath on your neck as well.

What you need to do, is eat a lot of beef and bean burritos before work. Stink him out!

[Mike Taylor]

At the thrift store, we barely could get the clothes rack out the door before people were trying to shop from it. ARGH.

If they'd just wait 10 minutes, it would likely be on the racks, and you could get it then. But as we all know, SCs are allergic to waiting.

I was waiting for the day to come where one of these monkeys would have the card fold up and fall on them. Sadly, we closed before it could happen.

[MystyGlyttyr]

The only two toys I ever bought that I didn't have open by the time I was in the car was 1) my mislabeled Eddie Guerrero figure that I hung on my wall for a few years before I gave it to Eddie's brother Hector at a TNA show a couple years ago. Now in it's place I have a framed picture of me and Hector with it. That picture ranks in my top five most prized possessions...so for me, that investment paid off in spades.

2) Was a limited edition deluxe Rey Mysterio doll that I eventually opened up and carried around with me (for some reason, I always have to have a piece of wrestling merchandise with me at any given time. A well-loved, nine-year-old Matt Hardy doll is the current piece). Christmas of 2007, I was in a dollar store while my mom was hunting presents, wearing a Rey shirt, when a father struck up a conversation with me based on the shirt. His little boy was standing with him and was staring rather longingly at the shirt, and on spur of the moment, I whipped the Rey doll out of my purse and presented it to him. Oh my God to have had a camera on the kid's face at that moment. The father hugged me and thanked me too and my mom grinned all the way home. So THAT paid off really awesomely for me too.

...I don't know where I was going with this. Toys are better out of the box? Better to give than to hoarde? I dunno. Never mind.

[Ringtail Z28]

I worked in a Wally World once. The store manager had a great solution. We cut the corner on each package, not enough to ruin it, just enough to ruin the it as a collectable.

I'm kinda surprised that ruining those things as collectibles didn't make the problems worse.

I swear I started to hate Hot Wheels after dealing with so many crappy customers because of them. Used to love them as a kid though.

[pssorens]

we made the hot wheels collectors back off at my store. managament got tired of the daily stampede back to the toy department and the fact that no Hot Wheels remained on the peg hooks after the collectors came through.

[SpyOne]

Invent new rules. (for customer #1)

First, tell him politely that he may only look through the cases if he puts the cars he doesn't want to buy back.
Then enforce it: if he didn't put them back last time, tell him he can't look through the cases.

[Arcade Man D]

1) my mislabeled Eddie Guerrero figure that I hung on my wall for a few years before I gave it to Eddie's brother Hector at a TNA show a couple years ago.

2) His little boy was standing with him and was staring rather longingly at the shirt, and on spur of the moment, I whipped the Rey doll out of my purse and presented it to him.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww, Mysty is our resident badass with a heart of gold.

[Hon'ya-chan]

But seriously: Groping through your backstock cart?!

I had kids knock over a V-Cart full of Naruto Books in order to get the "newest" volumes at the bottom of the cart. Needless to say, I told them to either march to the register and buy the book, or wait for it to be put out.

Now, if they only ASKED, then maybe I wouldn't be so bitchy about it.....but when 100 Naruto books need to be put back onto the cart and resorted.....

[Lingering Grin]

I think that a little "wear" adds character. Sense of history, in other words.

Honeslty I think that's what separates the people who are looking to collect these things as some sort of twisted investment, and the TRUE collectors.

And that goes for anything, look at the guys who have those HUGE collections that take up entire rooms and stuff, a LOT of it is not mint condition, because they find it at thrift stores, garage sales, stored in attics and forgotten about... but they keep em anyway, because they're collecting because they like collecting, not because it'll be "worth something some day".

[MystyGlyttyr]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww, Mysty is our resident badass with a heart of gold.

Nah, I wouldn't say that. I might have moments, but I would by no means say heart of gold.

Yeah, my collection of wrestling figures is unpacked and arranged in my room. I have them all arranged how I like them. Eddie and Vickie are next to each other, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy are wearing the two championship belts that I've acquired, etc. And when the triplets come over, they always want to run into my room and grab those toys and play with them. Sure, I've had to reattach a couple of arms after they get done, but what the hell.

I have probably at least fifty of them, and can still tell you for the most part exactly what order I bought them in, when I got them, why I bought that particular person (except Scotty Too Hotty, I'm not completely sure where he came from), etc. I know my collection isn't that big or well propped or anything, but it makes me happy and that's kinda the point, isn't it?

[protege]

And that goes for anything, look at the guys who have those HUGE collections that take up entire rooms and stuff, a LOT of it is not mint condition, because they find it at thrift stores, garage sales, stored in attics and forgotten about... but they keep em anyway, because they're collecting because they like collecting, not because it'll be "worth something some day".

Some of my model cars came through similar circumstances. One of my long-term projects, is a 1/8 scale 1960s Corvette. It had been built years ago, but was a total wreck when I got it. Whoever built it...apparently used a broom to apply some sort of clear varnish to the entire car. That had since yellowed...turning the chrome to lovely shades of yellow and orange. Someone had donated it to my church's "white elephant" sale, where I bought it...along with two other cars in similar condition. I've since removed the varnish, made up a new set of wheels, and repaired most of the other damage.

Others, weren't so lucky. For example, the '57 Chrysler friction toy I have...simply can't be restored. The body shell, being molded in an earlier type of plastic, had warped. I bought it anyway, simply because you don't see those very often. Will it ever be worth something? Probably never, because of its condition. Do I care? Nope.

That's not why I started building and collecting models. I get great enjoyment out of tracking down "rare" or old kits, doing the research, building them up (plus posting the progress on a certain website ) etc. There's nothing like finding a hard-to-find kit, building it, and then seeing people go "where the hell did you get that?" Makes my day, in fact

[Ironclad Alibi]

I collected Johnny Lightning cars for a while. I wanted all of their Monopoly series releases, and got at least two of most of them. Each one came with a Monopoly token that was a model of the car. The token just happened to be the same scale as N-scale (1/160). And the price ($3.00 I think) was cheaper than what N-scale model cars cost. So I got a lot of them. Of the actual cars (not the tokens), some are still sitting on my bookshelf, but most (about 30) were given to a young cousin. He loved them.

[draftermatt]

It never occured to me to "collect" Hotwheels and Matchbox.

Mine are in a 5 gallon bucket that I dumped on the floor when I wanted to play, and my nephew does now.

Though I do get mad when he takes some of them in the sandbox (I have ones in there for him already) or when he walks on them and snaps the windshields off the convertibles, it's not worth getting worked up over.

Hell, even my 1:18 scale diecasts get played with, or they used to when I played with them. Now they are sadly tucked into boxes until I can get some shelves up to display them as they should be.

[Arcade Man D]

I have probably at least fifty of them, and can still tell you for the most part exactly what order I bought them in, when I got them, why I bought that particular person (except Scotty Too Hotty, I'm not completely sure where he came from), etc. I know my collection isn't that big or well propped or anything, but it makes me happy and that's kinda the point, isn't it?

I'd say you got the Scotty Too Hotty because the dude is just plain awesome.