Creepy Collecter/Scalper Sightings

[JediMAC]

Have you ever told this scalper that he looks a lot like Ralphie from A Christmas Story?

Now wait a second there Travis...  I don't think anyone here was suggesting that dude was a scalper.  He seemed to apply more to the "Creepy Collector" portion of this thread's title... 

[Diddly]

Whoops, my bad. I assumed we were talking about creepy scalpers, not just creepy people.

[Famine]

There was one gentleman who asked me, and a guy from GH which figures were gonna be hard to find. I call him HPS. High pitched scalper. I named him this, because his voice was high, and he wanted the shortpacked figures.

Kevin

[Diddly]

I would have said that they shortpacked Anakin, Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan. Then at least we could be guaranteed good figures.

[Rob L]

I saw a right creepy bunch in TRU last weekend.  Most were only just over half my height and had squeaky and/or whiney voices.  They didn’t seem to have enough money to buy all the figures, and several of them were accompanied by a regular-sized person that appeared to be in charge of the cash. 

What got me was their weird choice of the collectables on offer… “wow, there’s an Anakin”, “Hey dad, don’t you think Obi Wan is so cool looking?”

Clueless

[Ian_C]

Is that a touque or something? 

Yup, that's a toque.

Maybe he came from Canada originally? 

It's a pretty common thing to wear up here.

Sadly, I can't participate in the creepy collector discussion, as SW collecting here has been dying for some time. 

I could tell some stories about the POTF2 era though.

Ian

[CorranHorn]

I've talked about the nutjob who was tearing down pegs looking for SAGA Yodas back in the day several times. Basically, the guy was literally freaking when he couldn't find any and was making a mess of the local Walmart and Target. He kept going on about how they were so rare and he could get good money for them. I wound up finding two Yodas at Target and picking them up and handing one over to a kid and his mom while keeping the other for myself. The guy seemed on the verge of crying when he saw that. Don't know whatever happened to him though, I've not seen him again, he may have not been from my part of Chicagoland.

Of more recent weirdness, I hit the local Walmart once a week when it opens after I get off of work (I'm "working" now as I write this ) and often see the Hot Wheels collectors there. Always the same 2 or 3 guys, I know they've seen me there before and specifically go looking at Star Wars toys. Yet whenever I come in, they get closer to the door (if the store hasn't actually opened yet) and them boom they make a beeline for the toys section. At first I thought they were trying to race each other, but they would keep the same pace, just faster than my casual walking. They head straight for the cars and I'm left thinking what the hell are they up to? I think that they believe one day, I'm going to crash the Hot Wheels party or something, and I have absolutely no interest in doing so. I think the funniest part about this is, that they are all at least 20 years older than me (I'm 27) and I could easily out run/walk them if I wanted to. Weird stuff for sure...

[Darth Broem]

Yes, you do get the occasional peg wrecker.  We did have a lady that was just all over the pegs the morning of 4/2 at Target.  She was not creepy at all, just very aggressive in her search for figures.  All us guys just kind of stood back, got out of her way, looked at each other, slightly snickered, and then dove back into our own searches. 

[Angry Ewok]

Last weekend at Toys R Us, as I was thumbing through the ROTS pegs looking for something new (I really want some Clone Commando's!), I completely whiped out a column of pegs of figures by mistake. The top peg collapsed onto the second, and then the third... I had about 20 figures fall ontop of me - all right in front of this nice chick who works there.

You guys keep talking about weird short guys - I'm 5'5 and I was wearing a "Let the wookie win" t-shirt and I had a ******* boonie cap on (it was raining).

So I apoligized for making such a mess, and me and the chick helped clean up my accident.

[CHEWIE]

Good story Brad... I've done that a time or two, and felt like a total jacka$$ when it happened.   

 

[Darth Broem]

Sometimes I will be the only person in the aisle and try to quietly search through the pegs from the front all the way to the back.  Then I SOMEHOW end up knocking about 4 or 5 of them to the ground.  Sure enough it seems like someone always manages to walk into the aisle the moment I do this. 

Then they get to see the grown man bend over and pick up the figures rather red-faced.

[Ben]

I did this today too. Crazy shaped bubbles are overstuffed pegs are an accident waiting to happen.

[CorranHorn]

Last weekend at Toys R Us, as I was thumbing through the ROTS pegs looking for something new (I really want some Clone Commando's!), I completely whiped out a column of pegs of figures by mistake. The top peg collapsed onto the second, and then the third... I had about 20 figures fall ontop of me - all right in front of this nice chick who works there.

You guys keep talking about weird short guys - I'm 5'5 and I was wearing a "Let the wookie win" t-shirt and I had a ******* boonie cap on (it was raining).

So I apoligized for making such a mess, and me and the chick helped clean up my accident.

So this thread is like a memorial to you eh?

Heheh, I've done the same thing too, lately its at Walmart which is so stuffed with figures that the cards on adjacent pegs are overlapping each other.

Funny story actually, one time in what had to be 1999, I was at the local TRU when they were having their infamous 99 cent clearance and they had this HUGE box of figures on the top shelf. Well I wanted to see exactly what was in the box for customizing purposes and I was able to get the box down and I went thru it and nabbed what I wanted. When I was done, I was trying to put it back up while my taller friend stands there telling me to forget about it and just leave it. Here I am sorta trying to be helpful, but I get **** for it, anyways the damn thing falls over on top of me, spilling POTF2 green cards all over the aisle. My buddy freaks out and starts cursing me out, when suddenly we hear over the PA for personnel to go to our aisle. We did a double take, and bolted out of the store like our butts were on fire. I was so embarrased, but in hindsight, it was pretty ****** funny. 

[Shannon (Princess)]

I probably 'creeped' out one of the newer SW collectors yesterday.  Went to Target and he was doing the standard flipping thru the figures, and I asked if there was anything new.  He said he was actually from N Dallas, so he didn't know if it was new here. (First indication that he was a noobie- that store only had the first wave).  So, I told him about the Peter Mayhew event since he lives by the theatre.  He looks kind of blank, so I ask if he knows who Peter Mayhew is.  No.  I told him who he was, said it was for the line up pre-party and that no one was actually going to start the line up yet, since so many are going to Celebration 3.  Celebration 3?  Okay, how much of a SW fan are you!?? geez... Then to make matters worse on me being a total SW geek, my cell phone starts playing a SW tune and it's my friend Helen who tells me she just bought 20 tickets for the DLP Midnight show and to see if I had bought any or needed one, because the whole gang here bought around 50 all together.  I don't know, I figure if you are an adult and you are "collecting" the action figures, etc, you would know a bit more about things... which just solidifies that maybe I am a SW geek... I was nice to him though, I told him where he might be able to find a red guard...
These new collectors just really get to me... How much is it worth?    blah blah blah blah blah... that wasn't him, though, that was a different guy at another store...

[JesseVader08]

I hate to burst your bubble, but this guy knew exactly what your were talking about.  Some of these Star Wars geeks get a little tongue tied when a girl actually talks to them.