Sunday, December 04, 2005
Hidden Treasures at Toys R Us
So, yesterday the director at the local TRU asked me about some fellow collectors and employees at his store; whether or not they schemed and would hide merchandise, etc.. I told him that the local Hot Wheel collectors have shown me that they place items under the display bases. He replied, "the kick plates!?" He didn't believe me so I made a friendly bet and told him that if we were to look in his store we would be sure to find merchandise. Last night we went down through the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, McFarlands, and some of the Hot Wheels areas in the store and filled up a cart and part of another cart full of toys that had been hidden by collectors or store employees. The Director told me he would do inventory and then call me and my friends and give us first crack at the toys before he returned them to the pegs. The majority of the merchandise was Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Hot Wheels, Fantastic 4 and other Marvel figures.
Today my friends and I returned and began filling up another shopping cart full of toys. When the evening of was over, looking under just about every kick-plate in the stores, we filled up 5 more shopping carts full of the same toys mentioned above. Below are some cool finds that I bought.
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/mcfar.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/starwars.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/fantastic4.jpg
Collectors Code!
Now some people may claim that there is some unwritten rule or code between collectors where they help one another out, but I feel that extremes such as hidding large numbers of popular figures from the public is wrong. Today and yesterday I would say I found hundreds of figures. If I were to guess, maybe 200 in all. Figuring 40 figures per shopping basket, multiplied by 5 or 6 shopping baskets full. Some of the figures that I found were those that I had come to this store looking for, for some time. These figures I ended up buying elsewhere, apparently because they were stashed in remote locations inside the store.
Today my friends and I returned and began filling up another shopping cart full of toys. When the evening of was over, looking under just about every kick-plate in the stores, we filled up 5 more shopping carts full of the same toys mentioned above. Below are some cool finds that I bought.
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/mcfar.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/starwars.jpg
http://www.frankgemignani.com/images/fantastic4.jpg
Collectors Code!
Now some people may claim that there is some unwritten rule or code between collectors where they help one another out, but I feel that extremes such as hidding large numbers of popular figures from the public is wrong. Today and yesterday I would say I found hundreds of figures. If I were to guess, maybe 200 in all. Figuring 40 figures per shopping basket, multiplied by 5 or 6 shopping baskets full. Some of the figures that I found were those that I had come to this store looking for, for some time. These figures I ended up buying elsewhere, apparently because they were stashed in remote locations inside the store.
