Gandolf polybags. $8 plus shipping.

Shpadoinkle

I have a few of the new Gandolf polybags I am willing to sell. Price is $8 plus shipping (usps priority.). Will ship to UK, France, & Germany.

Paypal is fine (and already figured into the price.)

Only have a few of these so act now!

Shpadoinkle

Wrong folder, sorry! Boy "smart" phones make me do stupid things!!!

kempo81

This kind bricksetter generously offered to pick me some of these up upon my request and said he was happy to help. After doing so I then get slapped with an $8 pricetag and told thats my price or go elsewhere. He even commented on another post saying they were in his TRU for $4!!

it's great the community spirit is alive and well on the forum. mods i'll take the wrist slap for commenting on this but seriously....

teal93mr2

I can wait for this polybag to be easier to find before paying double or more what it is worth.

julian977

I think if I was planing on selling these for twice what I paid (minus paypal percentage) I would be advertising them on BL or ebay, probably not the on the same day on the same forum that I posted about where I found them and what I paid for them. :lol:

Shpadoinkle

Thanks for the feedback guys! Next time I won't bother sharing where to find things. If you don't like the price, don't pay it, easy as that!

And Kempo, you very obviously wanted a whole bunch of these to resell and turn a profit, expecting me to do all the work for you for free. Your harassment and insulting comments in private messages were bad enough, but for you to take it public crosses the line. You are being reported.

Shpadoinkle

I should also say that I would be happily willing to trade for Uruk Hai polybags, my wife is bananas for that particular one and we missed the boat on it!

murphquake

No offense to the offended, but this kind bricksetter did leave his home, brave the elements, travel to the store, search for highly desired items, wait on lines put up his money, possibly pay sales tax, spent their time, is going to spend more time and money going to the post office and on shipping materials for interested parties. Yes it's almost double the price, but it's also a small item. It would be much easier for them to spend $40 and an hour of their time on each end selling one item, but if they sold that item for $44 no one would complain. I'm sure there are people here who want this polybag and don't want to wait or pay ebay prices. Considering I'd probably end up paying $5.99 in NYC at a TRU this is a really good deal to be able to get it delivered to my mailbox and not even have to get out of bed. Some people value their time and money differently. @Shpadoinkle isn't even asking for an additional paypal fee... If $8 is too much offer a trade instead, maybe you have something he wants. Or go elsewhere.

I think we're putting too much into the "100% markup".

For all I know this kind bricksetter got out of bed, left his family, drove for 2 hours, dealt with moronic TRU staff, put up several dozens of his own dollars, which he won't recover if these don't sell, drove 2 hours back home, will drive another half hour several times to mail them to his customers... lets say packages, tax & paypal fees set him back a buck and change.... is this really that horrible a markup to ask to cover his time? Let's say, for example, that he makes minimum wage in the US and to make the math easy let's round it up to $8/hr, then let's say he drove an hour each way and spent an hour at the store... there's 24 dollars of his time... is it wrong to break that down for the half dozen he might sell? why would it be any different if he sold 2 dozen? What if he went to a LDC and bought 50 Shirtless Darth Mauls for $4.99 and was selling them for the bargain basement price of $10? would everyone be freaking out? You can get these on ebay for $20 each if you buy 10... he's selling them for 60% off the going rate.

I really think we're getting a little too nit picky about price gouging on this sale. Have any of you ever done this kind bricksetter a favor? I haven't, but if I were desperate for a Gandolf poly I wouldn't feel too bad about getting it sent to me for $8 plus actual shipping (which shouldn't be high, polys are very lightweight.

Please take economy of scale and people's time and effort into account before you go chomping at the bit to denounce another bricksetter. If you see someone getting something for $4 and they offer to go get some for you then you're in the free to offer a price BEFORE they go and do it. If you had said "hey this kind bricksetter, do you think you could get me 5 of them? I'll give you $25 plus the actual shipping cost?" to which this kind bricksetter could have said, oh no i've got to get more to make it worth the trip, and maybe you could have worked out a deal.

I'm sorry @kempo81 i understand where you're coming from here, but still disagree. I hope anyone who gets these from this kind bricksetter enjoys them, i'm sure several people will jump on the deal.

teal93mr2

I feel like this has gotten overblown a little bit but the OP made a mistake and told everyone how much he paid for them in another thread. I have done the same thing time and time again as far as braving the elements, spending my time and gas, but I do not try and turn a profit. I usually ask for trades, which are far more interesting and more in line with the community spirit. If the OP had said make offers in the initial post, then maybe there would be no arguement here.

The post looked like it was just a sale thread, take it or leave it. I am sure that the price could have been jacked up a bit more given the demand for this new polybag, so I will give the OP credit for that. I am not as forgiving as @murphquake, but if the market is there, people will buy them. I would say that he will most likely sell all of these, and everyone will be happy.

kempo81

these were for fellow Brickset members, not my back pocket. @murphquake i braved the elements to send lots of complete sets of Team GB minfigs to my counterparts across the pond - at cost.

Legoboy

Shpadoinkle said:

And Kempo, you very obviously wanted a whole bunch of these to resell and turn a profit, expecting me to do all the work for you for free.

Actually, @Kempo81 was hoping to secure a handful to share out to a few other UK members at cost. I was one of them. To many of us, we hope to secure polys at cost from the States or any other country for that matter. In return, we dish out UK exclusives or hard to finds at cost - I can't tell you how many polys I've handed out for nothing and shipped out abroad at my cost. So, I think @Kempo81 was rather hoping you too were acting for the good of the community and helping UK Bricksetters out. @Kempo81 is one of the most trustworthy people I know. Hell, he gave me £30's worth of polys for nothing last week!!

Edit:- Actually, was closer to £50's worth of polys come to think of it.

murphquake

@teal93mr2 actually I think maybe we should be patting the OP on the back, he even let everyone know where these are, before he went and sold them from his secret source. Even if he sold 100 of them he wouldn't be getting rich of it, just a small profit with probably $500 of his pocket laid out before he got anything back (and I doubt that he got 100, though who knows on here)

Shpadoinkle

Thanks for backing me up guys. Some people "get it", others just see the dollar amount and think "what a jerk!" But I guess since this apparently a "big deal" here's the whole story:

The TRU I went to today is exactly one hour away. Down I-69 and over on I-94 (anyone who has driven I-94 between Detroit and Chicago knows that Mad Max rules apply, so that's about double the distance, really.) My wife grabbed a couple of the bags and was very excited to see them. I made my post here immediately to let everyone know and we went to check out. I also grabbed a couple new hobbit sets for her for the BOGO 50% sale.

I checked out separately, and stood waiting for the clerk to ring up her bags. As all people addicted to their phones do when they're waiting even a minute I checked my phone. On it was a message from the person above asking whether I could get them some. I said basically "sure, how many?" but instead of waiting for a response I headed back to the rack and grabbed the handful that were left figuring maybe he wanted two or three. I then stood in line for 25 minutes while three parties ahead of me got their items (the first one argued with the girl for some time, but I had my phone and was able to spell "watched" on Words With Friends in a game with my mom so I was pretty happy!)

Paid for my bags, then left. In the car I checked and had another message from the fellow above requesting TEN of the bags, (pretty much every one I had bought.) I thought about it, and here in MI we have 6% sales tax so that was $4.23 each and with a 3% paypal fee that would put the final net cost of each at $4.36. Having shipped overseas a bit I know that filling out customs forms takes about five minutes, and the time spent at the PO window is tripled over a domestic package, so I came up with a flat $8 price, and would just absorb the fees and the couple dollar bills would make it worth my time to deal with the shipping. I gave him the price, then by the time we were ordering lunch got a message back telling me what an awful person I am and how I should be ashamed of myself and how I'm what's wrong with the world, etc, etc. (Though quite obviously by wanting ten he simply wants to be the one to profit from them!) I bid him good day, and realized that now I was stuck with all of the bags he expected me to "give" to him, so rather than drive back to the TRU and return them I posted this ad. Then I drove home, only to find he's now hijacked my sale thread because I wouldn't listen to his rude, insulting rant in my PM box.

(I don't even want to think about the gas cost from today, but I got my wife the hobbit sets she really wanted and her squeal was all that mattered.)

Anyway! That is the entire story. Make of it what you will. Make a big deal of how I'm "ripping people off" or realize that in the end if I sell all of the ones that I got stuck with I'll be able to "treat" myself to some taco bell this week. Or offer to trade me some Uruk Hai bags, or offer something else, or just decide that you're not interested in what I'm offering!

teal93mr2

@murphquake: I was just making the point that he should not have said how much he paid for them before offering them for sale. Anytime you do that, you are opening yourself up to controversy. The amount of profit is not really the issue here. That's great that he told everyone where they were found, but I don't think that really helps out a lot of people on this site, given the wide geographical variation we have on here.

Shpadoinkle

It looks like I have enough trade offers to reasonably close this thread and mark all of the sets as gone. I will get back to everyone through PM who has contacted me so far. Thanks guys!

Legoboy

^ Well I have a dozen Uruks with your name on them if you can find me a dozen Gandalfs. :-)

The Uraks were secured having left my wife and kids in hotel room getting ready for a family wedding whilst I went to find the nearest WHSmiths in a part of the country completely alien to me.

tom4086

You shouldn't comment on prices! Either take it or leave it! Those are the rules!

CCC

kempo81 said:

it's great the community spirit is alive and well on the forum. mods i'll take the wrist slap for commenting on this but seriously....

It is not a marketplace thread (at least, not at the time I wrote this), so there should not be a wrist slap. With so many people not putting their sales into marketplace any more but into the collecting category at the top of the board so more people see it, then are pricing comments allowed? Does one broken rule deserve another?

CCC

I might have know it would get moved as soon as I commented.

Joseph

^^ Somehow I doubt that the OP purposefully put it in the wrong sub-forum (first of all, why ask the mods to correct it only 12 minutes after the post then?), so it is then still a marketplace thread, even if it has had not been corrected yet. Oh, and to answer the other question; does the second broken rule fix the first?
I'm not saying that I agree with either side, but I think there are better ways to justify kempo's post.

Legoboy

^ Lol, threw me as well. I followed up on your comment but of course my comment made no sense having been moved so had to edit it quickly. Hence I ended with a completely meaningless post, "I carried a watermelon?"

atkinsar

Since the OP stated he has enough trades sorted, I'm closing this thread.