Omaha, NE Midnight at TRU.....the End.

Well it seems official. TRU will not be opening at midnight in Omaha. TRU has posted the official listing, and it seems you have to live in either California, New York or Texas if you want them to open.

So my new opinion? Screw 'em! (sorry craig). They're over-priced anyway. I will be taking my business and money to Wal-Mart for ATOC merchandise. I also plan to send off an email letting them know how short-sighted they are. I intend to do this on my own, but if anyone wants to be included, or make this our official statement, let me know.

So now, which Wal-Mart shall we hit?

 

In looking over that list, only about 111 (if I counted right) stores are listed. Supposedly, 200 stores are supposed to be open. Who knows what'll happen between now & the 22nd? Maybe some stores will take it upon themselves to open at midnight without the official corporate sanction. Like I said, I'll keep everyone posted. I do have to disagree on one point- even if I weren't employed by TRU, I'd have to say their prices are pretty even with everyone else. The Sneak preview figs $5.99 which is about what Wal-Mart & K-Mart had them for, give or take a few cents.

Maybe if enough people express their displeasure about their city being excluded from the midnight sale, they'll change their minds. Just one thing though to anyone deciding to speak their minds- please be mature. Don't go firing off things like "You Suck!" or crap like that. I highly doubt things of that nature would persuade them to change their minds.

 

I agree. I think that it's absurd for TRU not to have a midnight sale in Omaha. We are one of the 50 biggest cities in the country and we have one of the highest rates of disposable incomes per captia than most other cities. I'll be forking out for my figs at K-mart or elsewhere. I guess we still have the "Cow-Country" stigma attached to us. Maybe someone should remind TRU's corporate offices that one of the richest men in the world lives here. Ah well, ignorance is what separates the successful from the mediocre. Sorry about this little rant, but it really gets under my skin when our part of the country gets overlooked.

 

Maybe TRU will open at midnight if we get Warren Buffet to join the OFF, and attend the sale!

 

You should change your chapter name to Sugar Daddy Land.

 

To quote Yoda (and risk a ton of hate mail), "Hear you nothing that I say?" Just because Omaha (or Council Bluffs) isn't on that list, DOES NOT mean there WON'T be a midnight sale here in Omaha. From what I was told at work, as has been posted elsewhere, 200 TRU stores are supposed to be open for midnight sales. The list posted at the TFN site said nothing about it being a complete or being set in stone. With two weeks to go before the 23rd, it's a little absurd to automatically assume Omaha is being skipped. Hell, there's still room on that list for 80 or so more stores to be added. If it the 23rd comes & goes and at least one area TRU doesn't have a midnight sale, then each of you gets to tell me "I told you so" once & then let it drop. Until then let's be a littel optimistic.

 

Good point, Craig! If TRU doesn't choose to have the midnight sale, they're missing out on tens of thousands of dollars in sales. It's really no big deal. I'm sure we can, as a group, put the feelers out to find other sources of toys that night.

I was at the last TRU midnight sale, after returning from Celebration I in Denver. It was fun, but only yards away, KayBee opened their west doors at the same time. The selection there was great and I found some good stuff.

But, I must stress to all fellow collectors that Hasbro is NOT in it for the fans. They are only interested in MASS producing this stuff. If you don't find it that night, it will be available at 43 other stores in the metro area the following morning!

Heck, if TRU doesn't open up at midnight, wouldn't it be funny if we picketed there instead?

Hang in there, gang! We'll get everything we want/need very soon.

 

There is a difference in the first run of toys that come out and the same exact one toy you might find two months later. Some of you may not be die hard action fig/toy collectors as others. Most of the time there is a variation or two that make the initial release much more valuable moneywise. Plus it's cool (in some circles) to say "Hey, you wanna see my $100 Obi Wan!"

 

I'm a die hard collector but I couldn't give an airborne vermin's posterior about variations. The only exception to that is if there's a MAJOR change to sculpt and/or paint. And by change in sculpt and/or paint, I'm not talking about changing the position of a character's hand (Hoth Han, IG-88 or the original Tusken Raider)or the original Boba Fett's gloves. If they were to release the Hoth Han with the exact same body, limbs but the head were sculpted with the hood up, then that'd be different. It represents that character at a different part of the movie.

Who's to say that $100 figure won't turn up again later? Case in point- R2-Q5. The Force File had the word "Imperial" mis-spelled. The variation hunters went & snapped it up making it tough for everyone else to find (Krypton Komics had a couple of them for $15 each). Then around the beginning of the year, they started popping up everywhere (thanks again, Mark ). I can only hope it drove down the value for the people who only collect because of the monetary worth of the figure.

For myself, I only want my One. That's going to tbe the motto of the OFF/RCR toy archive once it gets up & running. I don't care about the value. The value is intrinsic. It's not measured in the card/figure condition or variation. I mean who cares about the number on the back of the card? So what if it has .0004 or .0005?

To each his own. I don't have to agree with everyone's style of collecting. I know how I like to collect and that's all that matters to me.

Now, back to the topic of this thread, the figures you find a day, two days or even a week later WILL be the same figures as those released on the 23rd. The amount each store will be getting should be enough to keep them well stocked for a while. Not only that, if there is a major variation chances are it will take a bit of time for Hasbro to catch that mistake or whatever it is and change it. I was talking to the Hasbro rep today at work and was told there would be enough product out to keep everyone happy.

 

There is also the one thing that should govern how you collect. Buy it because you like it, not because you think it will be worth something. Besides, the only time it will be worth "$100" is if you can sell it for that and then it is gone. Speculative value is just that, a speculation.

As for me, since I work til about 11:00PM, I'll probably go to a TRU midnight sale if they have one. My only real wants are probably a Jango Fett or two (if two, one to open and enjoy and one to keep boxed) and maybe a Slave One and Jedi Starfighter if I can't find one of those sooner. As for the rest, I'll look and perhaps buy if I like what I see. But I'm not going to grab everything in sight, because that is just plain silly (but if that is what you like to do, who am I to stop you?).

Now if somebody were offering Episode II plastic model kits, then that might be different. But even then I would be getting them to build rather then collect dust on a basement shelf.

 

This just in- TRU will NOT be having a midnight sale. No April Fool's, just the truth. Now before all the wiling & gnashing of teeth begins, we will be opening at 8am on the 23rd. It's not midnight but still earlier than usual. Now that it's official, those inclined can sent angry emails to the TRU folks.

 

TRU make Vracer cry!