sw colector confessions; what's your worst secret?

Once you start down the scalping path, forever dominate your destiny consume you it will, as it did Brian Semling.

 

WHO IS BRIAN SEMLING!?!

 

I was at TRU and they only had 1 lego destroyer droid left and it was two days till payday so I hide it behind abunch of Lego yodas and came back for it on payday.

 

Brian Semling is the head of Brian's Toys, and arguably the biggest scalper of SW toys around. For more information about him and his company, check out this thread.

 

When I was a kid I remember going to school with my Star Wars shirt and small figures tied to it. I also wore my hair like Princess Leia in the Bespin outfit. I was surprised I didnt get teased by a lot of people. I would just have strange looks like what is she doing? This was in 1978 - 80.

Another kind of funny thing happened when my niece got to be 10. She likes Star Trek like I like Star Wars. She stayed over at my mom's once and my mom showed her all of the OT. She had questions so my mom told her to call me. We had quite a discussion.
Anyway she went back to her dad ( my brother) and told him excitedly " Auntie Debra knows all about Star Wars!!! My brother rolled his eyes and said yeah I know!! He used to tease me a lot about it. One time he even threaten to put my 12" figures in a mud puddle! Ha! Ha! Now he has a daughter just like me!!!

 

I wear my lightsaber to class.



And I'm in Grade 11.

 

^LOL. I havnt got the guts to wear my lightsaber to class yet, but I doubt anyone would be surprised if I did...

-saber_holder

 

I'm surprised it hasn't been confiscated, since it's a "weapon" and all....

 

debeautimous, That was a great story! The perfect revenge! That is what he gets for teasing you all those years... LOL!

When I purchased my first "real" lightsabers back in 1998 I would keep them in my car. I had a Graflex Luke ANH and a Jeff Parks "Visions" saber and whenever I got the courage I would clip them on to a belt loop and go shopping or whatever with them on. No one once asked me what they were. The only place people knew what they were is if I was wearing them to a convention like Comic Con. I wore my lightsaber to computer class last year (I am 37 years old mind you) and people just rolled their eyes. They were used to me though, as I would give powerpoint presentations for my assignments using Star Wars music in the background, and Star Wars pics for graphics. Also, it was at a time that was pre- Episode II so I had a countdown to Episode II on the board at the front on the class. The first thing I would do every morning is go up to the board and erase the previous number, and write the new number of days till Episode II. It was up on the board for a month until someone complained and it was erased. *sigh*

 

I'm so embarrased...but here goes...

- I cut the head off my Endor Han and Stormtrooper Luke to make a Stormtrooper Han....but it looked like crap, and I lost 2 figured that I have never seen in stores again.

- I, for some odd reason, decided to turn my vintage Boba Fett into a J-slot rocket firing version....but it did not work out well - Luckily I found a new one at a shop not long after.

- I opened my Episode I Sneak Preview Mace Windu....soon to regret it terribly - Luckily, CrazyMike was entremely generous enough to give me a new one for free

- I just decided to put off paying for my G1 driver's licence....to buy more Star Wars toys

That is all I can't think of for now. I hope I don't think of anything else!

 

Here in Canada, I guess toy weapons, especially purple plastic blades aren't considered weapons. People will just look at you funny, like my Physics teacher did when I brandished it during class

 

my collecting secrets are to not let them out. But I will join the bandwagon this once. When ever I am Target, TRU, yada yada. I always find an employee who seems to be annoyed by scaplers and other collectors. I usually approach this person protraying myself the same way "Damn those collectors. I just want to get "insert toy" for my son." We then talk and laugh...before I leave I make them a deal.

Hey kid, everytime one of these bastards is in your toy aisle grabbing a bunch of stuff. Pay attention to what it is and hold them, I'll come in and give you 10$.

This has been working for years. Although now 2 of my 'kids' figured I was a collector and like to just hide cases for me now to scrounge through. Although this is at 20$ a pop...damn inflation...oh well.

I like to keep my collection up to date.

 

Back in September my girlfriend and I broke up. We had been living together for just about a year at this point. It was a rough time, with both of us out for blood trying to hurt each other.

Apparently she knew just how to...wiped the shelves of my desk clean of all my opened Saga toys, everything that had been released in the 3 3/4" line at that point...and threw them out our second floor window.

The confession...I honestly didn't realize just how upset with me she was until she did that.



Aftermath: They thankfully landed somewhat softly, the only major loss was a Darth Vader (Bespin Duel) that shattered on contact with a sidewalk. I've since picked up another during a clearance sale. A few accessories were lost in leaves, but I'm not buying to replace those as something of a reminder.

 

Baisiccs. Hmmm. Maybe you were the scalper that tried that little trick on me...He was looking for He-Man toys and said they were for his son. If I hadn't seen him clean us out of Marvel Legends figures the week before, I might have believed him...

 

I once bought the walmart exclusive cantina band sets, opened them, decided I needed the money, resealed them and returned them to walmart. I almost felt bad about it too.

 

I have a new confession. I just bought a vintage Leia and Han just so I can customize them. I hate the new figures faces so I bought them to put them in Hoth outfits! The Leia is absolutely beautiful!! I couldn't believe how ugly the new doll was she looked like a gorilla! I am thinking about buying Leia dolls to turn into Padme dolls if they don't come up with better dolls.

 

Ok, I have a confession. I used to have a job driving a delivery van. I would be on the road for 10 straight hours some days. Among my usual stops, I casually strolled into 2 Wal-marts, 1 Target, and 1 ToysRUs on a regular basis. Thats pretty much how I acquired my complete collection of Episode I and POTJ figs. I got 'em all, even the super rare ones. I was able to get to all these big chain stores in really small towns, early in the morning where there probably arent too many Star Wars collectors. When I got back to work, I had to hide my store bags by rushing them to the back seat of my car. I did this for about 2 years and my boss never found out! I also never told my girlfriend or my family about my habit of Star Wars hunting on the job. Ive never told anyone this before, and since I'm not really able to display my collection, no one was ever able to see its rapid growth rate. Looking back on it, I think how great it was. Getting PAID to search for Star Wars figures!!

 

BushiFox - Scalper not a chance. I collect for the pure enjoyment of it. I ahte going to a store and seeing the scalpers with carts full of toys in duplicate. I only have Star Wars and HotWheels. Although my best friend is a scalper. He tried to sell me an Ephont Man for 50$ last week from a ebay aution that a bidder backed out on for 75$...that is insane!!!

 

That was a cool story JediApprentice.

 

I agree I wish I could get paid to hunt for my favorite star wars things.

 

become a scalpter.

just kidding!

 

Hmmm..as many others have said, punks will be punks when it comes to teenagers who like to tease and such. I have star wars toys in every room of my apartment except the bathroom and that is only because the moisture would damage the cardboard. And now for the confessions...

I grew up poor and my family couldn't buy me that many toys so I stold a few...in fact I became very good at it. I had an old coat where the lining had torn up the middle of the interior and I soon learned that it was actually easier for me to steal the whole package rather than remove them first. I would take a figure and walk to another part of the store (usually harware) and get in a spot where it appeared to be impossible for any camera to see me and viola! I emerged moments later with no toy in my hand. I now work for federal law enforcement and would like to put that behind me...

Next, yes i know of you who hide figures for later and to those of you who do I would like to say thank you! That is part of the fun for me. It's like hunting easter eggs when I was a kid. I found my R2-B1 and TC-14 (and some other really cool ones) that way. I'm 6'2" with long arms and I can get to the top shelves very easily to dig behind the other toys and yes I have noticed toys hidden outside the toy department...I'm on to you . Sure I've hidden a few myself too and maybe I should feel guilty about that I will have to say though as creepy as I may have been I have never ripped anything out of the hands of a child...on the other hand I have losely followed along to see if he/she was going to lose interest and put it down.

 

Star Wars collecting(Full of lies and deciept)

 

Lies...deceit...greedy mis-trust are our ways now. haha

 

Once I opened all of the cases of soda at a gerocry store in seach for the golden yoda can.