The Lego Thief

[Sapphire Silk]

Today is my nephew's birthday; I'm up in Maryland visiting Brother and his family. He's nine today.

He really likes both Lego's and superheroes so I got him the Lego Hulk Smash set for his birthday at the Wally World in my town. When he opened the box today, we found that someone had removed all the character figures and the instructions. It looked like everything else was there. The box had been glued shut, so I didn't have a clue when I bought it

Nephew handled it beautifully. He didn't cry or get upset. I ordered a new one on Amazon right then and there, and I'll have to take the old one back to Wally World tomorrow when I get home. Thank God I still have the receipt.

To the fuckers who broke into this set and stole the characters: I'm sure you're very happy, you smug sons of bitches. You'll probably resell the characters on Craigslist or something, and get something for nothing. You don't care about the money other people spend or the potential sadness of innocent children whose birthdays are ruined by your behavior.

I hope Karma comes around to give you a big, wet, bite in the ass.

[prjkt]

as a toy collector this sort of thing really annoys me. It's even worse than toy swapping on the d*ck move scale...

[protege]

Sadly, this crap goes on in Wal-Mart all the time. I quit buying model kits there...because idiots were stealing the tires. Why you'd risk getting busted for a $5 set of 1/25 scale vinyl tires, I have no idea. Other times, I'd find that someone had opened up the box, and apparently built the kit...while still in the store! Who does that?

[Golden Phoenix]

Some of the lego figures go for crazy money on ebay, DH wanted to get me a specific one and we literally couldn't afford it!

Unfortunately this kind of thing is profitable. And when I see someone on eBay selling dozens of figures individually I can't help but wonder how many stores now have unsellable merchandise.

Hugs for your nephew, I hope you can get your money back.

[Sapphire Silk]

Update: Wally World was really good about refunding my money. The clerk didn't question my story. Don't know if that's cause it happens frequently, or because I rarely return anything (I think I've done one return in the past 2 or 3 years). It probably helped that I was polite about it, of course.

I found the same kit on Amazon, for about $10 more than I originally paid at Wally World, which was why I went there in the first place. This is the first time I've ever had problems with items being missing from a Lego set; I guess I've just been lucky up to now.

[Ironclad Alibi]

For future reference, the Lego company* is very good about replacing parts missing from sets.

* The link is for the US. Click on the "Change Region" button to select your area.

[Aragarthiel]

For future reference, the Lego company* is very good about replacing parts missing from sets.

Very true, though I've only had one experience with them. Found a $40 Lego set for $9.99 at Goodwill, brand new, just missing one of the smallest pieces. I've also bought a few that said there were two extras of a certain piece and I only got one extra, but that's fine. I don't lose Legos anymore anyway.

[prjkt]

I found the same kit on Amazon, for about $10 more than I originally paid at Wally World, which was why I went there in the first place. This is the first time I've ever had problems with items being missing from a Lego set; I guess I've just been lucky up to now.

When I was a kid, I was given a "soiled and damaged" marked Technics kit as a birthday present from someone I vaguely knew, Mum was kind of pissed off as it was missing bits, I just chucked the instructions away and made something else, incorporating a bunch of pieces from my own collection.

[UncleImpy]

Update: Wally World was really good about refunding my money. The clerk didn't question my story. Don't know if that's cause it happens frequently, or because I rarely return anything (I think I've done one return in the past 2 or 3 years). It probably helped that I was polite about it, of course.

I found the same kit on Amazon, for about $10 more than I originally paid at Wally World, which was why I went there in the first place. This is the first time I've ever had problems with items being missing from a Lego set; I guess I've just been lucky up to now.

What I hate about this is how it adds validation to the pr*cks that go in when a new toy set is released and buy every copy on the shelves so they can turn around and Ebay them for 10-20% more. Sigh. To be clear: This is nothing against the OP, just the situation that this thievery creates.

[Golden Phoenix]

I had a quick ebay search and the most expensive minifig (boba fett) i found (excluding those still in packaging, sets and one that came with some kind of signed photo) was almost £400! Gak!

Then i decided to try some of the common sets:

Harry potter: Dolores Umbridge £75
Marvel: Maria Hill £42
DC: Nightwing £37.99 plus postage
Lord of the rings: Mirkwood Elf £105.75

No wonder people do this. Obviously they won't necessarily get that much for them, but even if they can get £8 - £10 a character, taking 5 from a set is easy money.

[Naaman]

On the plus side the reputable dealers will often e-bay the kits, sans figures, very cheaply.

I've had half price Lego because of that

[BlaqueKatt]

If i want figures and not the set I buy the knock-offs(partner calls them "bootlegos") from s-world, the only differences are maybe subtle color or accessory differences. (knock off wonder woman-slightly different color tiara, it's about 2 shades darker)

[wolfie]

On the plus side the reputable dealers will often e-bay the kits, sans figures, very cheaply.

Considering e-bay's customerscammer-friendly policies, they're taking a big risk. Even if the auction description has prominently displayed "This is the kit WITHOUT figures", if the buyer complains that the kit was incomplete (no figures), e-bay will force a refund (without necessarily requiring the buyer to ship the kit back).

[prjkt]

Considering e-bay's customerscammer-friendly policies, they're taking a big risk. Even if the auction description has prominently displayed "This is the kit WITHOUT figures", if the buyer complains that the kit was incomplete (no figures), e-bay will force a refund (without necessarily requiring the buyer to ship the kit back).

that's pretty sh*t - you'd think there'd be an appeal process there, I mean sure bits are missing, but it's not like it wasn't advertised as such - the "Goods received did not match description" reason won't hold sway there.

I have had to make an eBay claim in the past, bought what I thought was an exclusive release figure, only to open to packaging to find it being an extremely poor quality knock-off - to the point where it was already breaking apart. The seller had offered a partial refund, but I stuck to my guns, and as eBay had since removed all of his other listings, I referred to that and mentioned it was clear he was dodgy. Full refund came my way, and I've still got the dodgy figure here that I might use as a "dead body" type prop for my staged shoots.

[mhkohne]

that's pretty sh*t - you'd think there'd be an appeal process there, I mean sure bits are missing, but it's not like it wasn't advertised as such - the "Goods received did not match description" reason won't hold sway there.

I have had to make an eBay claim in the past, bought what I thought was an exclusive release figure, only to open to packaging to find it being an extremely poor quality knock-off - to the point where it was already breaking apart. The seller had offered a partial refund, but I stuck to my guns, and as eBay had since removed all of his other listings, I referred to that and mentioned it was clear he was dodgy. Full refund came my way, and I've still got the dodgy figure here that I might use as a "dead body" type prop for my staged shoots.

EBay is notoriously random in dealing with scammers on both sides of he transaction.

I'm hopeful that with EBay/Paypal splitting up, some of that will start to change.