Forkin' A.....

[Jester]

*I* collect Hot Wheels.


Okay, not entirely true. What is true is that I have a collection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars from when I was a kid, that I have kept. My father gave me my first two when I was two years old or so, and still have one of those.

But by "collection" I don't mean what most collectors mean. Several of these cars I used to use as a kid in smash up derbies in school. And I haven't bought a new one in literally decades. I keep them. I like them. But I am not a collector.

I agree that those people sound weird.

Though I did, as a kid, often rummage through the stock of cars to find what I was looking for...but in my case, it was not some ultra-rare valuable collector's item, but merely cool cars I didn't yet have, like Porsches and Ferraris, etc.

[Arwyn Q]

I'm glad I've never encountered a Creepy Hot Wheels Guy at my store. Sorting out those cars can already be annoying enough with little kids running through trying to find that -special particular one- and ripping open the Mystery Car packages, I think some middle-aged guy standing there mouthbreathing over the stock would unnerve me.

[pssorens]

At Target( I don't work there anymore so i don't care), I've caught a few people opening case packs or digging through pallets. but most of our collectors calmed way down after the store team lead had a talk with them.

[zzapp the witch]

The Creepy Hotwheels Guy is always lurking the local Walmart when I go in for stocking stuffers around xmas. I act all ditzy and stuff and for 3 years in a row have had good enough timing to frustrate him into *helping* me find cool cars for my kids so that I'll *go away.* I find entertainment in strange things.

[plan9au]

having Worked in a toy store that catered to the collectors i know the type, they always knew when one of the other collectors died, and 9 times outta 10 the widows would come to us to unload the now unwanted collections, of course during the week or so after his death we would have the other collectors coming into the store and asking if we had bought it yet, or if they could 'reserve'certain items from it, all were told no, if they wanted that item they had to be here when it was put on display, (of course if a certain item was asked for by several people it wouldn't go out for weeks.)

The worst were the collectors who would sit across from the store, with their lunch and a thermos and wait for anyone coming into the store carrying items they wished to buy, then they would swoop, offering cash for the items they wanted, and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it, until they tried to enter the store anyway, most of the time the customer would walk past them and gives us first go at the collection though, simply because we would always buy the lot, and offer a fair price, rather than try to buy the best bits and leave them with the chaff.

But action figure collectors are by far the worst, tearing open several boxes of new stock looking for that one in every three boxes figure. Of course they wouldn't be careful or clean up, i started opening the boxes behind the counter and taking the rare chase figures out, annoying but it meant i won that battle.

[ArcticChicken]

I act all ditzy and stuff and for 3 years in a row have had good enough timing to frustrate him into *helping* me find cool cars for my kids so that I'll *go away.*

Oh, you are my kind of evil.

[protege]

having Worked in a toy store that catered to the collectors i know the type, they always knew when one of the other collectors died, and 9 times outta 10 the widows would come to us to unload the now unwanted collections, of course during the week or so after his death we would have the other collectors coming into the store and asking if we had bought it yet, or if they could 'reserve'certain items from it, all were told no, if they wanted that item they had to be here when it was put on display, (of course if a certain item was asked for by several people it wouldn't go out for weeks.)

Pardon my French, but that's fucked up. Talk about some greedy bastards

I mean, one of my uncles has a nice collection of 1950s, '60s, and '70s 'promo' car models from when he owned a Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth dealership. (In those days, when you bought a new car, you'd get a 1/24 scale plastic one as well.) All are worth some big bucks today. Even though I'm not really into promos, I wouldn't mind adding to my collection Seriously though, my uncle has been having some health issues the past few years, and has been trying to get his affairs in order...namely what to do with the collection. As much as I'd like to either purchase (or inherit) it, I don't want to come off a greedy bastard. That's why I've tried to be very careful about it. In fact, I haven't even mentioned it, unless my grandmother or aunt has brought it up. Oh, and I'm not going to resell the collection either--the cars would be carefully displayed with my other models.