oust the flipper

Hello
Okay, posted earlier to this, but seems to have gotten lost, went something like this...
Hello
For those of you who do not know me, I am Loren. For the record, I am a male, age mid to upper 40's, and as mentioned above, very happily married with 2 kids, ages 4 and 2.

I have received numerous emails today regarding me being outed of sorts on here. I appreciate everyone letting me know, thank you. I have been registered on here for the past year or so, but in the beginning spent very little time on here, young kids, and everything else makes for very little extra time. I never announced who I was, but never hid it either. When asked I answered and even when not asked sometimes. This is a very addictive board though, an awesome resource, and a very sharp learning curve.

I have been involved in toys, books and comics for over 30 years. Owned 2 comic stores years ago, back when it was not as 'cool' as it is now. Currently I do sell on e***, have for over 15 long years, yes, it is viciouslyfun. I also have a similarly named website, don't think it is kosher to name it here, but it is v-fun. On a not toy related note I am also a partner in a home and garden store, you will find my name pops up there as well.

I have enjoyed meeting / selling / trading / and emailing with every person who I have dealt with on this board, once I found out who they were. I have a hard time with names sometimes, this screen name makes it hard to put together sometimes. I have a hard enough time remembering the kids names and they are standing right in front of me!

I have read the thread a bit and have realized numerous things, but that would be an all night thing. The one I would like to address right now is prices. Yes, some are right on, some are high... Some are high because I traded too much, paid too much or just went crazy for a second. Feel free to call me on it. I think I am reasonable person and fairly easy to deal with. Kids and wife have mellowed me out over time.

I do apologize if it takes a bit to get back with anyone in advance, my kids always come first, and I am happily married, she puts up with a lot! Also, not sure if this was actually the right way to post this, but since I was being discussed here figured it wouldn't hurt...

 

Thanks for your honesty Loren. I hope you will consider posting your (very likely) massive collection here someday

 

thanks for the post Loren. Let me be the first to apologize.

 

Thanks Loren, I have enjoyed all my recent dealings with you. I agree ousting flippers is a good thing, however I don't agree with the witch hunt mentality nor do I agree that people such as yourself should be pressured into opening up, that said, thank you for opening up. People should not have to explain themselves every time a higher priced item is sold. Of course people are taking advantage of this on both sides. For me 'Flipping' is more about new stuff being bought for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the limited nature of these toys and gouging prices on people who missed out on a release whether its a lottery or regular run toy. Anyone who buys for this reason is taking the toy away from a genuine collector and taking advantage of other peoples loss. The focus of this thread should in my opinion return to this more focused abuse.

 

Well, thank you everyone! Support is great. Slack, no apology needed! I really want to post more, but wife is walking by me right now and saying 'When are you coming to bed?!'. And remember, I am VERY happily married!

 

Good to see you hear Loren! Now you only need to list your toys here - and to offer First class to Canada!

 

I agree with this 100%, There seems to be a fine line between "outing flippers" and jealously calling people out, I'd rather see the former. I'd personally rather there be transparency so we can keep building databases of toys. Even if someone is selling toys, if they're up front with it, they could be an amazing resource in the form of photographs.

Are people on the Levi's forum talking shit about me again, I totally just flipped a pair of levi's for 14 bucks, over the weekend.

 

Believe me, I've pulled a bunch of Boss Carrion photos from auctions

 

BAM! Perfectly put! This would be the dictionary go to description for me. Thanks for your well-put focused words, TULKU!

Like slack 1st said, Awareness is key. And since there's no way to really stop flipping, that's the beauty of this thread!

It's great too that frankalicious is saying his piece, cause even though we may not like the price, we don't really know the story of why it's being offered for that. It's easy to complain, but hard to sell a work we paid too highly for. We all know that...

As for my own experiences dealing with frankalicious, I can say he doesn't really act very flipperish. Not because he's a nice guy (which he is), but because :
(1) I sold Loren an "Old Toby" by Apocalypse Popsicle over ebay for the very low $15 so there's the obvious flipper opportunity to make more from it (especially because he didn't know it was me at the time; a customer of his store), but to this day, I still haven't seen it pop up in his webstore (that has an AP section under RESIN) or back up on ebay.
(2) I purchased a few items from his webstore, he gave me a GREAT DEAL (one of, if not the best deals I've ever gotten purchasing Kaiju), really, PLUS he threw in an awesome Killer-J figure w' a cool one-off "hawaiian" paint job as a Bonus Fig. for FREE!.. Can't even think of any other store platform that does that.

 

I've also bought from Loren! Great service and alot cheaper than I could have bought it from Japan..

 

Son. Of. A

 

thanks Loren. apologize for the witch hunt.

 

I've also purchased from Loren multiple times, good stuff, decent prices, fast shipping, good guy.

 

^^ viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40962

Not necessarily a flipper, but just saying...

 

Exactly.
At what point do we have to start justifying prices with a story?
Here's one.
When the tsunami ravaged Japan I was ready to drop some money to charity, but happened upon Toy Tokyo's auction and figured I'd kill two birds with one stone; drop some green for something that I cared about and get a cool toy.
As often happens with auction sites, I got caught up in the moment and realizing that the money went to charity, bid much higher than I'd normally pay.

I won the Levwed pink siamese for an incredibly inflated price.
But no harm no foul- the money went to a good place. (and so, hopefully, did the $27 shipping charge; despite emailing Toy Toyko and asking about pickup, since my sister lives a few blocks away but I never heard back)

So should I ever sell that Cap/Pirate Siamese..... (not that I would)
Whats the fair price?
Market value? (and it's a market created by desire for limited things)
Retail?
What I paid?
Plus shipping?

When all that is decided by a group of folks who seem to disagree on just about everything... do I have to include the sob story on why I'm charging so much to avoid being called out as a flipper?
Or do I just solicit privately and offer it at an inflated price, since I've been on the receiving end of that more than a few times and haven't seen the folks called out.....

Just random musings....

 

I'd say in your case, you wouldn't need the story. The LevWed Siamese has been out now for quite some time, its worked it's way around in the secondary market. The people who *had* to have it probably got it, and it had time to obtain a market value of sorts.... While it's still very sought after, it's not the flavor of the month. If you were inclined to sell I would say market value wouldn't be unheard of, or even more given your situation. I don't think your story is necessary. If it's reasonable, someone will buy, if not it won't sell.

The big difference between Flipping and just selling something, I thought, was time and motive. Unfortunately given the nature of these toys we collect, nearly everything is limited. And Flippers are banking on the enthusiasm, the "gotta have it now" mentality, the impulse to "buy now so I won't regret it later!" and the general impatience of the fans of this stuff to make some cash. Which is a douchey thing to do at best. I mean, damn man, aren't there enough assholes taking advantage of us all in real life? Why do you have to take the fun out of toys too? Is nothing sacred?

But on the flip side, to the folks bidding up the Nags or the latest Boss Carrions or whatever on ebay- Knock it the fuck off! You're just as bad as the flippers. Show some restraint! There will be other releases, and you're never going to have a complete collection so don't kid yourself into thinking you will. You're just giving the flippers reason to continue flipping.


Also: Shawn! Hows it been?!

 

Sorry if this is OT but I'm happy to read Loren writing here!
He's a really nice person!

 

Wow, Donchucho...

Pushead Hand Painted Rumble Monsters $1,399 BIN. . .

 

So hang a tick, viciouslyfun gets a pass and bro high fives for flipping because he's got a family to feed and runs a professional business on ebay? I don't really care, but enough with the double standards. If you look at his completed listings nearly everything is at double/triple retail or more. (And obviously not all sofubi but still flip city)

I'm not saying he's an irresponsible seller or anything, my 85 dollar grody monster arrived from him just fine, but why are you guys poaching everyone else that gets outed in this thread but this guy? Is it because of the sales volume and the relatable story? Do you guys not mind because he doesn't move as many super hyped figures like donchucho does?

Guess I should make some babies, spend 20+ years in a comic book store then start a giveaway to get for some forum credzzzzzzzzz.

 

He didn't lie

 

Neither did anyone else who got outed in this thread to my knowledge.

 

Because you're a fucking dickhead who is charging insane prices and shill bidding a toy (at almost 17 times the original cost) that was specifically asked by the maker not to be resold:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... =1&_ipg=50

Anything else you need cleared up today as to why you're not really liked here- AT ALL?

 

Lixx for the win.

 

Cool story except I'm not the guy who bid it to oblivion either time. It might be one of psilo's alt accounts or something because he hates me so much. He lets me know I should kill myself almost every time I come here. (By the way REAL MATURE psilo. Did you know I've lost 6 members of my family and close/best friends to suicide? You're talking to a real person, asshole.)

Pretty sure Joeman or greasebat don't want any of their stuff being resold either, but that doesn't that doesn't change the fact that viciously resells both of their stuff for double and 5X retail either, in addition to literally hundreds of other toys. Also note that two people in the bst are trying to trade their gorilla-jus and one sold on mandarake for 90k yen and nobody seems outraged at any of that.

 

I appreciate your attempt to shift blame to me but you are still a leper and the world will be a better place when you are dead.

you can check my ebay history, my collection is strictly Atom A (which I buy directly from him), Real Head minis, and the occasional oji or kara.

suck it =)