Are smashed up packages a recent trend?

No. You run the gauntlet no matter if it is in stores or online. The downside of being a MOC collector.

Stores I'm usually able to pick and choose. Ordering from Ringside has been very hit and miss with packaging issues and in some cases paint app errors.

Sounds like BS to me.

This is VERY TRUE!

I worked at the Toys R Us in Asheville, NC YEARS ago (back when Kaybee Toys were still open) for a few months and there was an old lady that sold figures, mostly Star Wars and Jakks WWF (WWE), at the local flea market who would do this exact same thing.

She would buy all of the newer, hard to find figures and then crumple up the card backs of the ones she couldn't afford so mint on card collectors would come to her booth and pay extra for mint figures.

Every time she would come into the store I was working at the employees would say, "Oh S---, here comes old Miss Alma" because they all knew what she was doing.

I asked employees at the TRU, and then the employees across the street at the Kaybee across the street at the Biltmore Square Mall why they put up with it, and all of them had the exact same story..."She's old and doesn't know any better... what can we say?"

BS... She knew exactly what she was doing!

So I say "YES!" (Daniel Bryan nod), this does indeed happen. If "Miss Alma" was getting away with it back in the day, you better believe others are definitely doing it today.

I've seen alot of elite 51 at retail, specifically Walmart and most of them are damaged in a way, I don't know why they've come like that

I opened nearly six fresh cases of the Then, Now, Forever Basics last weekend on the way to vacation and all had cards beat to hell to say the least. Out of all of those cases, I was able to grab a Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, and Bray Wyatt all with good cards, but I can't say the same for the other two in the series. I also noticed this with a case of Elite 51 that I opened; nearly everyone was crushed. The same can be said for all of the Summerslam Basic figures I've seen so far this year. It looks obvious to me that Mattel or whoever the hell is packing these cases are using too small of boxes and cramming them in there...

I don't doubt the scalper issue happening in select areas, but I've seen fresh cases of the TNF basics and BP 47 put out on shelves with the same bends and crushing at one Walmart. I've then been to another 3 hours south and found the exact same bending. To me that sounds like they had some crushing issues when loading the container overseas, or, and more likely, when separating the shipment at Walmart warehouses here in the states.

Happens everyday bro.

I remember years ago on here a very popular board member Juice Winslow got slammed by other members because he would go to stores when they opened, get what he wanted, wreck the carding of the other figures to deter scalpers from buying them and leave. Some people thought it was great vigilante justice, others thought he was ruining it for the people who collected moc in his area. My take is just don't collect moc it's so much more of a hassle.