What is the collecting scene like in your city/hometown?

.Stores are completely empty of Elites.

2. No repacks as of now because theres no merchandise.

3. FB Market. CL and LetGo if theres anything it is all older stuff. Nothing new at all.

It is very dead. It's so bad. I stopped checking brickseek and have no interest in collecting at all. SUCKS

Have a Walmart and 2 Targets I stop in.

Walmart never gets anything new, been down to just a handful of figs for at least a month now. As of yesterday just 3 Shemaus retros on clearance nothing else.

Target's are stocked, but always the same stuff. Typically about a dozen various AJ figures, and usually a Cena, Nakamura or KO, and occasionally some other guys but rare. Stock doesn't seem to rotate much. One Target has been sitting on a half dozen S7 retros for months now, and the other one has had no retros in about 2 months. And they both have those 12" figures, belts, rings etc.

Only store that has a full Toy Dept is Target and there pathetic. Lot of collectors/Kids that buy WWE figures. Targets WWE section was 7 pegs of Top Picks AJ 3 on each shelf. There are a lot of Walgreens/Duane Reeds that carry figures but there hit and miss. I've been buying more online lately

I repacker is someone who will buy a brand new figure, take it out of the packaging, place an old or not-as-popular figure back into the package in the original's place, and then return it to the store with the receipt.

They also do this with accessories, or sometimes just parts of figures.

Store selection is meh. There's a decent amount of repacking and accessories being missing from figures. Based on kijiji the local online selling is not very good, mostly people asking too much for figures that are all sorts of beat up.

Fiction: An entire aisle filled from top to bottom with elite series and flashbacks and spotlights, etc. Customers are happy and retail employees are happy to help. It’s the best time to be a collector.


Fact: It’s the exact opposite of the above statement. Empty shelves left void of store exclusives is ruining the hobby. You’re forced to shop at Walmart because they have a handshake with Mattel but the product in itself is a “chase” and the employees blame “ you people “ when you politely inquire about said product. On the off chance you find what appears to be an elite, it’s not the figure intended for distribution but a used, basic version of a character that doesn’t even come close to the person on the box. It’s brought to managements attention but they shrug it off and re-shelf it once you leave.

Northeast Ohio Walmarts & Targets have been an empty wasteland for several months it seems. Hopefully things change soon.

I began complaining about this a couple years ago, and some members on this board ridiculed me....

Now it's become the new norm. 4 Walmarts in my area, & they've been this way for over 4 months.....

I just cannot - cannot - cannot - understand how it's acceptable to Walmart management for their shelves to be this poorly stocked for any length of time, let alone half the year! I've filed online complaints & nothing has changed.

As someone above posted, I've bought maybe 10 figures this year - way down from past years. I don't think ELITE 67 ever made it to retail - so now Mattel is producing entire sets that are never even being released.

Collecting these figures has never been so bad. And I'm not confident that it's going to improve for Black Friday/Christmas - last year the shelves were empty for most of that season, too.

I assume there is scalpers. There is really only Target and they have shelfwarm city. All the good figs seem to get taken.