Michael McGowan

I've got a question for some of you more experienced E-bayers... I recently sold a pack of Minimates on E-bay and noticed I was getting a lot of hits from people overseas, asking me what shipping cost would be to Hong Kong and Vietnam and such, the reason being is the pack I sold was a TRU exclusive and they don't have TRU there (that's my guess). So the people that had asked those questions didn't win, but another person did, and I when I sent him an invoice he sent me a message asking me if I would insure the package, and if the cost of the insurance was included in the shipping price, if it wasn't than could I send him a new invoice with that included, and he would pay right away. He's also repeatedly asked me to contact him outside of E-bay, when I write him. (a e-mail address through Concerta.com) I sent him a new invoice, and he wasn't writing me back or paying me until I threatened to open a case with E-bay. I also told him it wasn't a big deal and if he didn't want them or couldn't pay right away to just let me know... As soon as I mentioned opening a case, he paid. I got insurance on the box, used bubble wrap on the package, and a tracking number. After a multitude of attempts to reach him after the tracking number told me he had received the package, (I wanted my feedback, I'm a new seller) He finally wrote me today telling me the box was damaged and he wanted a refund. I have a 7 day refund guarantee, but the box was in perfect condition when I sent it out, The item itself (the minimates) are in mint condition as well) I packaged them in a box on the outside, and evelope on the inside, and bubble wrap in between that. I really don't want bad feedback, but I don't know what to do, He has 5 days to get them back to me according to my refund status. My guess was that he was just trying to somehow collect on the insurance. Nothing like this has happened so far but again my selling rating is low, but I've tried really hard to make sure everyone I deal with was happy... It just pisses me off because, I gave him 2 chances to not buy them, and the boxes on these things aren't even a collectible item. My guess is that he's in a foriegn country and found a cheaper deal, so he decided to return mine, or he had plain old buyers remorse. If anyone can let me know what I'm obligated to do in a situation like this. I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

It sure is good DST has customers like us that have went to business school, and are currently running companies making toys, to tell them how the should be running their company. You'd think they'd know how to run a successful business by now being a decade (?) into this thing and having put out over 38 series of the Marvel minimates alone. I mean it really sucks big time that DST doesn't play this whole minimate thing out the way this fringe group wants them too instead of thinking about that pesky thing called profit. Seriously, who caters to a corporate franchised store that makes up the majority of profits so they can slip specialty packs that the "True" fans love... Sellouts that's who! You guys name one other major toy retailer that has put up a facebook page, that doesn't treat it like a form of advertisement. i.e. You can actually leave comments and they answer back, they show you early production photo's and even do giveaways for those pieces. If you can name another one, than cool there's more than one large toy company doing it, but I'll say this much, I doubt you'd see Matty Collector up on that list. If DST did everything the way you wish they would, than you'd have no reason to be excited, or buy the next wave of toys they put out... It's not like these things are art pieces or limited collector pieces. They're toys, that we collect because we want a full team of the Comic book heroes we love so much. If they gave us the full X-Force set in the first series, and gave us a full set of The Avengers in the second series, than all those X-Force fans, or Avengers fans wouldn't stick around to see what's next. The way they do things isn't a perfect formula, but when I read the crap some of you continuously spew, it reminds me of that famous Grandpa Simpson line "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" How bout we get back on point, When is Series 10 coming out?

I'm not saying anything bad about the Wolverine minimates per se, but when they're offer the same character over and over again and the only difference is a puffy jacket, or a Sgt. Rock outfit, it feels a little played. I think the details were great, in fact I just bought a Wolverine/Blob pack about 2 weeks ago. Who doesn't like a big boned minimate with a fat girl tattooed on their arm?

Hopefully I can get the Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw together... For people complaining about these, would you really like it if they revisited the Wolverine origins, and we got the same figure with each pack albeit in a different costume but nonetheless. I think these figs look better than any movie mates they've done in the past, (up till this season). Plus we get Angel, and with a little help from my extra New mutants box set I bought for extra clothes, I'll finally get original Angel for my FA X-Men.

I'm loving the cap movie mates, I would dare say they're the best movie mates yet...

Michael chants repeatedly "M.o.d.o.k, M.o.d.o.k, Super Skrull, and Deadpool. Mega Man, that's the plan, to turn me into a buying fool" Well guess what, it's working!!! I want to make whoopie to that Felicia, right here, right now...

No but wouldn't you be stoked if it was Chew minimates.

These links are great, I'm really excited to have an extra tool to look to for other places I'm interviewing at... Thanks a lot they'll be really handy in the future... @Luke, I'm more of a afraid of the color yellow guy myself, especially if it comes by way of a Lantern, I know I'm in trouble.

I'm applying for a job at good old Toys R Us, I'm just wondering if anyone has experience working for them and if there's anything I should know going into an interview. I love the idea of having an edge on the competition (local scalpers that steal all the toys from collectors)... Is there anything that will give me the upper hand during an interview, and anything I should watch out for, say, or not say... I really need a job and this seems like the perfect fit, the photo work doesn't really par for all the extras I collect (although I do alright, artistry isn't the field to be into if you really care about being rich). Now that my wife is collecting vinyl (dunnys) and I'm amassing pieces of toy art by my favorite artists at 200 a pop (I don't care what you think about vinyl art, Sam Flores "Dragon Boy" was worth the 150 it cost me, the same goes for Buff Monster's "Destroyer"). So I'm hoping TRU will be a good place to supplement some income for me and I hope I get in. Please if any of you have experience with this fine company give me a heads up on the TRU "do and don't" list. Wish me luck, and BTW if any of you know a good online retailer for Kid Robot, Toy2R, or StrangeCo. my wife, and my wallet will be eternally grateful. Love, Michael

On Art Asylum's facebook page they're giving away concept art from the line the big surprise is from... I'd be down for target distribution too but unless he's talking about red minimates with white targets all over em, it's definitely a license.

Why oh why did TRU have to clearance price out the old GB merch. I swore to myself I wasn't going to buy any of the GB stuff, just RGB... Now I'm resigned to a fate worse than death... Set Searching...

Same here, I just don't get WTH they're hiding skull face from us...

Tis! I'm chuffed that they've included it. the art on her packaging shows her with her quiver of teleport rods (or whatever they are). Does anyone know if the finished product has them? Have we seen pics of them on the proto? Anyone else thinking about giving this right to Nightcrawler?? I like the transparent webline Spidey has. Might need a few of those. I'm sure he'll already come with one, besides Nightcrawler's teleportation doesn't usually come off as being a pink color (as this base is). You'd have been much better off using Majik's base... I'd love to see a red color see-through plastic for a Kurt base... Forgot you were new for a sec. Way back in the NYCC thread i mentioned i spoke with Chuck and they didn't have plans to use it for Kurt. No majik style teleport base but there's definitely a white poof of smoke in the box for a base.

O.K. I got some inside info, from a reliable source. Matty (from Matty collector) called up Chuck and said "Hey I really like them minimate thingys, if you make one of me, I might be able to hook you up with a little thing called the Masters of the Universe license." The big problem came when Chuck handed him the pack, QC were sleeping on the job that day, and gave him a pair of Elektra legs. The good news was that Matty really like them... Keeping fingers crossed, and holding my breath for a C3 castle greyskull. P.S. My reliable source wasn't very reliable...