I just came back from one of the FLGS' here in my hometown where I saw a guy trying to actually force one of the employees to price somewhere between 500 and 700 cards for him. The guy told him he was off the clock and had plans and he had to wait for the other guy to do it. Several minutes went by and the second guy went through a few of the cards and declared the entire collection worth $5.50. An argument ensued, card guy stormed out, and threw the entire collection, box and all, across the parking lot. Then he turned and started screaming wordlessly at a girl who walked out behind him. I just shook my head at how immature folks have become.
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Talk to literally anyone who has ever worked retail. This is not a "have become" thing. Stories like this exist from before you were born, and I know you're a good deal older than I am.
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Things like this are why I try to be nice to folks in retail - smile at them, wait patiently while they do their job, figure that any problems probably aren't their fault, and generally try to be either forgotten or remembered as a good customer instead of a bad one. ^^
I've worked retail, but I've never seen anyone act this badly before. I've been cussed out and had things knocked off my counter (I once managed a video store) but I've never seen it rain Yu-Gi-Oh cards or had someone just scream incoherently at someone else. I know it goes back as far as the barter system and probably even before, but one would think that by now people would show some dignity. I took a bunch of 2e books in there one day and didn't get near the price I hoped for, but after a little haggling got a little higher price for them than they had asked for. Didn't have to scream at a very small girl to do it, either.
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Things like this are why I try to be nice to folks in retail - smile at them, wait patiently while they do their job, figure that any problems probably aren't their fault, and generally try to be either forgotten or remembered as a good customer instead of a bad one. ^^
I do the same. It costs nothing to be nice to over worked and under paid retail employees, some of whom go home and cry after particularly stressful days (I know lots of folks in retail still and they've told me this happens).
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. Didn't have to scream at a very small girl to do it, either.
I would have watched to make sure that he didn't become physical with her. You can't usually get enough evidence to report emotional abuse, but seeing someone hit a child is usually reportable
She turned and ran back into the store. I figured she was safe after that.
Next time you see him, please film it on your phone and share with us! :)
LOL sure!
On second thought, please don't.
Send it to folks that want to see it via PM, maybe?
Didn't have to scream at a very small girl to do it, either.
This is the worst bit, I feel.
I can easily picture a scenario where a desperate guy who badly needed money took his highly prized collection in with unrealistic visions of solving some financial issue.
Taking it outside and throwing his own cards around rather than taking it out on the store's property is a positive, I feel. Screaming wordlessly at someone (particularly if he didn't know her, but even if he did) nullifies a lot of goodwill I'm willing to extend him. No excuse for that, even if he is in some kind of crisis.
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I used to work as a Bank Manager (started at the bottom and rose to run a chain of branches)
People get crazy messed up and do some highly irrational things when the cash runs out, and I do feel sorry for the guy as clearly that is the end of a rope for him. Now he has no cards AND no money, and is probably ebbing at a low point in life.
I have empathy, and hope the dude gets the help he needs.
That said, if you came in to MY business and started griefing my staff I was more than happy to close your account and show you the door. The customer is not always right, especially when he's being a hat.
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You should submit this story to Not Always Right!
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Someone selling game cards is almost universally at the end of their rope, to start. Given that the people that worked there(or at least the first guy) were so abrupt and rude, I would be willing to bet he was known to them and possibly a troublemaker/person of poor repute in the community. Finally, 5.50 for an entire collection is likely a low ball estimate at best/actively insulting at worst, and given that game stores that specialize in Yu-Gi-Oh usually sell cards at vastly inflated prices, I think this was playing with matches in a fireworks store.
Someone selling game cards is almost universally at the end of their rope, to start. Given that the people that worked there(or at least the first guy) were so abrupt and rude, I would be willing to bet he was known to them and possibly a troublemaker/person of poor repute in the community. Finally, 5.50 for an entire collection is likely a low ball estimate, and given that game stores that specialize in Yu-Gi-Oh usually sell cards at vastly inflated prices, I think this was playing with matches in a fireworks store.
*after* dousing the entire store with cans of kerosene.
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Didn't have to scream at a very small girl to do it, either.This is the worst bit, I feel.
I can easily picture a scenario where a desperate guy who badly needed money took his highly prized collection in with unrealistic visions of solving some financial issue.
Taking it outside and throwing his own cards around rather than taking it out on the store's property is a positive, I feel. Screaming wordlessly at someone (particularly if he didn't know her, but even if he did) nullifies a lot of goodwill I'm willing to extend him. No excuse for that, even if he is in some kind of crisis.
maybe it's because of the field I work in, but that is when people need the most help.
As an aside, I feel that the phrase "temper tantrum" is way over used. I am not sure I can go into detail with out going on a rant.
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How many of these reactions are due to a mis-timed and mis-aimed application of the 'fight or flight' reflex, I wonder?
Suddenly things like 'road rage', 'cruddy customers', 'cruddy salesfolk', etc takes on a different sort of meaning...
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How many of these reactions are due to a mis-timed and mis-aimed application of the 'fight or flight' reflex, I wonder?
I have been subject to that several times in life. I'm older now, so it is easier to recognize the signs, but yeesh... It was hell on me as a young man.
I just came back from one of the FLGS' here in my hometown where I saw a guy trying to actually force one of the employees to price somewhere between 500 and 700 cards for him. The guy told him he was off the clock and had plans and he had to wait for the other guy to do it. Several minutes went by and the second guy went through a few of the cards and declared the entire collection worth $5.50. An argument ensued, card guy stormed out, and threw the entire collection, box and all, across the parking lot. Then he turned and started screaming wordlessly at a girl who walked out behind him. I just shook my head at how immature folks have become.
Money does that to people. He was probably expecting a pay out in triple digits.
How many of these reactions are due to a mis-timed and mis-aimed application of the 'fight or flight' reflex, I wonder?Suddenly things like 'road rage', 'cruddy customers', 'cruddy salesfolk', etc takes on a different sort of meaning...
Nah, it is easier to just dismiss the feelings of others. :(
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Pretty much why I avoid CCGs. I'm sure its quite aggravating to spend hundreds and get back pennies. (Doesn't excuse this gents behavior!) I think FFG taking on a LCG model was a class move.
And this illustrates why I never went into the hobby... the people who thought of the cards as a money-making venue as opposed to buying a game to have fun with.
I really don't expect to make a profit on reselling my Pathfinder books.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Wow, if this guy thought he was gonna get more than about $1.00 per hundred cards, he obviously doesn't know much about the CCG industry/hobby. Having the store be willing to buy bulk cards at all is a lucky break, and far from being a given.
Having that level of unawareness of a hobby he was directly involved in, coupled with those, uh, "social skills", suggests to me that perhaps he has led a very... insulated life.
EDIT:
Finally, 5.50 for an entire collection is likely a low ball estimate at best/actively insulting at worst
Haha, no. A box of bulk is lucky to be bought by a store at all, and getting a full dollar per hundred cards is a solid rate. If DCal's estimate of 500-700 cards is accurate, then the $5.50 that the store offered was completely legit.
I'm not sure which card game it was, though it looks like maybe Yu-Gi-Oh. I know with Magic The Gathering, if you have any cards that you think are worth something (rares) you separate those and have them appraised separately. Bulk cards are usually only worth a few cents a piece. So, if the guy didn't have any rare cards in the stack $5.50 is not completely unreasonable. $10 probably would have been the best he could expect for 500ish bulk non-rare cards.
And if he did have rare cards that are worth more he should have separated them and tried to sell them separately. It's just the nature of the beast.
Sounds like the guy just had way too high of expectations and reacted poorly.
Even if the appraise was insulting to him, that was not the way to react. He should have just taken his cards and business elsewhere.
There is one other LGS in town that does more card business than anything else. He might have tried it, too, I dunno. Within 25 miles there are at least 4 other game stores. Assuming the one I was at was his last resort I can *almost* see him throwing a fit (the screaming at the little girl is NOT excusable). But getting mad and throwing stuff across a parking lot is pretty childish. If he has some sort of emotional problem, then I don't really have anything much to say as I'm not qualified to make such an assessment.
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Pretty much why I avoid CCGs. I'm sure its quite aggravating to spend hundreds and get back pennies. (Doesn't excuse this gents behavior!) I think FFG taking on a LCG model was a class move.And this illustrates why I never went into the hobby... the people who thought of the cards as a money-making venue as opposed to buying a game to have fun with.
I really don't expect to make a profit on reselling my Pathfinder books.
You also don't have to buy your PF books over and over again hoping to collect all the random rules not guaranteed in the first purchase.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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You also don't have to buy your PF books over and over again hoping to collect all the random rules not guaranteed in the first purchase.Pretty much why I avoid CCGs. I'm sure its quite aggravating to spend hundreds and get back pennies. (Doesn't excuse this gents behavior!) I think FFG taking on a LCG model was a class move.And this illustrates why I never went into the hobby... the people who thought of the cards as a money-making venue as opposed to buying a game to have fun with.
I really don't expect to make a profit on reselling my Pathfinder books.
On the other hand, you have to buy the entire book, rather than just the individual options you want on your character sheet. You also have to buy the underlying game rules, rather than just the classes/feats/spells you're using. And you have to do it again when there's a major rules overhaul. That's a lot of extra purchasing compared to a CCG.
Depends on how you play, really. For example, for the few Magic decks I've made, I actually researched what I wanted to play and designed my deck, then bought the cards individually instead of leaving it to chance.
I have a friend who bought tons and tons of action figures in the 80s and 90s, keeping them in the packages because he believed they'd increase in value so he could afford to send his daughter to college with the profits he'd make on them one day. I never really said anything to him, because he believed so strongly they'd increase in value, but I believed that he was spending a lot of money on items that would decrease in value to the point of near worthlessness. And when he did try to sell them on eBay or other such venues he was sorely disappointed. He had a handful that increased in value, but compared to the hundreds he had purchased it was just a huge boondoggle.
Wow, if this guy thought he was gonna get more than about $1.00 per hundred cards, he obviously doesn't know much about the CCG industry/hobby. Having the store be willing to buy bulk cards at all is a lucky break, and far from being a given.
Having that level of unawareness of a hobby he was directly involved in, coupled with those, uh, "social skills", suggests to me that perhaps he has led a very... insulated life.
EDIT:
Finally, 5.50 for an entire collection is likely a low ball estimate at best/actively insulting at worstHaha, no. A box of bulk is lucky to be bought by a store at all, and getting a full dollar per hundred cards is a solid rate. If DCal's estimate of 500-700 cards is accurate, then the $5.50 that the store offered was completely legit.
depends on what was in it. I've seen people sell similar amounts of cards for at least fifty bucks, there were probably some rare cards thrown in there. I've also seen people sell their cards blind or something similar for about twenty bucks. Maybe that's just around me, though.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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depends on what was in it. I've seen people sell similar amounts of cards for at least fifty bucks, there were probably some rare cards thrown in there. I've also seen people sell their cards blind or something similar for about twenty bucks. Maybe that's just around me, though.Wow, if this guy thought he was gonna get more than about $1.00 per hundred cards, he obviously doesn't know much about the CCG industry/hobby. Having the store be willing to buy bulk cards at all is a lucky break, and far from being a given.
Having that level of unawareness of a hobby he was directly involved in, coupled with those, uh, "social skills", suggests to me that perhaps he has led a very... insulated life.
EDIT:
Finally, 5.50 for an entire collection is likely a low ball estimate at best/actively insulting at worstHaha, no. A box of bulk is lucky to be bought by a store at all, and getting a full dollar per hundred cards is a solid rate. If DCal's estimate of 500-700 cards is accurate, then the $5.50 that the store offered was completely legit.
If you're selling your entire collection to a friend/acquaintance, then the buyer can reasonably assume there's a little bit of non-bulk in there (and might even know what some of it is, from having seen it in play) and could inflate the price accordingly. But a store would have to be stupid to price a 600-card box based on the possibility of "some rare cards" mixed in, and they'd be similarly stupid to pay an employee to sort through that kind of volume to verify whether it was all bulk or not.
If you bring a box of hundreds of cards to a store, and expect them to do anything other than treat it all as bulk (like by sifting through the whole collection, or just assuming there are "some rare cards thrown in there"), then we're right back to my original assertion of "obviously doesn't know much about the CCG industry/hobby".
I have a Magic card collection worth thousands... but no game shop would pay that. To get full return you have to auction them to collectors.
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I have a friend who bought tons and tons of action figures in the 80s and 90s, keeping them in the packages because he believed they'd increase in value so he could afford to send his daughter to college with the profits he'd make on them one day. I never really said anything to him, because he believed so strongly they'd increase in value, but I believed that he was spending a lot of money on items that would decrease in value to the point of near worthlessness. And when he did try to sell them on eBay or other such venues he was sorely disappointed. He had a handful that increased in value, but compared to the hundreds he had purchased it was just a huge boondoggle.
I read a story about a family that tried the same thing with beanie babies. Yeah didn't turn out well for them.
I have a Magic card collection worth thousands... but no game shop would pay that. To get full return you have to auction them to collectors.
Exactly, if you want the value out of the cards you pick out the rrare ones you know are worth something and sell those individually, usually online.
If you don't know what your cards are worth or which ones are rares you would need to invest the time looking them up or deal with the fact that you're not going to get much value out of them.
I still feel like you are making fun of a desperate person for having the gaul to actually have emotions. Yes, he should not have yelled at that woman, but this feels like taking things too far.
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There is a difference between 'having emotions' and acting out inappropriately. And that guy definitely did the latter.
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Yeah, unless there's more information I'm not automatically assuming Dood is a "poor desperate soul".
He could have inherited/been gifted the cards, he could have found them in a yard sale, he could stolen them. Just because you're selling cards doesn't mean you're entitled to any empathy.
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I buy and sell yu-gi-oh a lot and it sounds like he probably had a lot of older cards but mostly bulk. The going rate of bulk for a good price is around $15/1000 cards. If this dude had 500-700 cards, the fair offer would be around $7.50-10.50, though behavior is a massive factor in a fair offer. The guys seem they are offering around $10/1000 which is not uncommon for shops.
IDK how or why all of that is relevant, but felt compelled to share the info.
Yeah, unless there's more information I'm not automatically assuming Dood is a "poor desperate soul".
He could have inherited/been gifted the cards, he could have found them in a yard sale, he could stolen them. Just because you're selling cards doesn't mean you're entitled to any empathy.
Everyone is entitled to empathy. You don't have to prove you qualify.
He's allowed to throw his cards around without judgement (whether his soul meets your standards of poor and desperate or not). He's not allowed to scream at passers by even if he does.
The two actions are totally different, ethically.
maybe it's because of the field I work in, but that is when people need the most help.Didn't have to scream at a very small girl to do it, either.This is the worst bit, I feel.
I can easily picture a scenario where a desperate guy who badly needed money took his highly prized collection in with unrealistic visions of solving some financial issue.
Taking it outside and throwing his own cards around rather than taking it out on the store's property is a positive, I feel. Screaming wordlessly at someone (particularly if he didn't know her, but even if he did) nullifies a lot of goodwill I'm willing to extend him. No excuse for that, even if he is in some kind of crisis.
I agree. But they still bear responsibility for their own actions.
Screaming at her wasn't defensible, even if he was having a tough time. Violent outbursts aren't okay. (From the "running back into the shop" part, it reads to me like she was a stranger to him. My mental image of the event is quite frightening).
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Yeah, unless there's more information I'm not automatically assuming Dood is a "poor desperate soul".
He could have inherited/been gifted the cards, he could have found them in a yard sale, he could stolen them. Just because you're selling cards doesn't mean you're entitled to any empathy.
Everyone is entitled to empathy. You don't have to prove you qualify.
He's allowed to throw his cards around without judgement (whether his soul meets your standards of poor and desperate or not). He's not allowed to scream at passers by even if he does.
The two actions are totally different, ethically.
That's what I meant, as being a human being with no factors there is empathy, but just the act of selling cards doesn't automatically add empathy. And the rest of the story diminishes it.
Ah, I misunderstood. Apologies.
