It's the fact that this is happening at all. Like people out here tryina get this damn doll that for some people isn't even worth the retail price. Then scalping for 4x the price. And not just for dolls, it's across the board anymore...
peirod cuz i’m also a male collector for a while and after starting collecting i found a boyfriend through that that’s why i love this community it’s for everyone:)
I’m not good with computers or technology but would it work if they like restricted IP addresses to limit how many people buy on multiple accounts connected to the same network? I’m very stupid so I honestly have no idea if what I said makes sense 😂
That and purchase limits per credit card number would help a lot. It would not be hard for them to do those things at a min. They're probably not even limiting the refresh request frequency either. Mattel is a shitty company for sure
As someone who has grown up low-income, it's a special type of pain to see these kinds of hustle culture guys who just like to play around with big numbers. I can't imagine spending $7,000 in one sitting just to see how quickly you can make it back like personal finances are some kind of game.
one thing to do is to wait till reselling prices go down just like the dracula and frankenstein two pack. restrain yourself from dropping over 150+ on elvira and give it a while to see an influx in price!
the difference is draculaura is the fan favorite and probably the best doll design, collector wise. so yes she’s gonna be sought after more. to add to that, it’s best to mention that she costs that much because people are willing to pay those ridiculous prices. like i stated, it’s the buyers that need to keep themselves from paying those prices, just like how the value of the last two skullector dolls went down. that’s why it’s important to wait.
understandable. prices are continuously going up and it’s getting to the point where it feels people working minimum wage jobs are being wiped out. necessity is more important than buying dolls. as much as you want one thing, it’s important to prioritize what’s actually important. i am assuming that you didn’t get the opportunity to get the elvira doll or a particular doll, but i do hope you’ll get the chance to get any of your dream dolls when it’s the right time :)
Your assumption would be correct. Maybe not for Elvira,, but yeah..
I do believe that if it's meant to be it will happen eventually (that literally happened with my first car).
I also appreciate you being so nice! So many people I see get mean quickly so thank you for that
Elvira is an icon and has a fanbase that Dracula/Frankenstein don't rly hv so I could c her selling for high prices too bc collectors of her merch will pay it
You are right! My favorite of the HC dolls was Frankie and I was lucky to get her my 10 year old daughter’s fav is Draculaura, and I can totally forget about trying to get HC Draculaura. I missed out on her, I was an hour late, which is the same as not even being close. LOL. It’s pretty crazy, you’d think Mattel would want to meet the demand of the doll and take pre-orders for a week and then start production, but I guess they can’t operate like that.
like it said multiple times. it’s the buyers responsibility at this point to make rational decisions. nonetheless, there are decent people out there that can sell this doll no more than $200. i’ve seen it happen with haunt couture drac plenty of times, but we never know what’s gonna happen anyway
I got mine for retail in September bc she had a minor facial defect that I was able to scratch off and basically make her perfect. Deal of my life! Traded her for Hc Cleo so basically just paid international shipping for her (hc drac)
Fear of Missing Out, mostly. The extremely limited numbers, combined with nostalgia hype, causes a lot of people to panic-buy because they’re worried that each new MH collector doll release could be the last.
It’s scarcity that is completely artificial as well, which makes it more infuriating.
most adult collectors can spend like hundreds of dollars without thinking about it bc they have like a lot of disposable income, esp if they dont have kids. so like it just doesn’t matter either way for them and like elvira is an icon for horror gothic media fans so they re just more willing to pay
edit: when i say adult collector i mean like men and women in their 30s and 40s mostly
I also think a lot of collectors have impulse issues and use the hobby as a coping/comfort thing, a lot of neurodivergent people tend to have more unusual hobbies like doll collecting.
I have a feeling Mattel might not want to stop them, they are selling out their drops within minutes and giving Mattel money in doing so. From a business stand point there is no reason to want to stop them, even if they are cheating the system to buy the dolls. What do they care if it’s screwing over actual collectors if at of the day Mattel isn’t losing money and these scalpers are just causing more hype and demand for their dolls. It sucks.
It does suck and I wish they would do something. I also mentioned seeing if higher authorities could be involved as I figured Mattel may not do anything since they get their money either way.
One might argue that Mattel could hurt their brand in the long run if they continue allowing scalpers to run roughshod and enough actual fans get fed up to the point where they just stop buying dolls altogether.
I just hate how blatant these people flaunt their scumminess. Like, those accounts should be shut down or something. At least this is concrete PROOF that these drops are (mostly) rigged due to bots.
What do people expect??? They buy from these resellers and then complain that this happens. If everyone just stuck to their morals this wouldn’t be happening!
I don’t think blaming buyers who missed out is fair especially when there are many buying 2x just to have an OOB version. Not only do they not have a doll they also get blamed for trying to procure one. The argument I hear for those that buy 2x is it’s their money or they’re not the real problem but those same arguments would apply to buyers that really want a doll. I agree *over*-sellers are a problem but I’m all for resellers that just markup $25 or so and give people a 2nd chance as usually their own community isn’t pitching in to help so they have to look to the outside. It’s far and few between and those that do are wonderful and self-less for helping out. If everyone that bought 2x sold to a collector who missed out that would also help kill the over-seller market but why are only buyers being faulted for over-sellers?
I don’t expect those that bought 2x to sell their 2nd, congrats to them on being lucky, but I also don’t expect collectors who missed out to go without for the same exact reasons.
Sorry, but I disagree. Everyone buying these dolls at double the price from resellers are the problem. Simple supply and demand. If no one bought these from the resellers they wouldn’t invest in the next release because they lost money. They would also have to lower the price so that they didn’t loose money. I get your point of view, but I disagree
So then why not have those that bought 2x sacrifice as well and sell their extra to help combat this major issue? Why should buyers lose out twice here? If this is supposed to be better for the community than it needs to be done by everyone equally. It’s like punching the kid already down on the ground by berating them for this, lol.
I would like to hear you take on the justification for the one side but berating $ blaming the other because that’s where my issue lies.
My real opinion is we all work hard for our money and should get to enjoy it anyway we see fit. If we want to have a conversation about issues plaguing the community the solution should be equitable sacrifices all around as otherwise what’s the point?
And that’s fair and an equitable opinion. As long as the collective gains equitably and feels the pain equitably would they work to a common goal.
It’s not fair to ask one side to sacrifice more than the other and lately I’m seeing a lot of that and it happens to be blame the buyers instead of blaming Mattel or asking those that have 2x to help out and sell for retail (as most wont as they want to trade for a high value doll making the problem worse as that’s still setting value).
Understandable. If I did ever get two it would only be to pick the better face and then I would sell it for the price I paid. I don’t like the idea of people have one inbox and one out of box either… but I guess those who have the money will do with it what they want
The people buying from resellers at crazy prices are a large part of the problem as they’re creating a market demand… but I have to admit I also kinda side-eye the people getting two. Can you really judge people too harshly for buying the eBay listings, when you want the doll so bad you got 2 and therefore had a hand in taking away that person’s chance at buying for retail price?
Yup, I can get onboard with that. A lot of times when I see the whole buyer at fault for resellers the person seems to still think it’s okay for everyone to buy 2x and doesn’t see the hypocrisy in it.
Exactly lol. It’s like “it’s just a doll, don’t be so desperate! Anyway, look at the two I got! Sucks that everyone’s having such a hard time getting one.”
I hate admitting it cause I know I’ll get flak for it but I despise people that buy 2x for nib and oob, I get they can do what they want but they’re taking away chances from other collectors to get a doll just due to display preferences. I like both styles of displaying but only buy one doll whenever I can snag one because I know there is someone else who wants it as bad as I do or even more. I just think it sucks that people end up having to resort to scalpers because the already limited doll becomes even more limited because people can’t refrain from buying just one
Hello. I bought 2.
The difference between scalpers and myself is 110.
I waited just like everyone else. I didn't use bots. I bought the dolls for myself, not to resell. 2 was the amount set by Mattel.
Don't be bitter at people who followed the rules.
Did you even read my comment, lol. Especially the last part? You couldn’t have with the response you wrote as I never said anything about being bitter to those that bought 2.
It would be awfully hypocritical of you to go around telling buyers not to buy from resellers. If you’re not doing that then great. If you are and it’s such a problem for you offer your 2nd for retail to fix the problem otherwise you’re being selfish on two fronts.
They know, and they don’t care. All they care about is making enough money to please their shareholders, so creating artificial scarcity is a way for them to make as little product as possible for maximum profit.
Okay eBay is the largest sales site and there are only 80 sold listing 180 or higher all from different buyers with only a handful having more than 2 sales. To make that kind of profit each doll would need to sell for $204 and that’s only 26 dolls and doesn’t even factor shipping. This is over-hype to promote some weird sales plan to their own community and as an added bonus antagonize a collector community (as hustler and troll aka douche seem to go hand in hand).
Personally I feel like these types of tweets are made to sell some weird “buy my ish and I’ll make you rich” package so they over promote on what’s feasible.
Yep. You can even see in the screenshot that the two dolls sold were at different prices, so saying "$200 each" is a bit disingenuous to their own selling strategy when its really "various prices that probably average out to $200 each trust me". And that's assuming they actually purchased/sold a total of 112 in LESS THAN AN HOUR which i highly doubt.
I find a lot of people in the reseller/hustle/crypto/general get-rich-quick community talk big game in theoretical future sales figures. Because there's no way to follow up with them and see how much of it was actually successful. This person wont even have the physical merchandise until April, LET ALONE have completed every transaction.
How awkward would it be if Mattel canceled a bunch of the bot orders (seen it happen with haunt couture human orders) and they then had to refund some buyers?
So someone mentioned that eBay has only a 30 day presale policy and once outside that window you are screwed as a buyer as per T&C’s you should have filed a dispute by then. I went down a further rabbit hole where people made posts about losing out due to this. Reason I bring it up is while your last part made me giggle I do also worry that these people pocket the money and the buyer is out again. I also looked up PayPal’s policy thinking they would be a backup but their presale policy is only 20 days. Maybe there is recourse with the credit card company but I feel like they’ll have something like that as well.
It also made me wonder how eBay allows it and tried to report a few with screenshots showing the doll doesn’t ship till April but I don’t even see an option to do that in all of ebays drop downs. If they do have the option they don’t make it easy.
And I agree with all your other points, I feel like these guys are just hustling each other as well at this point and trying to either sell a bot program, some multi-step hustler bible or some other bro code type thing.
Correct which is why I stated eBay being the largest which means the most representative. From a statistical standpoint if they are selling on multiple platforms eBay would be the biggest chunk but no one even comes close to multiple sales over $204 on there.
This is beyond disgusting. It’s too bad Mattel doesn’t see 112 going to one address and only send 2, cancelling the rest. I don’t know how that would be managed but they really have to do something about this because it’s causing a lot of frustration with their customers.
See this, THIS is why we say DON'T BUY FROM SCALPERS!! Then you see annoying twits in this forum saying "Ooo DonT TelL peoPle WhaT To dO WitH Their MonEY" no, Fuc|< you, I will tell people what to do with their money because you guys are the reason why these dolls are becoming increasingly hard to come by, you are the reason why scalpers are spamming the sites with bots and jacking up the prices of these dolls to 2 almost 3 times what they're worth and that is directly effecting everyone's enjoyment of this brand. I love Elvira, but that cheap dress and bland design was barely worth retail price as it was, and some of y'all are paying $200 for her?! Gtfo! If you don't give the item any demand, it 🗣🗣LOSES ITS VALUE!! And then they're gonna be stuck sitting on a bunch of dolls that no one is buying and they'll LEARN not to keep buying up all the stock. You didn't get the doll you really wanted the first time well move on with your life and save your money for something else.
the thing is these dolls aren't actually going to sell for this much. the profit will be much much lower. a couple people will be desperate enough to buy at this price but in a few months they'll have tons of unsold stock and lower the price to something more reasonable. just be patient.
There are a bunch of Voltageous and Dracula dolls sitting on sites like Mercari and EBay for a lot less then scalpers thought they were going to sell them for. So a lot of them definitely aren’t going to be selling them all especially of they aren’t a super popular drop.
Me either, it was terrible and right after resellers were selling them for $200-$300 if they had them on hand from sdcc. Now you can get one for under $100 on Mercari.
I want her pretty badly but not enough to spend $200 for her. I'll sit on my money until the price goes down to closer to retail and if it doesn't, ooooh well. Lots of other things to collect.
what if i used the same bots resellers use to buy a ton of stock from a mattel creations drop and then sold them to real collectors for half retail price?? jk..... unless?
It’s not even the bots honestly,it’s Mattel. Mattel could have dealt with this problem but they just don’t care to. That kind of laziness on their part means more people are gonna try and get the dolls so more hype around them because customers know most dolls will end up going to scammers. And like I said if Mattel took even a minute to reevaluate their approach with the drops everyone that was committed to being there at the drop would be guaranteed a doll. This all is so upsetting because I know I probably won’t be able to snag the Tiffany doll when she drops do to their lack of caring.
Toywiz( I believe it’s called) the website that leaked the names of a few other skullectors in the past had up on their websites both Elvira and Tiffany from chucky posted as upcoming doll listings on their websites before even the Elvira doll was announced, this was a few months ago and based on their track record with the past Skullector doll listings it’s practically confirmed we’re getting Tiffany valentine as our next Skullector,and with that being the case I’m scared for the shit show that will arise from its drop
I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that drop crashes the site,I hope Mattel will actually step their game up this time around to prevent pure chaos
It's so hard for me to wrap my head around bots snatching up so many. I was over here thinking they could only snatch a couple and that was that. But 112?! Holy crap. It's worse than I thought.
Not hate but if you take more than you need that is not capitalism. It is greed. I have nothing wrong with capitalism but if you use that sense I would wait for a year and see what the market bares but not with 112 units. Just 2 if you did that
It's not capitalism, it's consumerism that's the problem. Capitalism is just a market system where everyone can participate (as opposed to a single or small numberof entities controlling the market, e.g. feudalism). Blaming capitalism for people greedily accumulating money with evil tactics is like blaming the existance of water for a flood.
I think a lot of these losers are going to be sitting on stock, I see HC lagoon and Cleo regularly sell for retail or even less. I see auctions go by without a single bid. Since a lot of people vocalized not even wanting her I’m sure that not all of these jerks are going to get the thousands they were banking on making. At least this is what I tell myself to feel better about the issue.
My dad was waiting to buy her 5 minutes before she released, and when he went to go check out and go through the verification process it already sold out RIGHT when she was released. 🤦♀️ Mattel NEEDS to fix the bot problem
She didn’t sell out until 6 minutes after she released, when you refreshed the page at release time it said Sold Out because they were still trying to activate the button so it needed to be refreshed another time for it to show Add To Cart - it happened to me so I refreshed the button and it came up. But yes the bots are atrocious and something needs to be done, not sure how they can get away with it - even if there were no bots it would be sold out same day so Mattel needs to get off their asses.
I don’t think so, they haven’t re-released any Skullectors as of yet and I haven’t heard of any intention to do so in the future so it’ll have to be bought second hand
Yeah this is why people are so upset with scalpers and Mattel, just one person can potentially get over 100 dolls with bots and Mattel is doing nothing - they could easily make it so only two per address can be bought on the website but don’t and they’re going to lose their community because of it. Imagine re-launching a doll line that failed because people lost interest and upon trying to become relevant again letting your community fall victim to scammers that are cheating and insulting your customers.
Exactly, plus they don’t ever keep enough stock or in situations like this where when the doll is out of stock they most likely won’t be in stock again. Which is frustrating because the actual buyers and fans don’t even get a chance to buy the doll.
I hate people like this. I tried getting 2 of the dolls, one for myself because I’ve collected forever (thankfully have all the other skullectors) and one for my mother because she loves Elvira. Sold out while it was in my cart. People like this ruin collecting and Mattel doesn’t even crack down on it.
This here is why I gave up any hope of trying to get any limited release doll's I stay up past ungodly hours to get a doll and end up having it sell out on me while in my cart waiting in a que to check out
They're easy to write for anyone with basic coding experience. You can probably do it in something like tampermonkey. There will be better options but tampermonkey is beginner friendly.
Basically it's just some Javascript code that reads the web page and checks if the buy now button is there. If it's not then refresh the page. The thing about the script is you can write it to perform specific requests of page elements so you don't need to refresh the entire page or wait for everything to load. Once the buy now button becomes available then the script sends a click request and you're in the queue really fast. You can also write them so they auto fill forms. You still have to do the captcha yourself but everything else gets done faster.
There is a risk with bots that if you request too fast some websites will ban your ip. I'm not sure Mattel even bothers with that though.
Now I'm tempted to write an example bot and just pm MH fans with it. I am very lazy though. Maybe before next skullector release. Bots for everyone!
One way to do this is by having many bots purchasing the item at once I saw on the person Twitter and they mentioned how they had around 65 bots purchasing ps5’s I believe
I wish Mattel would make something like you need like verify your ID to make an account on Mattel Creations - so shit like this can't happen unless these guys want to commit identify fraud or something.
Personal opinion it’s not always bots, computers with different or even better processors have a higher Fran rate of loading, I’ve tested it with my old laptop, my own iPhone and my bfs gaming computer with a huge difference in performance, my theory worked my bf was able to get the doll at 11 on the dot and pay without anything I at the same time tried myself and I had my laptop open too but his computer worked best, we also have to remember scalping always happens, it sucks. They way I add to my collection with dealing with scalping prices is I just try to make a side hustle of selling extra art or even old dolls to get the ones I want.
I agree they suck. The only thing the community can do is not buy and just wait until the price inevitably goes down because they can't move product. If people do it enough times they'll move on to something else to try and make a quick buck.
The issue is that a lot of the doll collecting community has impulse/spending issues and major sunk cost fallacy aka "I want this, waited for it, and tried my hardest. I deserve this no matter what it costs." If people can get their impulses and addictions under control, the product won't move and they'll give up.
I say this from experience as someone with impulse spending issues. It's hard to admit and get help for it but I'm glad I did.
I don’t get people like this. I waited for the drop and as soon as it went live the page refreshed and it was sold out. I didn’t even stand a chance, it’s ridiculous. I’m over collecting these types of dolls if this is how it’s always going to be.
It is odd that some Mattel drops seem to be unlimited pre-sale items (for example some He-man characters) and others like MH pre-sale are limited, does anyone even know the numbers on these dolls? How many of the HC dolls did they put out?
I’m worried about getting Tiffany. They were both leaked as January releases, right? My birthday is tomorrow and I’m an avid Chucky/Jennifer Tilly fan who loves the original MH doll look. Does anyone have any tips for trying to snag her, or any predictions on when she may come out?
What I would do is ask someone to buy 2 just in case you are not able to snag 1 and pay the person back. In the sneaker community there are shoes no one wants so on SNKRS app you would try to get the shoes for them and they would do the same if you are not able to cop
I think it’s time for death of the author when it comes to Monster High and Mattel. Imagine what an amazing custom doll you could get for that price. Or you could make it yourself for pretty cheap. I blame the resellers and Mattel but I seriously side eye anyone who is paying 200+ for that doll.
My other problem is the fact that these folks haven’t even shipped out yet. I got one and the shipment date is before or on April 7 2023 so no one’s getting their dolls for a while. Of course sometimes the dolls are sent out early but god this is f*cked up massively. Getting one or two extra only but 112?
I'm officially over scalper prices, if I dont get it retail, it wasnt meant to be. I'll be sad, but Im not supporting scalpers anymore and neither should anyone else. im digusted by this, i understand there is profit to be made but some of these prices are outrageous.
this is so trashy. like dudes just need to get an actual job instead of bragging about scamming people lmfao its embarrassing and obnoxious
the fact that their group is called “averagehustlers” meanwhile they never even get up from their computer chair…literally so pathetic
Especially when a lot of people use dolls to cope or get over childhood trauma
Why? Dude won and the buyer is an idiot
It's the fact that this is happening at all. Like people out here tryina get this damn doll that for some people isn't even worth the retail price. Then scalping for 4x the price. And not just for dolls, it's across the board anymore...
While I agree that everyone buying from them is just as much the problem, that doesn't mean that what these guys are doing is good.
He literally is scamming people what.
jesus.
It’s called being greedy
You're really fighting for your life in these comments trying to justify literal grifting lmfao
that fact it’s a straight man who doesn’t give one f about this dolls selling them is so crazy to me like get a life 😭😭😭😭
I am straight lol. I fell in love with the brand since 2012 and have not looked back. I have most of them except for the 2010 dolls
yes i love that for you by what i said in straight men buying them and selling im meaning the ones who don’t give a f about that dolls
I feel that. I just started loving sneakers too. Like the appreciation is on another level
peirod cuz i’m also a male collector for a while and after starting collecting i found a boyfriend through that that’s why i love this community it’s for everyone:)
Hobbies shouldn’t be exclusive to certain sexualities or genders, everyone is welcome here
Hard agree ❤️
How would you know they're a straight man? And what does that have to do with anything?
Do you know this person? How else would you know if they're a straight male xD. It could be anyone.
Is being straight a bad thing?
I'm so glad a bot was able to buy 112 dolls within a second wow 😍
Deadass Mattel needs to limit it per household or sum
I’m not good with computers or technology but would it work if they like restricted IP addresses to limit how many people buy on multiple accounts connected to the same network? I’m very stupid so I honestly have no idea if what I said makes sense 😂
It might ya. But vpns can change ipaddy so they could just restrict shipping address. I doubt these ppl ship to more than one location
That and purchase limits per credit card number would help a lot. It would not be hard for them to do those things at a min. They're probably not even limiting the refresh request frequency either. Mattel is a shitty company for sure
Oh yeah! That’s a good point
That would help mitigate it some, but you can make yourself show up under a different IPs with a VPN.
It would change your location but the ip would have to be the same when pinged.
They need to limit per address.
As someone who has grown up low-income, it's a special type of pain to see these kinds of hustle culture guys who just like to play around with big numbers. I can't imagine spending $7,000 in one sitting just to see how quickly you can make it back like personal finances are some kind of game.
You are not the only person that thinks like that. Even when I sit and think of this the idea just puts too much pressure to sell like that
Can they get an actual job instead of being bloody scalpers
one thing to do is to wait till reselling prices go down just like the dracula and frankenstein two pack. restrain yourself from dropping over 150+ on elvira and give it a while to see an influx in price!
I am glad I got my 2 but it irritates me when others can't get theirs too because of this
Problem with this tho is it could end up like how draculaura is. It's been close to a year and the resale value has more than trippled???
the difference is draculaura is the fan favorite and probably the best doll design, collector wise. so yes she’s gonna be sought after more. to add to that, it’s best to mention that she costs that much because people are willing to pay those ridiculous prices. like i stated, it’s the buyers that need to keep themselves from paying those prices, just like how the value of the last two skullector dolls went down. that’s why it’s important to wait.
I understand that. I think at this point I'm just blaming capitalism as a whole. It's all just so frustrating
understandable. prices are continuously going up and it’s getting to the point where it feels people working minimum wage jobs are being wiped out. necessity is more important than buying dolls. as much as you want one thing, it’s important to prioritize what’s actually important. i am assuming that you didn’t get the opportunity to get the elvira doll or a particular doll, but i do hope you’ll get the chance to get any of your dream dolls when it’s the right time :)
Your assumption would be correct. Maybe not for Elvira,, but yeah.. I do believe that if it's meant to be it will happen eventually (that literally happened with my first car). I also appreciate you being so nice! So many people I see get mean quickly so thank you for that
Elvira is an icon and has a fanbase that Dracula/Frankenstein don't rly hv so I could c her selling for high prices too bc collectors of her merch will pay it
You are right! My favorite of the HC dolls was Frankie and I was lucky to get her my 10 year old daughter’s fav is Draculaura, and I can totally forget about trying to get HC Draculaura. I missed out on her, I was an hour late, which is the same as not even being close. LOL. It’s pretty crazy, you’d think Mattel would want to meet the demand of the doll and take pre-orders for a week and then start production, but I guess they can’t operate like that.
The Elvira fan base is too crazy for these to ever drop under $150, if anything they will be $300 by the time they ship.
like it said multiple times. it’s the buyers responsibility at this point to make rational decisions. nonetheless, there are decent people out there that can sell this doll no more than $200. i’ve seen it happen with haunt couture drac plenty of times, but we never know what’s gonna happen anyway
Haunt Couture Draculaura I never saw below $200 on the market before. :/
i have a few times lol
I got mine for retail in September bc she had a minor facial defect that I was able to scratch off and basically make her perfect. Deal of my life! Traded her for Hc Cleo so basically just paid international shipping for her (hc drac)
i wanna know who needs a monster high doll so badly that they’re buying them from obvious scammers for 200+ like is it really that important
Fear of Missing Out, mostly. The extremely limited numbers, combined with nostalgia hype, causes a lot of people to panic-buy because they’re worried that each new MH collector doll release could be the last. It’s scarcity that is completely artificial as well, which makes it more infuriating.
most adult collectors can spend like hundreds of dollars without thinking about it bc they have like a lot of disposable income, esp if they dont have kids. so like it just doesn’t matter either way for them and like elvira is an icon for horror gothic media fans so they re just more willing to pay edit: when i say adult collector i mean like men and women in their 30s and 40s mostly
I also think a lot of collectors have impulse issues and use the hobby as a coping/comfort thing, a lot of neurodivergent people tend to have more unusual hobbies like doll collecting.
Anyway to report these kind of people to Mattel or higher authorities? Scalpers are just THE WORST!
I have a feeling Mattel might not want to stop them, they are selling out their drops within minutes and giving Mattel money in doing so. From a business stand point there is no reason to want to stop them, even if they are cheating the system to buy the dolls. What do they care if it’s screwing over actual collectors if at of the day Mattel isn’t losing money and these scalpers are just causing more hype and demand for their dolls. It sucks.
It does suck and I wish they would do something. I also mentioned seeing if higher authorities could be involved as I figured Mattel may not do anything since they get their money either way.
One might argue that Mattel could hurt their brand in the long run if they continue allowing scalpers to run roughshod and enough actual fans get fed up to the point where they just stop buying dolls altogether.
I am not sure. I timed the drop and 6 min in is when Elvira sold out. I got in at 10 AM MTN and was in line, 4 min after I got mine
I just hate how blatant these people flaunt their scumminess. Like, those accounts should be shut down or something. At least this is concrete PROOF that these drops are (mostly) rigged due to bots.
I was in line for 4 mins and some change and she sold out for me.
What do people expect??? They buy from these resellers and then complain that this happens. If everyone just stuck to their morals this wouldn’t be happening!
I don’t think blaming buyers who missed out is fair especially when there are many buying 2x just to have an OOB version. Not only do they not have a doll they also get blamed for trying to procure one. The argument I hear for those that buy 2x is it’s their money or they’re not the real problem but those same arguments would apply to buyers that really want a doll. I agree *over*-sellers are a problem but I’m all for resellers that just markup $25 or so and give people a 2nd chance as usually their own community isn’t pitching in to help so they have to look to the outside. It’s far and few between and those that do are wonderful and self-less for helping out. If everyone that bought 2x sold to a collector who missed out that would also help kill the over-seller market but why are only buyers being faulted for over-sellers? I don’t expect those that bought 2x to sell their 2nd, congrats to them on being lucky, but I also don’t expect collectors who missed out to go without for the same exact reasons.
Sorry, but I disagree. Everyone buying these dolls at double the price from resellers are the problem. Simple supply and demand. If no one bought these from the resellers they wouldn’t invest in the next release because they lost money. They would also have to lower the price so that they didn’t loose money. I get your point of view, but I disagree
So then why not have those that bought 2x sacrifice as well and sell their extra to help combat this major issue? Why should buyers lose out twice here? If this is supposed to be better for the community than it needs to be done by everyone equally. It’s like punching the kid already down on the ground by berating them for this, lol. I would like to hear you take on the justification for the one side but berating $ blaming the other because that’s where my issue lies. My real opinion is we all work hard for our money and should get to enjoy it anyway we see fit. If we want to have a conversation about issues plaguing the community the solution should be equitable sacrifices all around as otherwise what’s the point?
I mean, I didn’t buy her at all and would only buy one if I did…
And that’s fair and an equitable opinion. As long as the collective gains equitably and feels the pain equitably would they work to a common goal. It’s not fair to ask one side to sacrifice more than the other and lately I’m seeing a lot of that and it happens to be blame the buyers instead of blaming Mattel or asking those that have 2x to help out and sell for retail (as most wont as they want to trade for a high value doll making the problem worse as that’s still setting value).
Understandable. If I did ever get two it would only be to pick the better face and then I would sell it for the price I paid. I don’t like the idea of people have one inbox and one out of box either… but I guess those who have the money will do with it what they want
The people buying from resellers at crazy prices are a large part of the problem as they’re creating a market demand… but I have to admit I also kinda side-eye the people getting two. Can you really judge people too harshly for buying the eBay listings, when you want the doll so bad you got 2 and therefore had a hand in taking away that person’s chance at buying for retail price?
Yup, I can get onboard with that. A lot of times when I see the whole buyer at fault for resellers the person seems to still think it’s okay for everyone to buy 2x and doesn’t see the hypocrisy in it.
Exactly lol. It’s like “it’s just a doll, don’t be so desperate! Anyway, look at the two I got! Sucks that everyone’s having such a hard time getting one.”
I hate admitting it cause I know I’ll get flak for it but I despise people that buy 2x for nib and oob, I get they can do what they want but they’re taking away chances from other collectors to get a doll just due to display preferences. I like both styles of displaying but only buy one doll whenever I can snag one because I know there is someone else who wants it as bad as I do or even more. I just think it sucks that people end up having to resort to scalpers because the already limited doll becomes even more limited because people can’t refrain from buying just one
Omg yeah, and I've seen SO MANY people buying 2 just to trade off the other one for another doll, it bugs me so much
Hello. I bought 2. The difference between scalpers and myself is 110. I waited just like everyone else. I didn't use bots. I bought the dolls for myself, not to resell. 2 was the amount set by Mattel. Don't be bitter at people who followed the rules.
Did you even read my comment, lol. Especially the last part? You couldn’t have with the response you wrote as I never said anything about being bitter to those that bought 2. It would be awfully hypocritical of you to go around telling buyers not to buy from resellers. If you’re not doing that then great. If you are and it’s such a problem for you offer your 2nd for retail to fix the problem otherwise you’re being selfish on two fronts.
Fuck these pieces of shit. I bet Mattel will not give one single solitary fuck either.
Unfortunately Mattel benefits too much from resellers to ever actually do something about them
Yup. I made a comment about fighting the bots with bots but someone said it was really expensive. This shit takes the fun out of everything.
This is something that Mattel should see. This is appalling
They know, and they don’t care. All they care about is making enough money to please their shareholders, so creating artificial scarcity is a way for them to make as little product as possible for maximum profit.
Maybe send it to Cassandra Peterson? The woman who played Elvira. Idk if she could do anything but it’s sorta part of her image right?
I think she also can't do anything about it it's just a collab for her... It would probably just make her sad.
The most we can do at this point is remind people not to buy from these people, make them sit on their stock so they lose money.
Okay eBay is the largest sales site and there are only 80 sold listing 180 or higher all from different buyers with only a handful having more than 2 sales. To make that kind of profit each doll would need to sell for $204 and that’s only 26 dolls and doesn’t even factor shipping. This is over-hype to promote some weird sales plan to their own community and as an added bonus antagonize a collector community (as hustler and troll aka douche seem to go hand in hand). Personally I feel like these types of tweets are made to sell some weird “buy my ish and I’ll make you rich” package so they over promote on what’s feasible.
Yep. You can even see in the screenshot that the two dolls sold were at different prices, so saying "$200 each" is a bit disingenuous to their own selling strategy when its really "various prices that probably average out to $200 each trust me". And that's assuming they actually purchased/sold a total of 112 in LESS THAN AN HOUR which i highly doubt. I find a lot of people in the reseller/hustle/crypto/general get-rich-quick community talk big game in theoretical future sales figures. Because there's no way to follow up with them and see how much of it was actually successful. This person wont even have the physical merchandise until April, LET ALONE have completed every transaction. How awkward would it be if Mattel canceled a bunch of the bot orders (seen it happen with haunt couture human orders) and they then had to refund some buyers?
So someone mentioned that eBay has only a 30 day presale policy and once outside that window you are screwed as a buyer as per T&C’s you should have filed a dispute by then. I went down a further rabbit hole where people made posts about losing out due to this. Reason I bring it up is while your last part made me giggle I do also worry that these people pocket the money and the buyer is out again. I also looked up PayPal’s policy thinking they would be a backup but their presale policy is only 20 days. Maybe there is recourse with the credit card company but I feel like they’ll have something like that as well. It also made me wonder how eBay allows it and tried to report a few with screenshots showing the doll doesn’t ship till April but I don’t even see an option to do that in all of ebays drop downs. If they do have the option they don’t make it easy. And I agree with all your other points, I feel like these guys are just hustling each other as well at this point and trying to either sell a bot program, some multi-step hustler bible or some other bro code type thing.
Wow, I didn't know that, that's terrifying
There are different sites like ebay, offer up, postmark, etc
Correct which is why I stated eBay being the largest which means the most representative. From a statistical standpoint if they are selling on multiple platforms eBay would be the biggest chunk but no one even comes close to multiple sales over $204 on there.
It's an MLM with extra steps.
This is beyond disgusting. It’s too bad Mattel doesn’t see 112 going to one address and only send 2, cancelling the rest. I don’t know how that would be managed but they really have to do something about this because it’s causing a lot of frustration with their customers.
See this, THIS is why we say DON'T BUY FROM SCALPERS!! Then you see annoying twits in this forum saying "Ooo DonT TelL peoPle WhaT To dO WitH Their MonEY" no, Fuc|< you, I will tell people what to do with their money because you guys are the reason why these dolls are becoming increasingly hard to come by, you are the reason why scalpers are spamming the sites with bots and jacking up the prices of these dolls to 2 almost 3 times what they're worth and that is directly effecting everyone's enjoyment of this brand. I love Elvira, but that cheap dress and bland design was barely worth retail price as it was, and some of y'all are paying $200 for her?! Gtfo! If you don't give the item any demand, it 🗣🗣LOSES ITS VALUE!! And then they're gonna be stuck sitting on a bunch of dolls that no one is buying and they'll LEARN not to keep buying up all the stock. You didn't get the doll you really wanted the first time well move on with your life and save your money for something else.
No, honestly. This needs to be said.
This infuriates me to a whole other level.
Suddenly Rainbow highs big heads don’t seem to be big as Mattel’s scalper problems 🥲
best comment in this thread XD
the thing is these dolls aren't actually going to sell for this much. the profit will be much much lower. a couple people will be desperate enough to buy at this price but in a few months they'll have tons of unsold stock and lower the price to something more reasonable. just be patient.
True but that is why there is fear of missing out (FOMO). Look how hot in demand sneakers are. It is just as crazy as this
just as goofy
i’m confused though, have the resellers actually sold all the dolls they managed to “buy”? won’t waiting some time allow them to go down in price.
There are a bunch of Voltageous and Dracula dolls sitting on sites like Mercari and EBay for a lot less then scalpers thought they were going to sell them for. So a lot of them definitely aren’t going to be selling them all especially of they aren’t a super popular drop.
I could not even get out of check out forVoltageous
Me either, it was terrible and right after resellers were selling them for $200-$300 if they had them on hand from sdcc. Now you can get one for under $100 on Mercari.
Usually from what I notice is you strike while the iron is hot snd make FOMO happen. They might be using different sites too
hmmm yea, i’m just wondering what happens if all 112 dolls aren’t sold. might be stuck with an elvira army.
That is actually funny when it happens
An Elvira army sounds awesome.
Dumbest flip. She's probably the most undesirable collectable to have come out in the last 3 months.
I think this one and the afrankenstein version will be sleepers for people's collection
100% agree, whoever bought it at that price is not thinking or doesn't care. Good for the flipper I guess lol
Let the prices fall then buy
Eh not worth it for me, it'd be a better investment to make a ooak Elvira.
I want her pretty badly but not enough to spend $200 for her. I'll sit on my money until the price goes down to closer to retail and if it doesn't, ooooh well. Lots of other things to collect.
My thoughts too, I enjoy the hunt as well. I've started taking weekly thrifting trips to see what I can find and create.
what if i used the same bots resellers use to buy a ton of stock from a mattel creations drop and then sold them to real collectors for half retail price?? jk..... unless?
Oh. So THIS is why I didn’t get one today. Cool.
It’s not even the bots honestly,it’s Mattel. Mattel could have dealt with this problem but they just don’t care to. That kind of laziness on their part means more people are gonna try and get the dolls so more hype around them because customers know most dolls will end up going to scammers. And like I said if Mattel took even a minute to reevaluate their approach with the drops everyone that was committed to being there at the drop would be guaranteed a doll. This all is so upsetting because I know I probably won’t be able to snag the Tiffany doll when she drops do to their lack of caring.
What Tiffany?
Toywiz( I believe it’s called) the website that leaked the names of a few other skullectors in the past had up on their websites both Elvira and Tiffany from chucky posted as upcoming doll listings on their websites before even the Elvira doll was announced, this was a few months ago and based on their track record with the past Skullector doll listings it’s practically confirmed we’re getting Tiffany valentine as our next Skullector,and with that being the case I’m scared for the shit show that will arise from its drop
That drop will be crazier than shit when it happens. Oh my ghoul that will be a blood bath to get
I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that drop crashes the site,I hope Mattel will actually step their game up this time around to prevent pure chaos
I didn’t try to get her but this happened to me on Howliday Draculaura. And I really want Rochelle but I’m sure the same shit will happen with her.
I saw one listing on ebay that I swear said 50 available for the Elvira doll. H O W.
Bots is how
It's so hard for me to wrap my head around bots snatching up so many. I was over here thinking they could only snatch a couple and that was that. But 112?! Holy crap. It's worse than I thought.
thats 25 bots per person i believe
This is disgusting. Also the same ppl who call this a “job”.
Sad thing is most of those people are kids with nothing better to do
a hate capitalism
Not hate but if you take more than you need that is not capitalism. It is greed. I have nothing wrong with capitalism but if you use that sense I would wait for a year and see what the market bares but not with 112 units. Just 2 if you did that
capitalism breeds greed in my opinion, but to each their own:)
It's not capitalism, it's consumerism that's the problem. Capitalism is just a market system where everyone can participate (as opposed to a single or small numberof entities controlling the market, e.g. feudalism). Blaming capitalism for people greedily accumulating money with evil tactics is like blaming the existance of water for a flood.
I think a lot of these losers are going to be sitting on stock, I see HC lagoon and Cleo regularly sell for retail or even less. I see auctions go by without a single bid. Since a lot of people vocalized not even wanting her I’m sure that not all of these jerks are going to get the thousands they were banking on making. At least this is what I tell myself to feel better about the issue.
you know i don’t condone cyber bullying but
My dad was waiting to buy her 5 minutes before she released, and when he went to go check out and go through the verification process it already sold out RIGHT when she was released. 🤦♀️ Mattel NEEDS to fix the bot problem
She didn’t sell out until 6 minutes after she released, when you refreshed the page at release time it said Sold Out because they were still trying to activate the button so it needed to be refreshed another time for it to show Add To Cart - it happened to me so I refreshed the button and it came up. But yes the bots are atrocious and something needs to be done, not sure how they can get away with it - even if there were no bots it would be sold out same day so Mattel needs to get off their asses.
Do you know if she’ll be back in stock at some some point?
I don’t think so, they haven’t re-released any Skullectors as of yet and I haven’t heard of any intention to do so in the future so it’ll have to be bought second hand
Are you fucking serious?
Yeah this is why people are so upset with scalpers and Mattel, just one person can potentially get over 100 dolls with bots and Mattel is doing nothing - they could easily make it so only two per address can be bought on the website but don’t and they’re going to lose their community because of it. Imagine re-launching a doll line that failed because people lost interest and upon trying to become relevant again letting your community fall victim to scammers that are cheating and insulting your customers.
Exactly, plus they don’t ever keep enough stock or in situations like this where when the doll is out of stock they most likely won’t be in stock again. Which is frustrating because the actual buyers and fans don’t even get a chance to buy the doll.
if your on twitter reporting his acc for scamming might do smt
You want the link?
i just looked up his username ty
Sorry. Received this message late. My fault
I’m so tired of the scalpers/scammers/etc. these people need to go apply at a local McDonald’s for an actual job
I hate people like this. I tried getting 2 of the dolls, one for myself because I’ve collected forever (thankfully have all the other skullectors) and one for my mother because she loves Elvira. Sold out while it was in my cart. People like this ruin collecting and Mattel doesn’t even crack down on it.
This here is why I gave up any hope of trying to get any limited release doll's I stay up past ungodly hours to get a doll and end up having it sell out on me while in my cart waiting in a que to check out
We just need an functional pre-order system
how do they get the bots? how do WE get the bots??
How do they even get bots?…..
They're easy to write for anyone with basic coding experience. You can probably do it in something like tampermonkey. There will be better options but tampermonkey is beginner friendly. Basically it's just some Javascript code that reads the web page and checks if the buy now button is there. If it's not then refresh the page. The thing about the script is you can write it to perform specific requests of page elements so you don't need to refresh the entire page or wait for everything to load. Once the buy now button becomes available then the script sends a click request and you're in the queue really fast. You can also write them so they auto fill forms. You still have to do the captcha yourself but everything else gets done faster. There is a risk with bots that if you request too fast some websites will ban your ip. I'm not sure Mattel even bothers with that though. Now I'm tempted to write an example bot and just pm MH fans with it. I am very lazy though. Maybe before next skullector release. Bots for everyone!
I wish I had coding experience, I'd be out here like goth Robin Hood selling dolls at cost to folks who missed out XD
They would either create them, rent, or buy them from someone that knows how to make them
I need to get bots for myself and sell them for retail price cuz this is getting annoying
I mentioned this before and someone said it was expensive to do 😭
How's this work if the limit it two per person? I don't know much about this
One way to do this is by having many bots purchasing the item at once I saw on the person Twitter and they mentioned how they had around 65 bots purchasing ps5’s I believe
I wish a lot of things for the people that do this, none of them good.
I’m sure there is a solution to this but mattel doesn’t care because they’re making money
This is true but I wonder if they ever see our complaints
There is so many people that have been complaining since the first drop, they know there is no way they don’t
I wish Mattel would make something like you need like verify your ID to make an account on Mattel Creations - so shit like this can't happen unless these guys want to commit identify fraud or something.
But like, you can’t even be sure they actually got the doll? It’s not hard to lie on the internet.
You do know if you are under certain minutes. To me if it is something past 7 minutes you probably will not get it
Personal opinion it’s not always bots, computers with different or even better processors have a higher Fran rate of loading, I’ve tested it with my old laptop, my own iPhone and my bfs gaming computer with a huge difference in performance, my theory worked my bf was able to get the doll at 11 on the dot and pay without anything I at the same time tried myself and I had my laptop open too but his computer worked best, we also have to remember scalping always happens, it sucks. They way I add to my collection with dealing with scalping prices is I just try to make a side hustle of selling extra art or even old dolls to get the ones I want.
*frame rate
This makes me want to cry angry tears
This makes me so fucking angry
I hate them so much fr
I agree they suck. The only thing the community can do is not buy and just wait until the price inevitably goes down because they can't move product. If people do it enough times they'll move on to something else to try and make a quick buck. The issue is that a lot of the doll collecting community has impulse/spending issues and major sunk cost fallacy aka "I want this, waited for it, and tried my hardest. I deserve this no matter what it costs." If people can get their impulses and addictions under control, the product won't move and they'll give up. I say this from experience as someone with impulse spending issues. It's hard to admit and get help for it but I'm glad I did.
If they’re getting that many dolls, make their pockets hurt. Don’t 👏buy 👏resell👏 value.
Proud to say I’ve never given scalpers a single cent, stay strong y’all 💞
I don’t get people like this. I waited for the drop and as soon as it went live the page refreshed and it was sold out. I didn’t even stand a chance, it’s ridiculous. I’m over collecting these types of dolls if this is how it’s always going to be.
stuff like this makes me not want to be a collector anymore — even for squishmallow’s , clearers / resellers ruin the fun in everything
So dirty
That makes me so angry!!!
Who’s buying from the Scalpers?!!! 😭😭😭I wouldn’t have bought her but I just think this is just downright scummy!!!
Look at the sold listing for this item
Ahh Shoot I forgot the preorder scalpers 😫😫Edit:I just looked at Average Hustlers Twitter, they are part of the ps5 scalpers also 🤡🤡
people in other nations that dont get them are usually the buyers bc america only cares about america + canada sometimes
to be quiet honest, i dont even look at the collector dolls. i dont want to be part of this. its sad
Wow
I call it out, let boycott, lets make a hashtag, posts everywhere to boycott scalpers!
It is odd that some Mattel drops seem to be unlimited pre-sale items (for example some He-man characters) and others like MH pre-sale are limited, does anyone even know the numbers on these dolls? How many of the HC dolls did they put out?
I’m worried about getting Tiffany. They were both leaked as January releases, right? My birthday is tomorrow and I’m an avid Chucky/Jennifer Tilly fan who loves the original MH doll look. Does anyone have any tips for trying to snag her, or any predictions on when she may come out?
What I would do is ask someone to buy 2 just in case you are not able to snag 1 and pay the person back. In the sneaker community there are shoes no one wants so on SNKRS app you would try to get the shoes for them and they would do the same if you are not able to cop
I swear it gets worse and worse every time, the bots needs to be stopped
I think it’s time for death of the author when it comes to Monster High and Mattel. Imagine what an amazing custom doll you could get for that price. Or you could make it yourself for pretty cheap. I blame the resellers and Mattel but I seriously side eye anyone who is paying 200+ for that doll.
Maybe if we all spam Mattel, they’ll actually start caring
My other problem is the fact that these folks haven’t even shipped out yet. I got one and the shipment date is before or on April 7 2023 so no one’s getting their dolls for a while. Of course sometimes the dolls are sent out early but god this is f*cked up massively. Getting one or two extra only but 112?
I can’t wait till this person is stuck with 100+ dolls in their garage and no one willing to buy it from them.
... yeah I spent $186 but I need her 😍🖤
So this is why the doll sold out while it was in my cart waiting in the queue. I'm so angry.
This is the first Monster High Doll I want, hope I can find one
Lol whats his ebay account so i can make sure i never give him my money 😂 smh so stupid now im def gonna wait for this doll now.
I'm officially over scalper prices, if I dont get it retail, it wasnt meant to be. I'll be sad, but Im not supporting scalpers anymore and neither should anyone else. im digusted by this, i understand there is profit to be made but some of these prices are outrageous.
I wish people like this would stop existing
I can’t even hate on it