A few weeks ago, an ad came up on my Facebook feed for "The Hunt For The Force Mystery Box" from Sports Collectors Warehouse (hereafter SCW).
What Star Wars fan wouldn't at least follow the link to see what it was all about? With the success of Loot Crate and other blind subscription boxes, online retailers have been selling blind boxes of collectibles so I presumed this was another one of those.
Here is basically what I found. I kind of Frankenstien'd a couple of screen grabs from the page but I have not changed anything. If you want to view the actual page, click here.
Maybe some "if it sounds too good to be true" alarms should have been going off but, again, I've been seeing legit sites sell mystery boxes. While I wasn't expecting to be a lucky person getting anything vintage or especially rare, I thought I would at least get a box of assorted Star Wars goodies that was equal in value to the cost.
After about a week, I get a shipping notice and being very eager to get my mystery goodies, sign up to get tracking updates every step of the way. I actually do this pretty frequently when getting things delivered. I like the anticipation of seeing where the package is.
Fast forward to the day it gets delivered. I get the tracking update while I'm at work and oh boy, I can't wait to get home!
I opened the box and pulled out a black ziploc bag. What could it be?
"Are you f'n kidding me?" (almost my exact words)
Two items with a current retail value of under $10?!?
One of which wasn't even in a sealed package!
I. Was. FURIOUS.
After calming down a bit, I went to the interwebs and googled the company name. Imagine my surprise when I found a Facebook group called Sport Collectors Warehouse Scam Victims. Looking through the posts, I saw several others posting photos of their lackluster box contents.
Some had toys similar to what I got. Some got a single comic book, and not even a Star Wars one, I'm talking Daredevil and Alpha Flight! Others got loose figures that were in plastic bags with another store's card attached to them! Nothing I saw, outside of the comics, was older than 1999. Several of the group members had already tried to contact the store by email and phone. Many had already called their credit card companies to report fraud and/or request a new credit card.
Someone joined the group to show off a 1978 original, boxed 12" Vader figure he supposedly received. Some of the group members checked his FB profile and found he might be somehow related to the store that sold the boxes. He got booted.
Within another 24 hours, a message was posted on the SCW website.
I shot off an email quicker than Han in a quick draw contest, as did everyone else in the group. Inside of a few hours, we got email refund notifications. Over the weekend, people started seeing the funds go back into their accounts (including shipping!) and they told us to keep the junk they sent us.
While nicely worded, their final message certainly feels like so much smoke and mirrors damage control to appease the collectors and fans they mistakenly angered. The creator of the FB group changed the name to SCW Unhappy Collectors. Now we have a small Star Wars collector group that shared this nasty experience. We've been sharing photos of our collections and doing things that geeks do, so I guess something good came from all this.
I opened the box and pulled out a black ziploc bag. What could it be?
Two items with a current retail value of under $10?!?
One of which wasn't even in a sealed package!
I. Was. FURIOUS.
After calming down a bit, I went to the interwebs and googled the company name. Imagine my surprise when I found a Facebook group called Sport Collectors Warehouse Scam Victims. Looking through the posts, I saw several others posting photos of their lackluster box contents.
Some had toys similar to what I got. Some got a single comic book, and not even a Star Wars one, I'm talking Daredevil and Alpha Flight! Others got loose figures that were in plastic bags with another store's card attached to them! Nothing I saw, outside of the comics, was older than 1999. Several of the group members had already tried to contact the store by email and phone. Many had already called their credit card companies to report fraud and/or request a new credit card.
Someone joined the group to show off a 1978 original, boxed 12" Vader figure he supposedly received. Some of the group members checked his FB profile and found he might be somehow related to the store that sold the boxes. He got booted.
Within another 24 hours, a message was posted on the SCW website.
I shot off an email quicker than Han in a quick draw contest, as did everyone else in the group. Inside of a few hours, we got email refund notifications. Over the weekend, people started seeing the funds go back into their accounts (including shipping!) and they told us to keep the junk they sent us.
While nicely worded, their final message certainly feels like so much smoke and mirrors damage control to appease the collectors and fans they mistakenly angered. The creator of the FB group changed the name to SCW Unhappy Collectors. Now we have a small Star Wars collector group that shared this nasty experience. We've been sharing photos of our collections and doing things that geeks do, so I guess something good came from all this.
Thats so f'd up,man!At least you got a refund.Did they not think people were going to lose It when they received their piece of crap package lol!
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing they didn't count on a bunch of us finding each other and striking back. :D
DeleteI can't believe that they thought they would get away with that crap. Glad you got refund.
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy. I'd be peeved as well.
ReplyDeleteI wish the FB group wasn't closed.
Being a member of the group, I forgot they closed it off to the public after that Vader faker joined the group.
DeleteMan, that sucks. I can't help but wonder if they issued refunds because they knew they were about to get hit with a whole bunch of credit disputed.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you know this, but credit disputes go against companies hard in their credit reports.
Still...At least you got a free garbage bag to throw that crap out. That's probably the best thing to come from the box.
ReplyDeleteNow that I look closer at their "ad", I saw something else that made me shake my head. That cast photo with the three signatures is a reproduction. I know this because I bought one for five bucks on ebay many years ago.
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