lovetoshopCA

I still fail to see your objection. If they buy them, they buy them. I'm not a Hot Wheeler, but I do go daily after I drop off DS to pick up action figures, and I've never had any problems at my 2 stores. Some of them happen to collect multiple lines. Oh, and I find the action figure collectors basically do the same thing. They go primarily to cherry pick the hottest, hardest to find stuff. And they often buy multiples to sell or trade. And several collect multiple lines of figures. Can't see much difference.

They just print out a new one on a label and slap it on the box. Stores often change barcodes for a variety of reasons, or even manufacturers. When Mattel had the big Disney Cars recall, they ended up slapping a sticker over the old bar codes on most of the cars at Target in order to deal with the problem of the ones that were okay having the same code as the ones that were recalled. So it isn't something a cashier would obviously catch.

I couldn't find this when I googled it, but I did find a set of stories from October about this and other similar stuff. The people who are doing it are generally very focused on specific products that are in high demand but that aren't clearance. One guy was doing bar code switching. He would buy $100 Lego sets. He'd pick up 5 or 10 and put them all in his cart, stick a different bar code (for a $19 item) over the one on the top, then head for the youngest cashier on the registers (okay that last sounds familiar). When they finally caught him, he had a van load of Legos and an itinerary for hitting Target, Walmart & TRU daily. There are lots of other interesting stories in this article, and it is WELL WORTH the time to read it. You begin to understand better why Target has changed its return policy to become such a stickler for receipts: http://www.denverpost.com/grow/ci_4547844

I saw it yesterday in Alhambra CA. It is the first time I ever saw it, though. It was 75% off.

Uhh, that IS why Mattel produces them. And why they are called "treasure." Almost all the toy manufacturers produce "chase" pieces, and action figure collectors are exactly the same.

Yes, and probably pretty soon so they can do the Valentines setup. However, they almost never get past 50% and some stuff doesn't get to that before it sells out. People are happy to snap up stuff like that for 30% off a lot of the time.

Yeah, they were in those purple tubs with orange lids, I think. They were also on Amazon for about 50% of for a long time.

Unfortunately the store I found them at NEVER EVER does that. They ALWAYS check to see and won't adjust a price without the price change team there to say so. Ugh! On the other hand, these really aren't supposed to be marked 75% yet, they aren't part of the Christmas markdown because they came in stock so in stock so late in the season, they didn't get it with the rest. Same thing with the Star Wars & Giant Pokemon stuffed plush (in case some of you were wondering what the heck those pink & blue stuffed animals were - they are Palkia & Dialga - Legendary Pokemon. I have to hear that EVERY TIME my boys see them!).

Yeah, ours are $129, too. I thought they were higher, but ours are only at 30% off so far $9x.xx.

It is the same. Fisher Price is a Mattel brand. The cartridges are additional songs/games for it. It comes with one, but if the child wants to move beyond that single set of songs/games, you'll need the other cartridges. And you want to get them while they are clearance.

They have done this before, but not usually so quickly. They had the Disney Cars Mack truck playsets (the ones that went to $4 this time) on clearance at Easter time last year (I was at my Mom's for a funeral and saw them when we went to town) for 30% off. She kept an eye on them for me, and I watched them here. For 2 weeks they left them, then they took the stickers off and bumped the price back up! They did the same thing with those Disney Mix Max things last spring. We watched and watched, but they dropped only to 50%. They pulled them off the shelves for 2 weeks entirely, then they were back at full price! So Weird!!

Hate to mention this but they were putting out those Transformers 2 packs with both Bumblebee models for $4.98 today. I got a couple. They also started putting out a bunch of Star Wars stuff, but that was only 30% (checked at 2 stores).

DPCI: 204-11-1002 for the camera in case you need it

Yeah, the Hydrogen car was cool, but for 10+, and DS is only 6, so I thought he'd just get frustrated. The camera we'll be giving our kids for birthdays in April.

I found this National Geographic Camera at a couple of stores. I have not seen them before, so I don't know how common they are. My friend and I have been looking for Digital Cameras for our kids for awhile, so we are thrilled. I got them for $14.98. They are $59.99 on the Target.com site. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bErnSCdbL._SS260_.jpg

Yep, looking like that around here too. I checked several stores, but no joy.

No, but possibly today.

I know that is the one I am looking at for our school. I'll check them this morning. The markdown team told me it wasn't going yesterday.

was it actually all stuff that was marked down? I know that they do this, but they also keep carts to toss all the non-clearance stuff into. At the Duarte store they had three carts full of non-clearance. They also were consolidating at Burbank yesterday and were filling carts to do that. Just a thought....

I believe so. It is usually Thursday or Friday. So I am going this morning to check for them.

Yep, I asked directly since the preschool REALLY needs new ones for the playground, and that is what they told me.

I think I was wearing jeans, brown hair & glasses. I don't stand out much. How about you? what were you wearing, and who was with you? I might have seen you! Did you get what you were after? There were a LOT of people at Lake going crazy. I did go over to Eagle Rock and they had done it but there was almost nothing left. I don't think I bought anything there yesterday. We went to Alhambra after school, but since they hadn't marked down further we only bought some things my boys wanted to get with their Christmas gift cards. One of them was excited to find the same Pokemon Diamond & Pearl Pokedex that someone else mentioned because it had a red sticker on it. Same thing as the other poster mentioned, they clearly mis-marked it, but it meant he could afford it with the gift card! He is a happy boy!

Thanks. I think I'll pop over that way tomorrow and take care of the stuff I needed to do anyway. I think LaVerne might go down tomorrow on toys if they haven't already. They always seem to be behind a few days. Their Christmas was 75% when everyone else had been 90% for a couple of days already. Alhambra hadn't done theirs, and they seem to be on the same track a lot.

Little People Airport down to $4.98. Geotrax Grand Central Station $12.48 (but only in small stores, the bigger stores keep them year-round).

They look like this. The front part opens out like a book. THey are often on pegs, sometimes laying on the shelves.http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41m6p1xrlwL._AA244_.jpg