UofMUSCLE.com – M.U.S.C.L.E. Figures from Mattel

Better late than never?

I couldn’t pull it all together. I was wrecked last night. I’m still tired. It’s not jet lag. It’s just classic exhaustion.

I decided to take a look at eBay two ways this week. First, I’m going to look at the global auctions. There were 186 when I conducted my search.
– Lot of 8 figures with 7 M.U.S.C.L.E. figures – guess the opening bid.
– Same seller. Guess the opening bid.
I’d love to hear his explanation of those two opening bids. Honestly, no joke. What was he thinking?
– This might be the best M.U.S.C.L.E. auction going.
– This is an auction for those counterfeit M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. Period.
– What’s worse? “Rare” or the price. You can only pick one.
– Will someone buy this “Class A” figure? (It’s not.)
– Not mint condition, but a nice display 4-Pack.
– I’ve never seen a Quik figure in a M.U.S.C.L.E. lot.

The second thing I’m going to take a look at is the BIN listings, globally, on eBay. There are 3,470 listings. Way too many overpriced single figures and non-M.U.S.C.L.E. auctions in these results.
– $10 for a Flesh #207. Maybe if it was Purple #208.
– What’s more insane? The price or having this as a bath toy.
– Oh my.

All those wasted listings.

I know I’ve mentioned this listing before. I don’t know if it was the price or the “Super Rare” claim, but I had to connect with the seller. I didn’t feel confident that the seller would participate in an eBay Entrepreneur Exchange, so I took a new approach.

Admittedly this approach was much more mischievous, and maybe even a bit passive-aggressive, but I was infinitely curious. Pasted below in quotes is the entirety of my exchange with the seller. Nothing changed or omitted.

I contacted the seller through eBay and asked:

I just learned that this is not a super rare figure, according to this site: http://blog.uofmuscle.com/14959/m-u-s-c-l-e-figure-233/

Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance!

Yeah. I may have laid it on kind of thick in the first email.

He sent back:

powell316 :

Thanks for the info!

If you’re interested in toy feel free to make an offer

Thanks!

Chad Perry :

My pleasure. It looks like the site has a lot of information to help figure out prices.

So based on the Class C for the last link, and the info from this link: http://blog.uofmuscle.com/course-catalog/economics/muscle-figures-price-guide/

I think $0.63 is a fair offer. (I averaged the suggested $0.50 and $0.75 range.)

Thanks!

Imagine my lack of surprise when I didn’t immediately receive a response.

I figured I had one last chance to try and rope him back into the conversation. I tried easy, breezy, and clueless.

It’s been a couple days – just checking in.

That’s when I received this from the seller:

It costs me nearly $3 to ship (between postage, supplies, etc) — so I can’t sell something I have up with “Free shipping” for 63 cents as it would result in me taking a loss.

I apologize

I received a sealed Quik figure in the mail the other day. It was in a recycled, padded envelope. The shipping cost was $0.04.

I mention that because I think it illustrates the most important point with these outrageous M.U.S.C.L.E. situations on eBay. Most of these sellers like to pretend they are an actual business.

I don’t doubt that some of these people make a nice bit of extra income, but it’s not a business. This seller liked to pretend he had immovable fixed costs associated with his shipping. He likes to pretend there is a wholesale or raw material figure which prohibits him from making the sale.

“What if he bought them for $1 each! He can’t sell them for less than a dollar. That would be taking a loss!”

If you are in the business of re-selling M.U.S.C.L.E. figures as a business, then kill yourself.

I honestly can’t imagine anyone having a Tax ID and Articles of Organization (assuming you operate as an LLC and not a corporation) for re-selling M.U.S.C.L.E. figures.

No one does. There isn’t budgetary forecasting. There isn’t a marketing plan. There isn’t an actual business.

But it’s fun for these people to pretend. They can pretend they have their store. They can pretend they have sales – as they passively sit back and hope someone magically buys their item. No actual risk or effort involved. Only potential reward. Ultimately, they can pretend to be in a position of power. A position I’m willing to guess they don’t hold in their day-to-day life.

Feel free to disagree with me. I would love for someone to convince me I’m wrong.

“But what about the people selling just to make some extra money? Or get rid of their extras?”

Then just do that. Don’t be an asshole price gouging people. Start them at $0.99, sell them, and move on. If you delude yourself into thinking you need to net a certain profit, then you’re probably only one step ahead of the person pretending to have the business. And quickly on your way to actually being that person.

Ok, let’s end on a lighter note.

There’s no great set-up needed for these two. They are simply pictures that made me smile.

And with the World Series underway, these baseball posts made me smile too.