Looking at the recent hits to my blog, it seems like a few people read this now. Given the content, at least some of them must be PCB collectors.
For a while now, there’s been a real problem in the collecting scene. Resellers have come and gone over the years, it’s nothing new. However, there’s one active now who has done more damage to the collecting scene on his own than most I can remember the rest doing all put together. I’ve been around a while.
That person is Steve / STV, also known as arcadetower on ebay. He has a lot of listings, I’m sure you’ve seen them. What you may not realise is that stock is all poached from Japanese shops and auctions on yahoo.co.jp. On there you can spot him from jas***** and nao***** usernames.
His markups are …. astonishing, it’s not unusual to see at least 100%, in one case 900% markup. That was a Hyper Duel kit by the way, which I’m told was bought from G-Front for 15000 yen and listed on ebay for $1500. The Futari BL kit he has for $1499? Bought from Try a day ago for $800. Dodonpachi at $999? Purchased from G-Front for about $450. He also does proxy bidding (or at least used to), but this led to at least a few instances where he bid against his own customers. Win/win situation for him but shitty and unethical.
In Japan he’s now disliked by the locals and even banned from a few shops where he queues first in line and buys up all the stock during sales, so he’s ruining things for them too. It’s almost impossible to bid on certain types of item without the cost being hiked until he can’t make money on it, and at his prices that’s often a high amount. Wondering why prices keep rising? This is why. People doing this is why. People buying from people who do this is why.
So before you click ‘buy it now’ on that rare item, consider who you’re buying from and the damage you’re supporting as a customer. Then go and buy one elsewhere, you’ll save yourself a lot of money doing so.
