Yeah, you know the rest.

 

When I read the story of the BPer here who opened up a box of puzzle pieces instead of LEGO I thoroughly enjoyed freaking out and waving my arms around and generally joining the discussion.

 

I really didn't ever expect, though, that I'd have my own story to tell!

 

Bought a Daily Bugle on clearance at a local Kmart a few weeks ago. Got to parting out our pile of Daily Bugles tonight, opened this one and... yeah, LEGO bags containing a lot of random junk toys. Some of them are actually either reglued or heat sealed.

 

Pretty amazing, going to return it tommorow. In my defense, when you see the photo of the seal, it doesn't look obvious at all to the naked eye, the camera just picks up the tampering really well. If I strain my eyes I can just barely see the slightest scratch at the seal area.

 

Pretty freaky. There's also a Walmart bar code sticker stuck to the back making me wonder if they were pulling the old barcode scam at Walmart and then returned it to Kmart after extracting the contents, or ???

so, is it a good idea to OPEN sets and do a quick check that all bags are there bfore selling? wow, imagine if a buyer got that , I wonder if Id believe them. shock. and funny.  My roomate at my first base bought a desk at walmart, got it home and an older beat up particle board desk was in the box, they accepted the return but I felt somehow guilty over it.

I said it before and now I definitely mean it - from now on we will be opening EVERY set we buy, the day we buy it (and at problem stores, like apparently this Kmart, we'll open them at the customer service desk where we have to go pay to get our tax exemption anyway), and when/if we do get to long term investing like most of y'all, we will absolutely open every set and inspect at the time of purchase before putting it into the cellar to age nicely.

that sucks mrs frog now you have to waste your time going back. 

 

as a P head I know only to well that there is no such thing as being to paranoid.  they're out there either to catch me or to cheat the stores with a return of crap

Sorry to read and see you got one of these tampered sets justafrog.  Really sucks.  Can't believe people actually do stuff like this...it's almost worse than just stealing a set because in this scenario the lost may not be accounted for until much later and affects more than one person if you were to sell it as brand new/sealed.  People who do this should be made to walk bare feet on lego in their cell for a few yrs or be force to collect and sort bricks.

 

Usually I try to check the seals really well...if something is kinda loose I just don't buy it.  But sometimes it can be hard to tell.  Sucks but instead of opening sets...try weighing it?  Would these scammers actually go to the length of making it weight the same as a regular set?  Probably not.  

 

Too bad, not every store will want to spend the time/resources to check video and their system to try and see who actually returned this.    

Those aren't junk!  That's a premium selection of classic Goodwill merchandise!

Yeah, you know the rest.

 

When I read the story of the BPer here who opened up a box of puzzle pieces instead of LEGO I thoroughly enjoyed freaking out and waving my arms around and generally joining the discussion.

 

I really didn't ever expect, though, that I'd have my own story to tell!

 

Bought a Daily Bugle on clearance at a local Kmart a few weeks ago. Got to parting out our pile of Daily Bugles tonight, opened this one and... yeah, LEGO bags containing a lot of random junk toys. Some of them are actually either reglued or heat sealed.

 

Pretty amazing, going to return it tommorow. In my defense, when you see the photo of the seal, it doesn't look obvious at all to the naked eye, the camera just picks up the tampering really well. If I strain my eyes I can just barely see the slightest scratch at the seal area.

 

Pretty freaky. There's also a Walmart bar code sticker stuck to the back making me wonder if they were pulling the old barcode scam at Walmart and then returned it to Kmart after extracting the contents, or ???

 Just image if that was a investment sent and you sold it as sealed down the road without checking the contents first

Sorry this happened to you. I remember those puzzle pieces and a book, no issues since then so keeping my fingers crossed for you too Oh here is the link to the walmart item

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Narrow-Mini-Bin-Storage-Trays-White-3pk/16224497

After reading the previous story a few weeks back I went on checking a pretty beat up box from Walmart. It is so beat up that there is one corner where it is just barely possible to look inside (yes, there was a good discount because of that). Boy was I happy that the first thing I saw was the most valuable minifig of the set, inside its bag.

Oh no, sorry this happened to you. This worries me a lot. Maybe it's time to pop the seals of my sets too.

Yep, everyone, please open up every single set you buy!

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

It's weird that bricks have been replaced by other toys. If I were a thief I would have replaced it by gravel, screws or plastic kingpins. Maybe the thief was the kid and he lied to its parents to have another set, telling them he changed his mind.

 

I'm really sorry for you BTW.

 

 

edit: hmmm I think I will check the seals of the 42009 Mobile crane I received yesterday...

 

2nd edit: it's ok, but I'll check every seals now, thanks for sharing your bad luck

It's honestly not a big deal for me because we don't buy anything to hold at this point - it all gets opened up and sorted into individual parts within a few weeks of its arrival here.

 

I think that when we go on road trips for the other part of our business and buy LEGO while we're out and about that I'll start just opening up sets and having a quick look while we're still in the parking lot of whatever Walmart or wherever we bought them. This set is local, I can take it back on my way to Costco to get some groceries tomorrow, I wouldn't be happy if it was further away and I had no good reason to drive that direction anyway.

 

My husband, by the way, claims that HE would know whether it was real LEGO by the way the box shakes (my oldest daughter agrees with him, I think I would still have been fooled, but they're both more observant than I am.)

Luckily in here LEGO is still a kids toy and noone steals it lol

This is a great concern. But who says someone did this? Could it be lego is doing this to frustrate us investors? If you open the set right away you will bring it back. No problem. But if you sell a set after 3 years? And the buyer comes back and says you try to scam him/her? There goes your money and your good rating on ebay or amazon. You will be out of business.

Yes - open every box, every bag, & count/verify every single piece (and don't forget those extra pieces).

 

Seriously - Of course it can happen, but the true odds of this (if you are careful) are very, very, very low. If someone is inclined, there are just much easier ways to pull off a scam.

I have a scammer in my area. Within 30 miles. He sells on ebay loose sets and minifigs with no box. I grabbed a galaxy squad Titan on clearance at walmart. I did store pickup and the they picked was awful light. I weighed it at home and compared it online to weights that are posted on many sets and it was off. I returned it.

Now I weigh large sets that have tape ends.

I would love to catch the scammer, don't know how other then trying to buy the boxes he re-seals and fingerprint them or something

Did you happen to weigh it and check against known weights. It would be interesting to see if they are also careful on that end.

Those aren't junk!  That's a premium selection of classic Goodwill merchandise!

Do they have that ever so fresh Goodwill scent?

What's happening to the world today!? Is there nothing sure anymore???

Sucks but this won't be the first or the last time. 

 

This is a great concern. But who says someone did this? Could it be lego is doing this to frustrate us investors? If you open the set right away you will bring it back. No problem. But if you sell a set after 3 years? And the buyer comes back and says you try to scam him/her? There goes your money and your good rating on ebay or amazon. You will be out of business.

 No way Lego would stabage their own product/brand to leave a customer unhappy (major conspiracy lol).  Why would they waste their time.  I don't think Lego has a full time department devoted to coming up with schemes to frustrate or mess up investors haha.  It's probably someone really desperate or a low life who's doing this locally.  Hope we hear less and less news of this happening. 

This is a great concern. But who says someone did this? Could it be lego is doing this to frustrate us investors? If you open the set right away you will bring it back. No problem. But if you sell a set after 3 years? And the buyer comes back and says you try to scam him/her? There goes your money and your good rating on ebay or amazon. You will be out of business.

This might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.  Lego does NOT fill their product boxes with crap from Goodwill. 

Sorry this happened to you, this is become an bigger issue by the day

Personally I wouldn't open every set just to verify its contents especially if one intends on selling them whole and not part them out. Do your part, make sure the seals are secure, when in doubt weigh the box and if things turn sour down the road eat it as a business cost. I don't think opening every set justifies the loss incured on the long term, not just yet anyways

 

This might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.  Lego does NOT fill their product boxes with crap from Goodwill. 

 

It was meant as an ironic statement. I see that it was not clear enough. Next time I will put some smiley there or add that it is an ironic statement.

This might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.  Lego does NOT fill their product boxes with crap from Goodwill. 

 

We have all heard that LEGO is looking for a new material to use.

 

I understand they are trying to create a material that will disintegrate if it is not opened and exposed to air within 6 months of purchase.

 

They did first consider exploding as an option, but after some second thoughts, they decided to go with disintegrate (at least for now)