Geobra's lawyers act against selling klicky-parts on ebay (?)

[bonniebeth]

I agree, they need to expand their spare parts department, and advertise it on their boxes for parents to see. Get rid of the limits, sell more products, expand their profit margins. And if everyone knows you can buy spare parts from them, then the high price image problem goes away.

As Ras pointed out, buying items in huge quantities and reselling them without opening a merchants account is just stupid! If you plan to be a dealer, be a dealer and buy the stuff wholesale. Duh! So why should geobra limt how much we buy? People buying stuff at retail prices then trying to make a profit are only hurting themselves, and the people dumb enough to pay the high prices. Geobra actually makes more profit that way.

[Hadoque]

I speak German and make sometimes (non Playmo-related) business-calls to Germany.
I'm willing to make a phonecall or send an email to Zirndorf (if I'm not mistaking, the head of Playmobil Customer-Support is Frau Kupiak) to ask about their company policy on DS- spare parts orders from collectors and possible limitations on such parts-orders.
And if there are official limitations (perhaps some DS-deparments in specific countries install limitations themselves?), if and how there could perhaps be made exceptions for collectors.

That is if I get some backup-support from you guys; so that I won't be representing just myself.

[bonniebeth]

I think we're all behind you! These limits are totally pointless in the first place, the least they can do is make an exception for collectors.

[gaspodfreud]

i just read that fastly .

in time , i can understand playmobil want to limit the number of piece in the ds (20 in france) , lot's of people don't know we can find small parts direct with playmobil , playmo db is a "secret information" for a lot of people who abuse of this situation , this information is money particulary on ebay . I understand as well geobra want to control his product , it's legitime ! of course commercial attitude and the laws (different in all country) is a different thing .      
Of course i also think playmobil could ask you to write it's not for selling the parts if you want 200 soldiers .

the price of things : in france price are free , it mean you are free to buy or not buy , there's no thieves , i will never buy an old car alone ... we had to take information before buying !! i remember (a true) story : in france a man has solt the "tour effel" !! (of course it was not his tower but the customer was a bit artless -naif- )    

i don't know where the parts of theses seller (you talk about) comes from (my seller say he buy a lot and break the playmo) but i understand it's more expensive because when for exemple i need a red collar of a french soldier (i use pay that 0,50E) i don't have to buy the piece i don't want and so i don't have to sell the exedent to get only one piece witch is not in the ds ... (better for me than bying a lot of french soldiers ) , maybe it's difficult for them to sell all the figure and they stay with part people don't want (same problem sometimes for customs sellers ) in france only one seller sell parts witch are not in the ds and he sell a lot !!! (belt , collar for exemple)

all country are not the same for the ds ,in germany you can have more things so of course some people abuse of this situation to make a bit money (it cannot be million dollars !!) i sell customs and want to stop as soon as possible (for other reasons) : i think i would have never sell someting if i can get all the pieces i want !! of course like a lot of collectors i sometimes have to buy 50 playmobils to keep 3 for me because it's the only way to get them !!  

there's one thing strange i don't understand : playmobil do a custom set for childreen (soon in germany ) , what about the fact selling custom is a problem for security reasons for childreens ?  does it mean we can get only arms for exemple in the ds ? what about the "small parts " for little kids ? this is not very logical ...

so my message to playmobil : if collectors could find what they want in all the country , if we had all the same product in the same time and if everybody would be able to get all parts in the official site of playmobil : there would be no problems like this !!! as well for speculation : i'm sure they could easilly made some hussards , some english guards and i'm always glad to see we can in time get 1900 barriere , and theses famous western set because i'm patient ... (not in france now , maybe i should buy an old car in germany more expensive that i see in the german novelty and give a bit money to a seller in ebay.de : all work need to be pay and i've no friends in germany so ... ) ah if all customs can cost 4E !!!!  just my opinion .....  

i cannot find the post on klickywelt (german is near impossible to translate for me ) have you got a link ? thanks for this information !      

[mike1003]

Ok so when you limit the amount of a certain part we can buy what happens to prices? Well its supply and demand. The demand stays the same but the supply is decreased so the price only goes up up up .

Now if this is true than they will also have to go after the sellers who repeatedly sell items they just purchased from a store and doubled the price. Look at the blisters for example. In a store they were $3.99 5825 now look at the ones on Ebay 5825 all the way up to $50  better sue them for trying I guess

i never had a limit problem. i ordert sometimes 100s of the same parts but iam not selling them thats maybe whyy

[Playmoholics]

i never had a limit problem. i ordert sometimes 100s of the same parts but iam not selling them thats maybe whyy

I think unscrupulous sellers who buy DS for resale profit are probably known to people who work for Playmobil. Hopefully they know the difference between a true collector and someone who is just seeking profit. This is a very interesting development, though.

[socrates]

That's a very interesting discussion and interesting especially as I have not heard about these prosecutions before. As far as I understood the geobra lawyers are after professional retailers that use the DS as a cheap source for spare parts. There were some people arguing that a company should be happy about every part sold, but I do not want someone to buy all exisiting pickelhauben at DS just to have a huge stock and to sale them with benefits... This is not the idea and I do not think that we all are interested in this to happen.

So, in a way, I feel like they are acting in our interest, if they try to prevent these backdoor sales on ebay. Of course, only if they find a way to make DS available for everyone around the world.

I speak German and make sometimes (non Playmo-related) business-calls to Germany.
I'm willing to make a phonecall or send an email to Zirndorf (if I'm not mistaking, the head of Playmobil Customer-Support is Frau Kupiak) to ask about their company policy on DS- spare parts orders from collectors and possible limitations on such parts-orders.
And if there are official limitations (perhaps some DS-deparments in specific countries install limitations themselves?), if and how there could perhaps be made exceptions for collectors.

In fact, there is a limit in parts that you are allowed to order. But, typically, they call you back and ask whether or not you are a collector. They even do ask for some pictures of your creations or collection, that's what I already read somewhere else... Then, they typically agree to place collector sized orders.
So, they are already making a difference between collectors and "normal" customers. But I guess, this differentiation is hard to make consistently. Maybe (hopefully) PCC will help on the way of doing so.
PCC should maybe have an honor code for personal use of potential DS purchases and special pricing...

best,
socrates

[Giorginetto]

I disagree strongly with the view that we have to explain to Geobra what we do with these parts !!!!!! Playmobil Greece better accept my orders of say 200 parts otehrwise i will simply turn my custom elsewhere for DS and normal sets !!! Ha !!! what next ?? do we have to thank Geobra for selling us parts that we pay for , this is pathetic, pathetic , pathetic.

I just find this whole debate ridiculus . Just liek with everythign else a company cannot control nor legally commit any customer as to what they do with the items they purchase !!! This is the most ridiculus thing i have heard, after all Geobra and all ebay sellers function in a free market economy and such restictions , letters of intent etc etc sould so ridiculus to me .

Well, unless playmobil greece gives me the quantities i want they will simply lose ( according to what they have told me ) one of  their best customers.

[playmofire]

I just find this whole debate ridiculus . Just liek with everythign else a company cannot control nor legally commit any customer as to what they do with the items they purchase !!! This is the most ridiculus thing i have heard, after all Geobra and all ebay sellers function in a free market economy and such restictions , letters of intent etc etc sould so ridiculus to me .

Until we actually know what Geobra has done and what the law in Germany allows them to do, we cannot know what the real situation is.

[gaspodfreud]

i agree with you playmofire : we can know what is the reel situation of this story but geting playmobil parts is problem and even we won't change anything , i find it's an interesting subject .