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Post by waywardmonk on Oct 23, 2016 11:49:57 GMT -6
Facebook seems to be the go-to place nowadays for collectors. It definitely has its advantages, but I much prefer old-school boards like this simply because they're more friendly & personal. I'm sure my being introverted & um.. old has something to do with it too though What do you think? Do you think the exodus to more modern forms of social media will result in the demise of boards altogether someday? What's keeping you here?
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Post by spockoda on Oct 23, 2016 14:51:09 GMT -6
The internet has killed a lot of different things involving actual social interaction and having to get off your duff to acquire things that you want. Now you can do it all while in your pj's, either in front of your phone or in front of your computer or internet device. That's why so many brick and mortar stores are disappearing. The internet has it all and cheaper(maybe minus shipping costs). All you have to do is pay and wait. Social media is probably rendering this type of board archaic, like the internet has rendered going to stores to shop as archaic.
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Post by figurecollector on Oct 23, 2016 15:24:31 GMT -6
I do not go out and shop often, just when I need something. Today I went to Kohl's, although I generally find nothing there, as my wife was returning some items from her previous trip. I was able to find a couple of shirts. I rarely buy clothes on line as I like to be able to feel the material and try it on to see if it fits before I buy it. Target and Walmart will be out of business relying on me to buy any clothing from them.
I also like to see what I am buying in terms of electronics, to get an idea of how well made it is or if is going to fall apart after a few uses.
As for toy boards, I may be one of the few with no interest in Facebook, so I will be here.
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Post by rihia2k on Oct 24, 2016 5:46:43 GMT -6
spockoda said -"Now you can do it all while in your pj's ... so many brick and mortar stores are disappearing."
Yup, well, video rental stores are already starting to feel like a distant memory around my parts.
The subject of online shopping feels pretty relevant for me right about now, I consider shopping online much more than before, for clothes, books, gadgets, etc. I can easily attribute this to a few things;
a)Had my first child last month - this means I'm split almost entirely between work, relieving my lady from baby duties, and hitting my fingers with hammers.
b)I live out o' town - a very small town at that, clothes and item shopping in the city means petrol, prioritizing, and it really blows if I don't find my item.
c)Price and selection - as much as I hate seeing cool smaller businesses struggle, I have no real sympathy for larger chains when they provide (for example) bland t-shirt stock at 3 times the price of what I could find online. Especially when the online equivalent probably has some nice obscure comic or game graphic.
Like figurecollector mentioned, my lady much prefers to check things out in the real world while she buys 'em, and I can totally understand that. Because while I do my research and have been lucky so far, it does feel like a bit of a gamble purchasing from a picture.
Using social media/smart phones to get a fix on news, reviews or collecting always feels like a tickle to me, if I ever do so, it's always with the intention of checking it out 'properly' when I can sit down at home with the PC and a cup of joe. I've never signed up to facebook but I do use twitter, it feels slightly less messy and invasive. I love this site cos' I can't really gel with the half-pie uninformative acronym-filled blur that is most online content. This board actually has an attention span.
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Post by waywardmonk on Oct 26, 2016 18:56:01 GMT -6
There are so many levels to this.. these boards are a form of social media like Facebook, just an older one. With all the comments about the internet itself (which I am in agreement with), I started to think that well, we wouldn't have boards like this without the internet though. But then I remembered calling up BBS's before the public internet evolved. I'm sure a few of you may have called these up like I did on our spiffy dial-up modems I'm pretty sure my first modem was only a 300 baud! But the format of those old bulletin board systems was pretty similar to boards like this, so I guess we don't really have the modern internet to thank for it. Hmmm... it would be cool to play one of those old door games again. Anyone play Trade Wars? I am also more comfortable sitting at a desktop. So although I appreciate the ease in which social media has become accessible on smart phones, I find the tiny screens and typing messages to be pretty irritating. And I got my first pair of reading glasses this year (holy crap). But it seems like most people are on board with modern social media. When I first got on Facebook a few years ago, I was overwhelmed. All the endless public chatting, it made my head spin. And I didn't really have a large friend list. But everybody was playing games and talking constantly. I literally couldn't keep up with all that was happening. After a couple weeks, I said forget it, and didn't go back for at least a year. I guess the novelty had worn off some by then and it's been mellower since, but I guess what's nice about these boards is they are more niche. On Facebook, between friends, family, & toy groups I am subjected to hundreds of personalities with diverse interests sharing all kinds of unwanted information, propaganda, and generally narcissistic verbiage, just to find a few posts or folks that I'm genuinely interested in. It's a little mind-numbing and maddening at the same time. My kids are wired into it. My younger son loves YouTube. He wants to be a Vlogger someday. My teen daughter ironically thinks Facebook is archaic and never uses it. Seems like every 6 months she's into a new form of social media. I can't keep up with all the options there are, and which is outdated or no longer popular. I signed up for Pinterest just so I could have access to pics I googled off the internet, but never did anything with it. Just Recently did the same with Instagram. I think I may actually use that one eventually. Having got that all out, I guess boards like this will someday disappear, but only after us old fogies are gone, so they could be around a couple more decades I guess. By that time collecting Star Wars and Star Trek could be equivalent to collecting Western memorabilia today...
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Post by rihia2k on Oct 27, 2016 4:55:37 GMT -6
That was all really well put, waywardmonk. I am also more comfortable sitting at a desktop. So although I appreciate the ease in which social media has become accessible on smart phones, I find the tiny screens and typing messages to be pretty irritating. And I got my first pair of reading glasses this year (holy crap). I agree, its much nicer looking at a photo/reading a full page of text on a decent size screen. I know people who have actually sold off their computers and use only the phone at home for internet. Crazy, I think. A serious limitation to using the internet for any of it's real potential. I signed up for Pinterest just so I could have access to pics I googled off the internet, but never did anything with it. Just Recently did the same with Instagram. I think I may actually use that one eventually. Yep, I signed up to Pinterest purely for toy image search reasons too. I asked my girlfriend to explain Pinterest to me, you know, layman's terms. Read about it quickly on wikipedia. Still don't really get it. So ... >You can look at pictures? >You can pin them to a home page? >You can be defined by 100 pictures of Tutankhamen and Billy Corgan, or something? >You can get 1000 likes for this? But ... I still don't actually know what it's for.
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Post by spockoda on Oct 27, 2016 17:11:20 GMT -6
The internet has become about the only place I can get anything I want or need outside of food, gas, and clothes. I did not have the internet until 2001 when I got Webtv. The first collectible item I purchased online was Hasbro's 12 inch Phantom Of The Opera doll that was a Hasbro.com exclusive, I remember having to go to a public library to get internet access at that time.
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drtest
Forum Lurker
Jun 21, 2017 9:03:32 GMT -6
Posts: 16
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Post by drtest on Jun 21, 2017 9:23:47 GMT -6
I even buy 70 % of my food on the internet . All the same, many times I go out to buy toys, basically from old stores and mainly street markets (man, I love street markets! always different and at unbeatable prices, even by internet standards). Sadly, yes, forums are dying, and probably yes, smartphones are to be blamed. I wouldnt say so much facebook, it is just that writing on a smartphones is tedious and arduous, so mankind is growing each time more lazy and, after forgetting to write with our hands, I am afraid that people is even not writing with their keys anymore. If you google something, you will find that most of the posts are dating from 2012 or before, usually 2008 or similar, the golden days of the forums, and this in more or less all subjects.
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Post by Thor Laserpunch on Jun 21, 2017 17:22:28 GMT -6
I personally am never getting a facebook unless you need one in the future to collect government benefits or something. I don't have a twitter account. I overheard my niece shortening Instagram to "Insta-G" and I really gave her what for. That's exactly the same amount of syllables and is maybe the most useless shortening of all time--these dang kids can't even be lazy properly!
@rhia2k I don't know what pinterest is either. I think it is a dating site where you try to figure out if you're in love with someone just by looking at pictures they like. That seems as reasonable explanation as any.
I remember having a lot more and closer internet friends almost ten years ago, and I mean people I would sincerely call real friends. I have hung out with probably several dozen people at cons and whatnot or we'd just do something together in meatspace. Then at some point it became obvious that the internet was just this thing where everyone craps out all the most uninteresting details of their lives ad nauseum, and I kinda just stopped liking people in general because you can't even just stay off the internet and expect not to be affected by it, because every single person in your life is always blabbing about what somebody from work posted or did you see that thing I posted. That's when I became crotchety and had to start wearing plaid pants and using an ear horn.
Shopping on the internet, on the other hand, that's a whole other thing. Except for gas and groceries and several pairs of khakis about every six months, there is not one thing I'd rather buy in person. I can never find anything I like in stores. Any time I have money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd wander around Borders or Toys R Us and peruse the hell out of the place until I convinced myself to settle for some crap I didn't want. Now I just get what I want and usually don't have to try too hard to find it, which I think is a major improvement.
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Post by 3 3/4"collector on Jun 27, 2017 18:40:21 GMT -6
facebook is where everybody is, that said there are alot of toy groups on there but ive yet to find any i think are good. usually they are mostly all specific to one license or 1 scale, and you cant really click to the topic you want so easy as the top post is just always changing and pushing everything else down. im a 3 3'4" collector but i get sort of tired of just talking about g.i.joe and star wars, it seems like thats all facebook is star wars groups of joe groups, or groups only about the new kickstarter properties.
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chadmon
Garage Sale Scavenger
Jun 28, 2017 18:32:33 GMT -6
Posts: 55
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Post by chadmon on Jun 28, 2017 18:52:25 GMT -6
Forums won't completely die off in fact I think they've reached their low. I left Facebook due to the filth on there and made my way back to a dedicated forum. I hope more people do. Also, I only use a smart phone. Tapatalk is easy to use with forums if you want to go that route but it takes away the idividual looks of the forum.
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Post by bowheadwhale on Jul 19, 2017 12:42:26 GMT -6
I don't have a cell phone. I do have a Facebook page, but it's not there that I talk about toys.
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