Disneyland quiety revoking Annual Passes of Guests who Buy and Resell Souvenirs - OC Register

http://www.ocregister.com/disneylan...passes-of-guests-who-buy-and-resell-souvenirs

 

I'm pleased by this as it is against the rules to use the AP discounts for merchandise that is going to be resold. I'm surprised it's taken so long since many of those shoppers did not make it a secret who they were. But Disney probably made great efforts to be 100% positive they had the right people.

I've even written Disney complaining about the obvious resellers and how it devalues the shopping experience for the rest of us.

However I wish the article would stop saying you can refill those alien Santa buckets. That's WDW... I wish you could refill them at DLR.

 

Eh, I think Disney may finally get off their butts to offer a similar type service for those items available "in-store only" and are just clearing the way for that to happen.

 

They already do technically and it's mentioned in the article as a possible reason for finally enforcing this rule.

Shop Disney Parks app.

 

Yes, but as I said in my PP, I figure Disney will release a way to sell "in store only" merchandise outside of having to go to the park. The Shop Disney Parks app is pretty worthless if you want something that they only sell in the parks.

 

Im not surprised, it was only a matter of time before Disney linked the ebay resellers and personal shoppers to the actual AP account holder. Anything and everything on the internet is traceable with enough time and money.

 

Good!

I read that article, and I don’t feel bad for those who had their pass revoked. It’s there plain in the text that they reserve the right to revoke or suspend your pass at anytime.

I’m sorry, I’m still bitter that a good chunk of the HP Halloween party merchandise was scooped up by resellers.

 

I doubt it for a lot of the "in store only". Maybe some of it, but definitely not the limited stuff or, for example, the Pandora charms that are park exclusives.

They want people to still spend money to go get those park exclusive things.

The resellers are not just making a profit on Disney, but they're cutting into money Disney would have made just from those visits from those the resellers are selling to.

 

But what happens to the person who take the family, buys all the souvenirs that the kids HAD to have and 6 months later don't care. They decide to sell on Ebay or wherever. Is this the same or is it only hot items that are for resale 3 days after they get released?

 

Thats different. The Disney people are not looking for those types of people. Disney will have been working for years on this, having teams of people searching the internet for re-sellers on eBay and other websites. I can guarantee that Disney have a list of people they have identified online and they are systemically working through this list to connect them to AP holders. They are after the people who have online shops and are using reselling as a source of regular income.

Its very obvious when you actually look at a sellers history on Ebay for example, that you can see whether they sell on ebay as a source of regular income, or are just a regular person selling unwanted gifts from time to time

 

I think Disneyland needs to start by not selling dozens to one person. I remember trying to get the Beauty and the Beast rose cup, and after them selling out about 5 people before me in line, I saw people with bags full of them walking around the park.

 

Someone I know is a CM at the DL ticket booth. DL has been doing this for some time. It's not exactly new. They do a lot of things to identify and target problematic guests. For example, they maintain a database of chronic complainers and difficult guests. As I recall, the database is called "The Magic File" and the people in it are called "treasured guests." Some of them have files that are pages long.

AP revocation is a common occurrence, often the result of guests getting drunk at DCA and then doing stupid things. Here's something else that's interesting: I'm told that 90% of guests pay for their APs monthly. So: if you just got your pass, say, a month ago, and it gets revoked, you're still on the hook for the monthly payments.

Fortunately for me, I don't drink and am a well-behaved guest. In fact, often times when I see guests that look confused as they read a map, I'll approach and offer to help. Back in 2000 I was on a Scandinavian trip. I was a little lost in Copenhagen and resorted to a map. A Dane approached and asked if I needed help. That made me feel great and as a result, I've now done that hundreds of time to guests at DL and visitors to Chicago, NYC or anywhere else with which I'm familiar.

 

In a perfectly magical world I would love for Disney to figure out how to stop it. Disheartening to have you eyes on a special souvenir but not be able to get to the parks the very day it releases and never get a chance. However, this isn’t just a Disney problem. People do this for everything. High demand toys over Christmas, etc.

What it will really take would be the market places that allow the transactions to crate some rules and policing. But that won’t happen because that’s how they make their money.

I recently have gotten the feeling that the parks are doing better at having inventory. The best way to stop it is to have the items available. Alien popcorn bucket is in full supply at the parks. The Mickey sippers people lost their minds about remained in stock even after people waited hours in line.

 

I remember that! People waited in two-hour-long lines for 'em (not me -- not a collector or scalper). Later when I went into Pizza Planet for some water, I saw that there were still dozens left. I suspect people were just afraid that they would sell out. That day at the park was crazy. I've never seen lines like it (at least outside of Shanghai).

 

Hmmm. I am looking at that photo and not sure what to believe.

 

Why doesn't Disney just sell the items online too? Also they just have to sell more of the items so the resellers take a bath on their purchases. People waited hours in line for the 90th anniversary Mickey cups but Disney had so many to sell you could walk up later in the afternoon and still buy them. I'm sure plenty of people thought they would be limited but they were not. Disney probably sold 250,000 of them.

 

What would stop it is people not buy the marked up stuff. Really in the end none of it is worth it above retail value (which even that most isn’t). As long as people are willing to pay more then people will continue to buy to flip.

 

It’s worth more than the in-park price to them so they aren’t going to stop buying it.

 

I think this is a good way to cut back on this resale ridiculousness. The easiest would be for Disney to provide everything on online and produce more. But, they would need to abandon the limited edition part and those margins are stupid huge. Blocking APs is a good start to getting to keep the limited edition merchandise thing going. As a result anyone who buys online can expect much higher prices if this much of the resale community is getting shut down. (If everyone in the resale community knows someone shutdown that’s a lot of shutdowns.)

I think the most interesting thing was when they cited someone’s website as the reason for shutdown. It’s someone’s job know to hunt down online Disney Parks merchandise resellers.

 

I think people will always pay if it has value to them. I’ve bought things way above retail (not just Disney) because I wanted them and it was the only way I was getting it.

There are two different things here. Flippers and personal shoppers. I’m not a fan of the flipping. But I don’t really understand disney’s Hate for personal shoppers. If I, who lives in Iowa, wants something from the parks that isn’t sold online and I want to pay someone to shop for me. Then I’m paying that person for a service and Disney gets a sale. Disney could make money off this themselves with their own personal shoppers...