Primarily because this is a hobby for most people and flippers just drive up the costs of the hobby and generally provide no added value (no warranty, questionable work). Who likes increased costs? Most people understand profit for people and companies where this is their living but it leaves a bad taste when hobbyists are (often) sticking it to other hobbyists. This Feeling stems from the fact that this used to be a tighter knit community where it was relatively cheap to join and there were often deals between hobbyists because there wasn’t really any way to make (much) money - just an ability to break even. Money changes everything!

I don’t hate flippers but I can’t say I entirely like their motives.

I guess the title of this thread is a little antagonistic. Most of the discussion has not been people whining - it is people discussing things in a forum (I.e. a thread to discuss things related to the topic). The topic lacks clarity as to what a “flipper” means. And the term itself can mean different things to different people.

I interpret “flipper” as someone who buys a pin for a price and then doesn’t add any value (other than a quick wipe down) and then misrepresents the condition and the added value that they provided. Like the time I bought a fully shopped TFTC and 100% Issue free. I had to buy off pictures. Only to pick the game up (wrapped), get it home and discover it had the wrong targets which wouldn’t drop, wrong sized rubbers, and more dirt than the pictures showed, etc. Now I paid fair value for the pin as described but perhaps a few hundred more based upon actual condition. No big deal and I didn’t whine but informed the seller that I wasn’t happy. The thing that I hated is that this pin was recently bought, (ahem) gone through 100% and declared almost perfect. It had been shopped and even had brand new plastics so someone went through it but did a half assed job. So for me that is the used car salesman aspect that I disliked. And that is what I dislike (I don’t hate flippers but I dislike that behaviour that some “flippers” have). I dislike it because it creates distrust in the community? Who can I trust?

So, no whine here, just some respectful commentary but no hate.

Keep on flipping folks (the good kind of flipping - with buttons).

They don’t have to add value. It is just the frequent attempts by some people (Not an insignificant number) to justify a large increase in value by pointing out their attempts to add value and at the same time not pointing out the obvious things that would detract from value. These obvious things are often easily hidden in pictures but hard to overlook when you have the pin next to you and have apparently “shopped” it. (There is that word shop which is like flipper - a little hard to qualify).

I guess it is the “slight of hand” flippers that people don’t like.

Good discussion folks.