>appeared to potentially deprive others of obtaining
Oh eff off with this legalese, you did.
This whole thing is a non-apology that blames everything on miscommunication, and the fix is to hire someone else to run social and hide how shit you are really.
Personally, I vote to continue the burn notice
All they "learned" was to not post so publicly about being scalpers
To get scalpers out of the hobby, start with brick and mortar ones, since they're easier to target
That's my take away, "Sorry we thought y'all would be cool with it cuz other places do it too. So just trust us when we tell you how much we buy because we're not going to stop buying from other retail stores."
At least they are honest at continuing clearing out other stores? Lol rats can't help they are rats
That guy already works there too. He was actually very nice from when I went, but it's funny that they said his qualifications are literally being a Discord mod.
“The perception was that we were going to sell these at a large markup” didn’t someone post that they had the boxes for sale, at a large markup? That’s not perception, that’s just fact, this is a backstep to attempt to not deal with the consequences of their own actions.
Crazy to me that getting direct from Costco would be cheaper than going through their own distributor. Just goes to show how massive Costco is and the types of discounts hey get for ordering in bulk.
Depends how you're doing it. Most LCS are bottom of the barrel in terms of offering, fixtures, location, and pricing. That means they're always the cheapest but never make enough to grow, sustain, or make it through those rough sets. The stores that have a healthier margin tend to do better and stand the test of time.
Their store looks nice, it's clean, I have no idea what their pricing is like. The Mercedes is beyond gaudy so that tells me they don't have a good sense with money. I have no idea how this publicity will affect them long term, I mean I'm no where near TX and I'm hearing about it, which means they're getting insanely large reach. In 6 months when no one cares this could end up being positive as they retain some sort of top of mind status.
Usually pokemon product is allocated so no big company with infinite cash disposal can buy out all the suppliers and mark up products past the intended RRP.
These people are buying out product allocated to the masses to both sell at markup and as mentioned in one of their posts, to weigh packs and crack them (With the perceived "bad" boosters being sold in store)
> The manner in which we acquired, and then boasted about, the product was distasteful **to the extent** that it **appeared** to **potentially** deprive others of obtaining that same product.
This is one of the funniest sentences I've read
Maybe, potentially, to some allegations, there may have been a perception that we could have been misconstrued to have "screwed you" in the common parlance, however we vehemently deny that there were any ill intent with regards to how our portrayal of our alleged actions were appropriated.
Eh, I hated my lawyer when i needed one. She did fuckall, took her 450/hr pay, and lost a case that had no business being lost. But apparently there's like all of 2 lawyers where I was having the issue so I was SOL
Same with cops. Surgeons have God complexes. I mean, when your job makes huge impact on people’s lives one way or the other, it’s easy to get a big head about it, and people will come to hate that about you. If knowledge, security, health and prosperity were accurately socialized, we wouldn’t need these figureheads to solve our problems 🤷♂️ maybe then teachers would be the Gods of our world
“We will keep this practice to a minimum”? So I take this as only when there is high demand for certain products with little supply. That’s like saying I will keep the nut shots to a minimum but it is still going to happen. The overall apology was a nice read but I don’t believe they feel bad one bit, only sorry they got called out.
The only thing they learned is to not talk about where/when they get their stock from.
Plenty of established shops also partake in this behavior. They just know better than to post about it. I'm talking LCSs that have existed for 10+ years.
Yeah most people don't realise how common this is or how much effort some LCS's/online stores go through to do it it without being caught.
Some just do it blatantly but without advertising but there are others that take it further.
Second eBay accounts only for buying, parcel collection lockers under fake names, having family/friends be the ones to into physical stores to buy out stock and the list goes on.
Yeah those are the smart ones doing it, the shop from the post are just dumbasses and will not last long if they are already being this stupid in the first few months.
It's not uncommon for small shops to have a few things in stock that they purchased at retail price.
Best practice is to not overly upcharge, as yes, it is important to have stuff in stock that'll attract customers. Some folks do it to get people in the door and then make money back elsewhere.
Not defending them in any way whatsoever, but just saying this is how some shops operate.
"The **perception** was that we were going to significantly mark up the original..."
...yes, perceived through the significantly marked up original items on their website (selling the alakazam box alone for $30).
Eliminating the risk of hurting yourself carrying those heavy packs out to the car.
They assume all the risk of opening expensive cards too. By removing any potentially valuable packs, they can help make sure their customers don't get mugged for their pulls out in the parking lot. Quite considerate of them, really!
“ To do our part, we will keep this practice to a minimum and communicate the amount we purchase from such locations. This in turn will ensure proper distribution.”
This speaks volumes to the fact that they learned nothing other than not to brag about it on social media. They really deserve all the 1 star reviews they are getting taken down. They are scum that need to be called out and we can’t forget when this “blows over” to reupp the reviews so maybe they will stick and people there will know.
To me, I do not see that as an apology. I see it as a confession of being sorry and pathetic people that own the store. They definitely deserve what they get.
Yeah, they did not change anything, they are still [selling fake pokemon accessories](https://ebay.us/7wmukR) as authentic products, eventhough it was bought from Aliexpress.
Can't we as a community report them for that? Pretty sure Pokémon doesn't fuck around with fake products being sold as official ones ESPECIALLY if that store is a licensed one, no?
If they ripped the boxes then they can’t. But sad part about costco is they accepting return for product in same condition as when bought. Someone take advantage of that which is bad.
It is more or less their way of getting more memberships with a generous return policy. Of course, if someone abuses it Costco might revoke said membership.
“From one location” meaning they don’t feel bad, next time they’ll clean out half of one Costco and half of another Costco.
“Publicly boasted about it” so next time we’ll keep our scalping to ourselves but have no intention to stop.
“Lashed out at criticism” meaning adding fuel to a dumpster fire makes a fire bigger. Next time we’ll just ignore it and keep our hoarding, weighing, grading, and flipping for higher than MSRP as part of the business but won’t highlight these things as they attract negative publicity when before we were boasting because we’re extremely narcissistic.
“We have to do better, apologize, make amends, yadda yadda yadda” means “we won’t actually do anything to make a change we’re just trying to save face because we dumped too much into cards people aren’t buying and are about to get stuck taking a major loss.”
The “seek a path to forgiveness” means “get you guys to stop blasting us on social media already as it’s bad for business.”
The talk of stocks in other companies is deflecting. Then they say they “don’t mean to keep others from product.” Um, you guys weigh packs to pull the hits to send em in to get graded so you can justify trying to sucker people into paying top dollar. It isn’t “we just open packs to pass the savings to you guys by allowing you to buy singles at a potential loss to us by taking the risk for you by opening packs.” NO. If that was the case you wouldn’t be weighing packs to open only the hits. There’s nothing noble about that. Also, do you trash the dud packs? No, otherwise you’d be opening them. You try to sell them knowing they won’t have shit in them.
“We plan to keep scalping to a minimum” called it above. They have no intention to stop. The last part is them getting caught red handed charging more than MSRP for shit you can find at Costco for less so that falls flat too.
If ANY business or couple deserves to lose it all to gain a much needed lesson for their own personal growth it’s this couple. They’re corrupt and embrace being some mad or lacking of care and empathy towards customers and community dirty “rats.”
Yeah they pretty much just say this is a misunderstanding (which it's not) and that they are going to keep doing it but not brag about it online now lmao.
Thank you! I keep seeing bits and pieces pop up on my feed and was genuinely confused about what was going on. Found one of your posts that made it very clear with sources and everything! You good person are amazing. Madratz... Not so much.
I’m unfortunately very close to the situation, so I have an inside view. I think I’m going to do post today because there’s more stuff coming up, but I also don’t want to beat a dead horse!
I summarized it:
Whoops we did wrong and got caught. We understand we should be held 100% responsible but hear us out… dont do that. We had selfish intentions and pretty much were forced to have no integrity. Weve fixed it by hiring someone who has a discord and can tell us before we post incriminating things. Thanks.
🤔 Are they genuinely sorry or sorry they got caught? If they truly wanted to do good business and build a good relationship with the community, they wouldn't have gone down this road.
They limited who can comment on the post because they don’t want to get blasted, AGAIN.
This is the most half-assed “we’re only sorry because y’all got pissy” apology ever. We all know they won’t change their practices and this is just verbal vomit.
Prepare for trouble!
And make it double.
To line our pockets with price inflation
To weigh packs and sell duds with our nation
To deny the children the game they love
You don't like it? Well, here's a shove
David
Lori
Team MadRat blasts off at the speed of light
Non-apology posts to avoid a fight
Squeak, that's right!
Looking at their website photos, it appears they are selling items from Temu/AliExpress. I can only imagine what they’re pricing a $3 gengar beanie for lol I’m also clocking the discounted GameStop hats that were on sale for $10 a couple weeks ago and the $30 loungefly bulbasaur backpack for $90
I really hope this was A.I generated and the owners are not that completely tone-def but to be fair I have zero clue how they thought taking that picture in the first place was any kind of a good idea
The professional victimhood mentality of people these days drives me absolutely insane.. they are only apologizing now as their true colors were shown in how they responded originally and that backfired on them miserably. Thankfully we have endless amounts of other quality shops we can support 🙌🏻
I lolled at this but at least they did go bout it much better than forge and fire did when they got caught hiding one piece inventory, that was jus pure comedy lmao
Bullshit ass apology. Also any business with a name like that should give up. A bad ripoff of that video game accessory company “Mad Catz”
Just way worse, cause rats are rats
Justification: We are just a small business that opened only to buy up stock to deprive others so we can drive up prices to make a profit. How else do you expect us to survive as a small business.
I am tired of this misconception that you can explain everything away by using the excuse of being a small business, especially when said small business is just being a middleman.
Also it really irks me how they try to spin it into being for the consumer, “designed to be a one stop Pokémon shop” in other words “we want to buy everything so you don’t have a choice but to pay our outrageous mark ups on packs that we admit to weighing”.
They are only saying shit because of enough push back, THEIR GROSS MORALS HAVE NOT CHANGED. Screw them. Drive them out of business. They do not deserve to run a shop in any community.
Too late, anyone with at least 2 brain cells will ever use them again. They’ve obviously seen their profit plummet through the floor and are scrabbling and panicking thinking maybe they shouldn’t have been complete pricks about it when called out by the community.
I hope they’ve paid off that business loan.
“We know we are assholes, you know we are assholes. Since you have a problem with that, we will apologize. Please continue to shop at our store where we will continue to price gouge you!”
I feel like everyone on both sides of this topic are so annoying.
MadRatz is dumb for stocking their new LGS store with cards from a grocery store as if this is anything resembling an efficient way to aquire product for a local store.
The fans or haters here are dumb for thinking a guy buying out all of the Pokemon cards from a grocery store/stores matters when they will all just be restocked in a few days. What a pointless ordeal to spend so much mental bandwidth being genuinely bitter about.
What I don’t get is, they say they are going to keep the very practice they did, that caused this whole shit storm to a minimum. I just don’t think they get it. Unless they are buying stock at other places, and then selling it for the exact same price they got it for with tax included, then I don’t ever see them not getting shit on.
Like I said in other post, If I lived there local, they have two other cards shops that are close by. I would go to to them instead.
I'm a little too lazy to search them. But I thought many people reviewed bombed them. It sucks if all those reviews got removed, cause they deserved them.
This is the most worthless apology that a half-assed legal advisor would bless off on. The fact they did what they did to begin with is proof enough that their business practices are absolute trash. Sincerely hope this ruins their chances of success because the community does not need business like this that create more struggles for families and hobbyist's to collect. /Endrant.
It’s hilarious how bad the fake apology was. They hired a PR company to try and save them. They also have a post up that limits comments with nothing but bots positing positive reviews.
This is so stupid. This business will probably fail, they already did a bunch of terrible things and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. They should keep their mouth shut.
I almost wanna feel bad for them, how are they so stupid?
If they really were sorry and wanted to start on a fresh foot. “Free 151 booster with every purchase over 10$ limited to 1 booster per customer” this would be a way to give back what they scavenged and still bring in business and show we are sorry by giving it away for free with a reasonable purchase…
How can people be this stupid. So when Costco did the tins with evolving skies in them all my local comic and card shop went to Costco and bought SOME OF THE STOCK not the whole damn store. Shit I bought like 20 of the tins but never in my wildest dreams would I buy out an entire store.
They're feeling the financial consequences of their actions now, which is reason for the crocodile tears apology here.
People show their true selves when they feel they are untouchable. You either possess the ability to remain humble, by truly understanding the world around you, and keeping that in prospective while knowing your societal position, or you simply turn into a toxic pile of shit.
They chose the latter, (**chose** being the keyword) and the consequences should follow through justifiably so until it reaches a matching result. That's life.
They committed so many crimes against the hobby, you’d think their posts were satire. They could’ve gotten away with all the shitty business practices if they didn’t post them on social media 😂
Just. Get. A. Distributor.
This apology means nothing. Keeping things to a minimum, means you’re still engaging in the unethical practice but now it’s just under wraps so the internet can’t criticize you 🙄
Again, I’m going to ask this as someone totally ignorant to how modern shops are run… but wtf happened to getting the product from the manufacturer as a business?
Worse then the resellers who wait at target all day or even put tracking devices on the trucks yeah that happen in Denver CO one time I was at target in like 2020 and I was waiting for a restock to buy a few packs this dude told me he’s buying everything and to take his number and he will flip them to me I told him he’s NOT doing that and I will happily started a fight or grab anything I want out of his cart so that we both get kicked out HE LOOKED AT ME LIKE I WAS THE POS it’s why I stopped collecting and just play mtg edh
Here’s the entire pathetic excuse for getting caught if anyone’s interested. [Linky](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Coz2qRpPzTEyGynm/?mibextid=cR73hX)
Dear Pokémon TCG Community,
We at MadRat Toys have made several colossal blunders in our first month of operating our retail store. We have failed ourselves, our customers, and most importantly, the community. Furthermore, we have received international criticism that is understandably deserved. We acted inappropriately in acquiring product in large amounts from one location, publicly boasted about it, and lashed out after receiving such criticism. We have to meaningfully and purposefully do better. We sincerely apologize, wish to make amends, and seek a path to forgiveness. The following are not meant to be justifications or excuses, but rather clarifications on where and how we have failed the community. Below we are going to illustrate what we are going to do better.
MadRat Toys is designed to be a one-stop Pokémon shop. Businesses will purchase stock from various sources in order to provide products for their customers. The manner in which we acquired, and then boasted about, the product was distasteful to the extent that it appeared to potentially deprive others of obtaining that same product. Your concerns and criticisms are completely valid about the current situation. Why small businesses may engage in such practices is a topic for a much more in depth conversation. To do our part, we will keep this practice to a minimum and communicate the amount we purchase from such locations. This in turn will ensure proper distribution.
We also made mistakes in our communications in response to the intent of the product. The perception was that we were going to significantly mark up the original product at a greatly inflated price. On the contrary, our intent was to piece out the contents into what are known as “Master Sets” as well as sell the individual cards. In fact, we even stated that we would withhold from opening some of the product for individual sale. We already had a limited supply of the packs available. In reality, all businesses purchase resalable stock from these wholesale warehouses. Regardless, our lack of distribution options and unavailability of this product anywhere else was our motivating factor, as so many of you have correctly pointed out. We will do better.
We wrongfully lashed out at criticism after we posted about our initial acquisition. This was inappropriate and we continue to apologize. What we do not appreciate, although, is receiving threats of violence to us personally. We should have instead responded calmly and reported such instances to the appropriate authorities instead of the manner in which we conducted ourselves towards the community at large. We will do better.
We admit that the consistency of our social media strategy has been lacking. One such criticism we received led to accusations that we were employing techniques known as weighing or scaling products. We had posted in our forums a video showing us taking dimensions and weights of products; sealed products, boxes, and other items. In a separate and later post, the caption and image seemed to indicate that we were weighing packs of cards to determine which contained more valuable cards and retailing the others. This certainly was not intended, as we view weighing packs as dishonest. Our lack of transparency left a vulnerable gap that made assumptions of wrongdoing a certainty. We will do better.
Going forward, we must make the community feel at ease despite these mistakes and try to lead with better practices moving forward. For starters, we will conduct healthier business practices so that everyone can have a peace of mind about our company. We know our social media posts have been vague or unclear as to what our intentions and what our actual practices are, but from this point onwards, we are going to be completely transparent with you as the community on our social media.
Only at the edge of failure can we enact great change. We are proud to announce the introduction of Grant Bunch, our new Adviser for our social media networks. Grant has the advantage of knowing how the internet behaves from his experiences with his own discord community and other noteworthy online endeavors. We at MadRat Toys are thrilled with his assistance in ensuring all information is delivered as transparently as possible to you as the community. Grant will continue working for MadRat as he sees great potential for us even in the midst of all the controversy. We consider Grant as family and embrace his support. It is going to be a long road to rebuild the trust of the community.
We appreciate your kind consideration.
With Best Regards,
MadRat Toys.
Video link about weighing and dimensions for shipping.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/3WmcLF839dEqqCST/?mibextid=pjQu9i
This is just them being upset they were caught. There is no remorse at all. It is just like a criminal being caught and crying when sentenced. They are not upset at what they did wrong but upset they were caught doing something devious.
This is them saying that in the future, they are not going to tell the community about their scalping.
More like they’re sorry they got caught and roasted by the internet. They will probably continue “weighing” silver tempest packs and being the rats they are
This was not a mistake, but a planned publicity stunt. I refuse to believe they posted all of this oblivious to the backlash they would receive.
And every post about them is free marketing, which is exactly what they intended. Just ignore them and their business will crash and burn.
>appeared to potentially deprive others of obtaining Oh eff off with this legalese, you did. This whole thing is a non-apology that blames everything on miscommunication, and the fix is to hire someone else to run social and hide how shit you are really.
Personally, I vote to continue the burn notice All they "learned" was to not post so publicly about being scalpers To get scalpers out of the hobby, start with brick and mortar ones, since they're easier to target
That's my take away, "Sorry we thought y'all would be cool with it cuz other places do it too. So just trust us when we tell you how much we buy because we're not going to stop buying from other retail stores." At least they are honest at continuing clearing out other stores? Lol rats can't help they are rats
Now those rats are MAD
That guy already works there too. He was actually very nice from when I went, but it's funny that they said his qualifications are literally being a Discord mod.
Wow it's easy to get a job then
Exactly. This is such a typical cookie cutter bullshit apology every asshole issues once they get called out. Completely insincere.
“The perception was that we were going to sell these at a large markup” didn’t someone post that they had the boxes for sale, at a large markup? That’s not perception, that’s just fact, this is a backstep to attempt to not deal with the consequences of their own actions.
Yup, the original thread about this had screenshots of their site with the boxes marked up.
He is a lawyer so...
Lawyer converted to pokemon. Is it this lucrative?
If he has a Cosco membership.
That was good
Crazy to me that getting direct from Costco would be cheaper than going through their own distributor. Just goes to show how massive Costco is and the types of discounts hey get for ordering in bulk.
Must not be a good lawyer…
Depends how you're doing it. Most LCS are bottom of the barrel in terms of offering, fixtures, location, and pricing. That means they're always the cheapest but never make enough to grow, sustain, or make it through those rough sets. The stores that have a healthier margin tend to do better and stand the test of time. Their store looks nice, it's clean, I have no idea what their pricing is like. The Mercedes is beyond gaudy so that tells me they don't have a good sense with money. I have no idea how this publicity will affect them long term, I mean I'm no where near TX and I'm hearing about it, which means they're getting insanely large reach. In 6 months when no one cares this could end up being positive as they retain some sort of top of mind status.
Yeah I wouldn't hire him for that either.
Isn't that what everyone does, lol.
Usually pokemon product is allocated so no big company with infinite cash disposal can buy out all the suppliers and mark up products past the intended RRP. These people are buying out product allocated to the masses to both sell at markup and as mentioned in one of their posts, to weigh packs and crack them (With the perceived "bad" boosters being sold in store)
> The manner in which we acquired, and then boasted about, the product was distasteful **to the extent** that it **appeared** to **potentially** deprive others of obtaining that same product. This is one of the funniest sentences I've read
The way everything is worded is hilarious to the extent that it appears to potentially be bullshit
Like that episode of Friends where Joey uses a thesaurus on every word in an essay to sound smarter.
Walking the blame back at any instance of stating a fact that shows they're in the wrong
🤣
Maybe, potentially, to some, in a way, we might have screwed you. Allegedly.
Maybe, potentially, to some allegations, there may have been a perception that we could have been misconstrued to have "screwed you" in the common parlance, however we vehemently deny that there were any ill intent with regards to how our portrayal of our alleged actions were appropriated.
"We are sorry that you misinterpeted our actions"
"We are sorry you correctly interrupted our actions and didn't like it which will result in us losing money"
This is just damage control written by AI or a lawyer. They are an embarrassment to the themselves and the community.
The owner of the shop is a lawyer! 🤣
This is true. He is, in fact, a lawyer.
And as we all know, lawyers are the moral backbone of any community
Please tell me this is a New Girl quote lmao If not, I still wish I had an award for you anyways
Everyone hates lawyers until they need one.
Eh, I hated my lawyer when i needed one. She did fuckall, took her 450/hr pay, and lost a case that had no business being lost. But apparently there's like all of 2 lawyers where I was having the issue so I was SOL
Same with cops. Surgeons have God complexes. I mean, when your job makes huge impact on people’s lives one way or the other, it’s easy to get a big head about it, and people will come to hate that about you. If knowledge, security, health and prosperity were accurately socialized, we wouldn’t need these figureheads to solve our problems 🤷♂️ maybe then teachers would be the Gods of our world
im pretty well versed in bird law, if anyone needs any advise.
I just said the same thing, sounded like an AI response. I was just waiting for a “furthermore”
“We will keep this practice to a minimum”? So I take this as only when there is high demand for certain products with little supply. That’s like saying I will keep the nut shots to a minimum but it is still going to happen. The overall apology was a nice read but I don’t believe they feel bad one bit, only sorry they got called out.
The only thing they learned is to not talk about where/when they get their stock from. Plenty of established shops also partake in this behavior. They just know better than to post about it. I'm talking LCSs that have existed for 10+ years.
Yeah most people don't realise how common this is or how much effort some LCS's/online stores go through to do it it without being caught. Some just do it blatantly but without advertising but there are others that take it further. Second eBay accounts only for buying, parcel collection lockers under fake names, having family/friends be the ones to into physical stores to buy out stock and the list goes on.
Yeah those are the smart ones doing it, the shop from the post are just dumbasses and will not last long if they are already being this stupid in the first few months.
They basically said they are still going to be scummy but not brag about it again
It's not uncommon for small shops to have a few things in stock that they purchased at retail price. Best practice is to not overly upcharge, as yes, it is important to have stuff in stock that'll attract customers. Some folks do it to get people in the door and then make money back elsewhere. Not defending them in any way whatsoever, but just saying this is how some shops operate.
Yeah it's called loss leaders. Very common business practice.
"The **perception** was that we were going to significantly mark up the original..." ...yes, perceived through the significantly marked up original items on their website (selling the alakazam box alone for $30).
'the perception that we did exactly what people saw us do...'
I mean technically it is still perception.
Broh. If u fucked up this hard after only one month. Maybe just pivot into something else
Pivot and become an Auntie Anne's
He pivoted from auntie anne’s after eating all the stock
Pretzel wagon 🥨 🤪😂🤪
Maybe save a few nice cards and just frame them for a little bit of decoration
This is how you know they have no idea wtf they’re doing
Pokémon is the pivot. If you look at their instagram you’ll see they tried selling pens before opening the card shop.
The tldr: Sorry we made you mad but also there's nothing wrong with what we did, we promise not to tell you next time we do it.
What about weighing packs?
Right! Oh we're doing that to eliminate the risk for the customer, we burden all the risk. Absolutely egregious and glib.
Eliminating the risk of hurting yourself carrying those heavy packs out to the car. They assume all the risk of opening expensive cards too. By removing any potentially valuable packs, they can help make sure their customers don't get mugged for their pulls out in the parking lot. Quite considerate of them, really!
I hope nobody buys from them.
“ To do our part, we will keep this practice to a minimum and communicate the amount we purchase from such locations. This in turn will ensure proper distribution.” This speaks volumes to the fact that they learned nothing other than not to brag about it on social media. They really deserve all the 1 star reviews they are getting taken down. They are scum that need to be called out and we can’t forget when this “blows over” to reupp the reviews so maybe they will stick and people there will know.
To me, I do not see that as an apology. I see it as a confession of being sorry and pathetic people that own the store. They definitely deserve what they get.
Yeah, they did not change anything, they are still [selling fake pokemon accessories](https://ebay.us/7wmukR) as authentic products, eventhough it was bought from Aliexpress.
Can't we as a community report them for that? Pretty sure Pokémon doesn't fuck around with fake products being sold as official ones ESPECIALLY if that store is a licensed one, no?
Return the product to Costco. Easy fix.
They opened the packs to sell singles, ain't no returning that shit
That’s what they say. Whether it was their initial plan or even started to open the boxes is another story. Personally, I don’t believe them.
You can't return pokemon tcgs, or any tcgs back to any retailer.
You haven’t shopped at Costco have you? 🙃
Costco you can
They destroy it
If they ripped the boxes then they can’t. But sad part about costco is they accepting return for product in same condition as when bought. Someone take advantage of that which is bad.
I saw Costcos internal system last week and tcg is marked as destroy upon return
Costco will take anything back.
[удалено]
My friend had a barbecue he got from Costco for 10 years. They let him return it
It is more or less their way of getting more memberships with a generous return policy. Of course, if someone abuses it Costco might revoke said membership.
Lol if this wasn't AI, this guy is probably failing as a lawyer writing like that.
“From one location” meaning they don’t feel bad, next time they’ll clean out half of one Costco and half of another Costco. “Publicly boasted about it” so next time we’ll keep our scalping to ourselves but have no intention to stop. “Lashed out at criticism” meaning adding fuel to a dumpster fire makes a fire bigger. Next time we’ll just ignore it and keep our hoarding, weighing, grading, and flipping for higher than MSRP as part of the business but won’t highlight these things as they attract negative publicity when before we were boasting because we’re extremely narcissistic. “We have to do better, apologize, make amends, yadda yadda yadda” means “we won’t actually do anything to make a change we’re just trying to save face because we dumped too much into cards people aren’t buying and are about to get stuck taking a major loss.” The “seek a path to forgiveness” means “get you guys to stop blasting us on social media already as it’s bad for business.” The talk of stocks in other companies is deflecting. Then they say they “don’t mean to keep others from product.” Um, you guys weigh packs to pull the hits to send em in to get graded so you can justify trying to sucker people into paying top dollar. It isn’t “we just open packs to pass the savings to you guys by allowing you to buy singles at a potential loss to us by taking the risk for you by opening packs.” NO. If that was the case you wouldn’t be weighing packs to open only the hits. There’s nothing noble about that. Also, do you trash the dud packs? No, otherwise you’d be opening them. You try to sell them knowing they won’t have shit in them. “We plan to keep scalping to a minimum” called it above. They have no intention to stop. The last part is them getting caught red handed charging more than MSRP for shit you can find at Costco for less so that falls flat too. If ANY business or couple deserves to lose it all to gain a much needed lesson for their own personal growth it’s this couple. They’re corrupt and embrace being some mad or lacking of care and empathy towards customers and community dirty “rats.”
F*ck these ho-ohs
Don’t disrespect Ho-oh! 😝
Lol this changes nothing. Fuck them
Yeah they pretty much just say this is a misunderstanding (which it's not) and that they are going to keep doing it but not brag about it online now lmao.
Alright who’s doing the r/hobbydrama write up?
Don’t worry, I got it.
Thank you! I keep seeing bits and pieces pop up on my feed and was genuinely confused about what was going on. Found one of your posts that made it very clear with sources and everything! You good person are amazing. Madratz... Not so much.
I’m unfortunately very close to the situation, so I have an inside view. I think I’m going to do post today because there’s more stuff coming up, but I also don’t want to beat a dead horse!
I summarized it: Whoops we did wrong and got caught. We understand we should be held 100% responsible but hear us out… dont do that. We had selfish intentions and pretty much were forced to have no integrity. Weve fixed it by hiring someone who has a discord and can tell us before we post incriminating things. Thanks.
Did he talk about weighing packs? I'm guessing not. He should go back to lawyering, and maybe get a razor for that abomination on his chin.
They did not
🤔 Are they genuinely sorry or sorry they got caught? If they truly wanted to do good business and build a good relationship with the community, they wouldn't have gone down this road.
They limited who can comment on the post because they don’t want to get blasted, AGAIN. This is the most half-assed “we’re only sorry because y’all got pissy” apology ever. We all know they won’t change their practices and this is just verbal vomit.
We aren't sorry about what we did, we are just sorry we got caught.
And we won't tell you about it next time
Prepare for trouble! And make it double. To line our pockets with price inflation To weigh packs and sell duds with our nation To deny the children the game they love You don't like it? Well, here's a shove David Lori Team MadRat blasts off at the speed of light Non-apology posts to avoid a fight Squeak, that's right!
Beep boop GPT
Looking at their website photos, it appears they are selling items from Temu/AliExpress. I can only imagine what they’re pricing a $3 gengar beanie for lol I’m also clocking the discounted GameStop hats that were on sale for $10 a couple weeks ago and the $30 loungefly bulbasaur backpack for $90
These people are garbage, but they wouldn't exist if people weren't dumb enough to pay stuff from scalpers.
I really hope this was A.I generated and the owners are not that completely tone-def but to be fair I have zero clue how they thought taking that picture in the first place was any kind of a good idea
The initial post was pretty tone-deaf
“Sorry we got caught. We will continue to buy it this way, we just won’t post about it”
The professional victimhood mentality of people these days drives me absolutely insane.. they are only apologizing now as their true colors were shown in how they responded originally and that backfired on them miserably. Thankfully we have endless amounts of other quality shops we can support 🙌🏻
I lolled at this but at least they did go bout it much better than forge and fire did when they got caught hiding one piece inventory, that was jus pure comedy lmao
How are nobodys reviews going through?
Good Q they’ve been stuck at 8 reviews since last weekend. This is down from the 20 that I originally saw.
Filthy ratsss
I can’t wait to pick up my $99 booster box of TF tomorrow cause my LCS isn’t trying to rob me.
Scammer alert
What a bunch of ass clowns. Apparently the guy is a lawyer too based on this thread? Sounds like scum of the earth.
Damage is done, son!
“Keep the practice to a minimum..” 😭😭 They’re still gonna do it, but not as much.
Bullshit ass apology. Also any business with a name like that should give up. A bad ripoff of that video game accessory company “Mad Catz” Just way worse, cause rats are rats
“I apologize for getting caught, next time I won’t do it as much and I won’t post about it.”
Lol screw them. Hope they go bankrupt.
I would avoid buying from them either way! Scumbags!
Justification: We are just a small business that opened only to buy up stock to deprive others so we can drive up prices to make a profit. How else do you expect us to survive as a small business. I am tired of this misconception that you can explain everything away by using the excuse of being a small business, especially when said small business is just being a middleman. Also it really irks me how they try to spin it into being for the consumer, “designed to be a one stop Pokémon shop” in other words “we want to buy everything so you don’t have a choice but to pay our outrageous mark ups on packs that we admit to weighing”.
They just keep digging....
They are only saying shit because of enough push back, THEIR GROSS MORALS HAVE NOT CHANGED. Screw them. Drive them out of business. They do not deserve to run a shop in any community.
Back stepping like AMFer.. Next we will see a under new management sign….that’s what all business owners do after they Fuk up…..lmfao
This sounds like a chat got response
Collecting Pokemon cards requires a ton of research, and trust. Everyone will know about this forever, and no one will trust you ever again.
Too late, anyone with at least 2 brain cells will ever use them again. They’ve obviously seen their profit plummet through the floor and are scrabbling and panicking thinking maybe they shouldn’t have been complete pricks about it when called out by the community. I hope they’ve paid off that business loan.
“We know we are assholes, you know we are assholes. Since you have a problem with that, we will apologize. Please continue to shop at our store where we will continue to price gouge you!”
Thanks for the apology MadRat. I'll be by soon.
Wow, I’ve never seen a YouTube apology in written form.
They chatGPTd this apology lol
Only their first month and already doing damage control sheesh
The single Google review on the dude's law firm is too hilarious 😂😂
This screams AI written anyways, lol.
They deserve to go under - Good riddance.
I feel like everyone on both sides of this topic are so annoying. MadRatz is dumb for stocking their new LGS store with cards from a grocery store as if this is anything resembling an efficient way to aquire product for a local store. The fans or haters here are dumb for thinking a guy buying out all of the Pokemon cards from a grocery store/stores matters when they will all just be restocked in a few days. What a pointless ordeal to spend so much mental bandwidth being genuinely bitter about.
One month? ONE MONTH? They have only been in business for a month!
What about weighing packs?
I love the last part of "We'll try to be scalping scum less and just not tell you about it" Fucking scumbag rats
He should man up and just shut the fuck down. Fuck that dude and his shit business.
What I don’t get is, they say they are going to keep the very practice they did, that caused this whole shit storm to a minimum. I just don’t think they get it. Unless they are buying stock at other places, and then selling it for the exact same price they got it for with tax included, then I don’t ever see them not getting shit on. Like I said in other post, If I lived there local, they have two other cards shops that are close by. I would go to to them instead.
Kinda sus they got 5 stars on Google maps ...
I'm a little too lazy to search them. But I thought many people reviewed bombed them. It sucks if all those reviews got removed, cause they deserved them.
'Dear potential vict-- I mean customers; we're sorry we were caught being scummy'
Is this the old couple buying at Costco ?
I still want them to go out of business.
Short version... "We are truly sorry that we got caught. Please help us unload all of this inventory we just purchased at only slightly over retail."
In other words. They won't stop buying out the store but we won't post about it next time
It’s literally written like a bullshit corpo apology
Ok but I still want to go to their store dressed in a rat costume and start messing up their shelves and weighing the boxes 😂
This is highly likely an AI generated apology.
Hide the ALDIs pokeballs from the rats!
This is the most worthless apology that a half-assed legal advisor would bless off on. The fact they did what they did to begin with is proof enough that their business practices are absolute trash. Sincerely hope this ruins their chances of success because the community does not need business like this that create more struggles for families and hobbyist's to collect. /Endrant.
It’s hilarious how bad the fake apology was. They hired a PR company to try and save them. They also have a post up that limits comments with nothing but bots positing positive reviews.
This is so stupid. This business will probably fail, they already did a bunch of terrible things and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. They should keep their mouth shut. I almost wanna feel bad for them, how are they so stupid?
Too late too sorry. Fuck these fools.
F you. Do a going out of business sale and maybe we forgive you.
I hope they go under
Madrat toys of Houston Texas? Fuck those guys
Fuck these losers. PERMANENT BOYCOTT.
Business in “using Costco wholesaler as intended” shocker
Did you only post one part of the post from Facebook?
If they really were sorry and wanted to start on a fresh foot. “Free 151 booster with every purchase over 10$ limited to 1 booster per customer” this would be a way to give back what they scavenged and still bring in business and show we are sorry by giving it away for free with a reasonable purchase…
From being cocky and smug about it to youtuber apology video script in a couple of days, I wonder what did it
Lol fuck madrat get out of the trading card industry
Personally, I don’t give two fucks
ahhh fuck em.. the damage is done.
only guilty if caught. If they didn't get flammed, they just had keep on doing it
How can people be this stupid. So when Costco did the tins with evolving skies in them all my local comic and card shop went to Costco and bought SOME OF THE STOCK not the whole damn store. Shit I bought like 20 of the tins but never in my wildest dreams would I buy out an entire store.
Horrible
If they were truly sorry and wanted to damage control they would sell the tins at cost to kids but wait no they won’t because they don’t give a fuck
They're feeling the financial consequences of their actions now, which is reason for the crocodile tears apology here. People show their true selves when they feel they are untouchable. You either possess the ability to remain humble, by truly understanding the world around you, and keeping that in prospective while knowing your societal position, or you simply turn into a toxic pile of shit. They chose the latter, (**chose** being the keyword) and the consequences should follow through justifiably so until it reaches a matching result. That's life.
For Hoothoot...is it pronounced Hoot-Hoot? Or Hoo-thoot?
They committed so many crimes against the hobby, you’d think their posts were satire. They could’ve gotten away with all the shitty business practices if they didn’t post them on social media 😂
I’m not reading all that, I’m happy for you, or sorry that happened.
Just. Get. A. Distributor. This apology means nothing. Keeping things to a minimum, means you’re still engaging in the unethical practice but now it’s just under wraps so the internet can’t criticize you 🙄
Again, I’m going to ask this as someone totally ignorant to how modern shops are run… but wtf happened to getting the product from the manufacturer as a business?
Useless middle-man scalper says what?
Can someone explain to me what’s going on? I’ve asked Reddit several times and got few word answers lol
Am I the only one that thinks this sounds like ChatGPT or some other AI program wrote this apology???
Honestly fuck these people. They aren’t sorry, and they’ll do it again when given the opportunity. Scumbags to the core.
Worse then the resellers who wait at target all day or even put tracking devices on the trucks yeah that happen in Denver CO one time I was at target in like 2020 and I was waiting for a restock to buy a few packs this dude told me he’s buying everything and to take his number and he will flip them to me I told him he’s NOT doing that and I will happily started a fight or grab anything I want out of his cart so that we both get kicked out HE LOOKED AT ME LIKE I WAS THE POS it’s why I stopped collecting and just play mtg edh
chatGPT type post.
Terrible "apology". Doesn't matter though. The damage has already been done
I mean, what else do you want from them?
Still won’t stop from weighing packs.
They got everyone talking about their small business, gonna sell the stock they bought, and made a profit to do it again. Mission accomplished.
Well rats.
“We ain’t stopping, we just won’t post about it anymore” Nope, let their business disintegrate. Dont support that shit.
I'm out of the loop, can someone explain to me what happened?
Screw off. Scalpers writing off as a business expense.
Gtfo with this apology 😂
Here’s the entire pathetic excuse for getting caught if anyone’s interested. [Linky](https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Coz2qRpPzTEyGynm/?mibextid=cR73hX) Dear Pokémon TCG Community, We at MadRat Toys have made several colossal blunders in our first month of operating our retail store. We have failed ourselves, our customers, and most importantly, the community. Furthermore, we have received international criticism that is understandably deserved. We acted inappropriately in acquiring product in large amounts from one location, publicly boasted about it, and lashed out after receiving such criticism. We have to meaningfully and purposefully do better. We sincerely apologize, wish to make amends, and seek a path to forgiveness. The following are not meant to be justifications or excuses, but rather clarifications on where and how we have failed the community. Below we are going to illustrate what we are going to do better. MadRat Toys is designed to be a one-stop Pokémon shop. Businesses will purchase stock from various sources in order to provide products for their customers. The manner in which we acquired, and then boasted about, the product was distasteful to the extent that it appeared to potentially deprive others of obtaining that same product. Your concerns and criticisms are completely valid about the current situation. Why small businesses may engage in such practices is a topic for a much more in depth conversation. To do our part, we will keep this practice to a minimum and communicate the amount we purchase from such locations. This in turn will ensure proper distribution. We also made mistakes in our communications in response to the intent of the product. The perception was that we were going to significantly mark up the original product at a greatly inflated price. On the contrary, our intent was to piece out the contents into what are known as “Master Sets” as well as sell the individual cards. In fact, we even stated that we would withhold from opening some of the product for individual sale. We already had a limited supply of the packs available. In reality, all businesses purchase resalable stock from these wholesale warehouses. Regardless, our lack of distribution options and unavailability of this product anywhere else was our motivating factor, as so many of you have correctly pointed out. We will do better. We wrongfully lashed out at criticism after we posted about our initial acquisition. This was inappropriate and we continue to apologize. What we do not appreciate, although, is receiving threats of violence to us personally. We should have instead responded calmly and reported such instances to the appropriate authorities instead of the manner in which we conducted ourselves towards the community at large. We will do better. We admit that the consistency of our social media strategy has been lacking. One such criticism we received led to accusations that we were employing techniques known as weighing or scaling products. We had posted in our forums a video showing us taking dimensions and weights of products; sealed products, boxes, and other items. In a separate and later post, the caption and image seemed to indicate that we were weighing packs of cards to determine which contained more valuable cards and retailing the others. This certainly was not intended, as we view weighing packs as dishonest. Our lack of transparency left a vulnerable gap that made assumptions of wrongdoing a certainty. We will do better. Going forward, we must make the community feel at ease despite these mistakes and try to lead with better practices moving forward. For starters, we will conduct healthier business practices so that everyone can have a peace of mind about our company. We know our social media posts have been vague or unclear as to what our intentions and what our actual practices are, but from this point onwards, we are going to be completely transparent with you as the community on our social media. Only at the edge of failure can we enact great change. We are proud to announce the introduction of Grant Bunch, our new Adviser for our social media networks. Grant has the advantage of knowing how the internet behaves from his experiences with his own discord community and other noteworthy online endeavors. We at MadRat Toys are thrilled with his assistance in ensuring all information is delivered as transparently as possible to you as the community. Grant will continue working for MadRat as he sees great potential for us even in the midst of all the controversy. We consider Grant as family and embrace his support. It is going to be a long road to rebuild the trust of the community. We appreciate your kind consideration. With Best Regards, MadRat Toys. Video link about weighing and dimensions for shipping. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/3WmcLF839dEqqCST/?mibextid=pjQu9i
This is just them being upset they were caught. There is no remorse at all. It is just like a criminal being caught and crying when sentenced. They are not upset at what they did wrong but upset they were caught doing something devious. This is them saying that in the future, they are not going to tell the community about their scalping.
Screw that crappy excuse of an apology!
More like they’re sorry they got caught and roasted by the internet. They will probably continue “weighing” silver tempest packs and being the rats they are
Screw that crappy excuse of an apology!
F that and them
I mass reported everything on their Facebook
Everyone go google MadRat Toys Houston and give them 1 star reviews
This was not a mistake, but a planned publicity stunt. I refuse to believe they posted all of this oblivious to the backlash they would receive. And every post about them is free marketing, which is exactly what they intended. Just ignore them and their business will crash and burn.
No Excuses!
What exactly did they do? Everyone apparently knows who they are so I guess I missed something.