wei... noone else join gathering?? only this? come lah show ur faces... at least  can meet new ppl n trade some stuff...
guyyy,, r u free to make an appearence?
attendence list :
1. demonicle (in awhile)
2. debylrie (in awhile)
3. shadoxicated (after 12)
4. ray (after dinner)
5. mutt (late)
6. arrt (in awhile)
7. suicide roach (late)

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Added on October 17, 2008, 9:46 pmAt the Saturday night Finale of the LA Convention I specifically brought up this issue during
the very limited Q&A session Mattel had during the finale.

Here is the transcript from that exchange:

Connie: Many of the collectors here are aware that most of the convention cars showed up on Ebay weeks ago.
Is Mattel doing anything about all these cars going straight from the plant to Ebay?

Mattel Rep Chris: Yeah, It's PISSING US OFF TERRIBLY!
Did you notice anything missing from the charity auction this year?
The prototypes weren't there. Why were the prototypes not there?
Because this ring in Thailand is selling the cars and we haven't caught 'em.
And we are hunting them down....and you know....it's really pissing us off.
It's pissing us off...and it's breaking our stuff down and we're gonna catch 'em.

And I would just......and this is not to put the fear into you....just realize
if you buy the goods from this person from Thailand you are buying stolen goods.
Don't get caught buying stolen goods, so just don't....just don't promote 'em.
And they will go down. Believe me stealing in Thailand is not an offense you want to get caught for.

Station 114 (Jeff): What about the Malaysia stuff that gets....

Mattel Rep Chris: (cuts Jeff off before question finished) And Malayasia....we've arrested people
in Malaysia and we've arrested some people in China.

Crowd applauds and Rick Tippe (Finale MC) comments "Yeah, give 'em a hand, it's not an easy thing to pull off."

Mattel Rep Chris: So you know, of course, any info that would help us...um....figure this one out
we're always welcoming and we'll keep it extremely confidential.
I mean...it's at the top of my list everyday of how much that person is ruining my life.

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Added on October 17, 2008, 9:56 pm*Correct me if i'm wrong but couldn't a representative from Mattel simply contact Ebay about the members selling these items and get their personal info and then prosecute? And also use that info to see whether these people are, in fact, employees at the factories and fire them? I'm sure if Ebay knew these were stolen items the auctions from these people would be pulled. So if that IS the case, why hasn't anyone done anything? Or is it like Star Wars related items in that Lucasfilm basically ignores you if you are bootlegging something but not making much money off it but if you are giving Lucasfilm any competition over said item they hunt you down and sue. So is this just a matter of not amounting to enough loss of sales to make anyone do anything? I have to agree that lately we see more new stuff coming out from these sellers than we do on the site and more people are taking notice. So how far does it have to escalate before someone actually steps in to actually do something besides complain? Just some thoughts and observations. I have never bought any cars from these type of sellers but i have to say i have been tempted by that pink panel. But i am a carded collector so i have been waiting to see the real deal in November. Hopefully they won't cost an arm and a leg. Maybe they could offer the pink one to us over here. Hint hint. Im sure they would sell out very quickly.*