Disney Pixar Cars - Kmart Collectors Day Round-Up Report

I had expectations about the Kmart Collectors Day and they all held fairly true. Admittedly, I had no idea how many people would turn out. I figured that the numbers would be similar to Hot Wheels events, and they were. The turn out at three stores myself and my two reporters were at, came in at a count of seven, ten, and ten.

The three stores all managed things differently. The store I was at, allowed people to open cases on a First Come, First Served basis. The other two stores chose people to open cases by pulling their number out of a hat raffle style. The stores setup things differently as well. The store I attended setup a table at the front entrance of the store. The store Reporter One was at, setup near the courtesy desk, while the store Reporter Two was at, setup the table in the back of the store.

The store I was at got six cases of "Mainline" Cars, and three cases of "Minis!" The first six people got to open a case each and choose five Cars. Then, the last two went through all six cases and picked their first five choices. We then came back a second time to pick five more, and then it was a free for all the third time around. The one poster was grabbed by a guy who just took it, and no one cared about the Minis. At the store where I had Reporter One, he was the second person there, but that store went the raffle way and he was picked last to choose. The difference at his store was that most of the people just showed up and got involved because there was a table setup. This actually helped him because they didn't know what to look for when picking their Cars. He also won the poster as they raffled it off and he was chosen. Reporter Two was annoyed by the way the manager ran things. She told me she didn't know what the hell she was doing! Some people tried to cheat by taking more than one raffle ticket. Others tried to manipulate the manager into letting them open more than one case. Reporter Two had been briefed on the rules by me and put a stop to a lot of the nonsense.

Both Reporters were disgusted by the way a number of the adults conducted themselves. They felt they were very immature and selfish. They both indicated they wouldn't want to do it again. The crowd at the store I was at, had a number of dirty, bummy looking people. Beyond people's behavior and hygiene, the thing to come away with is that you can do well in spite of the size of the crowd. In my case, I had the fewest people, but the setup drew more last minute people and the majority knew what to look for. So, you could say that made for a more competitive situation. Reporter One was at an advantage because he knew what to look for, while the other last minute stragglers didn't. And, even though he was drawn last to pick, he still got all the best Cars due to his preparation! Finally, Reporter Two had to deal with taking control of a more devious group and a manager who didn't have a clue. She made things stay fair and knew what to do to get what she wanted.

The one difficult Car to get was Edwin Kranks. There was only one in every other case. So, the day yielded a total of Seven New Cars released...Sputter Stop, View Zeen, Shiny Wax, Transberry Juice, Spare Mint, Edwin Kranks and Small Fred. It was very exciting to add this many Cars to my collection in one fell swoop! I hope you all did as well as I did!

Finally, I hope those of you who followed us on Twitter got some insight, and it helped you do better as you got to your Kmart later in the morning.

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