Official PKMNCollectors Rules and Guidelines
[ Official Rules & Guidelines | Community Feedback | Group Auctions | Sales Permission | Wall of Shame ]
Welcome to the Community Rules and Guidelines
LAST UPDATED: 10 March 2021 by nysaurus.
Updated rules about advertisement of discord/fb/messenger.
CTRL+F ("search page") is your friend!
Copying and pasting rules to members you believe are breaking them is also your friend!
Welcome to PKMNCollectors! We are a very close-knit community of members who love to buy, trade, sell, and collect all types Pokemon merchandise! You may think you are joining just to have access to rare Pokemon goods, but beware; you'll probably end up with a hundred new friends instead! Introduce yourself, post photos of your collections, admire other collections, and HAVE FUN! But first... READ THE RULES!
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Banhammer
3. General Rules
4. Rules for Sellers
5. Rules for Buyers
6. Beware of Bootlegs
7. Special Notices
8. Tutorials
9. Community Tags
To Contact the Moderators!
●◎ Moderator Contact Information◎●
●◎ Report A Problem Post◎●
●◎ Community Suggestion Box◎●
Check Modpost Tag!
Modposts are friendly, monthly reminders from your community moderators!
Please read the modpost tag to find out which rules are being broken frequently,
and what to do to avoid contributing to an annoying trend!
Please note that rules stated on modposts are treated as active, even if they are not posted here straight away.
Please review any modposts that you may have missed while away from the community.
[ Link to Banhammer ]
You could officially be banned for the following reasons:
1. Stealing, lying, or swindling members.
2. Trolling or showing negative, anti-Pokemon or anti-collecting behavior.
3. Exhibiting abusive, racist, sexist, aggressive, or threatening behaviors.
4. Sexual harassment.
5. Backing out of bids on Group Auctions.
6. Having more than 3 (three) negative feedbacks (depending on their severity).
7. Being reprimanded/contacted more than 3 (three) times by a moderator.
8. Sharing community-locked information outside of the community (such as added up totals from Group Auctions).
Temporary Bans may be issued if:
●◎ You back out of too many sales.
●◎ You constantly delete bids/comments referring to the purchase of an item.
●◎ You are being over-dramatic, immature, or rude towards others.
You will have your sales permission automatically revoked if you get 3+ negative feedbacks or warnings as an unreliable seller. The list of members with revoked sales permission or under any kind of partial or total ban can be seen here.
[ Link to General Rules ]
This is a community about Pokemon merchandise
● If the focus of your post is not about Pokemon merchandise, it is considered off topic. Discussing your in-game team, talking about the Pokemon anime, and showing merchandise of other franchises in collection posts are OK, as long as they are not the focus of the post.
● Off-topic posts (about new Pokemon, for example) may occasionally be posted by a moderator.
● This is very important for photos. If Pokemon merchandise isn't the central focus of your photos, your post will be considered off topic and will be deleted. "Selfies" -- For consideration of other community members please place all photos of yourself with your collection underneath a cut. Some members prefer to only look at Pokemon-related merchandise and not unrelated content. If you have a photo with yourself, please indicate so in the comments or cuts to alert any individuals who may find photos uncomfortable.
● Do not include any "quick off-topic discussions" in your legitimate post to get around this rule. Please wait until Free For All Friday to discuss any and all off topic content.
● This also means that no non-Pokemon merchandise may be sold on the community whatsoever. If you have a sales post on your personal LJ please keep your non-Pokemon items on a completely separate post. If you do not want to do this then you do not have any obligation to advertise your sales here. You may link to your non-Pokemon sales on a sales post hosted in your own LJ. Non-Pokemon items in Group Auction lots are the one exception to this rule.
Do not advertise sales of any kind until you have sales permission
Because of the size and nature of this community, we have to be very strict about our sales permission rules. Until you have sales permission here, you may not advertise sales of any kind, no matter where it is located, be it your personal LJ, deviantART, Etsy, eBay, FurAffinity, nowhere. "Referring someone to your art gallery" is not a loophole to get around this rule, so don't do it. Please note that this also includes posts "gauging interest in/price checking" potential sale fodder.
Do not advertise ANY outside groups that are not affliated with pkmncollectors LJ.
Please take note that we DO NOT have any facebook/ discord/ messenger groups. We are not affliated to any that have the same/similar names. Please do not advertise your discord/facebook/messenger groups either - even if it's personal. The only 'advertising' allowed is submitting your collection website into the Pkmncollectors Master Collection List. Making a collection post in discord and linking it is NOT a way around this. The list will be checked periodically. Any adverts on LJ will be deleted immediately without notice.
Do not post more than once per 24 hours
We do not allow multiple posts per day. Our community is extremely large, and by posting multiple times per day you are cluttering up the front page. The only exception to this is if you’re posting about newly announced merchandise. Otherwise, your post will be deleted. This rule does not mean you should post once a day every day. Please do not do this unless every single post has new and original material. A good suggestion is to wait until your post has moved off the front page.
Do not post to advertise, promote, praise or endorse any bootleg goods
Please read below for more information.
Do not alter the font of your post
You are not allowed to change the color or the size of your text. The only permissible font changes are bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, or a slightly larger text used for a post's title only or some other sort of announcement.
Do not post auctions in progress
These posts are often called “cool yahoo!japan/ebay finds,” and are often abandoned right after being posted, which is unfair to the people already bidding on them who do not want their auctions advertised to add to the competition.
Do not make dramatic entries or post about your personal problems on the community
These are completely unnecessary, serve no useful purpose, and are also completely off topic. Please leave personal entries to your personal LJ. When in doubt, ask yourself if thousands of people really need - or want - to be reading it.
● This is particularly important to keep in mind for sales posts, as members can feel uncomfortable or guilt tripped into buying. (Examples: labeling sales as "Emergency Sales", saying "I lost my job and need money!", etc.)
Do not ask the community to keep track of your finances
No posts asking, “who do I owe money to?”. Please keep a record of your purchases and sales and contact members privately via PM, email or any other means of communication. You can find Group Auctions and sales easily by looking up the LJ name of the member in question using http://pkmncollectors.livejournal.com/?poster=LJ USERNAME, or searching by any of our community tags found below. Making posts asking the community to help find sellers and GA runners who you cannot get a hold of does not fall under this rule, and is permissible.
No excessive mini-modding
A member breaking a rule should only be told once of their infraction. Feel free to copy/paste a rule from this page if you are unsure of how to be polite when pointing out rule-breaking.
All un-cut images must be under 500 pixels wide and 500 pixels tall
Otherwise they must be under an LJ cut. Please refer to our LJ cut guide (scroll down a bit) for instructions on how to properly use a cut. If your un-cut images are over 1000 pixels large, please resize the image's canvas size down to 500 pixels or less. That way its file size will also be reduced. Using HTML to shrink an image does not change its file size, so please do not use that unless your picture is under 1000 pixels. This is to reduce computer slowdowns for people with slower Internet speed.
● Please keep the number of image outside a cut to 4 larger images, use your best judgement. If your post is scrolling for a while there's too many images.
Do not make posts requesting Group Auctions
● If you do not have sales permission and/or have found a lot you want GA'd but want to take no part in it, you may not post to the community asking for it to be GA'd by other people.
● If you have sales permission, you may make posts requesting a partner to help you run the Group Auction, however, these posts must be deleted once a partner has been found. It is highly recommended that you partner with someone you know.
Do not post personal referral links to contests in progress, specifically offsite ones.
● You may add a link to the end of a post showing people the contest is going on, but if this link is your personal referral link you will be asked to remove it.
● A post solely about an ongoing offsite contest will be deleted immediately.
Additional Commenting Rules:
●◎ Do not comment on sales asking for lower prices (unless haggling is specifically being accepted)
●◎ Do not comment on sales complaining that you do not have any money
●◎ Do not comment on sales complaining that prices are "too high". If you don't like the price, don't buy it.
●◎ Do not comment on sales whining that you missed an item
●◎ Do not comment to members buying and/or bidding on an item that you want to make them feel bad
●◎ Do not add extra comments while bidding in an auction or Group Auction. Please write the dollar amount only. No extra comments are allowed in starting bids either.
● Examples: "This is my grail!!", "I lost this once, I'm not losing it again!", "$35...D:", "Start! I really need this!"
● Emojis, photos, GIFs, and additional punctuation are also considered extra comments. Do not add any of these while participating in an auction, or you will be warned.
All of these types of comments serve absolutely no useful purpose and are considered poor manners.
[ Link to Rules for Sellers ]
You must ask for sales permission first before you can sell or advertise your sales . If you do not have sales permission, your sales posts will be deleted without warning.
Post your information
Be sure to always include two important things: Which mod approved you for sales permission (and when, if possible), and a link to your feedback page. You will be asked to please add these if you forget.
Have clear rules
Make your rules clear! Do you accept other forms of payment besides Paypal? Do you ship internationally? Do you accept trades? These are all good examples of questions you need to answer in your sales rules.
Sellers should state their policies on buyer's priority to an item. If they do not have a policy, the community default rule is as follows:
● The first to commit* to a sale is the first to get the item.
● Time stamps will determine who committed first, regardless of edits or additional comments.
*To commit to an item, a buyer must clearly state they will purchase the item(s). Examples of commitment are "I'll take it" or "I will buy it, with shipping to [location]." Simply asking for a quote ("How much is shipping?" or "How much to [location]?"), asking a question, or otherwise inquiring about the item does not count as a commitment. If you definitely want to purchase an item, make sure you clearly state that! If you are ambiguous in your comment, you will risk forfeiting the purchase if someone commits before you, even if they comment after your question or inquiry.
A seller can change this rule in their policies, i.e., give people asking for quotes first claim over those who commit. Therefore you must carefully read all the seller's policies before commenting. If the seller does not specify a change from the community standard regarding claims and commitments to buy, the community standard rule is automatically applied.
Set clear starting prices for auction and best offer-style sales
If you wish to take offers on an item, or auction it off, you must have clear starting prices. You must also start them at the lowest possible price you would sell it for. This is to protect sellers from lowball offers, and to protect buyers from feeling tricked into bidding more to reach some invented "reserve price". (Reserves are NOT allowed on the community. If you're caught using reserves, your sales permission may be revoked.)
Using the terminology "Auction", "Offer", or "OBO (Or Best Offer)"
● All three must have a set starting price.
● An auction has a set ending time. All bids must be higher than the starting price.
● An item up for offers also needs an end time, but the seller may potentially end it earlier than the end time, when they receive an offer they wish to accept. All offers must meet or exceed the starting price.
Example: Member X puts Pichu pokedoll up for offers starting at $10. Will take offers until May 5th.
A few members make offers. Member X can choose which one he wants to accept. Member Y offers $10. Member Z offers $15. And Member A offers to trade a Reshiram pokedoll.
Member X can choose any of those offers at any time, however, when the offers period is over, he must accept someone's offer, because the minimum offer was met.
● OBO means the seller will accept an offer lower than the starting price. If the starting price is offered at any time, the offers are considered over and the sale complete.
● Once you accept an offer, the item is sold. You cannot accept another offer even if someone else offers higher.
● Saying an item is $XX shipped means fees, handling, shipping is included unless clearly stated in a sellers rules. If you have any questions please ask the seller before committing.
End auctions on time
Do not provide an end time for your auctions and then change it suddenly. This is unfair to bidders and does not reflect well on you as a seller. Please be aware of the community wide auction extension rule that applies to all seller's community auctions -- scroll down for more information on this rule.
Only one reminder allowed
Each member is only allowed one "reminder post" for your auctions, best offers, store runs, Group Auctions etc. We do not need a reminder once a day for a week about the same items. This rule applies to a post whose sole purpose is a reminder, simple text reminders added to your posts are not limited.
Do not accept money for goods you do not have
There are two special cases where this is allowed. Please see the Group Auction Rules & Guidelines and store runs section below for more information on these exceptions.
Do not repeatedly post the same sales to the community
Either update your sales post or don’t update the community. No one wants to see the same ten items over and over. Only post your sales when you have made a dramatic change to stock or prices.
Ban non-paying buyers and bidders from your sales to avoid future problems
If a buyer consistently causes you drama, backs out of sales, is slow to pay or in general does not follow your sales rules, ban them from your sales or from GA's you run as well as leaving them a negative feedback. Also check a member's feedback before dealing with them if you have any suspicions. It is your right to ban anybody from your sales who does not follow your rules or has too many negatives.
All sales must abide by community rules
All sales posts advertised on the community must follow community rules, regardless of whether the sales are hosted off-site or directly on the community. You are not allowed to permit banned members to participate in your sales or auctions. If you do not agree with that, you do not get to advertise your personal sales on this community.
The 60-day rule
If your buyer does not receive their item within 60 days of payment and especially if you are difficult to contact, a Paypal dispute will be opened. To sellers: keep receipts and other proof of shipment (if possible) in case a buyer becomes suspicious, a dispute is opened or if you need to prove a package was “lost”. Please try and work with the seller before opening a paypal distpute, this should only be used as a very last resort.
Exceptions:
● If the buyer chose seamail, as this is the slowest form of shipping.
● If a natural disaster or strike is affecting the mail system.
● If the item in question is a custom-made item.
● Paypal provides a full 180 days of protection, please use this as a guideline
● This does not apply to Group Auctions
Group Auctions
This will be on a case by case basis as all group auction times are different. We would like you to first contact your GA hosts and then the moderators.
Paypal Disputes
In the event a paypal dispute is wrongly opened before the following conditions a temporary ban can occur. If this problem persists, a permanent ban will be placed on the user opening these disputes.
● If you have not contacted or responded to the seller
● If the package has not been given enough time to get to you (see the rule above for exceptions)
● If you open multiple disputes with different sellers
● If you have ignored the sellers rules (they are not responsible for lost packages)
Please remember our sellers go through a very long and intricate process to receive their sales permission. Each seller is approved by a moderator to be able to sell on this community and as such they have much more to lose by not shipping on time or shipping properly. A paypal dispute is a very big deal, it freezes the account of the receiver and all funds in that account. If multiple disputes are opened against an account it can be permanently shut down. Many people pay bills with their accounts and if you are willy-nilly opening these disputes without going through the proper steps it could put someone is serious financial trouble.
Keep your sales, auctions, offers and trades in order
This should be obvious. Buyers will leave negative feedback if they feel you are unreliable or untrustworthy. Keep good records, keep a clean sales post, be clear and be honest, make money and have fun!
Notify customers when items have been shipped
To make it easy for buyers to check if and when their items were sent, either edit your entire sales post once items have been shipped (include a date of shipping), or send individual comments to your buyers alerting them. A brand new community post is not required to alert buyers that items have shipped. Please choose one of the two options mentioned above.
Transactions through PMs
Approach with caution and deal with at your own risk. Since these transactions are private, they are not under jurisdiction of the community. Should any problems arise, the mod team will be unable to assist you since we were unable to see everything that has occurred. We strongly urge you to handle all transactions that involve money on the community, and not via private message.
Claims Posts
With the increase in the number of ways sellers can get things out of the country, the modteam has decided to put a cap on 'claims' posts (similar to group buys). A member can only have 2 of either claims or GA/GBs at a time.
Please also be courteous when it comes to claims. If a member has already posted a claim for a certain group of items wait 24 hours before posting your claims of the same thing.
● The exception to this rule is if there are multiple sets of something releasing on the same date and coming from the same site.
[ Link to Rules for Buyers ]
Have payment ready
If using Paypal, pay immediately. There are no excuses for this. Otherwise read seller’s rules about holds or paying with other methods (check, money order, concealed cash) and politely request the seller accommodate your circumstances.
Do not back out of a sale
Do not comment with intent to buy and later say “nevermind.” Do this and you will be banned. Keep in mind sellers are allowed to “ban” certain members from their personal sales.
Reply to sellers
If you asked for a shipping quote, a hold on an item, or specifically said you are going to purchase it, respond to the seller. Ignoring a seller is not a legit way to get out of acting responsible. Even if what you have to say is "No thanks" it is better than leaving the seller wondering.
Bid in auctions properly to avoid confusion
Make sure all of your bids in community auctions are a reply to the bid before yours. If your bid is not a reply to the previous bid, it will not count! If you are seen continuously placing last-second "sniping" bids on purpose, you will be warned.
Read sellers’s rules before commenting on sales
Sellers will get angry if it’s clear you aren’t following their rules and may refuse to sell to you.
Payment Plans
A payment plan is an agreement with a seller to pay for a purchase over a period of time. This is a courtesy the seller offers, and is a commonly used practice for very large purchases. However, we ask that you only use one payment plan at a time. Taking on more than that can lead to a huge financial stress for both parties.
● If you are caught opening multiple plans, the seller of the second plan has the option to leave negative feedback, and the transaction will be canceled.
● This rule is in place mainly because if you have additional funds, you should be putting them toward paying off your outstanding balance, instead of making more large purchases.
● Do not assume all sellers accept payment plans. If a seller accepts payment plans, these should be discussed before any commitments and/or before the auction end time.
[ Link to Beware of Bootlegs ]
These are our community guidelines designed to keep collectors safe from accidentally buying and/or promoting companies that willfully steal designs and mass produce fakes.
You may not post advertising, promoting, praising or endorsing any bootleg goods
We do not condone supporting companies that mass produce bootlegged copies or rejects of official merchandise. Please refer to our bootlegs guide in our Tutorial Archive for clarification as to what bootlegs are. You may sell bootleg items, as long as they are clearly labeled, only because the items are already purchased and no more money will be going back to the companies.
Having a bootleg in your collection is allowed, and you are allowed to have it in photos, but please do not do entire posts focusing solely on proven bootleg items in your collection. Likewise, please avoid pointing them out specifically in your collection updates, which could spark unwanted debate and drama. (What about "Mirage Plush"?)
Linking to a store that sells bootlegs counts as promoting that store, even if you only wish to confirm if they are bootlegs or not. It is okay to post an image to check if the item is a bootleg, but only if you have already done the preliminary checks:
● Are there dozens of the same item for sale across Ebay, etc?
● Are multiple sellers using the same stock image of this item?
● Is the item deformed looking?
● Is the seller located in China or Hong Kong?
Keep in mind not all bootlegs match everything in this checklist, and not every seller in China or Hong Kong is selling bootlegs. Many bootleg stores advertise their location as being the US, Australia etc., and some bootlegs do not look deformed in their stock image.
The sellers with the "12 Inch" plush are all bootleggers! Most patterns are copies of official plush, or stolen from custom artists and their customers, who were in some cases, from PKMNcollectors. Any post inquiring in any way about the "12 inch" plush will be deleted without warning, no matter how "cool and original" they may seem.
What are Mirage Plush? How do I tell them apart from bootlegs?
For detailed information, you can check this post or the Mirage Plush tag. In short, Mirage Plush:
● They are old (so far nothing beyond Gen II has been found), made at least a decade ago.
● They were not mass-produced (very few have ever been seen).
● They have unknown origins (probably unlicensed), but are company-made, with limited-info tush tag or none at all, and created by small/independent companies.
● They are created from a 100% unique pattern (not a reject or a copy of an existing product).
Bootlegs, in comparison:
● Are made of toys from any time period, and the most rampant are often copied from new items.
● Are a mass-produced copies and/or mass produced "factory rejects" (unlike a factory error item, which would be rare, factory rejects which are usually missing body parts are for some reason found in the thousands).
● They come from proven bootleggers. This can be proven easily by checking the seller's other items for sale, which will often be other mass produced copies and fakes of official products.
● They are copies and fakes of official products, not unique patterns or designs, and occasionally copies of custom artist's works.
[ Link to Special Notices ]
About PKMNcollectors feedback
Our feedback system is for PKMNcollectors transactions only. Please don't use our feedback system if a transaction took place through PMs, Storenvy, Etsy, etc. Any erroneous feedback that is left will be deleted by the mod staff.
About neutral and negative feedback
A neutral feedback is not a serious strike, but it will warn other members if someone's behavior was questionable during a transaction, without permanently scarring their record for what may have been a misunderstanding or an unavoidable personal situation. Neutral feedback should be used when:
● The item/payment was received but not in a reasonably timely manner (over a month but under three months).
● The item's packaging (on part of the seller, not the post office) or condition (as compared to how it was described) is questionable. Always talk to the seller about these situations before leaving a feedback.
● The seller/buyer's behavior was questionable, uncomfortable, impolite or annoying.
● The seller/buyer backed out of the deal at a very late stage (best determined on case by case basis).
A negative feedback is to be left when you feel ripped off or abused by a seller/buyer. They are a serious strike against a member and must only be used in extremely appropriate situations. Negative feedback should be used when:
● You never received your item or payment.
● More than three months passed before you received your item or payment (custom items usually excluded).
● The seller/buyer was extremely rude, pestering, lying, manipulating, etc.
About joining the community and membership requests
Our community uses a moderated membership system. You must have a LiveJournal account to become a member of the community. (We are currently unable to approve Facebook, Google, or other OpenID accounts.)
We ask that anyone who wishes to join this community comment here with their short introduction. Comments will be screened automatically for privacy, and this will afford us one preventative measure against those attempting to ban-hop. It is very, very rare for anyone to be banned from the community, and those who have been banned must rejoin through the proper channels (by contacting the moderators and fixing whatever resulted in the banning to begin with) rather than simply assume a new identity.
About customs and artwork
This is not an art community. You may only take commissions in which the buyer gets a physical piece of art (examples include keychains, sculptures, jewelry, paintings, plush). No digital art or icon commissions. poke_arts is a more suitable place for such things. Also the community has an art post every month called Sunday Art Corner, you are allowed to post any sort of art there!
Custom artists with sales permission may only post about their custom work twice a month unless you are hosting an auction for a commission slot or a finished item, in which case you may post once advertising the auction and again as a reminder, for a total of four (4) custom posts a month. Mixing your customs posts with your regular posts is not a loophole to get around this rule.
Custom artists without sales permission are only permitted to post about custom work that is part of your collection. Do not make "Look what I made!" posts to gauge interest in your products. You are not permitted to link to your deviantART, Etsy, plush shop etc unless you have sales permission.
About trading
You may trade once you have A) Sales permission or B) 10 positive feedbacks from the community (eBay feedback does not count). You may trade via PM with people, however, PMs are private and not under the jurisdiction of the community and could be very risky. Do not trade with anybody you don't know.
About price checks
Price check posts are not permitted on the community. Please use our " Price Check Guide" for help on performing your own price checks. "Feeler" posts or posts gauging interest in items you have for sale are also not allowed. If you have sales permission, put an item up for sale or auction. If people are interested, they will buy/bid.
About middlemen
● There are dozens of deputy services for bidding on Yahoo!Japan. If you wish to bid or buy on Yahoo!Japan, please sign up for one of them. You may not ask someone on the community to use their deputy service for you. This rule only applies to Yahoo!Japan.
● Do not post asking for "someone in Japan" to do special favors or store runs for you. Members who are in Japan are not there for your convenience and not everyone enjoys doing free errands for random people. If a member in Japan is willing to sell Pokemon goods, or has permission to do a store run, they will post about it.
● You are allowed to make a post requesting a middleman from a country that isn't Japan, as there are no deputies available or fees involved. These posts must be deleted once a middleman has been found.
About current stock at Epcot/Nintendo World posts
Posts asking "What's the current stock at Epcot/Nintendo World?" are not allowed. You are able to check the stock at these locations by calling the stores directly.
Nintendo World: (646) 459-0800
Mitsukoshi (Epcot): (407) 827-8513
About automatic auction extensions
If a bid is placed within the last five minutes of an auction, the bidding will extend an extra five minutes and continue to extend until an entire five minutes has passed with no bids. This extension occurs automatically; no notices need to be left by a moderator or seller.
Example: Pikachu is bidding on an item that ends at 10:00 PM. He places a bid at 9:56PM, meaning the auto snipe rule is in place. That means the auction will end at 10:05PM unless another bid is placed.
Swablu comes in and places another bid at 10:01PM, so the auction gets extended again to 10:06PM.
About Japan pick-ups
At this time, unless you permanently reside in Japan, the mod team will review Japan pick up requests on a case by case basis. If you are on vacation, a short term trip, or a temporary teacher (less than 1 year), you will not be approved. This does not mean you can't sell items from your Japan trips, we definitely encourage this!
About store runs/pick-ups
A store run/pick-up (the same thing) is when a member goes to a store to bring back items requested by other members.
To do a pickup in your area, you do not need to obtain special permission beyond sales permission.
● Pickups for items from "local comic book stores" or similar will require photos of the actual stock. These stores are usually only stocked with bootleg items.
To do a pickup while on vacation but still in your own country, please contact areica96 via email, blur.inferno[@]gmail.com to obtain permission.
● Include information such as the length of your visit and method of travel.
● Pickups while on vacation are limited to the amount of items that can comfortably be taken home.
To do a pickup while on vacation/temporarily staying in a foreign country, please contact areica96 via email, blur.inferno[@]gmail.com to obtain permission.
● Keep in mind, most requests to do pickups while on vacation abroad will be turned down automatically.*
● Include information such as the length of your stay and method of travel.
If staying longer-term (study abroad, etc), please include the following in your request:
● Are you able to speak and understand the native language?
● How do you plan to calculate postage? Please include an example shipping quote for an example order.
● Have you located a post office and place to purchase packaging supplies?
If a pickup while abroad is approved, a maximum of ten slots (ten customers) may be taken. If the stay is long term and the first pickup receives good feedback and goes smoothly, approval to increase number of slots can be obtained. Permission to do a pickup abroad must be received for each new pickup. If the stay abroad is a year+, a more permanent pickup permission can be discussed after the first three successful pickups.
* The reason for this is that many vacations do not last beyond 2-3 weeks, and based on past experiences we no longer feel it is a good idea to allow pickups to be done within a week or two of having landed in a foreign country. Many have also voiced that while they expected a pickup would be a fun experience during their vacation, it ended up being very hard work that took up most of their time abroad, and in a few cases the pickup was not completed for months/years due to confusion and lack of time.
Once you have permission to do a store run/pick-up...
● You may take payment as you choose (before, after, or in 2 parts), but no matter how payment is taken: The 35 day rule still applies. That means you cannot begin accepting money for an item that is not coming out for many months! The items must be coming out within three weeks of when you take payments.
● Please do not try to maintain more than two ACTIVE store run/pick ups at one time. Note that this only applies to pickups actively collecting money at the time. The limitation does not apply to letting people claim slots months ahead of time with no money being collected yet.
● Special permission for whatever reason to take deposits or payments beyond a month early must be acquired before attempting it. Please contact areica96 to obtain special permission. This is an extremely rare circumstance and certain agreements must be made and adhered to. This permission will be lost if the agreement is broken or abused.
● If you are doing a store run at a popular location (i.e., Pokemon Center kiosk) or for a popular item, please be courteous and do not post your own store run immediately after someone else posts a similar one. It would be best to wait until a different day if this is the case so everyone has a chance -- use common courtesy.
[ Link to Tutorials ]
A comprehensive list to all of our guides is available at the PKMNCollectors Tutorial Archive.
Please click here for tutorials on how to use LiveJournal, identifying and avoiding bootlegs, guides on how to use middleman services, caring for your collection, Paypal disputes, guides to buying and selling on the community, and more. Here are links to some of our most helpful guides:
●◎ New Member's Guide to PKMNCollectors
●◎ Guide to Pokemon Collecting!
●◎ How do to LJ cuts!
●◎ Noppin Tutorial!
●◎ SMJ Tutorial!
●◎ Price Check Guide!
●◎ Y!J Searching Tutorial!
●◎ What is a "Mirage Plush"?
[ Link to Official Community Tags ]
Anyone can add missing tags from any member's post by clicking this button in a post! Please do!
The Pokemon's Name! (currently this links to Pikachu. Just replace "pikachu" in the URL with the Pokemon you want!) You can include a tag that is the name of the Pokemon(s) included in your post. If you have 40 different Pokemon in one shot, pick the main ones for the tag.
Tags for Pokemon Merchandise
info - for info and news on upcoming and new merchandise
plush - for all other plush posts
figures - for anything that is a figure
charms - for about metal charms
cards - for TCG and other card related things
games - for game or DS related merchandise (please note game strategy or game discussion in general is off topic)
people - for posts focusing on the human characters of the Pokemon franchise
books - for manga, doujinshi, or other bound items
stamps - for posts containing any kind of stamps
settei - for posts about settei and official Pokemon production art
zukan - for posts focusing on 1/40 scale zukan figures
kids - for posts focusing on Pokemon kids
metal figures - for posts about metal figures
custom - for any custom Pokemon plush, artwork, sculpture, commissions etc
mpc - for posts focusing on the My Pokemon Collection plush line
pokedolls - for posts with Pokedolls and/or Pokedoll related merchandise, info etc
canvas - for posts featuring the Pokemon Center canvas plush line
mirage plush - or any post pertaining to the mysteries of the mirage plushies
bell plush - for posts focusing on the bell plush series
jakks - for posts with toys and goods by American company Jakks Pacific
tomy - for posts with toys and goods by Japanese company Takara Tomy
pokecen - for posts with toys and goods by the Pokemon Center
banpresto - for posts with toys and goods by the Japanese UFO catcher company Banpresto
ensky - for posts with toys and goods by Ensky, including keshipoke, retsuden stamps, amada stickers etc...
toy factory - for posts about Toy Factory plush
Tags for the Community
modpost - use this tag to search for posts by moderators
collection - for when you post your collection photos and updates
sales - for your sales and pick ups posts
auctions - for your personal auctions you are running on the community, eBay etc
trading - for posts about trading items with other members
group auction - for Group Auctions
group buy - for Group Buys
payments - to help find posts about payments and totals
wanted - for your wanted list or posts about items you are searching for
contest - this tag will be used when there is a contest going or as a way to archive past contest entries)
introductions - for your introduction/first post
events - for community activities and events that promote interaction between members, including memes, surveys, gift exchanges, meet-ups, official Pokemon tours, livestreaming, etc...
gen5 - Used for posts about Gen V before we knew the English names. Don't use it anymore!
gen6 - Used for posts about Gen VI before we knew the English names. Don't use it anymore!