Pranceatron Toys FAQ


Buyers

How do I order?
How do I pay, and in what currency?
Can I have a discount?
What will the shipping costs be?

General FAQ

Who or what is Pranceatron Toys?
Do you trade?
What does it mean when an item says it's on hold, or a two day hold?
What are updates and what does newly listed mean?
I am looking for a specific toy that you don't have. Can you help?
What's the mailing list about?  
What can you tell me about the quality of your merchandise?

Technical questions

I'm having problems viewing the thumbnails/with the site.
I emailed you and I haven't got a reply.
Why isn't your site more automated? (Automatic Checkout/shipping etc)


History
Pranceatron Toys is a small Canadian, Internet-based toy collectibles selling site, run by me, an 80's toy collector and aficionado.  The quest for toys is a constant process of buying, upgrading, and needing to liquidate extras or items I no longer "need."  Early toy message boards provided me with contacts to other toy fans looking to trade, buy and sell their toys, and so sometime in 1997 or 1998, I started a tiny "trade for Jem only" list.  It wasn't long before the "trade only" aspect was scrapped and I began to simply sell my toys outright.  Ebay was becoming a phenomenon, and I sold a bit through them as well as my own site for several years.  Around 2005, as eBay began their process of rooting out the "mom and pop"-style sellers in favour of big liquidators, I started to feel less welcome on there, so now I do the vast majority of my business through this site.

Pranceatron Toys side projects  
The modest income that Pranceatron Toys generates allows me to keep up my own collections.  Jem Vs Pranceatron is the result of my main obsession, which led to my collection of many, many other toylines that are too diverse to get into here, but feel free to look into my collection web album (please note these items are not for sale) which is only a tiny sampling of the vastness of my obsession!  
As many of the toy lines I enjoy are obscure, and even the Internet has little to no resources on them, my quest for information manifested itself into my toy advertising and catalogue collection, which again is far from complete, but I'm trying to keep it updated with new material as often as I can.  It is my hope to help out fledgling fans and websites get accurate information on their toy lines.  I hate watermarks and refuse to brand other people's images with my name, but voluntary credit from webmasters is nice gesture to credit the work of scanning and making it available, just call me Pranceatron!  

Pranceatron's personal life
For curiosity's sake I will acknowledge that I am female, I live in Canada and I was born in the 70's, and that's about all the world at large needs to know about me!   Suffice to say, toys take up a lot of my time, but I do have several other projects and interests - mostly involving music and art - which sometimes require me to travel.   This can affect mailing of packages and answering emails so I do my best to do toy updates when I'll be home long enough to deal with the business and keep my page updated with notices as to when I'll be away from my home.

Buyer Info

How do I pay, and in what currency?
Pranceatron Toys is listed in US funds.  I accept either US or Canadian funds for payment, Paypal or money orders. See also Ordering Information.

What does it mean when an item says it's on hold, or a two day hold?

To the left is an example of an item on a Two Day Hold.  It is highlighted in amber and has the notation "Two Day Hold" in the far right box. Items with this designation have been requested by a potential buyer who has not yet signified that their order is confirmed - usually to accept or deny the shipping costs. Sometimes due to schedules the buyer or myself may require longer than the two day waiting period, or two consecutive buyers will request an item and I need to go through two buyers before either placing the item on hold or back into the available section.  I don't mind requests about items in the two-day hold section, but I can't promise that they will ultimately become available again within two days.  
To the left is an example of an item on hold.  It's usually placed at the bottom of the page, highlighted in red and has the notation "On Hold" in the far right box.
Items with this designation have been requested by a buyer who has approved the total purchase price with shipping costs and is pending payment.  The item will be removed when payment is received.  Sometimes an item will remain on hold for a really long time - usually in cases of a trade, but I generally try not to keep items on hold for more than a month.

See Ordering Information for more.

What are updates and what does newly listed mean?

I am constantly acquiring new items for Pranceatron Toys. Rather than putting up a few things every day, I typically put up a few hundred things every couple of months, which is much more efficient, shipping-wise and notification-wise for myself and my customers.  When I do have an update, I send out notifications via my mailing list, then blogs and various message boards. Items on the page with the yellow 'Newly Listed" designation are just that - items that have been put on the page since the most recent update.  Some things can go quickly, so my advice is if you do want a large order, but have a specific item that you really want, is to send a quick email stating which item you must have and follow up later with other items.  I try as best I can to get the hold notifications up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment!

What can you tell me about the quality of your merchandise?

The vast majority of items I have for sale have already been through at least one childhood and as such are not usually in perfect shape.  Unless it's a bargain bin item and explicitly noted otherwise, everything I sell goes through a process of washing/brushing/sprucing up before sale.  While I'm not a restorer per se,  I take pride in what I sell and I want it to be in the best shape it can be when it gets to you.  Some things like pen marks, cut hair and other more permanent flaws I can't do much about will always be noted in the description.  While I can't vouch for the entire history of everything I sell, my home is smoke free and I discourage purchasing anything that smells of smoke.  Of course I am human and I can miss something so if you think your item is not as good as I described it, let me know and we'll work something out!

What will the shipping be?

I charge the exact shipping cost that Canadapost quotes me, so every order must be personally weighed before I can get an accurate shipping quote out.   It is also not uncommon for me to make a note in order requests if an order is just slightly over a specific weight category, possibly making it unnecessarily expensive.  I know what a joy killer shipping costs are so I try my hardest to find the least expensive safe way to ship to you, and will return any shipping overcharges.  
I realize that Canadapost is expensive and it's not uncommon for people to cancel orders based on their high prices.  I really do not take any personal offense if an order has to be aborted because of shipping costs - that's just the way it is!   Now that I've sufficiently scared you... some examples of Canadapost shipping rates can be found here.

I am looking for a specific toy that you don't have. Can you help?

Generally speaking I can't keep track of specific want lists, but you are free to keep track of my updates if you wish.  I'm always up for a challenge too, so if it's something really unusual feel free to send a picture or information along and I'll keep my eye open during my travels, but I can't promise I'll get back to you specifically if I do find it - it's just too difficult to keep up with piles and piles of want lists that are always changing, sorry!   I also have compiled some links to pages similar to mine which may help.

Technical Info

I'm having problems with the thumbnails.
Refreshing your browser will be the answer in most cases.  It should be noted that when I update my page, the thumbnails are always a little behind -will appear as broken images for a minute or two- and occasionally can be scrambled due to the script not matching properly with the html.  If there's any question about what the item looks like, the "photo" text link should be the more accurate one - and hopefully I'll have noticed it and corrected it in the meantime.  It's still a relatively new system for me so I'm still learning a few of the curves.  Feel free to email me with specific problems you may have, especially if the problem persists for more than a day or so.

I emailed you and I haven't got a reply.
I do my best to answer emails at least daily.  Occasionally life intrudes and I need a bit of time, or I may be on a trip as I do travel a fair amount, in which case there should be a notation on my home page (blog feed on left column).  Another possible reason is that hotmail now has built in junk filters that I have to manually check through their site.  I try to check these at least weekly.  If it's been more than a few days feel free to try emailing me again!  Even if it's a question about an item that's sold or whatever, I will reply!  

Why isn't your site more professional/automated? (Automatic Checkout/shipping etc)
OK, no one has asked this question but I want to just make a note of the fact that I am a toy collector first, webmaster (well, webjack?  Is that a word?) webpage-making-person second or third or fourth so I acknowledge I'm not the most qualified person to run a website.  It's my aim to make it as clean and intuitive as possible which pretty much precludes most third party software that wants to junk it all up with advertisements and frames.  I can't offer automated shipping simply because it can't possibly be accurate enough - I don't sell many identically-weighted products - and the end result would simply be overcharging.  Maybe someday I'll take some kind of computer class or something ;) I am thinking about it but the toys come first!



























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