How To Find…
The following is an e-book that we put together that and sold for finding the TMX Elmo in the rush to find them last year, please read and take all the advice you can to aid you in finding this years hot toy! (but please refrain from reselling this freebie)
Finding Your TMX Elmo
As you are obviously aware by now the next “big thing” has hit, and like many people you are caught in the throws of panicked parents who are worried that they will disappoint, this holiday season. Don’t start panicking yet because there are plenty of TMX Elmo’s to be had, it’s just a matter of knowing where to go to get yours. There are many “tricks” and “secrets” that are all public knowledge but yet no one knows where to go to find them or even where to begin, and so we have put together this guide for you with all of the hints and tricks of the trade in hopes that you too will be able to find a T.M.X Elmo for your kids this Holiday season.
You will more than likely begin your hunt where everyone else did too, strolling casually down the aisle of your local Wal-Mart on a Saturday or Sunday. I can promise you that there are none to be had. Your local Wal-Mart and like stores WILL have the T.M.X Elmo’s in stock; however, the time of day is a HUGE factor in whether or not you will be lucky enough to snag one.
First let us begin with a list of stores where you should begin looking for your Elmo T.M.X. There are MANY locations that carry them; however catching them in time is the key to your success. The below stores have been known to carry Elmo’s in stock and you should call each of them daily to find out when they will be getting their Elmo’s and don’t be afraid to ask them to hold one or two for you, they may refuse but it never hurts to ask! :
Target
Kohl’s
Kmart
Sam’s Club
BJ’s Warehouse
Eckerd’s
Grocery stores
Toys R Us
Sears
JC Penney
Macy’s
Footlocker
Some smaller locally owned toy stores
Some of these stores and locations will raise your eyebrow, however they all have sections for toys, whether you are aware of it or not, and they all have or plan to have T.M.X Elmo’s in stock for the holidays!
When looking for your Elmo in a local Wal-Mart it is a necessity to find out when they stock their shelves. Since all Wal-Mart locations are different, some being 24 hr stores, some not, and all having different schedules you will need to do your schedule setting yourself. Take a few days before you begin your serious looking to go down to your Wal-Mart at different hours to see when they begin pulling out their pallets of stock. You have seen the pallets we’re talking of, they usually block aisles right before Wal-Mart closes up or later at night in the 24 hr stores. It took us about a week to find our local Wal-Mart’s schedules. We have two 24 hr Wal-Mart’s locally, one that begins stocking its shelves at 11pm and one that begins at 11:30pm. This helps us tremendously since they’re not too far apart and it gives us time to run to both stores while they still have the pallets of new merchandise on the floor. You want to get there while the pallets are still full and have merchandise on them, you do not want the items to make it to the shelves because once these babies are out of the brown box that they come in they WILL be flying off the shelves. The Elmo TMX doll is packed in a generic brown box with a purple stripe around it that says “toys” and where the item description is on the side of the box it says “Sesame Street TMX” and also has a black logo that says “Fisher Price” on it. Do not bother looking for the word “Elmo” you will not see it. You will, however, find tons of these brown boxes with purple stripes on them and you will have to really examine each pallet that sits between the aisles to find one that says “Sesame Street TMX” on it. When you find one take the whole brown box and put it in your cart. This brown box contains THREE Elmo TMX dolls. If you find more and want more put those in your cart too. The checkout staff can cut open the brown box for you; else you can do it yourself using your keys.
NOW many Wal-Mart’s are enforcing a 1 per person rule or a 2 per person rule, IF you are looking for more and there is not an option of taking someone else with you grab as many as you want and place them in your cart anyway. Often times because the items have not yet made it on to the shelf this rule does not apply. Even if this rule is in effect often times your check out staff will have no idea and will ring them all up for you anyway.
IF you do not manage to find any in the packing pallets between aisles do a run around the toy section to make sure they have not JUST been put out, sometimes this is the case and especially in quiet towns and quiet stores you may get lucky and find yourself an Elmo TMX. Make sure you remember to check overhead shelves for excess Elmo’s, it’s a long shot but sometimes you will find a few extra sitting up there!
If your Wal-Mart isn’t a 24 hr store you will want to make sure you get to the store right before they open in order to be the first one in to examine the freshly stocked shelves. Staff do tend to be stricter on purchase rules during the day shifts though so if there is a one per person rule expect it to be enforced, however, never be afraid to try your luck.
You can often times find out when new shipments of Elmo T.M.X are expected in by calling all of the stores listed above. We call these stores daily to check if they have or are expecting a shipment soon. Don’t forget to ask when they will be stocking the Elmo’s on the shelves; they are not always put out as soon as they come in! We call our local Wal-Mart’s daily. In fact every morning we sit down with our list of local stores that have previously carried Elmo’s and call each of them to ask about the Elmo status! Always make sure when you’re calling the larger stores that you ask to speak with the toy department representative, they are often times a lot more knowledgeable of the Elmo status. You can also drop in to these stores and ask a toy representative, we took this route and found it to be a lot more personable. When staff gets to know your face you will find that they become a lot more personable and helpful to you.
Once you have found out when the toys are expected in stock you will follow the plan above and grab your Elmo’s before they hit the shelves!
Now the rest of the list of stores:
Target – They usually stock their shelves overnight, however sometimes if you drop by right before they close you will find the new stock of Elmo’s on the shelves and manage to grab a few! If you don’t catch them the night before drop by right before they open in the morning and you will be first in line to get the newly stocked Elmo’s.
Kohl’s – Not many people expect Kohl’s to carry Elmo T.M.X because they don’t have an official toy department, however, you can drop in to the store and go back behind the children’s clothes section. Here you will find a small wall of toys. You are more likely to get lucky here than other stores during the daytime because not many people know of Kohl’s toy section of the store.
Kmart – Kmart runs much the same way as Wal-Mart so use the Wal-Mart method of stalking your Elmo toy!
Sam’s Club – Word on the grapevine is that Sam’s Club is getting ready to stock their shelves with Elmo’s for the
BJ’s Warehouse – BJ’s runs the exact same way as Sam’s!
Eckerd’s – No one expects Eckerd’s or other drug stores to carry Elmo, however they do get a small stock of them for their toy section on and off. Local drug stores are hit and miss but it never hurts to drop in and take a look around. Ask staff if and when their stock will be in and on the shelves! If your drug store is going to get them stocked you will be fortunate in knowing because no one expects a drug store to carry the hottest Christmas toy!
Grocery stores – Grocery stores are the exact same way as your Eckerd’s, keep your eyes out here on overhead shelves and Christmas displays!!
KB Toys – KB Toys is the only store we have found that is still taking pre-orders. Call your local KB Toys and if they don’t have any in stock ask to have your name put on their waiting list. They have also been known to allow one person to order for family members too as long as you have another name and address. You will be allowed to go and pick up all of the toys you preordered with your receipt so the other family members will not have to be present at the pickup. KB Toys is telling people on their waiting list that they cannot guarantee Elmo in stock before Christmas, however, it is rumored that they will receive a rather substantial shipment prior to Black Friday so get your name on that list!
Toys R Us – Toys R Us get multiple shipments a week, depending on their location. Big city stores tend to get more shipments than small town stores but it seems to be a trend that each Toys R Us store gets at least one to two shipments a week with bigger stores getting as many as three shipments! Toys R Us does stock their shelves over night so you’ll have to be up really early for these babies! They also will tell you when they’re expecting their shipments if you call and ask every morning. Remember to always be polite when calling though, these people don’t really have to tell you anything and being that you’re calling every single day you don’t want to upset them!
Sears – Sears are extremely helpful when you call them and inquire about their Elmo dolls, they have always let us know when they expect more and when they will come in.
JC Penney – JC Penney is much like Sears; however, we have not found them to be as helpful when we call it’s really a hit or miss.
Macy’s – Macy’s falls in the same category as JC Penney.
Footlocker – It has only been rumored that Footlocker will be carrying Elmo but it’s worth a shot to call in and ask!
Some smaller locally owned toy stores – These are the more mom and pop type stores and some you will find to be extremely helpful and they will go as far as taking your name down like KB Toys does or calling you when they have them in stock. Others will not be as helpful because they are simply run off their feet. Keep in mind though the smaller toy stores will not get as many Elmo’s in stock as your larger stores, however, more people will be checking the larger stores first or may not think to ask the smaller stores to keep them informed or take down their name on a waiting list.
NOW there are some of you who will not be able to or do not want to venture out in to the cold to track down your Christmas Elmo T.M.X so we now move on to internet shoppers!
#1 Warning – You DO NOT have to buy the Elmo T.M.X from EBay for $150 each; you can find them in stores you will just have to be a little more patient. There is nothing wrong with paying the extra money if you just want to get the hunt for Elmo over with but my guess is if you purchased this guide that is not what you want to do!
So where do we start. There are numerous websites that have the Elmo TMX listed, they are currently “Out Of Stock” however you can signup for an email alert on these sites and they will e-mail you as soon as Elmo TMX comes in to stock. These websites are listed below:
Other websites which do not offer that feature but still list the TMX Elmo are as follows:
FisherPrice.com
Walmart.com - walmart.com restocks every night at 3AM EST so this is the time to keep an eye out!
Target.com
Other stores which did list but no longer have Elmo listed for the moment
PBS.com
ToysRUs.Com
Other stores which are rumored to be have Elmo in stock soon!
Samsclub.com
Costco.com
You can keep track of online stores stock of Elmo by checking in with this site daily TMX Elmo Tracker
Just remember whenever you purchase your Elmo from an online store that you will not be guaranteed an Elmo until you have completed the checkout process so even if you have one in your cart you are NOT guaranteed it will still be there when you go to check out so speed is the key! If the online stores you are watching will allow you to, go ahead and set up an account and store your credit card info and shipping address so when the time comes that you actually find an Elmo in stock your checkout process will take seconds instead of minutes. If they do not allow you to set up an account just make sure you have your credit card handy whenever you are Elmo searching because chances are when you find one it will not be long until everybody else finds them too and then the race is on!
A lot of stores also have limits per household, such as Fisher-price’s website has a limit of 4 per household; Walmart.com has a limit of 1 per household, and so on. Make sure you pay attention to this number. If the limit is four and you want eight throw four in your cart and checkout immediately. After you have checked out try to order four more. Sometimes websites will limit your per household number of Elmo’s by your order, so try to make a second order for the other four you need, often times you will be able to do this and by making two orders of four you have completed your goal of eight Elmo’s!
Now you have all the places to keep an eye on you may also want to keep an ear open for gossip among other TMX Elmo hunters! You can keep an ear open on this forum plus this forum where other TMX Elmo hunters meet up and talk about their hunts and possible incoming shipments! These people spend their lives stalking new Elmo shipments and it’s extremely helpful to know the things that they know, as they say there is strength in numbers!
Now we focus on EBay. I know a lot of you have been keeping an eye on EBay and watching the prices skyrocket to unbelievable prices! Even the “wholesale” lots of TMX Elmo’s are going at ridiculous prices that are sure to get higher as the
The first EBay trick is to keep your eye out at strange times of day and avoid weekends when anxious parents are sitting at home watching auctions. Your best bet is to watch auctions during the week at extreme hours of the day such as 3-5 am. You will notice the price per Elmo on EBay goes down during the week and up during the weekend when more people are home watching the auctions. You have to think of times when less people are going to be around watching the auctions you have your eye on!
The second EBay trick is to look out for typoed auctions that people list too quickly without double checking. To do this you will want to do a rather broad EBay search including terms such as “Emlo” or “elmp”. Click here to do such a search
You can also look for auctions without the word Elmo even in them; click here to do such a search
To customize your own search go to EBay and search for the misspellings you want to search and at the end of the words you want to search type a minus sign and the word Elmo and elmos. An example of such a search would be typed in to the EBay search bar like this:
Emlo, -elmo, -elmos
Searching misspellings will bring up auctions that will have less people watching them and therefore increase your chances of getting your Elmo at a cheaper price.
Whatever you do, when buying from EBay make sure you ALWAYS check the feedback of the person you are buying from. If they have negative feedback check why, if someone has their feedback turned off so you cannot see any of their feedback there is a good chance that you do not want to buy from the particular seller as they have something to hide. You also need to make sure that the Elmo you want to bid on is an English speaking Elmo if that is what you are looking for, some auctions will offer French or Spanish speaking Elmo’s but make sure that the fact that it’s a foreign speaking Elmo is in small print. ALWAYS DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK YOUR AUCTION BEFORE YOU BID!
And one last tidbit…keep your eyes open on Black Friday! BUT don’t stop looking until then, different stores in different states are still getting small Elmo shipments in weekly, even every other day so be persistent! It is rumored that Black Friday is bringing in guaranteed shipments of approximately 15 Elmo’s per Walmart store AT LEAST so make sure you get in line earlier than normal for your Black Friday Elmo’s!
Well, we must now send you on to your Elmo hunt! Good luck our fellow Elmo hunters, have fun and most of all be patient! It can take up to two weeks to get your hunting schedule down to an art so don’t give up hope, just keep your eyes and ears open at all times! And remember as frustrating as it can be to get your hands on your very own Elmo you MUST remember your manners, you’ll get a lot more help from employees and staff by just being polite!
