STAFF at Toys R Us have been accused of hoarding this year’s must-have toy and reselling it at a profit.

Hatchimals, which retail for $79 and are out of stock at major retailers, are being sold on eBay and Gumtree for up to $500 as desperate parents hunt for last-minute gifts.

The furry creatures, which emerge from an egg and grow before your eyes, are the top-selling toy this Christmas around the world.

Savvy — and some would claim exploitative — sellers have been making thousands in the grey market trade.

Scores of Australian sellers have listed the items on eBay and Gumtree, to the disgust of parents left with no choice but to pay the inflated price.

Toys R Us is investigating claims its staff are among the resellers, after a customer claimed to have knowledge of the practice.

Mum Kirsty Rogers complained on the Toys R Us Australia Facebook page: “Why is it that Toys R Us Staff are selling the impossible-to-get toy of the year, Hatchimals, on eBay and Gumtree for highly inflated prices? I’m all for staff getting first option to purchase but buying multiple of them for the sheer purpose of making a profit is disgusting.”

Hatchimals advert for Toys-R-Us Hatchimals advert for Toys-R-Us

The retailer’s social media team responded that “we’re expecting more stock around February but it has not yet been confirmed”.

Karen Taylor, general manager for merchandise and toy marketing, said such behaviour would be in breach of Toys R Us’ “acceptable use” policy relating to staff purchases.

“We’ve seen no evidence of this practice but we’ll continue to investigate,” Ms Taylor told news.com.au.

Toys R Us has also received a stream of complaints about late deliveries, missing orders and the ultimate Santa fail — gifts delivered, unwrapped, before children’s eyes.

“My four-year-old’s present he is longing for was just dropped at the door while I was in the shower and not being in a bag or anything he has now seen it,” mum Megan Creelman wrote.

“I would just like to thank you guys for ruining my Christmas surprise and I now can’t afford another ‘wow’ item for him, very disappointed.”

Another disgruntled mum, Bec Scott, wrote: “Thanks for delivering my nine-year-old son’s Christmas gift directly to him today. The $300 scooter wasted as you couldn’t even wrap it. Nice work.”

RESELLERS MAKE $20,000 IN TWO MONTHS

Brothers Mike and Stan Zappa in the United States were among the first to cash in on the Hatchimals trend, buying $6850 ($US5000) worth of the toys back in October.

They sold out of their stockpile a week ago, making a profit of $20,540 ($US15,000) after donating 10 Hatchimals to needy families.

It's #BLACKFRIDAY! Don't be left out in the cold. No line, no stress! #Hatchimals AVAILABLE. All colors. Safe and easy PayPal transaction. pic.twitter.com/16Lazm8aIk — Mike Zappa ⚓️ (@MikeZappa) November 25, 2016

WHEN STOCKPILING BACKFIRES

Not everyone who jumped on the Hatchimals trend was a winner.

Best-selling author Sara Gruen thought she was onto a sure-fire money-spinner when she bought 156 of the toys for more than $31,470 ($US23,000)— at an already inflated price — with the aim of reselling them to raise cash to help Chuck Murdoch, a man she believes was wrongly convicted of murder.

But Ms Gruen was not prepared for the eBay crackdown that would bring her scheme undone.

“When I tried to list the toys back on eBay, I learned that the online sales site had initiated a new rule — no more than three auctions a week for Hatchimals,” she said in a statement. “Fearing a near-total loss, I looked for other channels.”

After setting up a store on Shopify, she put the word out on social media and in the local paper, PhillyVoice.

“That’s where the trouble began,” Ms Gruen said. “There followed a torrent of accusations and recriminations, personal and graphic threats and incitements to physical violence — all over the entirely false notion that I had denied parents the presents they needed to give their children for Christmas.”

Outraged parents posted to the author’s Facebook page, accusing her of trying to rip them off and suggesting she should “change your last name from Gruen to Grinch”.

“I don’t care what your purpose is for selling the Hatchimals, it’s wrong!” one mother wrote.

“People who can barely afford $50 to buy one for their child and you raise the price up to an unrealistic amount ... Shame on you!”

But Ms Gruen defended her operation, saying that anyone who bought from her online store “knew they were paying a premium to support my cause” and that others “could have bought a Hatchimal for less at any time on eBay, and still can”.

In the end, she said, she made enough to cover about three per cent of the costs she’d accrued on helping build a legal case to free the man she refers to as “unlucky Chuck”, who was “still waking up in prison, where he’ll spend another Christmas for something everybody who’s looked seriously at the case knows he didn’t do”.

In good news for last-minute shoppers, some Australian resellers are dropping the Buy It Now price for Hatchimals to around $150 as Christmas approaches. There could be some real bargains around once Boxing Day arrives.

dana.mccauley@news.com.au