Current Events > Scalper:''It's not greed... Its the knowledge to know what to buy to make money'

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/4/2/AAPw6aAAE4Y2.jpg

Bro, just say you're greedy

this is called "arbitrage"

Scalping is just basic capitalism.

"A fool and his money is soon parted" is their motto.
Refuse to buy from them and they become the fool.

It's not lust for money, it's just I want MORE money and I want it really easily and I want it now.

"we are called resellers btw" rofl what a bitch ass scalper

Its not theft. Its just taking something thats not yours without permission and not getting caught.

If they knew other people wouldn't pay over MSRP then they would have no reason to "resell" in the first place. Obviously there is a market for it.

Why would it be lust? Lol

archizzy posted...

If they knew other people wouldn't pay over MSRP then they would have no reason to "resell" in the first place. Obviously there is a market for it.

Because scalpers buy up everything so it becomes nearly impossible to find the thing at MSRP.

Smashingpmkns posted...

Why would it be lust? Lol

moneyboners

Tmaster148 posted...

Because scalpers buy up everything so it becomes nearly impossible to find the thing at MSRP.

this

if bots didnt ruin the market, then its fair

but re-sellers typically cheated to get it

People hate Scalpers, but literally put most Capitalists on a pedestal, when they do the exact same thing. Cognitive dissonance to the max, baby!

However, when you realize that "they" control the narrative, it's no wonder that's the case.

archizzy posted...

If they knew other people wouldn't pay over MSRP then they would have no reason to "resell" in the first place. Obviously there is a market for it.

This argument would only work if "resellers" didn't influence the actual market. If it becomes literally impossible to buy at MSRP, like scalpers often cause, then that has an artificial impact on the market value, since people literally don't have any other choice.

Timmyjinkle posted...

People hate Scalpers, but literally put most Capitalists on a pedestal, when they do the exact same thing. Cognitive dissonance to the max, baby!

This doesn't happen. And I think you know it doesn't happen, which is why you fished out an old alt to post on, Mr. 1 AMP.

StealThisSheen posted...

This doesn't happen. And I think you know it doesn't happen, which is why you fished out an old alt to post on.

The bourgeoisie scalp the proletariat's labor, every minute of every hour, of everyday of every year and you DARE to be incensed by someone mentioning that it's doublethink to hate scalping but not capitalism itself?

Timmyjinkle posted...

The bourgeoisie scalp the proletariat's labor, every minute of every hour, of everyday of every year and you DARE to be incensed by someone mentioning that it's doublethink to hate scalping but not capitalism itself?

No. I said people who hate scalping also, generally, have issues with capitalism. You pretty much never find somebody who hates scalping but loves capitalism. You're attempting to create a boogeyman that doesn't exist.

Timmyjinkle posted...

People hate Scalpers, but literally put most Capitalists on a pedestal, when they do the exact same thing. Cognitive dissonance to the max, baby!

Scalpers deal in impatience and FOMO, while capitalism lives for the long tail.
A capitalist that goes short-term, doesn't remain a capitalist for very long. Sometimes that is done intentionally, such as Sears.

StealThisSheen posted...

This argument would only work if "resellers" didn't influence the actual market. If it becomes literally impossible to buy at MSRP, like scalpers often cause, then that has an artificial impact on the market value, since people literally don't have any other choice.

If you need to purchase right then without waiting sure. But I will always simply wait no matter how much money I have or how long it takes. I didn't buy my PS5 until Spring of this year because that was the first time that without any extra effort at all I could just walk into a retail store and buy off the shelf in my local area.

So it definitely took awhile, but if everyone had my attitude then scalpers never would have been snapping them up and profiting so much from ridiculous prices. If they 100% without a doubt KNEW people wouldn't pay above normal retail prices they wouldn't snap up inventory and impact the market.

But what other people choose to do with their money is their business.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Scalpers deal in impatience and FOMO, while capitalism lives for the long tail.
A capitalist that goes short-term, doesn't remain a capitalist for very long.

Short-term, isn't that what the stock market is?

Avirosb posted...

Short-term, isn't that what the stock market is?

...which is essentially stock scalping.
We saw that with Gamestop and AMC.

archizzy posted...

If you need to purchase right then without waiting sure. But I will always simply wait no matter how much money I have or how long it takes. I didn't buy my PS5 until Spring of this year because that was the first time that without any extra effort at all I could just walk into a retail store and buy off the shelf in my local area.

So it definitely took awhile, but if everyone had my attitude then scalpers never would have been snapping them up and profiting so much from ridiculous prices. If they 100% without a doubt KNEW people wouldn't pay above normal retail prices they wouldn't snap up inventory and impact the market.

But what other people choose to do with their money is their business.

The issue is that, in many cases, restocks simply don't happen, which means the scalpers quite literally dictate the market. Look at things like Amiibos, for example. Especially today, the initial sale is all that is ever produced. Thus, when scalpers buy them all up, they are directly influencing the market. When people CAN'T choose to wait, that's a problem.

Scalpers are just making money, using unfair tools (bots) to manipulate the market, to the benefit of not a single fucking person besides themselfes.

Scalpers are selling the service that they make the market worse.

That's something not even the average commercial bank is able to do, as long as they don't scam you with terrible interest rages.
Hell, I would place scamers even below the usual investment trader on a stock exchange.

it is greed obviously. I do think the narrative that scalping is particularly evil is kinda lolzy. They're buying up (typically) plastic toys that were made limited in the first place by the distributing company's production decisions.

Scalpers try to find the max price people are actually willing to pay for the goods, but that means the actual company could've just sold the stuff at that price. People ITT are mentioning you can't find stuff at MSRP. Then the MSRP is below market rate, and the Pokmon Company is making a mistake. If the original MSRP was set at a high price so that there were only as many genuine interested buyers as there was product, would that be considered as 'greedy' as scalping is? I don't think so, it'd just be 'normal', collector items are sold for absurd MSRPs often. Scalpers are hated because they're viewed as effectively "stealing" the good deal (MSRP below buyer's maximum price) from people not interested in selling the thing later. But then what entitles you to the good deal over the scalper?

It'd be another matter if the thing being scalped is a necessary good or life saving good (eg hand sanitizer in a pandemic). But Pokmon Van Gogh t shirts being scalped is pretty mild

Now in the case of using bots to bypass lottery style distribution systems against their terms of service, obviously that's unethical, maybe outright a crime.

StealThisSheen posted...

The issue is that, in many cases, restocks simply don't happen, which means the scalpers quite literally dictate the market. Look at things like Amiibos, for example. Especially today, the initial sale is all that is ever produced. Thus, when scalpers buy them all up, they are directly influencing the market. When people CAN'T choose to wait, that's a problem.

Fair enough, I was definitely thinking about it more from the lens of products that get restocked. Stuff like during the "chip shortage" consoles, GPU's, that sort of thing.

Doe posted...

it is greed obviously. I do think the narrative that scalping is particularly evil is kinda lolzy. They're buying up (typically) plastic toys that were made limited in the first place by the distributing company's production decisions.

You realize scalping exists far, far beyond "plastic toys," right. People scalped basic human necessities during COVID, for example. Ticket scalping has also always been a thing, and so on. This seems like an extremely narrow view of the problem.

archizzy posted...

Fair enough, I was definitely thinking about it more from the lens of products that get restocked. Stuff like during the "chip shortage" consoles, GPU's, that sort of thing.

Yeah, fair enough. It's easy to forget that scalping becomes a huge problem when something is of limited supply, period. This is why ticket scalping is an issue, for example. There's a limited, finite supply.

StealThisSheen posted...

You realize scalping exists far, far beyond "plastic toys," right. People scalped basic human necessities during COVID, for example. Ticket scalping has also always been a thing, and so on. This seems like an extremely narrow view of the problem.

If you read my full post you'll see I directly address how scalping life saving goods is wrong, since people's lives and health shouldn't be determined by their wealth.

The thing is though, scalping hand sanitizer isn't really what these conversations center around, is it? I remember some specific news stories during COVID about stuff like that, but in the OP post they're talking about Pokmon merchandise. Probably the most infamous scalped item in recent memory was the PS5.

Ticket scalping a concert, I don't see what's worse about it than a Pokmon Van gogh shirt or a PS5.

Doe posted...

If you read my full post you'll see I directly address how scalping life saving goods is wrong, since people's lives and health shouldn't be determined by their wealth.

The thing is though, scalping hand sanitizer isn't really what these conversations center around, is it? I remember some specific news stories during COVID about stuff like that, but in the OP post they're talking about Pokmon merchandise. Probably the most infamous scalped item in recent memory was the PS5.

Ticket scalping a concert, I don't see what's worse about it than a Pokmon Van gogh shirt or a PS5.

You don't see anything wrong with purposely forcing people to pay far beyond market price for a limited item, out of nothing but personal greed? Really?

Buying tickets from scalpers is even worse than buying plastic toys because you only get one use out of them.

Scalpers should be scalped.

Timmyjinkle posted...

People hate Scalpers, but literally put most Capitalists on a pedestal, when they do the exact same thing. Cognitive dissonance to the max, baby!

However, when you realize that "they" control the narrative, it's no wonder that's the case.

Capitalism is strictly Producer sells to Distributor* sells to Retailer sells to Consumer (*some retailers can afford to have their own distribution system, so they can buy straight from the producer). There is no "Reseller" entity in that equation because it is extortion pure and simple ("I bought out the retailer's entire stock, so if you want to have it, you'll have to pay me a grossly inflated price to get it from me").

people who defend scalping tend to be the same people who hate social programs and argue against things like universal healthcare so im not sure its worth arguing with them because theyre going to spread their cheeks for capitalism no matter what

StealThisSheen posted...

You don't see anything wrong with purposely forcing people to pay far beyond market price, out of nothing but personal greed? Really?

Not trying to be semantic, but scalped items are at market price. Nobody is forced to pay any price that any scalper chooses to list their bought product at. The fact people do buy from scalpers indicates the prices scalpers list the items at is closer to the market equilibrium rate (the price where the demand for it is equal to its supply) than the MSRP was.

My point is that if the Pokmon Company or Taylor Swift listed their toys or tickets at the same price scalpers would take them to, they'd still sell all of the supply. If that happened, would they be as 'wrong' as you consider scalpers to be?

Turbam posted...

Scalping is just basic capitalism.

Minus the fact that it isnt

Doe posted...

Not trying to be semantic, but scalped items are at market price. Nobody is forced to pay any price that any scalper chooses to list their bought product at. The fact people do buy from scalpers indicates the prices scalpers list the items at is closer to the market equilibrium rate (the price where the demand for it is equal to its supply) than the MSRP was.

Again, this ignores the fact that scalpers artificially set the price by taking advantage of limited supply, which is the entire problem. The fact that you're ignoring this tells me this isn't a discussion worth having, so... Good day, to you.

"it's totally not our fault that we buy up everything so no one else can buy any and sell it"

Questionmarktarius posted...

A capitalist that goes short-term, doesn't remain a capitalist for very long.

Big oil and AAA game publishers have done pretty well only thinking short term so far. Capitalism doesnt think in the long term. The only thing that matters is the next quarter. Anything that goes wrong after that no one could have predicted.

Paragon21XX posted...

Capitalism is strictly Producer sells to Distributor* sells to Retailer sells to Consumer

But what if the consumer can't afford the life-saving insulin?

Baha05 posted...

Minus the fact that it isnt

What the heck do you think capitalism is that scalping doesn't count for?

Guide posted...

What the heck do you think capitalism is that scalping doesn't count for?

The whole running a business and getting stock from a paid supplier versus buying stuff from other stores to sell back to people at jacked up prices.

StealThisSheen posted...

Again, this ignores the fact that scalpers artificially set the price by taking advantage of limited supply

But... the price of scarce resources is a directly a function of supply. That's how scarcity works.

What makes the scalper's price artificial and the MSRP organic? They're both just named prices. If people are still willing to buy the higher price, that just means the lower price was an inefficient business decision. Do you see what I'm saying?

There *does* exist a price where Pokmon Company could sell all of their stock but where scalpers would not make an effective profit. That price is around where scalpers are setting their price. If that price was the MSRP in the first place, then scalpers wouldn't be able to raise the price without finally turning off the buyers.

If you're thinking "the scalpers can just raise the price again", well no they can't, because whatever price scalpers were originally selling was already the max possible price. Otherwise scalpers would have named that price in the first place, since as you point out, they control the supply.

Basically, the only difference between the company MSRP and the scalper is that the scalper is willing to ask for the price people are actually willing to pay for it, while the MSRP for these items has been underpriced.

I have to assume Doe is a scalper, because that is... Quite a defense. Imagine arguing "Scalpers wouldn't be able to make money if the initial price was higher to begin with," and thinking it's a good argument.

Baha05 posted...

The whole running a business and getting stock from a paid supplier versus buying stuff from other stores to sell back to people at jacked up prices.

Not much difference between a business and a scalper when it comes to jacked up prices.

StealThisSheen posted...

I have to assume Doe is a scalper, because that is... Quite a defense. Imagine arguing "Scalpers wouldn't be able to make money if the initial price was higher to begin with," and thinking it's a good argument.

Scalpers wouldn't be able to make money if people weren't mad needy all the time.

Baha05 posted...

The whole running a business and getting stock from a paid supplier versus buying stuff from other stores to sell back to people at jacked up prices.

Running a business and getting stock from a paid supplier is a form of capitalism, but capitalism is not contingent upon running a business and getting stock from a paid supplier.

Never mind that there is no fundamental difference in your descriptions. A scalper and a business (at least the business model in your description) both pay a supplier in order to sell the stock they gain at higher prices.

StealThisSheen posted...

I have to assume Doe is a scalper, because that is... Quite a defense. Imagine arguing "Scalpers wouldn't be able to make money if the initial price was higher to begin with," and thinking it's a good argument.

That's literally the fundamental thing people are annoyed with about scalpers. Just a moment ago you said they "artificially" raised the price as if the merch the Pokmon Company pushes out is the state of nature. It's not, it's a profit business.

Doe posted...

That's literally the fundamental thing people are annoyed with about scalpers. Just a moment ago you said they "artificially" raised the price as if the merch the Pokmon Company pushes out is the state of nature. It's not, it's a profit business.

What an utterly pointless argument.

Avirosb posted...

Not much difference between a business and a scalper when it comes to jacked up prices.

there is a huge difference retailers are not allowed to price gouge scalpers price gouge greatly

StealThisSheen posted...

I have to assume Doe is a scalper, because that is... Quite a defense. Imagine arguing "Scalpers wouldn't be able to make money if the initial price was higher to begin with," and thinking it's a good argument.

That depends on if being true is the same as being a good argument, to you.

It really doesn't make sense to assume Doe is a scalper based on a given argument.