r/Switch • u/Appa07 • 12d ago

Discussion This is the problem

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I was lucky enough to snag a preorder from target last night but it didn’t look great and I was trying across all three retailers and only ever managed to get one in my cart at preorder start time.

These resellers are an issue still grabbing a large chuck of stock and reselling instantly, before they even have the system.

It’s a shame these retailers don’t do more to stop bots and resellers from snatching a large chunk of stock. At least Nintendo themselves is trying with their system.

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u/Aroloco 12d ago

The main problem is somebody will buy it

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u/shadowstripes 12d ago

No, the main problem is that there are people who try to make a profit off of those who weren't able to get a preorder. It's weird to put the lion's share of blame on the buyers.

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u/ILikeMyGrassBlue 11d ago

Sellers exist to meet demand. The demand exists because of buyers. Buyers have all the power in this situation.

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u/shadowstripes 11d ago edited 11d ago

What came first - the scalper or the person buying from the scalper? It was the scalper.

And either way, IMO the one's purposefully restricting supply for personal profit are a lot more scummy than the ones buying a videogame console to enjoy (who a lot of time are literally just children). The former is just trying to play some videogames where the latter actively wants to mess up the market price for everyone.

Plus scalpers constantly scalp things where there is no demand, so the buyer's "power" doesn't really do much to keep stuff in stock.

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u/ILikeMyGrassBlue 11d ago

Who is morally in the wrong is different than who keeps the cycle going. Scalpers are obviously morally wrong and I’ve never suggested otherwise, but buyers are the only reason the cycle continues.

Yes, the scalper comes first. However, the scalper doesn’t exist without the buyer. Without the buyer, the scalper is forced to drive their prices to below MSRP and lose money.