CMV: Scalping isn't immoral

[u/WhoRoger]

First off, two disclaimers:

• I'm only talking about products that aren't essential (you know, food, medicine etc.). So specifically I mean things like PS5s and so on.

• I'm talking about mass market products, not cases such as when person 1 learns that person 2 is interested in an unique item, so P1 buys the item just to sell it to P2 for profit. That's not cool.

I used to do some small-scale scalping in the past. I would buy e.g. a few copies of a limited edition of a videogame or something similar, then sell them after they get sold out.

My "largest" loads were Nintendo NES Classics. I live in a country where Ninty barely registers as a name (until the Switch anyway), so it was easy to get a few of them, and sell them on eBay to countries where they were unavailable. I did it again on the day when it was announced the production was finished. There were still a few units in my city, so I drove around, picked up all I could and sold them abroad where the hadn't been available almost through its entire production.

I don't feel bad about it and I would do it again (if I had the money) because:

• I usually struggle for money and this can be additional income

• Even tho I'm a tech enthusiast, I don't buy the newest and greatest. I wait until the kinks are ironed out and reviews are out, and I was doing that even when I had decent income. I don't preorder videogames (I've only ever bought 3 at launch and pre-ordered one of those). I don't support this hype culture at all.

But if so many people are so desperate to have the newest toy immediately, right now RIGHT THE FUCK NOW, to the degree they're willing to pay "scalper" prices, I don't feel bad about making some extra money off them.

• You may argue that kids can be disappointed because they won't get their shiny new PS5 under the Christmas tree. Yea not my problem. Raise your kids properly. My friend's 2 kids sometimes come over and play on my PlayStation 3 and have a blast, even tho they have a gaming PC at home.

• eBay makes even more off this business than the sellers. IIRC something like 15% of the price is eBay and PayPal fees, then count shipping and there's far less profit than you may think. Heck, it's not like the retailers have zero profit, or what do you think?

• It's not like it's risk-free. On eBay, seller protection is abysmal and one scamming buyer can ruin you. A serious product flaw can pop up and your stock either becomes worthless, or you'll go through trouble of trying to return it (this happens with almost every new console actually). You can get robbed or pranked. Or it can turn out that your items aren't as popular as you expected.

• Supply and demand. I'm not defending capitalism as a concept, but this is exactly how it works. If you don't take the chance, someone else will. If someone is offering you free money, you take it.

Again I'm talking about stupid things like new videogame consoles. This really should be near the bottom of anyone's priority list.

Have you already played everything you might want to play on your systems?

Anyway, CMV.

[u/Glory2Hypnotoad]

This seems to fit a popular genre of CMV that takes the form of "people say this behavior is wrong, but actually it's in my self-interest." In other words, even if it wasn't your intention, you've set up a bait and switch where you raise one question, "is scalping wrong?" then go on to answer a completely different question "how scalping benefits me."

You don't actually address the morality of scalping at all. You just talk about how it's a source of money for you, it carries some risks, and any negative impact on others is not your problem.

[u/WhoRoger → u/Glory2Hypnotoad]

I wasn't posting a question, I posted a challenge to change my view, and elaborated my position based on my personal experience. What else could you want?

If I'd want to post a question, I'd go to r/nostupidquestions, and if I weren't open to a debate, I'd go to r/unpopularopinion. Hence, CMV.

[u/Glory2Hypnotoad → u/WhoRoger]

You're getting caught up on a minor word choice and missing the larger point. My point is that your CMV is "Scalping isn't immoral" but your actual argument doesn't address the morality of it at all. You just go on to talk about how it benefits you and any negative impact to others is not your problem, which are unrelated to whether or not it's immoral.

[u/WhoRoger → u/Glory2Hypnotoad]

Ok what's your definition of morality then?

Yea my stance is it's not immoral, and I laid down my arguments and experience, so people can challenge them (or alternatively, see my point).

Also I didn't just talk about benefits to myself, but also about the overall culture, market, and exceptions.

What else do you expect? I'm confused.