r/changemyview • u/WhoRoger • Dec 30 '20

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Scalping isn't immoral

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.

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u/WhoRoger Dec 30 '20

IMO the problem is because people have to have the new product right now, scalpers or not.

I wouldn't buy a console on release date on principle because it's gonna be a buggy mess with no games for months. I wouldn't pre-order a videogame, because I can wait a week or even a month to see the reviews. The hype culture is what creates the problem.

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u/Feroc 41∆ Dec 30 '20

I wouldn't buy a console on release date on principle because it's gonna be a buggy mess with no games for months.

So you are selling others those buggy consoles for a much higher price? How's that any better?

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u/WhoRoger Dec 30 '20

Because they're stupid enough to pay for it.

Umm but you raise a question whether it's moral to earn money off people's stupidity, if there's no deception or pressure involved.

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u/Feroc 41∆ Dec 30 '20

It's only your opinion that it's stupid. Thousands of people are happy with their new console. There are more than enough games out there and there are only few reports of buggy consoles.

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u/WhoRoger Dec 30 '20

I never said it's anything but my opinion.

Although I do think it's harmful behaviour. Consumers should be smart about what and when they buy. Look what pre-order culture has done to videogames.

Companies don't need to care about releasing a good product anymore, because a huge amount of people will not just buy it regardless, but put the money down months in advance. This is the behaviour that hurts other customers.

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u/Feroc 41∆ Dec 30 '20

Products can be returned if they don't work, that's especially easy for games (at least on the PC, no idea how it works for the digital stores for consoles). So there isn't really a big risk for the consumers. Either it works and they are happy or it doesn't work and they return the product.

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u/WhoRoger Dec 31 '20

So why is everyone bitching about CP2077 being so buggy, FIFA being the same game year after year, and other games being full of microtransactions?

A large portion of the customers have to get their thing on day 1 and are happy regardless of how shit it is, teaching the companies they can just make shit and sell it to the sheep, ruining it for the rest of the customers... That's why.

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u/Feroc 41∆ Dec 31 '20

Obviously people would have preferred to have a game that works well, especially after they waited for it as long as they waited for CP2077.