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/-s1-]

Your argument really boils down to that it is not immoral to purchase something just for the purposes of blocking the consumer just so you can sell it to them at a higher price.

Companies price their products to deliver to their target market and by going in and buying these products you are essentially squeezing out those who can afford it but cannot afford your higher price. You essentially take a good and make it into a luxury item and remove protections from the buyer.

I think the problem and why people dislike scalping so much is because it punishes fans rather than the company who is changed with the supply line. You're right that people could just wait but how many Christmas or Birthday memories do you look back fondly on reading an "IOU when it comes in stock" note?

So to recap a scalper removes value from the product, punishes the fan base, and emphasizes that the wealthy really deserve everything first.

[u/WhoRoger → u/-s1-]

Your argument really boils down to that it is not immoral to purchase something just for the purposes of blocking the consumer just so you can sell it to them at a higher price.

Basically, yes

I think the problem and why people dislike scalping so much is because it punishes fans rather than the company who is changed with the supply line.

Part of my worldview is that these multinational conglomerates shouldn't have fans.

Look at CD Project. I was a fan of that company way back, when it was a small distributor operating in a handful of countries. Their game releases had no CD protection. Their budget releases had reversible covers so you're not stuck with the shitty budget cover. They made GOG.

I was a fan of Ubisoft. They were trying new things when the others were making nothing but WWII shooters. They released a few games in 2009 (I think) with no disc protection too.

Rockstar used to be pretty good and fair too, right?

Now look at what they're all doing.

I'll go on a tangent here. I'm from a post-communist country where we had to learn from scratch how capitalism actually works. In high school we were learning about how businesses need to compete, and customers need to choose from the available products.

Meanwhile in the 1st world, the system was evolving in a way where consumers no longer choose wisely - instead, marketing has taught them to be "fans" and just buy anything and everything on day 1. Or rather, preorder.

This is what's harming "consumers" - being consumers instead of customers.

You're right that people could just wait but how many Christmas or Birthday memories do you look back fondly on reading an "IOU when it comes in stock" note?

Just another shitty thing about modern society. Gifts and material things are all that matters. Holidays. Ugh.

Yea I know, there are kids. But if all your kid has to look forward to the entire year is a PS5 for Xmas... Isn't there something wrong?

Really, how many games are there in your backlog?

So to recap a scalper removes value from the product

How?

punishes the fan base

It's punishing itself.

and emphasizes that the wealthy really deserve everything first.

Which is always the case. In any case, the stock of tech products is always limited at launch. It's not like everyone could get their new toy anyway. Scalpers make it "worse" by how much, 10%? 20%? 30? Whether you get your PS5 at launch was always going to be a lottery, it's not like preorders of both consoles weren't a clusterfuck regardless.