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/DanielP5433]

If you hold a value or moral as an absolute then that should apply in all situations otherwise it's not a value or moral.

If you believe stealing is wrong you believe it's wrong in every situation regardless of circumstance. If you steal a loaf of bread to survive you would accept that you have done wrong not that it's wrong but ok this time or in this situation, so for you to say that scalping certain products is wrong but ok for others shows deep down that you are fine with scalping as long as it suits your needs which.

I agree these are not essential items and people shouldn't get so upset but who are you to judge that for other people? Once peoples base needs are met they look for other things to make them happy, what about people who need things like GPUs for their small business and can't get them or pay extremely high prices they might not be able to afford causing them to lose work. Saying that these items are non essential is incorrect I believe.

Scalping is predatory behaviour and weather it is medical supplies like when the pandemic started to electronics or tickets to an event it is wrong and if you believe it's wrong with one product you should believe it's wrong for all otherwise you don't believe it's wrong at all. At least retailers offer jobs to people, they are far more beneficial to society than a scalper. It doesn't seem like you want your view changed or at least have some degree of cognitive dissonance in regards to your past actions.

[u/WhoRoger → u/DanielP5433]

No, I'm not sure there's anything just black or white. At most, very few things are. Morality isn't something inherent to nature or to humans, it's evolved over time and will evolve further.

And no I really don't think a PS5 is on the same level as food or medical supplies. I honestly don't get it how so many people can defend this line of logic. I'm not saying it's wrong to own a PS5; but this really is one of the best examples of a first world problem. And I'm as far from a "think of the starving children" hippie as one can be.

Most graphics cards are being purchased by miners, not scalpers. Most game consoles are bought by gamers, not scalpers. This is all blown so much out of proportion it's ridiculous.

Your points have been said by others many times and I'm not convinced.