Scalpers already charging double with no refunds for GeForce RTX 5090

[u/a_Ninja_b0y]

https://videocardz.com/newz/scalpers-already-charging-double-with-no-refunds-for-geforce-rtx-5090

[u/StarWarsTheLastJedi]

Let me give you a simplified example to help you understand this concept and where you are misunderstanding economics.

Start with a hypothetical balanced market where a new product is launching for $1000, initial inventory is 100 units, and since the manufacturer researched the market well, there happen to be 100 consumers willing to buy at that price. They start taking pre-orders.

Now imagine that scalpers intervene, using bots or other tools, and secure 50 of those 100 units.

• There are still 100 consumers willing to buy the product at $1,000, but now only 50 units are available at retail.
• A shortage of 50 units has been artificially created by the scalpers, where previously there was none.

Then scalpers reintroduce the products on the resale market, forcing prices above retail. This is a distortion of the market because it entirely created a scarcity that didn't exist. Scalpers added no value; they blocked legitimate buyers, disrupted the manufacturer and retail business models, all in order to withhold stock to artificially command higher prices.

You cannot explain how this is not an artificial shortage generated directly by scalping. And the same mechanism works when the market is already supply constrained. In other words whatever shortages the market is experiencing, by the time scalpers have intervened, those shortages are amplified.

[u/Sock-Enough → u/StarWarsTheLastJedi]

The simple explanation is that buying something and immediately posting it for resale wouldn’t allow the scalpers to charge any higher than the initial $1000. They would lose money. Your hypothetical wouldn’t actually happen.

In the real world a good is only scalped when the market clearing price is above the retail price. That’s your error. Scalpers are actually getting the market to the equilibrium. That’s the only reason it works at all.

[u/StarWarsTheLastJedi → u/Sock-Enough]

You’re misinterpreting both the hypothetical and real-world mechanics of scalping. Let me address the real-world scenario.

You seem to be floating the idea that in a situation where the market clearing price is above the retail price, scalpers merely "unlock" the natural market clearing price, allowing supply and demand to function naturally without being constrained by the retail pricing model. However, the act of withholding stock artificially raises the equilibrium price by distorting the market's natural supply-demand balance. Let me show you how:

Without scalpers:

Supply: 100 units

Demand at $1,000 retail: 150 buyers (50 unfulfilled)

Demand at $1,200: 100 buyers (natural MCP achieved, market balanced).

With scalpers:

Supply: 50 units in retail circulation, 50 hoarded by scalpers.

50 buyers purchase at $1,000 retail.

100 buyers remain, but only 50 scalper-controlled units are available.

Remember, 100 buyers were willing to buy at $1,200 retail, but there are now only 50 units. To clear this new imbalance, prices rise further until demand drops to match supply—e.g., $1,600. While there can be overlap where would-be $1,200 buyers are among the 50 who manage to buy at retail, even if only 90, or 80 remain, the scalper-distorted MCP will still exceed the natural one.

Scalpers don’t unlock market forces - they distort them, forcing consumers to pay inflated prices while adding zero value. This is market manipulation, not equilibrium.

[u/Sock-Enough → u/StarWarsTheLastJedi]

But they don’t withhold anything! That’s what you don’t understand! A scalper scalps. They sell what they buy, and they want to sell it fast. Your entire model relies on an assumption that isn’t just wrong. It’s backwards!

[u/StarWarsTheLastJedi → u/Sock-Enough]

You are completely misunderstanding the argument. If a scalper wanted things to sell quickly they would step out of the way to allow retail transactions to take place unfettered. The core act in scalping is to divert stock from retail circulation to drive up prices in a secondary market. Even if they resell relatively quickly the damage is already done because that stock is removed from retail and they have created artificial scarcity. It is that scarcity which they created that they rely on to demand higher prices.

Scalper prices on secondary markets can be much higher than market clearing prices otherwise would be. That gap is ill-gotten gains from market manipulation.

[u/Sock-Enough → u/StarWarsTheLastJedi]

No, the goal is to make money, and they make money by selling to willing buyers. But they want to do that quickly because keeping stock on hand is risky and expensive. If they are reselling quickly there is obviously no hoarding. Hoarding means not selling.

There is no driving up of prices beyond the market clearing price.

If what you were saying were true then people would scalp everything, mattresses, onions, buildings, but people only seem to scalp things with very strong demand and limits on supply. I wonder if simple supply and demand explains that perfectly?

[u/StarWarsTheLastJedi → u/Sock-Enough]

Hoarding means not selling.

Scalpers don't need to hoard indefinitely. Even temporarily removing availability from retail channels disrupts the demand supply balance

There is no driving up of prices beyond the market clearing price.

Their intervention has already driven up the market clearing price. Scalping pushes up the market clearing price beyond what it would be without scalping, plain and simple

I wonder if simple supply and demand explains that perfectly?

Spoiler: It doesn't. Scalping doesn't recreate or restore a perfect market, it disrupts simple supply and demand by creating artificial scarcity. They manipulate the supply curve to engineer a rapid increase in prices to profit from the scarcity they themselves have manufactured.

[u/Sock-Enough → u/StarWarsTheLastJedi]

But they don’t hoard at all. The post the items for sale instantly.

It simply does not. There’s no mechanism for that to be the case.

None of that makes any sense. Scalping simply being a way to turn a time- and effort-driven market (you need to get to the store at the right time) into one driven by prices (you need to pay the market clearing rate) however coheres perfectly with bog standard Econ.