Are Scalpers just a "Part of Society" now that'll never go away?

[MrBingston]

It seems like if it isn't one hobby of mine being Preyed on by Scalpers, it's another one.

We went through GPUs and Game Consoles being Bought "En Mass" and hoarded/Flipped for up to 200%+ of the "original MSRP"

Now, whenever I want Booster Boxes for OP (One Piece) TCG, I gotta contend with "Market price" being up to 3 or 4 times what used to be normal Pre-order prices for another TCG I collected.

I just wonder if at this point, Scalpers have found a way to keep "Moving target" to whatever the current "Hottest thing" is to Buy/Hoard, and flip for over retail prices.

 

[artemisenterri]

It seems like if it isn't one hobby of mine being Preyed on by Scalpers, it's another one.

We went through GPUs and Game Consoles being Bought "En Mass" and hoarded/Flipped for up to 200%+ of the "original MSRP"

Now, whenever I want Booster Boxes for OP (One Piece) TCG, I gotta contend with "Market price" being up to 3 or 4 times what used to be normal Pre-order prices for another TCG I collected.

I just wonder if at this point, Scalpers have found a way to keep "Moving target" to whatever the current "Hottest thing" is to Buy/Hoard, and flip for over retail prices.

Sadly, I believe that yes, scalping is going to be a permanent fixture of the market... It's been going on for decades, starting with concert or movie/stage tickets... Anything that is seen as a "booming market" will be ripe with scalpers looking to turn a quick buck. The scalpers themselves don't care about whatever it is they are buying, all they care about is the profit they can get from the "flip".

 

[Bunnybnuy]

I think we're absolutely just going to live with them? I don't see any legislation passing anytime soon that prevents this perversely predatory practice, especially since we still call the most egregious form of scalping in human history "the housing market"

 

[MrBingston]

I think we're absolutely just going to live with them? I don't see any legislation passing anytime soon that prevents this perversely predatory practice, especially since we still call the most egregious form of scalping in human history "the housing market"

Gentrification is the worst Scalping ever, after all.

 

[Anemone]

Gentrification is the worst Scalping ever, after all.

I think the issue is more the housing stock being bought up by private investors who can then use the fact of their largesse (owning all those extra houses) to plead poverty (there aren't enough extra houses) to justify increasing rents.

The housing market has always been perverse in this way but decades of growth sustained by capital gains has created this present unsustainable market.

Gentrification is, at least and for all its problems, driven by an increase in demand for housing in an area rather than a strangulation of supply.

 

[denimchicken]

Yeah I don't think the scalpers are going away. I think the only way to get a good deal is to get lucky.
With the internet, scalpers have access to the same information we do so they act upon it. Your best bet might be to search more offline.

 

[Edgewater]

To my knowledge, I have never paid above market as my interests have long been in different areas of the market than the masses! The latest and greatest rarely is and by not buying into the mindset, one does not join in the scalpers games. When more money than common sense chases a limited number of 'things' the price will rise.

Consider something else to engage your mind!

 

[denimchicken]

It also helps to be a cheap bastard . There is no way I will pay scalper prices. I can wait them out.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

It also helps to be a cheap bastard . There is no way I will pay scalper prices. I can wait them out.

 

[SparkyDog]

Yes it's part of reality

now for my hot take

it's not actually the scalpers that are to blame but the people who are paying the inflated prices. They keep the scalping game alive & strong
if society just would agreed to not buy from scalpers en masse the industry would dry up
but people won't
so the scalpers will stick around

 

[Anemone]

Yes it's part of reality

now for my hot take

it's not actually the scalpers that are to blame but the people who are paying the inflated prices. They keep the scalping game alive & strong
if society just would agreed to not buy from scalpers en masse the industry would dry up
but people won't
so the scalpers will stick around

Who does victim blaming truly benefit?

 

[SparkyDog]

Who does victim blaming truly benefit?

Whos the victim here?
neither side is a victim
unless you get scammed
but in a regular transaction neither is a victim

ticket master & resell sites are also as much to blame as those who purchase inflated priced tickets

people need to say enough already
unfortunately it won't happen
most don't care about paying higher prices
those that do isn't a large enough group

if people want this system to stop we as a collective need to stop using that system

 

[Jorelaxed]

It seems like if it isn't one hobby of mine being Preyed on by Scalpers, it's another one.

We went through GPUs and Game Consoles being Bought "En Mass" and hoarded/Flipped for up to 200%+ of the "original MSRP"

Now, whenever I want Booster Boxes for OP (One Piece) TCG, I gotta contend with "Market price" being up to 3 or 4 times what used to be normal Pre-order prices for another TCG I collected.

I just wonder if at this point, Scalpers have found a way to keep "Moving target" to whatever the current "Hottest thing" is to Buy/Hoard, and flip for over retail prices.

They are everywhere nowadays, not just housing market.

 

[Anemone]

Whos the victim here?
neither side is a victim
unless you get scammed
but in a regular transaction neither is a victim

ticket master & resell sites are also as much to blame as those who purchase inflated priced tickets

people need to say enough already
unfortunately it won't happen
most don't care about paying higher prices
those that do isn't a large enough group

if people want this system to stop we as a collective need to stop using that system

People who are manipulated into paying extra for a non-value-adding service are victims of this predatory practice.

Third party sales are not a regular transaction and they are only effective when there is no clear alternative.

If you need some milk you naturally go to the market. If I make it there ahead of you and buy all the milk then you cannot buy any, except from me at a mark-up. In this scenario I am clearly at fault for first preventing the sale at market value and secondly for charging a premium exclusively for the inconvenience.

You could take a principled stand and spend more to access another market, with a reasonable expectation that I or someone similar may have played the same trick, or eat your bran dry/watered but both of these options are blatantly problematic. You would be far less at fault for not taking this self defeating stand than my milk cartel is for compelling it.

Doing things we know to be unwise is problematic, as is preventing people from acting in a prudent manner but they are far from equal. Two wrongs do not, in fact, make a right.

 

[SparkyDog]

except for milk you could go to an other store

with scalpers there is no other store
yet people still chose to buy
just as people choose to buy the inflated priced milk

 

[Anemone]

except for milk you could go to an other store

with scalpers there is no other store
yet people still chose to buy
just as people choose to buy the inflated priced milk

I'm not convinced you read through my whole scenario but you seem to be reluctantly getting the point: charging extra for worse is bad, paying extra because someone has reduced your options is being exploited. Acquiescence is not consent.

 

[SparkyDog]

I never said paying extra wasn't bad

my point was if people going to a concert continue to pay scalper prices the scalping won't stop
and it won't because people will pay the scalpers prices

you're not going to see an empty stadium because everyone decided they've had enough. It's be great but won't happen

people will pay 4x or more face value because they don't want to miss out

my point is if the people stop buying from scalpers that industry stops
but as I said it's my hot take
not everyone agrees nor do they have to

 

[Anemone]

Well yes, scalpers operate because it is profitable. They clearly don't do it out of any sense of beneficence.

Mosquitoes, similarly, make holes in people because we're full of blood.

My contention is that blaming a person for being full of blood - after all if we stopped bleeding the parasites would fail to prosper - rather puts the onus on the victim to choose between two forms of suffering where the real issue is with the affront caused by the parasitism.

And, yes, I am aware that the analogy is flawed in that mosquitoes are not moral agents whereas scalpers have that capacity.

 

[PaigeCherubiel]

Without getting political, its called "Capitalism", and anything less is EVIL in these here United States. Remember when dRAM was sold like an agricultural commodity?

 

[PadPhilosopher]

People who are manipulated into paying extra for a non-value-adding service are victims of this predatory practice.

Third party sales are not a regular transaction and they are only effective when there is no clear alternative.

If you need some milk you naturally go to the market. If I make it there ahead of you and buy all the milk then you cannot buy any, except from me at a mark-up. In this scenario I am clearly at fault for first preventing the sale at market value and secondly for charging a premium exclusively for the inconvenience.

You could take a principled stand and spend more to access another market, with a reasonable expectation that I or someone similar may have played the same trick, or eat your bran dry/watered but both of these options are blatantly problematic. You would be far less at fault for not taking this self defeating stand than my milk cartel is for compelling it.

Doing things we know to be unwise is problematic, as is preventing people from acting in a prudent manner but they are far from equal. Two wrongs do not, in fact, make a right.

Your analogy fails hard because scalping, at least in the first world, is taking place almost entirely (there could be exceptions) with luxury goods; things that are really necessary, like food, are well supplied. Almost every other item mentioned in this thread is a luxury. Concert tickets? Luxury. Fancy computer graphics cards? Luxury. Housing is a different entity, but I don't think it is subject to scalping in quite the same way, though that market also has challenges. @SparkyDog is absolutely correct; people are enabling and empowering the scalpers because they are more determined to get their luxuries at any price than to take a principled stand against something that is, in the end, merely an inconvenience. Do I like it? Nope. I go without. None of that stuff is important to me. They can have it.