Console scalper says we should think about the young people making a good living from...
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cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
That is not the same as scalpers artificially inflating prices. That only holds true if companies raise their own prices. And to be honest that is what needs to happen. Companies need to raise their prices to combat scalping. It needs to be known that scalping will not be tolerated. Scalpers need to know that scalping will not only raise prices for their buyers but them as well.
Austinturner
Posts: 351 +452
@techspot you just advertised his scalping technology company, you literally just gave him a platform for him to get attention, get his company name out there and promote how people are making “a month’s salary in a few days” by using his services.
Thinly veiled as a “oh wow, look what this guy said”
If you don’t want to promote the scalping practice that your readers mostly hate and you complain about, don’t give the guy a platform or at least remove the promotional parts of his message like his company name.
Thinly veiled as a “oh wow, look what this guy said”
If you don’t want to promote the scalping practice that your readers mostly hate and you complain about, don’t give the guy a platform or at least remove the promotional parts of his message like his company name.
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
You know how news outlets are. They root for both sides, so they have something to write about.
BuckarooBonzaii
Posts: 456 +323
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
Then they would be thieves not scalpers.
Again, GPU shortages we experience right now are because of the record high ETH valuation. I doubt there are many PC players buying at over 2x suggested prices. So if you want to blame someone, blame the ETH miners and COVID caused disruptions in the manufacture lines.
Parents of the last 30 years should be happy. This is the result of their "I will give you everything" education. There young people wanna have everything and do nothing. Cause scalping is just middle men money which means that you don't do anything, you just pass the merchandise from a point to the other and asking for a fee. Another very interesting thing is that he is in "tune" with his moral side. Sure, probably his moral side is torn to pieces, hence that is why he can be in tune with his moral and do this stuff. In any case, education is the key. Parents have made a HUGE mistake in the last years giving their kids everything without teaching them that stuff is earned through actual work, not through scams and doing shady businesses. Sure, no one denies the fact that you can make a lot of money via shady businesses. A lot of current day businesses are like that, but it doesn't mean that is a good thing or those people are superior. No, in the end, we all have to lose from that.
Oh, I have something to say alright.
Classic Psychopathic excuses. I'm the victim everyone. I'm actually sort of a hero. By coming after me, You're the real bad-guy.
Meanwhile this person is manipulating and leeching off the market while providing Zero value, and honestly has no idea why it's creating such a fuss.
This is why you can't have a 100% free market, people. This is why there will always be the need for some minimal.. actually many.. checks and balances against this type of behaviour and countless scams. There's enough people always out there who just don't care, or worse are clever people but mentally incapable of understanding what words like "ethics" or "cheating" or "unfair" actually mean. It takes very few people like this to have a huge negative impact.
They will latch on to any unguarded opportunity to exploit - not participate, Exploit - bleed it bone-dry it they can and leave nothing behind for you. If this person could buy a unit for 1$ and charge you $5000, he would, and he wouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty about it.
Classic Psychopathic excuses. I'm the victim everyone. I'm actually sort of a hero. By coming after me, You're the real bad-guy.
Meanwhile this person is manipulating and leeching off the market while providing Zero value, and honestly has no idea why it's creating such a fuss.
This is why you can't have a 100% free market, people. This is why there will always be the need for some minimal.. actually many.. checks and balances against this type of behaviour and countless scams. There's enough people always out there who just don't care, or worse are clever people but mentally incapable of understanding what words like "ethics" or "cheating" or "unfair" actually mean. It takes very few people like this to have a huge negative impact.
They will latch on to any unguarded opportunity to exploit - not participate, Exploit - bleed it bone-dry it they can and leave nothing behind for you. If this person could buy a unit for 1$ and charge you $5000, he would, and he wouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty about it.
As pointed out above, the scalpers are just middlemen that don't add value to society.
I still don't see why this practice is not outlawed - the fact that the consoles are a luxury and not a necessity does not keep the practice within the confines of the law any more than if the same practice would have water or fresh vegetables as object.
And this guy's phrase, that the people that are not picking up the same practice as them are lazy is simply idi0tic - what would become of society if no one would actually work anymore and everyone would be a scalper?
But there might be a positive outcome from all of this - those that can't afford a console at the current prices can enjoy other activities, hopefully some sports outside or spending more time with their families. I know, it's wishful thinking, but I'm an optimist.
I still don't see why this practice is not outlawed - the fact that the consoles are a luxury and not a necessity does not keep the practice within the confines of the law any more than if the same practice would have water or fresh vegetables as object.
And this guy's phrase, that the people that are not picking up the same practice as them are lazy is simply idi0tic - what would become of society if no one would actually work anymore and everyone would be a scalper?
But there might be a positive outcome from all of this - those that can't afford a console at the current prices can enjoy other activities, hopefully some sports outside or spending more time with their families. I know, it's wishful thinking, but I'm an optimist.
Ohnooze
Posts: 613 +1,185
This is just not true and you hurt your own argument by pointing at Ebay. Sure demand may be high and you might not be able to find a card exactly when it's convenient but if scalpers were not buying so many cards there would be a lot more available. And yeah because scalpers are buying all the cards you can find them on Ebay but they are also double the price. Also because they are buying the limited supply that do come out people are really forced to pay more if they HAVE to get a new card. Acting as if scalpers are doing us all a favor is just ridiculous.
No, I disagree entirely. Your strawman fails because 1 and 2 are not true. You cannot do "anything" you want in a free market. Buying up inventory and hoarding it until you can get a higher price is not a free market. A free market assumes a fair and reasonable access to goods and services. Scalping is not a fair and reasonable access to products.
Greed is not a valued component of a free market. Don't confuse making money with greed. They are not the same thing. Is it greedy to want to make a profit from your day-to-day job? No, it's called earning a living. If Sony wanted to be "greedy" they would just jack up the cost of the consoles like scalpers. If there's any greed here, it's the scalpers . They are inserting themselves between the manufacturer and the consumer and making money with no added value.
I don't see where community building or "mutual aid" (whatever that means) is the responsibility of any business. That said, most successful businesses I know of are very involved in their communities and do, in fact, pump money and services back into their communities on a regular basis. They understand that being a visible and participating member of the community is good for business, so it's a win-win. The community gets support it needs and the business builds some goodwill with the community in the process.
Sony/Microsoft are not the real issue here. Even if you knew that Sony allocated 1M units to Target, 1M to WalMart and 1M to Best Buy how would that change the fact that some scalper walked in and bought all 20 consoles off the shelf and is now holding people hostage by charging an exorbitant price? Sony and MS don't benefit when these negative perceptions prevail. They are seen as the bad guys because they aren't doing anything to prevent the scalping. And, if people are put off by the scalping they are likely to search out alternative products. If I can't get my Xbox, maybe I'll just get a Switch instead.
Scalping is not a good thing, no matter what this article is trying to say.
wiyosaya
Posts: 9,760 +9,644
No MBA would ever consider the profit margins of these scalpers as sustainable. As to them trying to find legal ways around tax laws, I fault the tax laws, not the MBA's, but I don't think the comparison is apt.
This guy suggests we feel happy for him because he's supplying demand? That statement is laughable with people out there scraping their money together and then not being able to afford a console because some scalper got to it before them, and decided to resell it at a much higher price.
This whole situation reminds me of the Tulip Mania of the 1630s. History has a tendency to repeat itself, and in this case, I think it's highly likely that what happened to the Tulip Market will happen here, and in part, the crash will have been fostered by the scalpers.
Dimitriid
Posts: 2,447 +4,919
Well they're not sustainable for a business model any larger than theirs. It is not great but they've got basically 0 overhead. Still the point is that these are observations that they could (And imho do) learn within the 'Hustle' of consumer commodities. At the very least they could probably move on to sneakers or if they've saved enough their first second hand cars which are on a serious uptick right now due to the same chip shortages for new cars.
As for 'faulting the tax laws' I won't go too off topic but I'll just say that those weren't written for the benefit of the State and the people overall, those were written by industry lobbyists. Yes, sometimes quite literally: we've seen cases of legislation that's written by private parties and passed on to the legislators almost fully unchanged and otherwise, the mere fact that lobbying is permitted and encouraged means there's not enough separation and that's why modern tax loop holes exists and tax legislation is incredibly complex.
He is suggesting that the scalpers are actually usually struggling, working class or young adults that otherwise would have close to no career opportunities anyway not unlike most of the people that usually bother to comment on the scalping prices because they can't afford it.
It seems pretty clear to me that he's just applying all of the lessons the capitalist system taught him: "I struggle too, I'm just a young kid and alternatives for me would be go flip burgers and maybe free intership or veeeery few hours on entry level positions that can't even pay for rent or food.
All people who don't take advantage of the console scarcity are fools not to turn this into an opportunity to make something out of yourselves"
See the disconnect is that he thinks everybody can elevate themselves out of a difficult situation by just hustling and that there's no limit to how many consoles can be sold at ridiculous prices to what he perceives as rich kids. That's the divide: rich people can pay 1,500 or even 15,000 or a PS5 so why should I take 3 jobs and work myself into an early grave if I can just hustle consoles around and then keep moving to low level opportunistic resale markets?
That's what Capitalism teaches everybody: Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, put in the work to get results, don't waste time waiting for things to improve go make something for YOU and dont let anyone get in the way.
These are all the same lessons propaganda has been peddling down for decades, except is usually a Will Smith movie of him sleeping in public bathrooms trying to have a Wall St job or whatever but the core principles: hard work and determination and a belief that you're utterly alone in the world and must come out the other end without help are all the same whenever you sell drugs, you scalp consoles, you start flipping used cars, you get a loan and actually distribute "legit" goods etc. The principles don't change, only the perception as a society of where we draw the line saying "This is illegal, this is ok" and that line? If you haven't guessed has been drawn by the people who already don't need to work a day on their lives and were born into generational wealth created by literal slaves their families used to own.
Bamda
Posts: 518 +284
My question is why is it illegal to scalp concert or sports event tickets but not a PS5 or Xbox?
MasterMace
Posts: 312 +275
bold of you to assume they/we'll survive the climate wars
MasterMace
Posts: 312 +275
The guy interviewed is like the villain in a Christmas movie justifying why his buying your all the products in every nearby town isn't grifting, but instead is a wise capitalist business decision.
How did I hurt my argument? And how exactly there would be more cards available without scalpers? Without scalpers there would be no place to buy a GPU from, no matter of how much you would be willing to spend. The demand from scalpers as compared to a demand from PC owners and Ethereum miners is negligible and only temporary because they don't want to hold onto the cards. So no, scalpers are not buying all the cards. They are bough in bulk by Ethereum miners. What is ridiculous is the price inflation but it is not created by the scalpers.
And they make a nice living doing it too.
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
Prices are inflated by scalpers. There is no one else selling above MSRP.
bexwhitt
Posts: 662 +397
you don't need health coverage in the UK as it's a civilised country that provide it
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