Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

joesaysso wrote:

Tresob wrote:Not to belabor the point, but nothing is really "lost" in scalping. There is a limited amount of any product on the market. A bona fide scalper does not take any of that product off of the market, they merely purchase it out of the retail market. (Maybe investors take it off the market...but how many people are really hoarding figures to unload twenty years from now? Scalpers need a fast turnaround to maxmize profits.)

Assumably, the goods a scalper purchases will end up in the hands of a collector, or a kid, or some other consumer who wants the product for its own sake. So nothing is "lost."

Yes. More of a collector's money is lost. If I wanted a figure that was available at mass retail for $12 but couldn't get it because it was scalped before I had a chance to and then had to pay $20 to get it, I lost $8.

Tresbob wrote:All that happens to collectors is that some of them discover they have been outbid or priced out of something they wanted. Why get mad at someone with more disposable income paying more money for something he or she really, really wants?

If you never get a toy because of scalpers, all that means is that someone else was willing to pay more money than you. I don't see how that is "overvaluing" the product. If they thought it was worth $20 and you only thought it was worth $12, then they valued it more than you did (even if you desired it more).

Perhaps you aren't clear about what I'm saying. I don't fault a collector for buying from a scalper if that is what they choose to do. #1 I fault the collector if they choose to buy from a scalper and then complain about how they got scalped after they made the decision to make the purchase knowing full well what they were doing. #2 In the case of being outbid or priced out by someone, that doesn't apply. The scalper is paying the same price that I would be paying because we are getting the figures from the same place. How is anyone being out bid by a scalper when they are buying the figures from retail just like everybody else is trying to? #3 None of what you said about the collector over-valueing the figure applies to what I said. It isn't the collector who over-values the figure, its the scalper. Its the very nature of how they profit. They buy figures for $12, creates a false sense of supply and demand, and charges $20 knowing that they were only worth $12 strictly for the sense of profit.

Like I said, you can spin it however you want in your brain but the facts are the collector's lose money because of scalpers and I would argue that scalping certainly does it part to ruin, what I consider to be, an otherwise fun hobby. I highly doubt that you would be so apathetic to this issue if we were talking about a life necessity as opposed to some toys. If somebody came along and bought up all of the world's food, not for the purpose of need and consumption for themselves, but soley for the purpose of selling the food back to you at a higher price than what you could have gotten it for yourself and put you in the position of being forced to pay the higher prices or not eat at all, I bet you'd be in the pack of people raising the "BS" flag and crying foul. I bet noone would hear you saying that spending more money and people making more profit is a good thing then.

Like I said from the beginning, for me its a matter of principle. People have the right to scalp and people have the right to buy from scalpers. I don't like the practice and I think it ruins the hobby so I do what I can to not be involved. I would rather not own a figure than buy it from a scalper.

Others don't feel the same way as I do and thats fine. But if people buy from scalpers then they shouldn't have the right to complain about scalping later. And if people want scalping to go away, then they shouldn't buy from scalpers.