Tresob wrote:Scalping occurs because Hasbro and its resellers have undervalued their own product. If a large number of consumers are willing to pay $20 for a particular figure, but TRU only charges $12, then scalpers will take advantage of the difference.
First of all, this is utterly ridiculous. Hasbro has not undervalued their own products. Hasbro has put a target price on their products that they believe is a happy medium between being expensive enough for them to get max profit but being cheap enough that it actually sells. Hasbro makes zero profit if they price their figures too high and they don't sell. They also make zero profit if they sell them all at a loss. So they find a medium and price figure at such.
Suggesting that consumers are willing to pay $20 for a $12 dollar figure is absurd. Thats would be suggesting that you, a consumer, visits a Toys R' Us and sees a figure in ample supply for $20. Having just come from a Walmart, you know that they also have the same figure in ample supply for $12. You decide to pass on the cheaper figure simply because you are there now and so is the figure so you'll just pay $8 dollars more since its easier for you.
Perhaps you are a millionare and that is no big deal for you. For the rest of us, nobody will pass up on the $12 figure to pay $20 for the same figure. The reason being is because consumers are NOT willing to pay $20 for a $12 figure.
The figure isn't being undervalued. Scalpers are over-valueing them by buying them all and creating a shortage of supply forcing collectors to pay the over-valued price or not buy them at all. Just because collectors are forced to pay scalper prices doesn't mean they are just willing to pay higher prices under normal circumstances.
Tresob wrote:Scalping is actually helpful to a manufacturer: 1) It tells the manufacturer what their best products are, and 2) it tells the manufacturer what consumers are willing to pay.
Scalping is also beneficial to the retailer--the retailer still makes its targeted profit on the scalped item, plus by making individual characters more scarce, it increases the likelihood that consumers will make repeated visits (and eventually buy something other than the HTF figure, if only as a consolation prize).
Ok, fair enough but none of that has anything to do with the conversation. I can certainly see where scalpers would benefit the manufacturer and the retailer, being that they are forking over the suggested retail price for every figure that they buy. But thats not the current conversation. The conversation is about how scalpers are NOT beneficial that the collector.
I too would be forking over the suggested retail price for every figure that I buy if the figure was available for me to buy. But when the figure is sitting in some scalper's closet waiting for somebody to click on the "buy it now" button of an ebay auction at twice the suggested price, I would consider the figure unavailable to me at that point.
Scalpers are now profitting on a figure that the manufacturer and the retailer have already profitted on. I don't care how you spin it, that isn't beneficial to anybody but the scalper. The fact is that scalpers target the popular products, products that most likely all would have been purchased anyway. Hasbro and the retailer would have made their money regardless. But, like I have been stating already in this thread, collector's are poor at exercising self-control. Scalper's prey on that to squeak out their own slice of a pie.
So sure, in your little scenario, you are correct. The manufacturer wins, the retailer wins, and the scalpers win. But the collectors lose. And in your scenario, the collectors are the only ones who lose. As a collector, I don't like being the sole loser in a situation that really shouldn't have any losers.
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
