Switch 2 fans are fighting the scalpers.

They just need to tick off return value based on warranty for unopened devices. Simple.

These scalpers have no risk. If the value of the device starts tumbling due to warranty expiration it would change overnight. If they break the seal then they can't sell it as 'new'.

I think that's a fair trade off for some sanity and beating scumbags. Who keeps something round for 3 months unopened and then returns it anyway?
 
You would have better chance to get one if scalpers were not buying all the stock. Common sense.
A person unconcerned with price effectively has a 100% chance of getting one with scalpers partially switching the market from 'first come, first served' to 'highest bidder'.

Their chance of getting one *at retail price* increases with scalpers removed from the market (how much it increases would depend on how limited supply is compared to demand), but their chance of getting one *at any price* can only decrease.
 
I guess you're entitled to be ok with it, but scalpers inevitably contribute to the difficulty to get new products because they take away stock, and can hoard multiple copies vs individual shoppers.

You also have products since the pandemic rising in cost, so scalpers on top of that make the market just worse for everyone who doesn't have large disposable income.
Re: disposable income - a videogame console is not a necessity, you are not entitled to one. It is a frivolous expense.

This is on a smaller scale exactly the same thing as you have with luxury sport steel watches - the batshit hot category for the past 10-12 years. The likes of PP, Rolex, AP, they are impossible to get at retail, offered only to loyal clients having spent multiples. Some of these clients then profit and list the watches on the secondary market for 3x price - there was a famous case of a shitstorm that PP Salon in NYC got themselves into for selling a super rare watch to a customer that flipped it on the same day. You do not see this kind of blowback and mostly the criticism is levied at the manufacturer (in this case that would be Nintendo).
 
I have no problem with them. They perform a service that some people, including me, are willing to use if needed.

I've used them to get my PS5, original Steam Deck, and a couple of graphics cards over the years and I'll use them to get a Switch 2 if needed.

I don't mind paying a premium to get hard-to-get or limited supply items. It's 100% worth it to me to pay a little extra to avoid the stress, hassle, etc... of getting new tech when it's released.

I also used scalpers extensively back in the 90s to get concert tickets. Sometimes, that was the only way to get them.
You know, that everything you listed up was hard to get because of the scalpers? Because of them everything is out of stock and they can sell it for more to make quick cash?
 
Well, I'm one of the biggest Nintendo fans. but also a scalper (if I want to). What do I do?
Frustrated Head GIF

(it will at least cure you of your nintendo problem)
 
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Personally I am in the camp of it is silly to pay 2 times the price of something. Unless you are that rich and money is no object then it is silly. Just wait until the next batch to get one at normal price.

But the whole scalpers thing is an interesting one. It seems they are scum by many. Fair enough. But at the same time if someone buys something direct from China and resells for 3 times, even 5 times the price then they are praised as a good businessman.

I get the argument that these scalpers add to the scarcity of an item, thus increasing the price. But is life not fair? Is it not shrewd to see where to make a buck?

But this whole thing reminds me of a funny Only Fools and Horses joke (legendary UK sitcom for those unaware)

"Boycie would scalp you if dandruff had a going rate" lol.

Importing something provides value as a servce, scalping does not.

If you would hypohetically buy up all the toilet paper in your local town and resell it for double the price, your neighbours would scalp you alive.
 
A person unconcerned with price effectively has a 100% chance of getting one with scalpers partially switching the market from 'first come, first served' to 'highest bidder'.

Their chance of getting one *at retail price* increases with scalpers removed from the market (how much it increases would depend on how limited supply is compared to demand), but their chance of getting one *at any price* can only decrease.
Their chance of getting one at retail price is 100% as every single person who wished to buy the Switch 1 eventually could buy one.

Scalpers don't simply sell at higher price, they create the artificial scarcity, but this only a temporary effect and they know it. They are simply pushing back the date at which buyers can buy the product at normal retail price.

They don't magically create more units, the number available at any given time remains the same. Simply they prevent people that have the retail budget to get their console, to sell it to people stupid enough to pay double the price.
 
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Were there scalpers during the 360/wii/ps3 years? Now the scalpers are thriving through various markets (FB Marketplace, Mercardi and eBay) and have you ever been in the presence of a scalper? I think they're nuts, cars packed with systems, spending tons of money on shoes, it isn't normal.
Yes 100%. I was in line for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3. During the PS3 launch there was literally a scalper there paying people to wait in line with him to get a console.

The Wii was probably the worst, it was notoriously hard to find for awhile and people were scaling the crap out of it.
 
Their chance of getting one at retail price is 100% as every single person who wished to buy the Switch 1 eventually could buy one.
'Eventually', sure, once supply is meeting demand. Avoiding the 'eventually' is how people unconcerned with price benefit from scalpers in the market in the period before that happens.

they create the artificial scarcity

Not really, unless they're hoarding them rather than selling them, otherwise the number available remains the same, as you said.

Simply they prevent people that have the retail budget to get their console, to sell it to people stupid enough to pay double the price.

Yes, exactly: they reduce the chance of the former group getting one and increase the chance of the latter group getting one, which is how the latter group benefits from scalpers in the market.
 
'Eventually', sure, once supply is meeting demand. Avoiding the 'eventually' is how people unconcerned with price benefit from scalpers in the market in the period before that happens.



Not really, unless they're hoarding them rather than selling them, otherwise the number available remains the same, as you said.



Yes, exactly: they reduce the chance of the former group getting one and increase the chance of the latter group getting one, which is how the latter group benefits from scalpers in the market.
Good. Seems to me that you have a pretty good grasp on how this not a service in any way in the end.
 
You would have better chance to get one if scalpers were not buying all the stock. Common sense.
Not really.

Let's take the Switch 2 as an example. With a scalper, I have a 100% chance of getting the console. Remove all scalpers and that's still not the case.

When/if pre-orders go live in the USA I will try to pre-order a Switch 2, but if I don't get one I will immediately buy one from a scalper, so one way or the other I'm getting the console on release.

EDIT: If pre-orders don't go live in the USA and the console is just released on June 5th, I may go ahead and buy a scalped console from the UK just to ensure I get one.
 
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Let's take the Switch 2 as an example. With a scalper, I have a 100% chance of getting the console. Remove all scalpers and that's still not the case.
If someone else is not buying your unit, then you can buy it yourself. If there aren't enough units fir everybody, scalpers are not magically making more units available.
 
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This assumes that there won't be a scarcity issue with the Switch 2 at release
Scalpers don't make more consoles available. They don't solve the issue of not satisfying the overall demand. People will have to wait, scalpers or not.
 
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Scalpers don't make more consoles available. They don't solve the issue of not satisfying the overall demand. People will have to wait, scalpers or not.
Scalpers ensure that a console is available to me, when I want it at a price I'm willing to pay.

Scalpers also do the work that I don't want to do: standing in line, dealing with online queues, etc...

I will happily pay them not to have to deal with that hassle.
 
I listened to the first 60 seconds and so far, Switch 2 preorders from other regions are on eBay for x2 price.

Yeah I'm gonna need a TLDR on the good part
TLDR- People overreact to scalpers because it is easy to do. Even in the PS5 scarcity era the number of scalpers were small compared to the number of consoles sold. People see a few dozen people selling dozens of consoles on ebay and don't do the math to even estimate how many are being scalped.

I am not sure what level is too much, but it was less than 10% being scalped. This means most are being sold to people. What is frustrating is that the retail units sell out instantaneous because demand >> supply. This makes trying to buy awful. Websites crash, orders get cancelled, people go through this multiple times before finally getting something. While this is going on there are 100s of units listed on ebay that take days to sell and people cite those prices as if they are the going rate. Some people do buy them. So what? If they can afford to pay hundreds to avoid the loop of failing over and over again I don't mind too much because that slightly reduces the number of people trying to get what I am trying to get during a drop. The vast majority of units sell to real people who are just luckier than those who fail to get them. Thousands of units are selling in these large national drops.

The other thing about scalpers is some are just people trying to score one unit to make a couple bucks. Why is that considered evil? They are clearly not in a good economic position if they have to do this. There are risks that someone scams them and the way ebay works, they end up with nothing. Does it really make sense to be angry at someone who needs to do this to make a couple hundred bucks? I am not referring to the bot wielding assholes that score 10s, I'm talking about people trying to score one per drop and turning that into a little more money. Why is that conflated with the bot assholes. Even so, how is this evil? Nintendo is fucking scalping systems by selling them for 450 in the US and 300 something in Japan.

Why do people care so much about a relatively small percentage of hard to get items being scalped? Look up the number of unique listings and do some math to convince yourself that this problem is as big as you think.
 
Scalpers ensure that a console is available to me, when I want it at a price I'm willing to pay.

Scalpers also do the work that I don't want to do: standing in line, dealing with online queues, etc...

I will happily pay them not to have to deal with that hassle.
Exactly. There is an economic need for this that they get paid for. The last item I got that was hard to buy was a 4090. I spent over 2 months trying to score an FE. I gave one order to someone via some sketchy exchange for no profit and eventually settled for the day 1 Amazon order that took 5 weeks to arrive that sat unopened while I still tried. Best Buy is so fucking awful that they do random drops by store or region so they have a drop going on somewhere in the US for hours. And what is worse is that you don't even know. You basically sit there every day for an hour, and if they actually drop you could be there for 3 hours trying. All said and done I spent something like 30 hours obsessing and stressing and failing. This is probably an extreme case, but a scalper lets you avoid that. The scalped card was likely not going to be yours regardless because demand is so much higher than supply.
 
Good. Seems to me that you have a pretty good grasp on how this not a service in any way in the end.
I just explained to you how it is for people unconcerned with price: they get to pay to avoid the risk of missing out while availability is limited. Whether you think they should be able to do that or not is another matter.

To suggest there is no benefit for anyone except the scalper is clearly false. Some customers benefit from it and some are harmed by it.
 
Buying for one price and selling for a higher one is the basis of the economy. I feel like if you are into free trade, you just shrug and tolerate scalpers as an inevitable natural reaction to an item being in heavy demand.
 
I would say just grow some fucking Patience. You don't "need a 4090" or "need this gpu", You just cannot wait and are in a financial spot where you can do so. It sucks because it supports the scum sucking practice because most of you are just impatience.
 
It's like people don't understand supply and demand. Why are you not angry at Nintendo for not producing enough to fulfill initial demand?
You mean how so many people would rather go to the lengths of inventing a new form of economics when Econ 101 pretty much describe what's happening?
 
Were there scalpers during the 360/wii/ps3 years? Now the scalpers are thriving through various markets (FB Marketplace, Mercardi and eBay) and have you ever been in the presence of a scalper? I think they're nuts, cars packed with systems, spending tons of money on shoes, it isn't normal.
Oh yes there were.
I remember the Wii in Europe being in incredibly short supply in December 2006, and some scalpers offering (and getting) close to 1,000 € per unit.

I had imported one, and was myself offered a shitload of money for mine. Kept it.
 
They just need to tick off return value based on warranty for unopened devices. Simple.

These scalpers have no risk. If the value of the device starts tumbling due to warranty expiration it would change overnight. If they break the seal then they can't sell it as 'new'.

I think that's a fair trade off for some sanity and beating scumbags. Who keeps something round for 3 months unopened and then returns it anyway?

Scalpers have no risk buying and selling a product that they don't need to open to process to begin with and the solution is to penalize opening it?

Not sure how they will figure this one out.
 
Scalpers have no risk buying and selling a product that they don't need to open to process to begin with and the solution is to penalize opening it?

Not sure how they will figure this one out.
It's a parasite behavior. Buy something because you know it's going to be limited stock and resale it to dumb assholes with too much money to spend.
 
Scalpers have no risk buying and selling a product that they don't need to open to process to begin with and the solution is to penalize opening it?

Not sure how they will figure this one out.
Scalping only exists because there is no supply. If people hold out they have to eat the loss on a ticking timeline, leading to earlier returns. They start losing value immediately.
 
Scalping only exists because there is no supply. If people hold out they have to eat the loss on a ticking timeline, leading to earlier returns. They start losing value immediately.

You already said they have no risk, so I assumed you meant risk over their initial investment. Risk over maximizing returns is an entirely different game.

Unless you are saying it should start losing return value immediately even as an unopened item.
 
You already said they have no risk, so I assumed you meant risk over their initial investment. Risk over maximizing returns is an entirely different game.

Unless you are saying it should start losing return value immediately even as an unopened item.

Yeah, only for products susceptible to scalping though. The thing is they can carry stock safe in the knowledge they can return even after 4 months or more and recoup all their initial outlay.

Change the game - noone should be buying highly sought after goods to not use them.
 
Yeah, only for products susceptible to scalping though. The thing is they can carry stock safe in the knowledge they can return even after 4 months or more and recoup all their initial outlay.

Change the game - noone should be buying highly sought after goods to not use them.

Best Buy has a 15 day return window.

I strongly disagree with changing return rules for everyone over a few antics. Free trade is free trade.

The ease of both buying multiples of a console from a retailer and returning one (or all) of them seems more dubious than presented.

Scalpers already need to be crafty, and even carry some risk it will be a bad investment. How exactly did that lady with all the Wii U in her car get rid of them? The return window?

Most scalpers aren't looking to buy an item and hold it for a very long time. You try and secure something you think will be in demand (or know is) and flip it while in that intense demand. The longer you wait, the longer for supply to be alleviated.

News flash, if someone spots an item worth $800 for $400, offering the opportunity for $400 gain, they buy it. This isn't some game supply morality issue. It's a way the world turns issue. You'll never change it. It's like spotting a find in a thrift store you know is rare and worth $100. But you won't buy it for $1 because well, it would be mean.

I also believe anyone should be able to purchase anything they want for whatever purpose. Want a new game system to open and use as a fancy themed desk paperweight? It's your money, it's your business. Maybe you want a sensor in the NS2 and throw the rest in the garbage. Maybe it sits in the package as an extra to resell, gift or mod later. It's not my place to judge how you "use" the items you paid for.
 
Were there scalpers during the 360/wii/ps3 years? Now the scalpers are thriving through various markets (FB Marketplace, Mercardi and eBay) and have you ever been in the presence of a scalper? I think they're nuts, cars packed with systems, spending tons of money on shoes, it isn't normal.
Wii fought scalpers for over 2 years:


Ebay was littered with $500 Wiis for the entire year after its release. Nintendo could have had a $500 MSRP for the Wii and would still have struggled to meet demand.
 
It's the scale that changed. I 'scalped' a Wii back in the day when Gamestop just happened to have one while I was out on Black Friday. But nowadays people are scalping hundreds of systems from multiple retailers with automated scripts that can always beat a regular customer.
Sometimes that backfires!



Not sure what will happen with Switch 2, but I think the scalping effect MIGHT be lessened by the non-holiday launch date. Sure its summer and kids are out, but Christmas season takes it to the next level where people will pay ANYTHING to have Santa keep his word.
 
Re: disposable income - a videogame console is not a necessity, you are not entitled to one. It is a frivolous expense.

This is on a smaller scale exactly the same thing as you have with luxury sport steel watches - the batshit hot category for the past 10-12 years. The likes of PP, Rolex, AP, they are impossible to get at retail, offered only to loyal clients having spent multiples. Some of these clients then profit and list the watches on the secondary market for 3x price - there was a famous case of a shitstorm that PP Salon in NYC got themselves into for selling a super rare watch to a customer that flipped it on the same day. You do not see this kind of blowback and mostly the criticism is levied at the manufacturer (in this case that would be Nintendo).

I think that's the issue though...more video games and electronics companies want to position themselves as a luxury brand, because luxury brands get away with bs that mines more money out of each customer. I don't really like most luxury brands in general because they often enough don't raise quality that much, but the expectation is you're overspending for diminished return so people get less mad about it.

People get more mad about game companies doing this, because for as much as they want to be perceived as luxury...they are and have always been mass market goods. Nintendo for example can hold itself to this prestige, which they can to some extent have because of the brand power of some of their IP, but their literal devices look like toys any kid could buy. So if they raise prices, a good chunk of people will pay, but another chunk will always think it's ridiculous.
 
If they provide information about Latin America and Mexico regarding pricing and pre-orders, I'll post it here, friends...

Let's fight the scalpers..
 
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