Bounce Alerts (Buying and Selling for Profit) - Consumer Awareness

Arjun

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Feb 26, 2017
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Anyone have comments about this Twitter Feed? Seems to be common nowadays for buyers to scoop up newly released products and sell them for profit. Where's the ethical basis on this?

They seem to have penetrated the electronics segment of the market now by scooping up newly released Apple products, preleases, preorders, etc., and just about any "hot" item in / anticipated to be in demand :facepalm:

 
The practice of buying products like this and selling them at higher prices for profit is often called "scalping". The ethics of it are complex.

One could argue that scalping is not unethical because scalpers aren't stealing from anyone. They are paying full asking price to the original seller, and when they resell, they are only charging as much as someone is willing to pay. The entire business model wouldn't work if there was no supply shortage. Basically, the scalpers are providing a service. For this added fee, you can buy the hot new product at your own convenience without the hassle of getting up early, refreshing web pages for days, or waiting in line, because the scalper did that work for you.

Of course, nobody likes to think that they were unable to buy an item at a fair price because someone else bought it to resell for personal profit. I would rather see manufacturers launch their new products later when supply is actually able to meet demand. Or they could even start by selling their stuff at higher prices that are more in-line with what people are willing to pay, and only reduce prices when supplies are good enough to meet demand at the lower price. This way the people profiting the most from the sale are the people who deserve it the most, not some opportunist whose only contribution to society is being able to buy things faster than everyone else.
 
All this is stemming from my recent experience with NVIDIA's 30xx series launch which didn't go well for the tech community, scalpers and their companions bots scooped up all the cards that were released day before yesterday before any genuine consumer could get them :(
 
All this is stemming from my recent experience with NVIDIA's 30xx series launch which didn't go well for the tech community, scalpers and their companions bots scooped up all the cards that were released day before yesterday before any genuine consumer could get them
Well if people are smart, they will not buy them from those people at inflated prices, forcing the scalpers to drop the price or sit holding a lot of inventory. But in today's world of I want it now! I doubt that this will happen. Those that just can't wait will pay high prices, which in turn only supports that business model and encourages more of the same.
 
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