Elden Ring - Delayed to 2022

I know a few fields in which scalping is illegal in Europe, for example tickets for concerts of football games, you can't buy tickets in a high demand game and resell them for a higher price. There are active police officers around the stadiums that confiscate the tickets and fine people doing this, especially because in such events the markup price sometimes reaches absurd numbers like 500% upwards.

Scalping in high demand pieces of hardware shouldn't be any different and I am surprised that the developers themselves don't try harder to make sure their products go into the hands of those who will make use of them, rather than reselling them at a higher price. It is bad for everyone except for the scalper. It's bad even for the manufacturer, because their customers are paying a higher price for something they made, and they're seeing none of it, instead some middle-man scammer is getting the money out of their hard work and all he did was setup a bot.

And I'm not even going to argue about the utter lack of morality behind being a scalper, because that doesn't carry any legal weight, but if I was asked who in the current world you think you could never have a drink with, it's a cointoss between a scalper and a flat-earther.

Ah ok, same as most places.
Illegal by city law and bylaw, but not country.

Couchpotato said:

She means it should be illegal and I agree as some of these scalping groups buy huge chucks of the stock, and markup the price by 30-50% to sell them online.

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30-50% doesn't sound too bad, all the good video cards right now are marked up by 150-200%. Some RTX 3090's (like the Asus ROG White Edition) sell for up to $4500 on eBay.

And the RTX 2080 Ti that I paid $1000 for, 3 years ago, now sells for up to $1500 on eBay…used. :lol:

Not sure it should be called scalping though, unfortunately this is just basic capitalism, supply and demand. The video card manufacturers have set insanely low list prices on their cards, given the current low supply and high demand, which is why you have to buy from scalpers. Who's going to pass up the chance to buy and then sell and make a quick grand or two?

Stingray said:

Who's going to pass up the chance to buy and then sell and make a quick grand or two?

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Well, there is a different way of looking at it - we know there's a public shortage, so let's not exploit the situation and make things worse.

You make it sound like a moral issue, but video cards aren’t some basic necessity...so I don’t think very many would be deterred.

Stingray said:

You make it sound like a moral issue, but video cards aren’t some basic necessity…so I don’t think very many would be deterred.

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Well, I think there is a difference between an investor and a scalper, and a situation like this helps to define the latter. I don't think that it only becomes a moral issue when it involves the basic necessities of life.

I think also (though this might be more a P&R chat) that capitalism is sometimes portrayed as being a purely technical system, separate from questions of morality. But the original thinkers of modern capitalism definitely discussed a moral dimension.

I've never made bucks off reselling tech stuff, but man, back in the day I raked in some serious cash by standing in line at music venues, buying in bulk and then re-selling right outside before going in to enjoy the show. I could easily score two to five k on shows like Bowie, HFS'tival, and many others. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time, as I was taking a serious risk at possibly not reselling the tickets that I'd paid for in advance, and indeed that did happen a time or two. Keep in mind that in most cases I was out of pocket the cash for weeks/months in advance, before the shows actually happened when I could recoup.

As annoying as scalping is, it seems like what is really exasperating the problem is bot-buying. That scalpers can organize and quickly bot-buy from online retailers is in part perpetuating shortages that are already problematic due to chip shortages.

Sekiro will probably keep me playing till 2022

TheMadGamer said:

As annoying as scalping is, it seems like what is really exasperating the problem is bot-buying. That scalpers can organize and quickly bot-buy from online retailers is in part perpetuating shortages that are already problematic due to chip shortages.

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It's the secret to how they buy out the full stock online and cause the shortages in the first place. There have been videos about this practice and how they don't care.

If you're not buying the tickets in person, there should be a limit on how many you can obtain. Like having to provide social security numbers/ID digits of some kind, just to keep everything on the up and up.

It should be one per person, if stock is ever a concern. It doesn't matter if it's a "luxury" item. The point is to benefit the customers, not the one scammer that wants to take advantage of everyone else's needs. Some retailers already do this, and it works great for everyone involved.

It also leads to things like this, that completely make my day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqUKEhyvFaM

Nereida said:

It also leads to things like this, that completely make my day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqUKEhyvFaM

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I like seeing people like that get their comeuppance, but I was distracted by the fact that it was young Marc Rebillet she bought the spot from. He's a musician who blew up a while back. He's got a million and a half Youtube subscribers these days and he counts among his fans Erykah Badu and Ice-T. :lol:

Checked out couple seconds of a three year old trailer and I think its demented. Some zombie hero trying to reassemble himself?? No thanks..