This is so nice. This thread made me put one of my preordered consoles on sale and in 3 hours I have already made a 168€ profit for that one. Could have easily asked for more but that is good enough for the test run. 4 more consoles to go. :)

You have a valid point, it is what the market will bear and fair to others.  In fact what you describe is exactly what my company does. Of course I know we do not mark up our goods and service nearly like our competitors do and accounts love us for being more affordable (there is no way they'd get the prices we do at whole salers either) but that is beside the point, middle-men exist.

I know when games go on sale I am the "fool" who buys one copy for personal enjoyment while others buy 20 to make a quick and easy buck on eBay.  I have debated it many a time, but I just think if they got there before me there would be no games because of their practice.  It is not wrong, but a grey area for me because of my emotional attachment to video games.  Did not mean to make anyone feel guilty.

And I couldn't care less since I'm not stupid and got my preorder in at a trusted retailer. Why should I care that some fool dumps 1000 bucks on a Wii U or whatever? His internal cost-benefit-analysis told him that 1000 bucks is acceptable so why should I break a sweat complaining about this?

You are wrong.

Topic:

You said "It didn't work for the PS3" which is referring to Francis' comment on selling new consoles well over retail price at launch.

Yet it did.

From the PS3s launch on November 11th until just after Christmas 2006 the PS3's price on Ebay was anywere from $800 to $1200 regularly. However, unlike the Wii, it dropped back to normal very quickly as stock become normalized in January. Wii on the other hand kept very high prices on Ebay for nearly two years due to limited to no stock; especially during 2006 and 2007 holiday seasons.

I live on Ebay. I know for a fact PS3s were at leat $800 and right after black friday up to $1200 for a short time. (i.e. people paid 2x the price for one) I was kicking myself for not doing that for Wii (2006 and 2007) and ps3 (2006).

EDIT: http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/22/commentary/column_gaming/index.htm

That article confirms exactly what I said.

The difference is that retailers and importers take their cut for providing a service to customers, while there is never any real value provided by scalpers. It is not a common thing, but I have been told about concerts that "sell out" almost instantly and then end up being 80% full, with half the people who went to the concert having been forced to pay scalper prices.

Sure we do.  We get there in line at the earliest possible time (in this case, the day of the announcement of the release date) and we buy up a console.  Regardless of if "scalpers" bought extra or not, all preorders would have sold out within the first week.  Fast forward to black friday.  The WiiU is all the rage in commercials and little timmy wants one, but everywhere you go they are sold out.  Shipments are expected at 3 am in the middle of december.  If everyone who preordered actually kept the console, you'd have to wait in line at 3 am just for the CHANCE to get one.

Now there are enterprising people who bought a console for resale purposes.  They've been holding on to their stock since the infamous preorder back in September.  Now, suddenly, when the only way to get a console was a retail price at 3 am on a tuesday night there is another option.  From the warmth and comfort of your own home, you can click a button and have the item shipped to you in plenty of time for wrapping and putting under the tree.  But this conveniece, nay even OPTION to buy at this time comes at a price.  You will pay what the market sets for the value of the console, not MSRP.

But you have that option.  In the theoretical "perfect" world, where only people who wanted the item would buy it, the option does not exist.  We enable the lazy or the less on the ball with money to burn to be able to get what they want, when they want it.  That is a service.

Way too much. Who would buy that?

How are you going to tell me what I was relating it too? I just told you what it was a response to. There is no opinion or variability on that matter.

The latter half of your post reconfirms exactly what I stated earlier. People "thought" it was going to work with the PS3 ,but it fell. I've no doubt that there were some individuals who were "trying" to charge 1200 and even  $10,000 for a new PS3 but the "average price" of those that were gouging on Ebay was no more than $800 and it didn't go through. Most made no sale.

Isn't it obvious? That "top seller" is Reggie. Think about it. Put a limited number of Wii Us on the market while keeping a warehouse full to sell on ebay for 5 times as much. How else are they going to afford to sell a system for $300 while being 19 times more powerful than a PS3?

Excuse me?

A "scalper" offers a service to customers, who are more than willing to spend money to use that service. Last time I offered this service, I actually got a postcard after christmas. It was a picture of a very happy kid playing with his Wii and my valued customer expressed his sincere gratitude for my service. I guess he had that "real value" from my service.

Heck, I was so flattered of that card that I sent the kid one of my extra copies of Wii Play in return for free.