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Forums - Gaming - Should console scalping be illegal?

 

Should PS5/XSX scalping be illegal?

Yes. It's theft. 32 41.03%
 
No. Muh rites, bruh. 46 58.97%
 
Total:78
jlauro on 28 November 2020
Shiken said:

Just like scalping baseball tickets, yes it should be illegal. If it is a legit used device, you can mark it up to whatever you want. But buying up all the new stock just to turn around and sell them for 2 or 3 times market value should be punishable by law Retailers cannot mark them up like that, why should this scum be able to?

If people are willing to pay it, then that is the market value.  You are confusing MSRP with market value.  Market value is dependent on supply and demand and right now supply is low and demand is high, so market value is significantly greater than MSRP.



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Alby_da_Wolf on 28 November 2020
Ka-pi96 said:
JRPGfan said:

Im somewere closer to yes, than no honestly.
it feels wrong, that people buy something others look forwards to and actually want, just so they can keep it out of the hands of these people, and profit off of them.
It also hurts the main seller, whose purpose was to make a certain number of product avaliable to these people (honest buyers).

On the other hand... how in the world would you enforce it? or prevent it?

reguardless of legality.... its a dick move.

Does it though?

They're still making money from the sale regardless. So there's no difference from a hardware perspective. As for software, scalpers will ensure those that have the most spare cash and are most willing to buy things for inflated prices have consoles. ie. those most likely to buy lots of full price games. It will also mean those that can barely afford the console are much less likely to get it. ie. those least likely to buy lots of games. A greater proportion of highly profitable customers would actually be beneficial for Sony/Microsoft, so they're not getting hurt there either.

Plus this is effectively free advertising for them too. If a produce as seen as hugely popular and in demand then that in turn is going to make even more people want it. People are more likely to make impulse purchases for something they know people are paying much more for online when they see there's just 1 left on the shelf, than if there were 50 on the shelf and it didn't seem that popular.

Besides, Sony/Microsoft could have taken measures to prevent scalpers getting hold of that many consoles if they wanted to. They didn't though, so they can't be worried about it hurting them.

It does, because until scalped consoles actually get into the hands of end users, they won't generate SW sales, so damaging devs, publishers and stores for the delayed sales and platform owners for the delayed royalties. And consoles being bought later by many end users could also cause a not totally insignificant number of totally missed, not just delayed, SW sales too through the whole console lifetime. Some very hyped and front loaded launch window titles could be hit more heavily than average.



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jlauro on 28 November 2020

Manufacturers should have non refundable reserve at say 10-20% down. That would help them get better demand and a fairer queue at launch. Not that everyone will know which they want until both release, but it would greatly help the initial round of scalping.



VAMatt on 28 November 2020

I cannot believe that anyone thinks it should be illegal. The fact that so many of you do helps me understand why people don't rebel againat their totalitarian governments. It seems that a lot of people *want* to be oppressed.



m0ney on 28 November 2020

They just want to feed their families.



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QUAKECore89 on 28 November 2020

It's very depending on the region, i dunno about you guys but i wish you have scalping is illegal.

In my country, scalping is finally illegal officially, only three game shops got caught & fined for scalping, unauthorized and overpriced products, they'll never able to buy from official retailers again.



Shiken on 28 November 2020
jlauro said:
Shiken said:

Just like scalping baseball tickets, yes it should be illegal. If it is a legit used device, you can mark it up to whatever you want. But buying up all the new stock just to turn around and sell them for 2 or 3 times market value should be punishable by law Retailers cannot mark them up like that, why should this scum be able to?

If people are willing to pay it, then that is the market value.  You are confusing MSRP with market value.  Market value is dependent on supply and demand and right now supply is low and demand is high, so market value is significantly greater than MSRP.

The only type of person that could ever condone scalping, must be a scalper themselves.  No on in their right mind would condone such a vile PoS practice.  It should be illegal, regardless of the definition of market value.  If the definition needs to change, then maybe it needs to change.

If people are willing to pay the mark ups, they have problems themselves and need to take a close look at their priorities.

Sorry, not sorry.  I have no sympathy for anyone that practices scalping.



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LudicrousSpeed on 28 November 2020

Scalping tickets isn’t illegal everywhere. In my state it’s perfectly legal. AFAIK in the north east like New York etc you can only charge a max of 20% more than the ticket sale price.

If someone is dumb enough to pay $1000+ for these consoles then there should be people allowed to sell them. Yeah it sucks for people who want one but you can get them if you put effort into it. That’s how these people make the money, they’re counting on the lazy people with more disposable money to not mind paying so much extra. If the every day gamer or parent wanting them just tried, most would likely get them. But people don’t want to put the effort in, they want to be able to just go into a store and buy them.



IcaroRibeiro on 28 November 2020

If it was a basic survival product, or medicine, I agree

But a gaming hard hardware? I don't understand why state should forbid it



jlauro on 28 November 2020
Shiken said:
jlauro said:

If people are willing to pay it, then that is the market value.  You are confusing MSRP with market value.  Market value is dependent on supply and demand and right now supply is low and demand is high, so market value is significantly greater than MSRP.

The only type of person that could ever condone scalping, must be a scalper themselves.  No on in their right mind would condone such a vile PoS practice.  It should be illegal, regardless of the definition of market value.  If the definition needs to change, then maybe it needs to change.

If people are willing to pay the mark ups, they have problems themselves and need to take a close look at their priorities.

Sorry, not sorry.  I have no sympathy for anyone that practices scalping.

Not true.  For one thing, scalpers are out numbered by those that buy from scalpers and those that buy from scalpers obviously also condone it.  If no one in their right mind condoned the practice then there wouldn't be so many people willing to buy from scalpers.

Personally, I will do neither.  I can wait a few months or longer if needed.  In general, I condone it more than consider it illegal.  There are better ways to deal with the problem.  One option would be to allow stores to sell over MSRP.  People would then complain about the prices from those stores, but at least it wouldn't go as crazy high as scalpers.