jjseth said: cebrian said: So... what if I go to the United States and get 5 wiis to resell them for 330 dollars in Mexico? The price for a Wii here is 400 dollars, I would be giving them for less money than they are worth in my country and i would be getting a healthy profit? would that make me a douchebag too? Considering how great the US dollar is performing you may be better off just having them pay you in pesos.   Also keep in mind that taking items across the border will result in you having to pay import taxes on them too which will minimize any profit that you could make as well as the hassle it would be.

I have not done it, and of course i would be paid in pesos i just used dollars for comparison purposes. Also dont worry about import taxes you can always manage to get them to the other side hehe, I bought mine in USA along with3 of my friends who got one each at launch and we didnt import them we just went through the border with our personal belongings. That also happened to include a Wii for each one of the car occupants hehe.

 

The thing is I would be giving them for a lot cheaoer than it is around here with no shortage and the trip is costlier than the profit, but since i would be doing the trip anyway and buy many other things for myself it wouldnt really matter.

I don't see what the big deal is here. I will side with Capitalism any day of the week. Cdude is, for all intents and purposes, saving his Wii for someone who values it at that price. Its all supply and demands friends. When the demand is what it is now, and the supply barely or almost keeps up, then the value = cost. When the demand is higher, and supply is not keeping up with the demand, the the value > cost.

So peeps, when supply is less than demand, costs go up. They should go up to keep the market working. If people don't like it go to Cuba. When a price is fixed and demand increases, supply will NEVER keep up. If, however, prices can be adjusted, and demand increases, Supply will be able to meet the demand at some level.

If, for instance, Cdude has the last Wii in his state, then he could set the price much higher and people would pay for it. There is no shame in setting prices whatever you want, so long as people will pay it. There is nothing terrible or "douchebag" like quality to it. It simply is what it is. Profit.

If people are willing to pay, then they deserve to "get burned." I personally don't believe that people will pay more than something is worth (valued to them). If they don't want the product at that price then they won't buy it. Simple as that.

A year after release when the Wii is being supplied to North America at a rate above 500,000 units per month you're trying to sell it for more than 30% above retail?

The guy obviously wanted to buy your Wii, but not for an $80 markup.  I can't say I blame him -- I'd wait and get it in stores.  Maybe you'll have better luck around Christmas time if you want to make a profit selling Wiis (which is a grey area, imo). 

I agree with with Jesus and Satan, this guy is a turd.

Why the hell is the ban hammer out today for anyone that has Agnostic at the beginning of their names?

Dear Everyone,

The fact that capitalism is beneficial for some things doesn't mean that all instances of it are ethical or worthwhile. This isn't a debate of socialism vs. capitalism, it's a debate about a particular facet of capitalism. Stop grandstanding about the free market and consider the specific ethical properties of what I believe has been correctly identified as scalping.

Thanks!
-Choirs

choirsoftheeye said: Dear Everyone, The fact that capitalism is beneficial for some things doesn't mean that all instances of it are ethical or worthwhile. This isn't a debate of socialism vs. capitalism, it's a debate about a particular facet of capitalism. Stop grandstanding about the free market and consider the specific ethical properties of what I believe has been correctly identified as scalping. Thanks! -Choirs

 Sadly, Capitalism is exactly what this is about. IF NOBODY VALUES A WII AT HIS ASKING POINT NOBODY WILL BUY IT! He will not take advantage of anybody that wants his Product. You may indeed call this scalping, that doesn't mean this is exactly what is happening. It is all about your perspective, world-view, paradigm, prism of reality, etc... of the market. I don't think he is taking advantage of anyone, so I cannot say that he is crossing any ethical line in the sand. 

cdude1034 said: Final-Fan said: cebrian said: So... what if I go to the United States and get 5 wiis to resell them for 330 dollars in Mexico? The price for a Wii here is 400 dollars, I would be giving them for less money than they are worth in my country and i would be getting a healthy profit? would that make me a douchebag too? No, it would not. Because that's a different situation. You've gone from "scalper" to "trader". Yet another sigh. A "scalper" "trades" their time and effort for profit.

OK, up to now you've been pretty intelligent, so I have to wonder if you're deliberately misunderstanding me.  Unless, of course, you have just enough conscience to need to rationalize this kind of bullshit answer. 

A TRADER takes an item from one market, where it is cheap ($X), to another market, where it is expensive ($Y), and sells it for $Z (where X<Z<Y).  This benefits both the trader, who profits, and the customers, who save money (they have to pay less). 

A SCALPER takes an item that is sold in short supply at a fixed price (Wii) or is sold out (tickets) and sells that item in the SAME MARKET he obtained it in for profit.  This benefits the scalper, who profits, and allows sufficiently desperate individual customers to obtain the item; however, the customers in general are hurt by this process (they have to pay more). 

Scalping, in modest amounts, is tolerated in capitalist societies; however, large markups are seen as equally large douchebaggery.  And scalpers who belch platitudes about "helping the customer" are hated with a passion. 

Edit by MontyHat: Post removed.

A good example of why people look down on people who do this would be the scalping industry which buys tickets for concerts, events, etc from ticketmaster using tools that the general public may not have and buy up many of the tickets before those who want to attend that event are able to or by creating a false demand. They then mark up the tickets many times over face value to make a quick buck. It's a pox on society here in the US and not looked up to at all because of those who have taken advantage of those by parting them with more of their money then the venue decided the tickets should have cost. Then those who go and buy the scalped tickets will either have to pay that price or just do without and hope that the prices come down significantly.

Final-Fan said: cdude1034 said: Final-Fan said: cebrian said: So... what if I go to the United States and get 5 wiis to resell them for 330 dollars in Mexico? The price for a Wii here is 400 dollars, I would be giving them for less money than they are worth in my country and i would be getting a healthy profit? would that make me a douchebag too? No, it would not. Because that's a different situation. You've gone from "scalper" to "trader". Yet another sigh. A "scalper" "trades" their time and effort for profit. OK, up to now you've been pretty intelligent, so I have to wonder if you're deliberately misunderstanding me. Unless, of course, you have just enough conscience to need to rationalize this kind of bullshit answer. A TRADER takes an item from one market, where it is cheap ($X), to another market, where it is expensive ($Y), and sells it for $Z (where X A SCALPER takes an item that is sold in short supply at a fixed price (Wii) or is sold out (tickets) and sells that item in the SAME MARKET he obtained it in for profit. This benefits the scalper, who profits, and allows sufficiently desperate individual customers to obtain the item; however, the customers in general are hurt by this process (they have to pay more). Scalping, in modest amounts, is tolerated in capitalist societies; however, large markups are seen as equally large douchebaggery. And scalpers who belch platitudes about "helping the customer" are hated with a passion.

 Is there any way we can get "douchebaggery" into the dictionary?

No, I wasn't deliberately misunderstanding you, I just got tired of posting on this so I got lazy. Sorry for not bringing my A game.

Anyway, if you look at it as a bartering system, we're all traders here. We all trade our time and skills to a company for federal reserve notes that they have earned by trading their goods and services to people who want them.

At one point those federal reserve notes represented gold and as such if we still lived in the early 1900's we could trade them for and equivalent amount of gold who we as humans have artificially given a value (as represented by these aforementioned Federal Reserve Notes) . *breathes*

 Basically, we just disagree over how correct it is to do what I'm doing, which is cool.

Also, by your definition, a scalper is basically a trader who asks for more money.

Btw, this is a luxury item. I would never do this with a product essential to life.

Speaking of which; what about people who bottle water and sell it? Aren't they the real culprits here?! We should all go down to our nearest distributor and set this water free for everyone!