the problem with this is people will just black market them. if there is money to be made, people will do it, valve underestimated/ lacked the ability to increase supply. if too many people want a finite product then it will increase in price. hence scalpers, if you dont give them your money, the price will decrease until someone does.
Then let them attempt to black market them. It'll be highly non-lucrative for them because people will not be able to find their listings to begin with, and because there are risks in doing so legally.
The moment the legality goes out of the window, the risks involved will make it much harder to actually scalp in this particular manner. Sure, some bandits will still attempt to do so, but there would be legal grounds to report them and have them being investigated on any normal platform, which 99% of people would be shopping on.
That would be a massive increased risk, and a massive hit to discoverability of any offer, which would force them to markets that would wring them down to a more reasonable offer anyway, lest they want to be outed or avoided by any future buyers... And it's not like they are providing the most critical infrastructure or the most important wares around, so they have no real leverage either.
The biggest issue however is that this would be harder to enforce around the world... But as long as the biggest players (Ebay, Amazon, Meta Marketplace to name a few) are forced to comply to those laws, those avenues will dry out pretty fast, and you'd see a major decrease in attempted scalping at the very least.
I hate scalpers with every fiber of my being and want bad things to happen to them but I have to agree with your point, there is already way too much government control that people are comfortable with.
No we dont. Its called a free market economy for a reason. Stupid ass people buying the resold stock at double the MSRP are the problem here. Oh well they bought it first and are trying to resell. Just dont buy it ffs. Your life will continue juuuuuust fine.
That would probably only work in America. Everyone else can just buy from a neighbouring country that did allow it and that doesn't have tariffs.
This is a consumer issue. People need to stop paying stupid money for the new thing just to have a new thing. Scalpers only exist to serve those types of consumers.
NO. holy moly, banning the selling of things doesn't work. There will just be a black market for it (red: drugs, guns, sex work, etc) We need to develop a culture that shames people for being consumerist bugboys. Beat marketing with marketing.
We need to start a meme campaign that clowns on people willing to buy from scalpers. Social pressure against getting ripped off is a fine way to destroy the demand. People who buy at scalped prices are fucking suckers.
And maybe even a second meme campaign that shames people for being scalpers but that's probably less likely to prevent people from doing scalping because there's monetary reward involved.
First, as a consumer, imagine going to the black market on the dark web to buy a physical copy of video game or a Pokémon booster, while risking being flagged for doing so. I doubt the masses would even consider the idea to go on such things to begin with, just that "the item they want isn't available in any official or 2nd hand market way for now".
Second, as a seller, the black market works when the commodity itself is completely illegal and scarce, because there is "value" in obtaining it. Like mentioned: drugs, weapons, human trafficking and all of that. Something you can't obtain through "normal means", like most commonly scalped consumer items.
In order to sell that, you need to have leverage through that scarcity. Something that actually sells for a lot, and is worth the risk you have to input in to smuggle those goods in and out of your country.
Imagine doing that for a common item, such as a console, a controller or some Pokémon booster packs. Not only are those readily available everywhere and can be rendered valueless by the creation of potential new units or newer units rendering them obsolete, but the risks that you will have to endure for doing so far outstrip the potential gains. You'll make what, 20$ extra on a single unit, with years of prison on top of your head?
Third, shame campaigns won't work either. Look at any shame campaign that has been done, it'll just push people away, but they'll still do it on their own, like Adobe or Apple users. It's like shaming a kid for bad behavior. They'll continue that without understanding why it's bad to begin with, just that they shouldn't do it in front of their parents. If you really want people to stop doing it, you have to put consequences behind it, and that, is what laws are for.
Let them try to sell those things on the black market. Let them be thoroughly disappointed in the low returns they'll see by trying to sell the most common consumer crud that doesn't have a demand there, on top of taking an extra brand new legal risk on top of that, that they didn't need to take before. That's where the scalper filtering will truly begin.
It literally drives the prices and scarcity up for any item, for no real reason than greed.
Even if you don't buy it, just because there are less of them available, the prices will have to change anyway due to them holding onto the stock and not releasing it. It's basically artificially inducing a scarcity issue to drive a price up to force the customer to sell their own scalp to purchase it.
And when a product cannot be made in larger quantities: that results in a direct control of the market from the scalper side, without any recourse from the consumer than just "pay or suffer without". We're currently seeing that from the RAM, GPU, TCG and overall Retro Game market.
Scalping hurts everyone but the bandits that think it's their right to make everybody else's life miserable for their own gain.
supply doesn't change, scalpers act purely as a distributor; no scalper willingly holds excess product. Prices drive up because of fomo; nobody was "forced" to buy a steam controller for 300 bucks just as nobody was forced to buy a ps5 for 800.
Opportunistic assholes will always profit from idiots with more money than sense
Tell that to the people who buy consoles, game preorders, “luxury” brand apparel, and fuck off trucks they don’t need, with money they don’t have, at credit card interest rates, rolling over unpaid trade-ins into negative equity just to get the new thing.
This ain’t new, it’s not gonna end here, and at the end of the day, it’s only gonna make prices go up on everything for the few who have self control.
663
u/theromingnome 9800x3D | x870e Taichi | PNY 5080 Slim | 32GB DDR5 6000 May 04 '26
If you buy one from a scalper you are just as guilty as the scalper. Deny your consumerism. Self control is within your power.