Saturday, December 5, 2020

Scalping: Who's to Blame?

Tickets to sporting events. Movies. Plays, whatever. Scalping is something you see more often than you think. It's reared its ugly head with the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X. This can apply to toys as well considering hot products like a Frozen toy for example. The movie Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the mid 90s made fun of the craze of people desperate to get a product and stores bumping up prices potentially. That was before the Internet was really huge, considering we see more using eBay and other methods to produce scalping at an alarming rate.

But who is to blame? It's not one sided. We'll start with scalpers first. Still in a pandemic and online orders are going to be through the roof. Pretty simple. Much easier this year to see that there won't be foot traffic when shopping. Hacking has obviously been huge. You get bots to do this. Not all, but it can ruin it for ones who want it. And they know there will be suckers. You know there will be desperation out of all this. Either because they think they won't get it, or that the quantity is not replenishing.

The suckers don't help either. They're convinced they won't be able to get the product and so they pay these ridiculous prices. With PlayStation and Xbox, they may bite the bullet. Apple products are generally over a thousand dollars, so the disposable income may not be a huge issue. It's an endless cycle. Replace those consoles with a toy or anything. And there's nothing stores can do. They can try to make it where its limited, but with hacking, it may not be feasible in their attempts.

We do need stuff to keep us entertained. As far as PlayStation and Xbox goes, it can wait a year like what I'm doing. We still have plenty of stuff from years past. Have a little patience. 

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