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Scalping(Buying, Then Selling Items Immediately) At Much Higher Prices

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as above, they seem to be proliferating,  latest is xbox x and ps5 at nearly  double costs, one guy on FB marketplace even had the gall to show the receipt: 200 pounds less than he paid for  it! not just Consoles: on FB the new RTX 3060TI graphics card, is selling for well over 200 more than cost by these dubious characters, high end 2nd hand PC components are also being sold at ridiculous prices, 

 

Of course, now i expect to hear the usual 'its market forces', but is it actually distorting such trading, many are buying in bulk, Adam Smith would have something to say about it all, I think its a moral and perhaps a legal issue as well.

 

I don't think the warranty is valid either

Edited by gamezone07

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Don't buy them.  I'm hoping people realise that they don't actually need a new console yet, seeing as neither has a MUST HAVE game yet.

Scalpers will then be forced to return them, or sell them for what a used console is actually worth.

Edited by soopah

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I've ranted about this on Twitter with folks, and sadly there isn't really any way to stop it or make it illegal like it is with gig tickets.

They're tracked by serial numbers.

 

So the only way to do the same with consoles would be to track them via serial numbers, which would require a heck of a lot of implementation by the retailers and I can bet they wouldn't want to fork out the expense to hlep folks when they're selling the stock regardless of who buys it....scalper or genuine customer.

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If idiots didn't buy them, then idiots wouldn't sell them.

 

I have no idea why someone would buy a brand new xbox for £200 more than the retail price and presumably without any form of warranty.

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I think organised crime may be involved in some cases, the mark up is huge

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1 hour ago, Pyrotequila said:

I've ranted about this on Twitter with folks, and sadly there isn't really any way to stop it or make it illegal like it is with gig tickets.

They're tracked by serial numbers.

 

So the only way to do the same with consoles would be to track them via serial numbers, which would require a heck of a lot of implementation by the retailers and I can bet they wouldn't want to fork out the expense to hlep folks when they're selling the stock regardless of who buys it....scalper or genuine customer.

Something could possibly be done around rfid tags. Add one during production and it shouldn't be that big a thing for a retailer to set up something to scan it as it goes out of the shop/warehouse. I can't imagine that would be expensive to set up and it would be applicable to other goods and the bigger retailers probably have something set up for stock location/tracking anyway. 

 

I imagine it would be difficult to make this illegal since you would have to prove intent and you would end up with the same sorts of arguments they had over reselling books. 

 

Ultimately, it needs buyers not to buy in but we spend many hours here discussing how dumb people can be. 

 

Now I've thought about this a bit then  it could be a fairly easy way to launder money and if you flog a few to fools at an inflated price it helps cover the laundry and makes you extra money. 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, the_bloke said:

If idiots didn't buy them, then idiots wouldn't sell them.

 

I have no idea why someone would buy a brand new xbox for £200 more than the retail price and presumably without any form of warranty.

Just seen on for sale at £1999. Be interesting to see if anyone is foolish enough to buy that one 

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48 minutes ago, rudds1 said:

Just seen on for sale at £1999. Be interesting to see if anyone is foolish enough to buy that one 

Is that on eBay?

 

Because scalper-organised and -run shilling is rife at the best of times, but never more so than for ultra-high-demand items like e.g. PS5s on the run-up to Xmas.

 

1 (make-believe) 'sale' at £2k, with Xmas tic-toc-clock and delivery times dwindling down, and suddenly that 100%-150% markup on the RRP is starting to look like a reyt bargin ;)

 

Like others have posted, that can only be eradicated by self-starving demand. So don't buy them.

Edited by L00b

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If people are stupid enough to pay that kind of price then you'll have a queue of people willing to sell it.

It happened last time the big consoles were released and I'm sure it'll happen next time too.

 

There aren't even any decent games to play on them yet, people really need to get a grip.

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1 hour ago, geared said:

If people are stupid enough to pay that kind of price then you'll have a queue of people willing to sell it.

It happened last time the big consoles were released and I'm sure it'll happen next time too.

 

There aren't even any decent games to play on them yet, people really need to get a grip.

At least on the Xbox Series * you can play your existing games, but if you have existing games....why not just play them on your existing system until you can just walk into a shop?

Someone's been watching too much Fast & Furious
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-12-07-gangs-are-hitting-lorries-on-the-run-to-steal-ps5s

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6 minutes ago, soopah said:

At least on the Xbox Series * you can play your existing games, but if you have existing games....why not just play them on your existing system until you can just walk into a shop?
 

Exactly.

 

PS5 launched with free access to GTA5.  The same game is also available on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

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