I saw your article on the Wii shortage and in the spirit of the holiday I want to come clean and confess my consumer sins. I am a reseller.
I have resold : -3 Iphones (for 200 dollars over list, each) -5 Playstation3 consoles (for 300 to 500 dollars over list, each. A total of nearly 2000 in profit.) -10 Nintendo Wiis (each for 150 over list)
I started this side business with the release of the PS3. Months prior to launched to fund my purchase of one by buying five and reselling on Craiglist. I made the purchase on a credit card, in full, nearly 4 months before launch at a smaller electronics store in the Chicago suburbs…
I picked them up day of and listed them. By the end of the auctions I had made nearly 1000 dollar in excess of my own PS3 purchase. I ended up listing my own machine as well, as the demand was insane. All told, I cleared nearly 2000 dollars in profit. I still haven’t bought a PS3 actually.
I received death threats, e-mails from people saying I was “a monster” and someone claiming I was “selling her child’s Christmas away!” Someone even went so far as to contact Ebay and claim I was selling porn. People were livid at the profit being made.
The Iphone launch was even more insane. I saw people listing them on Craigslist just hours after launch for 800/900 bucks. So I went to the apple store in downtown chicago and bought 2, my girlfriend bought one as well. There was no line, it was the 30th of june, less than 24 hours after launch. I sold all three on Craigslist that night for 200 bucks over cost.
The Wiis have been a steady stream of income. I’m a casual video game player but I got to know the guy who runs my local Gamestop. He told me when they get their deliveries and said Wii’s were first come, first serve. Since the summer I’ve bought 10 of them and sold them for an average of 150 bucks over cost.
The Wiis are the where I feel some degree of guilt. After a year they’re still ridiculously rare. I’d really advise people to get to know their game-sellers. Think of what the average gamestore employee gets treated like by hyper kids, angry parents and surly trade-in people. Treat them as people, give them some empathy and chat them up a bit and they’ll happily get you in the know. They’re not breaking any laws or company policy, just helping out a ‘valued customer’.
The managers are the best to get to know. Their turnover is usually quote low. They usually work on new release days, especially for big games. Coming in when the store is slow (before school lets out) is a good time.
Avoid big box stores. Total waste of time. Their turnover rate of employees are ridiculous. No chance to build up a relationship. These stores also keep a very watchful eye on employees, so a lot of them might be nervous about anything that might get them in trouble. Even the “appearance of impropriety” can be enough.
Should you buy from me or other resellers? First and foremost, if you’re buying something for more than retail, you’re paying what I like to call “FIRSTIES!” tax. You want to be the first guy at the office to have an Iphone? Or have the first PS3 video on youtube? What is it worth to you? I sold two iphones to one guy who simply wanted to show it off to his fellow lawyers at court. One of the PS3 fans who bought from me wrote me a page long message of thanks. He’d just paid nearly a grand for a 600 game console and he could not stop thanking me.
I’ve had people in my life question the morality of what I’ve done. One friend stopped talking to me altogether, saying that the money I’d made selling Wiis was “like taking candy from kids”. To me, that’s nonsense.
I’ve never bribed anyone, lied to anybody or stalked any stores. I’d never camp out, never grabbed something from a kid or fought shoppers. Actually, I hate shopping, I do most of my buying online and deal hunt, comparison shop and consult sites like consumerist.
Look, if you really want an item, wait for it to be plentiful. The rush on stores, the camping the fighting? That’s a mug’s game. The people who I’ve sold things to…frankly…I don’t think they’re very bright. They’ve certainly helped me (paid off most of my car, rent for a couple months, some nice dinners with friends, plenty of books) but I think they were ultimately being led on by media hype and greed frenzy. Paying twice the price for something you can usually wait a while and get on sale? Not worth it.
-Garrett (a reseller)
Have you ever bought a hyped up product from someone like Garrett? Ever sold something on eBay or Craigslist for more than you paid for it? Why did you do it?
(Photo:renaissancechambara)
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@bigdirty: Garrett is participating in the secondary market, which is another word for the stock market, now do you believe that all of those people should drop dead? Do you get this worked up when you open your 401(k) statement and see your portfolio has increased in value? Its the same thing.
@cde: Uh, sorry, but eBay has no way of reporting his “earnings” to the IRS. Zilch. Nada. For one, they don’t have his social security number. For two, they have no idea what his profit/loss is, thus no way to report “earnings”. Just because one sells a wii for $500 does not mean there is a $250 profit. He might have paid more or less than $250 for it.
@ivanthepig: I think it’s more Americans’ sense of entitlement than the Wii being something bad.
Please, enough of the terrible two’s in the candy isile “mommy I WANT it NOW!”.
1. The NEED for consumable goods by any means necessary is what fuels this capitalistic behavior. Anyone hear about an iphone price drop? How about a PS2 for $129?
2. Nobody is robbing banks, donating organs, or starving out their kids, to buy a black market PS3, Wii, iphone, etc. How about not feeding into the hype in not paying twice retail just to have the newest stuff the day it comes out?
3. Like a leased car, let someone else take the initial price hit. Besides, wouldn’t you be suspicious of someone selling a blackmarket item twice the price with no guarante?
@ivanthepig: My fiancee and I looked into getting iPhones. We’re on Verizon and we estimated that it would take about $1,000 for us to both switch to Cingulatt, buy iPhones, start paying for the first month of the plan. Early adpoters, we are not in most cases. Not that we’re still using floppies, but I have friends who went crazy when the iPhone came out and for some reason, it never occurred to some of them that the phone could be half a paycheck to some people! You would’ve thought they were all made of money all of a sudden, not poor college kids who try to mooch for money and free pizza.
Back when I was in College I worked at Best Buy. Somehow even though I worked in games I was off on the day of the PS2 release. Our store was pretty strict that you had to be off work to buy one, no putting one away. I knew we had 40 of them so when a co-worker asked me to stand in line for him in exchange for a $100 I took it. I arrived at 6am for a 10am opening and was 3rd in line. I got a PS2 for him and then I saw that there were about 8 more PS2′s than customers so I got one for myself as well. It was a seperate transaction and there wasn’t anyone waiting so my GM was cool with it. It was the 1st and only time I have ever waited in line to buy something on sale.
I took my PS2 home with 2 games, memory card and a extra controller. Played it for about 2 weeks beat the games and rented what looked interesting. I got bored with it and decided to sell it on Ebay. This was at the height of the PS2 madness. Total I think I spent $450 on the PS2 and acces. I sold it for $1300 and the guy wanted me to deliver it personally so he could check it out and make sure he got it before christmas. Made another $300 on delivery..$1 per mile each way. Do I feel bad? Nope I bought it with no intention of selling it and I statrted the auction at a penny. It went to $1300 on its own.
@dexterdog:
This is how I started reselling too, except I was 12 at the time. This also helped me to learn the value of money. At the height of the beanie baby craze I bought a radar the bat for 5$ and sold it for about 70$ by answering a guy’s ad in the newspaper, thats quite a profit for a 12 year old to make and I put the money into my savings account that I had since I was 8 years old. I have been collecting things in the package since I was 10 years old with strawberry shortcake dolls and hello kitty merchandise. My parents saved all my old toys that were in good condition, so I took them to ebay and sold them since I don’t want them anymore (talk about getting your value out of toys!!). The grandkids also played with these toys but they are much too old for them now and have no interest. I recently made a hefty profit off ebay on these items and I don’t feel bad about selling them because I do not use them anymore.
If you have kids, especially with the high costs of college nowadays you would be smart to scalp Wii’s and put the money into your son or daughter’s college saving fund, even if you have really young kids they grow up fast! Trust me they will appreciate the money when they REALLY need it later in life.
I buy all my video game consoles when they hit the yard sale market prices (aka about $50 or under), most of my game consoles I paid under 25$ for. Spending more than $100 on a video game system just seems absurd to me. I have an awesome collection, people think I am rich but its really just from yard sales! Also thanks to ebay I can resell the yard sale games that I don’t really need. Plus I get to make up for the fact that I didn’t own any video games as a kid, at a fraction of the price. I cannot wait till all these people who paid $500-1000 for a Wii toss it out on the lawn for 50$ because their kids have outgrown it! Also the kids that get an expensive Wii for christmas this year will likely be bored with it within a week anyways..
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to capitalism.
I’m tired of all the crybaby candy-asses that send death-threats to Garrett there. It’s called the FREE MARKET people. Garrett is free to buy however many Wii’s he has money for, and then he’s free to do with them as he pleases. He could take them out to his back yard and shoot them. Instead he takes his property and sells it to people for a profit. Welcome to capitalism… don’t like it, move to China.
I don’t see anything wrong with what he’s doing. By buying the Wii and offering it to people who want it more at a higher price point, he’s actually doing you a favor. Sure, it costs more, but there’s no guarantee you yourself could even find one. So by raising the price, people who don’t see it as being worth that much scour the stores, while you have an open opportunity to take one home and play. Microecon 101 :
My biggest problem with people who do this is that they don’t realize who they are hurting the most. Rich people always get what they want, but people who don’t have disposable income and have to work many hours and multiple jobs don’t. They don’t have time to wait in line or call every game store in the area each day to find a Wii or whatever because they have to work. And even if they’ve worked solely to save up money for the Wii they have to work even more to pay for the new market price from people who have the time and money to find them, snatch them up, and sell them for huge profit. Most of the people I know who want one, and have saved up money for them… can’t find them and are debating whether they should save up more money to get one off of ebay.
Sure, it is just a product, but why do you have to buy 10 of them and make money off of them, when months after it’s been on the market, it is still a hard to come by item. Stores are only getting 1-2 in at a time, and it’s just not fair to everyone else who doesn’t have the time or the energy to find one. And what is even more special about the Wii is that it goes across gender and age for who wants one. This is something young girls want, housewives, and the teenage boy. I’ve never wanted a game console before, but I do want a Wii… I’m wiling to be patient and wait a few more months to hope that people stop buying them up before the average Joe can, and I can find it at Target like anything else.
Not everyone has time to research blogs online to find the wii info online http://www.wiialerts.com and then wait for the urgent text message to drop everything to purchase it! Have a heart and stop doing this during Christmas at least. Or sell them at cost plus a $10 convince fee or something and be nice to housewives and working kids.
If someone out there is smart enough to find something someone wants, more power to them for grabbing it and re-selling it. People aren’t forced to pay huge markup for PS3′s and Wii’s, they do it because they want to, or they are lazy and don’t want to actually do the work to source one out themselves.
People can hem and haw all they want about this, but I think in some respect people are upset they couldn’t do it themselves. If I didn’t have work and school, i’d have waited to get a PS3. My friend did, and he flipped it in the BB parking lot for 1500 dollars profit, cash in hand.
People will always have wants, and will fulfill those wants if they are financially able to do so.
BTW: The Wii is an awesome system, and the OP is right. If you want one, befriend a Gamestop or EB manager.
A fool and their money is soon parted. Usually its uninformed consumers that allow these guys to make any money at all. You can always find these things if you look hard enough.
Obviously they don’t worry about the morality of the issue. That said, it is all happening illegally because nobody is claiming the income on it. Lot of minors and min wage clerks at best buys etc.
If they had to pay taxes on the profit it would be way less then they would make putting in the same hours at McDonalds.
All you guys saying, “it’s just economics!” are missing the part about paying taxes. Even the guy admits he isn’t paying them. Its not an optional part of economics in the US.
Yes, it’s harmless enough when flippers are reselling non-essential items such as Wii’s and PS3′s. But imagine what would happen in a state of crisis. I’m not sure I’d want such blatant opportunism in my neighborhood. Lets confine such practices to ebay and craigslist.
@complexicated: Tickle me ELMO???
What is this, 1995???
@gibbersome:
Like most people said, the Wii is a non-essential luxury item and if you want one bad enough you either do the work to get it or you pay a premium for it. I can’t believe how upset some people are getting over this.
The real scumbags are the ones that my buddy saw when he lived in Florida during Hurricane Andrew (I think). He said he saw guys going to Home Depot, buying ALL of the gas generators and then reselling them off the back of a truck for 2x retail price. Now that’s being a scumbag. Reselling a Wii and a few iPhones is not a big deal.
@bigdirty:
I have to pipe in here now at this comment. Many of you are patting Garrett on the back, but also many of you are upset with him for buying/reselling a console that is still in such demand.
As a couple others have said, even though the wii is in incredible demand still, and even though you can’t just walk in to target or walmart or whatever and pick one up off the shelf, getting one is not impossible. I know, because I have purchased 2 in the last year.
No, I didn’t pay extra for them, nor did I buy a bundle. When I set out getting the first one, I vowed to only pay MSRP, and to buy the console only. That was back in March or so that I picked it up from sears.com after a couple months of monitoring “in stock” sites.
The second one my wife and I are giving to our ex-roommates who are getting married in a couple weeks here as a wedding gift. I also picked it up for MSRP, console only, this time from amazon.com, and this time after watching the “in stock” tracker for about a week. Oddly enough, I actually paid less for this one because I didn’t have to pay tax or shipping to amazon, whereas sears charges both.
So anyhow, moral of the story is: If you want one, you can get one. If you want one *NOW*, you’ll pay a scalper tax on it, or you’ll be paying a bundle tax. If you’re patient and keep an eye out online or at your local store (I’ve seen our local target happen upon a couple in stock periodically while shopping for games/accessories), you CAN get one for MSRP, unbundled.
Stop bitching, do some homework if you really want one.
The real question is why these products are not priced what they are worth as MSRP. Are the companies just completely mis-estimating demand, or are they purposely selling products with too-low prices to artificially create shortages?
Reselling is VERY different when its an essential item you need to live, such as food, water or disaster supplies. We had a similar situation as last year we had the dreaded October storm in Buffalo, NY and retailers and people were price gouging. However it turns out this type of price gouging is ILLEGAL and the police soon took care of it. A store cannot raise prices on bread to $10 a loaf just because there has been a disaster in the area and people are buying more than usual.
It kills me to see how dead the entrepreneurial spirit is. Is it just because its a video game? Something kids want? If this were anything else, I don’t think most of you would have a problem with it. But because its a toy around Christmas you’re not supposed to make any profit? A 10 dollar convenience charge? Thats ridiculous. He is entitled to whatever the market will bear for his services. Should you work for less money than you’re entitled to? It reminds me of people complaining about how sports players make too much money. Well if thats what the market will bear, then thats what they are worth! And if someone will pony up the extra cash for the Wii, then thats what its worth. Everyone should be getting what they are worth, and if that is somehow unfair, then that is too bad.
I say good for you! I just scored 3 Wii’s at Best Buy this weekend and I plan on paying for my other Christmas purchases with the profits. I had to stand outside in 10 degree weather so I earned it!
Like some others have pointed out. Like it or not we live in a capitalist society. To those who say that scalping has a negative effect on the economy I say I’m buying things with the profits. We aren’t socialists, thank GOD!
I bought some kind of in car MP3 player thing back in 2000 or 2001. Can’t remember the company name but they had a fire sale as they were getting out of the business of making them. It had a 40GB hard drive in it if I remember right.
Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to ruin my Audi TT dash by trying to put it in myself, and didn’t htink it matched the asthetics so I went to sell it. I posted on the forum I got it at the sale price, hadn’t used it, and wanted to part with it. Showed what I paid for it.
20 min later, someone said they’d pay 2x what I paid for it to get one.
I’m not gonna argue.
Obviously not quite as true now, but all it takes to get a Wii now is persistence. I don’t know anyone who wants a Wii that hasn’t had a chance to buy one at MSRP.
@scorcher: Plus you can probably buy six games and return say three for store credit at a Walmart and use that for other Xmas gifts.
More power to you, and congratulations. Not being sarcastic here. I for one give you credit, and you deserve the spoils you worked for. I have never done what you did, because I am lazy to, and Im not like those who are to lazy to do anything but when someone else does it I have to say something negative about them. Those people are just JEALOUS!!. I agree 100% with you said, and what you have done to earn that extra cash, and you have done it in an HONEST way. Like you said people who buy these things ain’t that bright, or just got cash to burn. You have pinned down exactly the type of folks who will do anything for these products, that by a few years are worth next to nothing. I own a PS3 and I waited until the price went down and got 8 free movies with it. Hell, if I would have waited a little longer, I could have gotten it free with the deal WalMart had after black friday. I feel life is to short to let these products, and its hype get to my head, that I am willing to overpay(equivalent to bending over and taking it), sleep outside (My bed is too comfy), or punch a couple of old ladies in the face. In short, I agree that a lot of these folks are just morons.
I think he’s just taking advantage of the gullible people out there…
The PS3 has never really been in short supply, same with the iPhone. If someone wants to give him more money than they would if they just went down to a store then who is he to say different?
The Wii thing though, he’s clearly an ass there.
I’m in the middle, for this one. I find it amusing that you cannot legally resell sports event tickets above cost in certain states, but reselling electronics is perfectly legal. Merchandise like this was specifically bought with the intent to resell, as such it should rule under the same laws. But that’s too utopian, I suppose.
With that said, the largest reason most people are having issues obtaining Wii systems is because of people like him. By buying from him and eBay scalpers you encourage this behavior. And since it’s already successful, if he stops someone else will just fill his place.
This electronics phenomenon was never a large issue prior to the xbox360 release date shortage, thanks to the media making a big stink about eBay scalpers and no one stepping in to prevent it from escalating early adaptors of the PlayStation 3, Wii and iPhone suffered from it. But the real kicker is that would be Wii owners continue to suffer from it.
That’s the part which pisses me off, after 1 full year the same scalpers are still at it, driving up cost and demand. I don’t expect eBay will ever do something about this behavior, because they mutually benefit from it. So the only way it’ll stop is if the government steps in or people stop over paying for something they don’t need this minute.
In any case kudos to you capitalist, reseller, scalper or whatever you wish to call yourself. You’ve taken advantage of supply shortages and the whole family structure for your own benefit. You must truly be proud, but remember if this behavior continues eventually someone will stick their nose up your ass and the asses of others like you. The clowns on capitolhill will only ignore someone until it affects their bottom dollar and I’d imagine their kids want a Wii too, assuming they don’t already have one.
What cracks me up is that somehow a “retail store” buying goods from a manufacturer well below cost and selling them at retail prices is ok…but somebody buying them from a retailer at retail prices and selling them for a profit is not. You people don’t think Walmart, BestBuy, Gamestop, etc. pay the retail price for their units, do you?
This is basic arbitrage, buying something in a grey market and selling it for more than it is worth in your area (think globally) or for what it is worth at the time.
Anyone getting upset about someone selling a console for more than the stores are selling it for must not have ever seen a movie or taken a plane ride, because if they did then maybe they would either have some common sense.
At the theater you can pay less if you are a child or senior, student or early in the day. What makes charging for a movie ticket at different prices any different than charging more for a console? If you go at noon on a Saturday it is 7 bucks but if you go 5 hours later it will be about 4 dollars more. Who is the fool in that situation? The patron for paying the premium or the theater for ‘taking advantage’ of their clear ability to charge more during peak times.
The fact of the matter is that these things go on every day, but since the main topic at hand seems to be game consoles that everyone wants it somehow makes it wrong.
This “controversy” could be ended quite easily. If companies would just build up an ample stock of their products before sending them out to stores, this “problem” would not exist.
Microsoft felt the effects of releasing the Xbox 360 far too early. It had many defects, many shortages, games not making the launch deadline, and God only knows what else.
The Wii has hade very few technical problems, and has been in high demand since its debut. The system itself, in my opinion, is more of a “party” system. I often ask myself “why did I even buy this?, on regular basis. I have put in less than 24 hours total playtime in over half a year, and probably won’t be taking it out of my cabinet for a while. But the point is, because of the high demand, the Wii is selling just as strong as when it first came out, if not better. Nintendo did something everyone else seems to have done wrong. They put out a short supply, but did not cause chaos and havoc. What did they do differently? I haven’t the foggiest.
Whatever Nintendo did, they did it right. Let’s just hope the others are taking notes.
-Rai
I personally have no issue with an individual reselling. I do have a slight issue if retailers allow one person to clear stock when there is high demand but not the act of reselling. If you were to figure the time it takes to track these down and buy these, gas involved etc and then all the auction cost then the sellers have a good ammount invested in these systems.
Stores have agreements with the makers that is why they cannot jack the price up on stuff or they would, I suspect that is why they do bundles to take advantage of the demand as the systems really are not huge money makers for the stores, that alone is really the reason stores should limit sales per user cause if people are not buying games controllers etc they are not making as much money as they could. Overall this doesn’t hurt Nintendo and some other stores will benifit from the resell of these systems cause they will need games extra controllers etc.
The Wii has been somewhat availible up to the holiday so this really is just the cool toy and people should have just bought it earlier if they wanted it. But they can do all the same tricks that these sellers do.
On the PS3 comments yes the PS3 did not do well on Ebay infact alot of those systems made it back to the stores(Thats why comments of resellers getting stuck with stock are foolish sure they loose time and some cash on gas etc but the biggest loss is the stores that lost chances to sell merchandise and attached sells of games etc). There were only 200,000 units released in North America way too few. But there were people that did make some money those that were ready to sell day one and some that presold. Sales on the system tapered off to close to retail in around a week.
Good for you Garrett.
As a GameStop manager, we appreciate politeness…not the rude remarks, the insinuations of reselling, or just the usual crappy attitude that this year’s holiday shoppers exemplify. And to all the little soccer moms/dads that can’t get Bobby Jr. that Wii for Xmas, my suggestion is simple: get them a book or wait until July. Until then, if you want to bitch at someone, call Nintendo.
All these people that are saying that Garrett is providing a service, think about what you’re saying. He’s only providing a “service” that he’s creating the need for. If he wasn’t out buying multiple Wiis, people wouldn’t need his “service”, would they? If it weren’t for people like him, parents and video game fans would be able to make a legitimate purchase without having to pay his “Firsties” tax a year later…
I agree that he is the epitome of Capitalism. Take that however you will.
As much as scalpers in general disgust me, I can’t really blame them, I blame Nintendo. This is a company, who in the last 6 years, has made it a habit fucking consumers out of hard earned money.
The Game Boy Advance saw numerous versions, I bought the first one, then got burned when they released the slim game boy SP which was backlit. So I sold my old one and bought the new one while in the process, losing 50 bones.
The Nintendo DS burned me again, I bout one of the original models for 150 a while back and then look what happens, DS lite. Better design, brighter screen, cool colors. So what is that all about I say: Nintendo stumbles accross a lost design that they felt was better so they release a new one at equal cost? BS. Needless to say, I refuse to buy the DS lite at all.
As for the Wii, I want to get my hands on a few of those games, but not enough to have me camping out stores or paying blood sucking scalpers on ebay for. This is coming from a lifelong hard core gamer that has owned EVERY system through the years.
Everyone I know that bought one (about 15), RARELY plays it once they finish that “one game” they wanted to play. What’s happened is that a LOT of false demand has built up beyond what it would be at if the system was 400 dollars MSRP. The reason people buy it is because it’s an impulse buy for the typical gamer.
Now beyond retail, it’s just silly. It’s REALLY not worth more than 200 if you ask me. Especially if you pay The author of this article 500 for it. For 500, you can get an xbox, or PS3 WITH a game, and automatically have access to tons of other great games, and even a Blue Ray Player from sony via PS3. With the Wii, you get a game system with a few really awsome games, and thats pretty much it.
I just don’t get it. These must be some really retarded kids we’re raising.
Scalping is illegal in the US and that is exactly what this guy is doing. His letter is so smug. It seems even he can’t grasp the bigger picture here. Does he have a vendor’s license? I seriously doubt it.
He is ripping off everyone in a trickle down sort of way. Scum in my book. I sure hope he never raises children.
Although I think reselling is wrong…there is a simple fix to all of this…just don’t buy stuff from resellers on Ebay or Craigslist.
The people who do buy from these scalpers are morons. They probably shouldn’t be allowed out in public, near swimming pools, or near sharp objects without an attendant. People are really that desperate? Sheesh.
Seriously, is it really all that hard to put a preorder in for something that you want? Most stores offer them.
oh plz at all this whingeing. dude is making money off konsumterror and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s the pure essence of capitalism. People need to curb their desire of stuff and fear that stores will run out of said stuff.
@JAKEAMOORE: you can charge however much you want for a service. if you don’t agree to pay for it, don’t.
@ZIBBY: can’t agree more.
@JMSCHN: don’t take it too far, buddy. it’s not dog eating dog here. if it were that kind of world it’d be OK to go to garrett’s house, kill him, and take his wiis.
@CONROO: wrong, scalping is not illegal. ticket resale at certain venues in certain states is illegal, but still legal if done in a different location or under certain limits.
I think there are a lot of people who just don’t care what they spend, it is the same people who pay a ton on Mercedes, and Porsche, and they just spend alot because they want it. I think this is common times forgetted, more power to them!
I’ve done the same thing as Garrett. I started doing it to pay for the Wii we bought our kids for Christmas. I did wait in line for the one for my kids ( and one later before I knew where else to get one.) but I have never done that before this.
I made enough that it paid for our Christmas purchase and I saw that the market was/is still hot, so I continued to look for Wiis. I have never paid anyone, bribed a store worker, or done anything illegal to obtain one. I watch for trends in delivery at local stores and I have programs that notify me when they are available online. Nothing that anyone else couldn’t do themselves.
So where do you draw the line at what you can sell (or resell)? If you buy a used car from someone and then turn around and sell it for a profit are you evil? Even a house, as was mentioned earlier, is that taking advantage of someone? If you have the home inspected, you will find out about most short-cuts that were taken. You can run into these just as easily from someone that is not “flipping” a home, but just selling a house that they did various projects as DIY or maybe “with a friend who knows how to do this.” Your arguments don’t hold water, unless you expect everyone to sell at no profit.
If someone decides to sell dog poop at $10 a bag, he will most likely not be successful. Why? Because there is no market for $10 dog poo! If there is a market for something, then why not divulge into it? (As long as it’s legal obviously.)
Wiis, PS3′s, iPhones, et al. are not necessities, they are wants. No one here or anywhere is going to be in danger of basic life function because of Wii prices.
I wish I could check a buyer’s bank account and see if he/she should be spending the extra money for a Wii, retail or otherwise, but I cannot. I would not suggest buying one, if you cannot afford it, nor would I sell one if I knew they were struggling financially. Anyone that has asked me about getting a Wii I’ve helped them get one for retail price. I sell only because the market supports my efforts. When it’s gone, I’m gone. (Actually, I’m probably done right now anyways.)
If you want a Wii, you can get one for retail. Do a little research and you’ll find it achievable. Life it too short to whine!!
That’s business! The only people in the wrong are the idiots that buy the stuff from people like this guy. They are the ones that make it hard for everyone to get a fair deal. That’s kind of funny- that the people that don’t bother to get a deal make it harder for everyone else to.
I saw a guy at Game Crazy trying to buy 10 Wiis and 10 Wii Fits. When I asked him if he was opening a fitness club or something, he got defensive and asked if I was “Kevin so-and-so”.
I said, “No. Is he some kind of corporate policeman?”
The guy was clearly buying them up to scalp for the holiday season.
The store cashier was okay with it, but said he would only sell the guy 2 Wiis that week, and to come back next week.
The lesson for consumers is to buy early, before the scalping begins. Right now Wiis are in stock for $249. In another 6 weeks near Black Friday, there will be a shortage caused by legitimate buyers and scalpers.
I think electronics scalping is legal and moral, but consumers need to be educated.
Great way to capitalize on how foolish people can be when they are desperate!