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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I wiped out all my post-college credit card debt reselling Apex DVD players with the “secret code” that removed copy protection way back in 1999. A story in the Washington Post about the players set off a buying frenzy, and I cleaned up in the aftermath.
I resold over 30 of them by the time my local Circuit City cut me off. They were very nice about it, but the store manager finally said, “Thanks for your business, but we aren’t a wholesaler. Please call this number and they’ll take care of you.” By then, I was tired of the whole thing and profits were too low to make it worth carrying on.
I’ve hit it lucky on other items occasionally since then, but nothing as long-term profitable as those Apexes.
Supply and price should be set to keep sales high, inventory low, and product available to all.
Forgot about the debate of Nintendo restricting the supply. Much more important is that they have restricted the price. If you attempt to manipulate the market, you will have consequences like the resellers here.
But here’s the rub: if price was not restricted, retailers would raise price to the point where Garrett would be out of the picture, but you’d still be paying his price. And no one would get the MSRP ($300?).
Which raises the question, why are people unhappy with Garrett? Because they would rather pay his price but to Best Buy? Of course not. They want to pay the artificially low price at a retail store. And that will always be impossible, the market will simply not allow it. Without the resellers, endusers would still be gobbling thes up, and you will not be able to find them.
Your problem is you want to buy something for less than it’s worth.
@HaloZero: Yes, and most of them get elected to office.
Where is the outrage over the current president’s actions towards iRan? Where is the outrage over the situation in iRaq? Why is there such outrage towards a guy selling marked-up gaming consoles?
I would like to point to people who claim that current ebay stats for the Wii somehow “prove” it is all the fault of the flippers – that 10,380 is 0.58% of the MONTHLY production total of 1.8 million Wiis. That’s not a typo, ONE HALF of ONE PERCENT of the monthly production total is what’s on ebay. Now I know that 1.8M is worldwide numbers and I don’t have data on how many the US gets but let’s do some estimates and see what we get. Also we know Wiis are being sold on craiglist, and let’s assume it takes your average ebayer or craigslister 5 days to sell a Wii.
there are roughly six 5 day periods per month, and let’s assume there are an equal number of Wiis sold on CL as ebay. So 0.57 + 0.57 x 6 = 6.84% of worldwide production. We’ll also assume that only 25% of that 1.8M goes to the US (but I have a feeling we get closer to 900,000 per month). So 6.84% x 4 = 27.36%.
Which means that if the US is only receiving 450,000 wii’s per month, roughly 1 in 4 of them are being resold by scalpers. While that’s a large percentage, it is not even near a majority! it means about 3 out of 4 Wiis go directly to end users, not scalpers. Also, my estimates are rather pessimistic, especially the monthly stock numbers for the US.
What it amounts to is that while the Wii is indeed hard to get, the shortage is not being driven by scalpers. If we assume half the 1.8M Wiis produced monthly go to the US then the scalper percentage estimate drops to 13.7%.
If anyone has better numbers to run this with I’d love to see the results.
Disclaimer: I have not scalped Wiis but I managed to get 2 on Amazon.com last week using WiiAlerts in only 2 days with a total of about 10 minutes of effort, so it can be done if you use the right tools.
Mine was an unexpected and fast addiction to the world of “flipping”, it all started with five bucks and a Beanie Baby. I unwittingly purchased the last “Peanuts” elephant Beanie Baby, for one of my little nephews, apparently someone had stashed it off to the side and others overlooked it, my nephew found it. When I took it up to the counter to pay for it, store customers became both angry and excited, the cashier asked me if I knew how lucky I was. I was naturally confused as I walked out of the store. It began then, I told my nephew he couldn’t have the Beanie Baby, I’d buy him a Hot Wheel instead, I just couldn’t let go of it.
The next day I went to work and told my co-workers what happened, they were as perplexed as I was. Unbeknownst to me, while I was telling my co-workers about what had happened with the Beanie Baby, one of the owners of the company I worked for overheard my conversation. He came up to me and asked that come into his office, he had never spoken to me before, I thought I was fired.
I went into his office and he leaned over his desk and whispered, I heard you have “Peanuts” the Beanie Baby… I told him yes. He asked how much I wanted for it, I stared at him. He offered me $100.00, I almost ran to my car so I could retrieve the Beanie Baby but something stopped me, this guy had always been kind of weasley. I said it’s going to take more than $100.00 and held my breath, he grimaced and offered me $500.00, the inside of my body became hot, I said no, he said $1,000.00, I didn’t know what to do. I stared him down, he told me he and his wife buy and sell Beanie Babies at a large profit.
Then he made an offer I couldn’t refuse, if I took $1,500.00 for it, he would take me to a small convention hall, where black market buying and selling of Beanie Babies took place, all for cash. He told me if I had any more Beanie Babies to bring them. I didn’t have any others, so driving home from work that night, I stopped at every Hallmark store and put all that they had, one store had just put out 20 lamb Beanie Babies, I bought them all, I couldn’t stop. I was perspiring and anxious, I had the shakes, while I was standing at the counter, I looked around to see if people were staring, they were. I wondered what they thought of me…
Part II after I do some work!
@Adam Rock: Hi. I was there and talked with the salesperson too. He said the manager would not allow him to sell wiis without the extended warranty OR by purchasing a bundle–it may have just been this particular Game Crazy.
Reseller? More like profiteers! People who purchase in bulk, intending to deliberately mark up prices to unreasonable levels for their own personal gain and in the grand scheme of defrauding others gets absolutely no sympathy from me. Got death threats? Got penalized by the IRS? Got arrested? You had it coming!
@howie_in_az: Who says that there’s no outrage to our dear beloved president? We’re just sticking with the topic, ’tis all!
@Fry: If the scalpers weren’t constantly depleting stock, average people wouldn’t HAVE to develop relationships, learn ‘tricks’, wait in lines, etc.
So, by saying you’re paying a premium for avoiding that, you’re being disingenuous. Those conditions wouldn’t exist if the scalpers didn’t create them.
@rewinditback: Well, what happened was he got 5 or 6 PS3′s early in the game when the demand was there and people were getting shot for them, at which point turning 1000 bucks on one system alone wasn’t unheard of. I can’t speak to the iPhone though.
Wow, lots of poo being flung around.. here’s mine:
First off, Nintendo is NOT intentionally holding back supply to further increase hype, that opinion needs to be analyzed a bit. There is NO WAY IN HELL they would not be shipping Wii units the moment they are produced if they are flying off the shelves, especially knowing the resellers are making 5x more profit than they are per unit. That’s potential $$ out of their pocket, from hype and good press created by their company and their product. I notice that many discussions about this fail to mention that Nintendo has another KILLER product which has been selling like mad for years now… the DS. My guess is that some of the factory/manufacturing space is being shared but most definitely maxed out. Keep in mind they are trying to meet a GLOBAL demand that consistently is higher than supply.
Now, about the resellers, let’s go back to Econ 101 where we learn that price is defined as ‘what the seller is willing to sell at and what the buyer is willing to pay for’ (not verbatim). Any exchange at an agreed price is MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL. (unless the buyer is FORCED to pay the price, let’s say at gunpoint) When people start playing the game of what a price is SUPPOSED to be, that’s when things get mucked up. Wasn’t there an article on consumerist about how NYC has hugely inflated prices, along with fast food ‘dollar menu’ items that are priced a lot higher? How come people don’t cause a big stink how hot dogs and soda cost 5-10x more at a ballgame, other than that it’s been this way for years? America has been built on capitalism and that will never change. IMO the lending sharks, fraudulent CPA’s, etc have a much bigger morality issue. In my eyes the resellers are only getting compensated for their time and effort they need to put forth to get these units. As a final word, let’s remember that nearly every retailer had or still has a 1 Wii per customer rule…
My problem with the resellers is that they are, like others have said, creating a false low supply. A store could be packed with Wiis but someone came in and bought three of them. No, people don’t have to go onto ebay or craig’s list to get a Wii, it’s not a necessary item. …but the principle of the matter is that it is simply slimy for someone to mark up a Wii for $500. There is no “effort” in driving to a store when they were available. Since you were doing it to make a profit, you were doing it anyway. It’s not as if stores mark it up $250 bucks because they had to go through the trouble of unloading it off a truck for you.
@ceejeemcbeegee: It’s different, because A) Garett can’t strangle the entire market on his own (and with only 10 wiis, he probably hasn’t even gotten one store’s full regular shipment) like a corporation could and B) the profits don’t end up lining some already rich guy’s pockets or going towards that third mercedes or whatever.
@howie_in_az: Damn I just knew it was all Bush’s fault.
I have mixed feelings about this. If you are out driving from store to store or waiting in lines to get the consoles then I don’t have a problem because you are investing your time. When you are in cahoots with store employees, you’re a fucking scum bag. And not because you take money from the morons who are willing to pay but because you make it extremely difficult for working parents (who can’t take time off to camp-out) to get a console for their kids.
@DeeJayQueue: Most online storefronts for places like Best Buy and what have you aren’t having these on a regular basis, it’s all about the instore. What you see online are ridiculous bundles like the Walmart 700 + after shipping (yes, the stuff in the bundle is close to worth it, but I sure don’t want to be told I have to buy 6 games and some accessories to have a console) or the out of stock in 20 minutes Amazon units. So yeah, you might be able to get it online.
But what if you live in bumfuck nowhere? Are you gonna spend an hour or more driving into town to get a console with no guarantees? Try doing that a couple times a month in the hopes of scoring one of teh consoles. For some people, this is a service worth their while.
And buying up all the stock? You’ve gotta be kidding me. With as rare as these things are, I’ve never once been to a store that doesn’t enforce a one per person limit, and they keep your information so you can’t come back later that day.
@bigdirty: Wah.
@azntg: Wah.
@Amsterdaam: Based on this article…no. All he does is get friendly with game store people. No camping..hell, let me quote the article.
“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.”
Also, it hasn’t “been out of stock for the entire year”, or no one would have gotten it.
And lastly, Garrett is the guy who decided the 360 and PS3 should have high price points and games that cost more than 50 dollars? If so, shame on him, because that’s what’s making console gaming expesive, not some guy flipping stuff on ebay.
@coren: “Based on this article…no. All he does is get friendly with game store people. “
also known as collusion.
what about people buying foreclosed/shitty houses, fixing them up, and flipping them for hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit?! often they claim to be ‘revitalizing’ a neighborhood. . .give me a damn break!
and we wonder why the economy is collapsing!
as an avid/nerdy as hell sneaker collector, i found it really strange to find out housewives were camping on the street for ‘the hottest new thing’. it used to be nerdy sneaker dudes trying to snatch a 1 of 500 pair of gaudy patent leather nikes. now its people in minivans with perms buying big box stuff produced in the MILLIONS of units.
all you weiners can cry about it, but the kid is doing just what society already set up. LOOK COOL, GET MONEY! have you watched a rap video (or flip that house on TLC) lately?!
I waited in line for the ps2 back in the day and had an opportunity and means to buy 2 to resell one and passed…looking back on it, I regret it…PS2s were selling for $1000 at the time ON MY COLLEGE CAMPUS…I could’ve paid for my own purchase and a ton of games with the profit…
The same thing happened with the 360, I waited overnight but this time when I could only get a core system I DID sell it on ebay and made a pretty fair profit. Since then I’ve gotten a real 360, found a PS3 in Target launch week (just sitting there), and got a Wii 2 days after launch of ebay for $50 extra total (but after taking into account tax I only ended up paying like $26 extra)
All in all, I agree with the poster…it’s a tax on those willing to pay extra to have something right away…A couple of months ago I was seeing Wiis in best buy, gamestop, even my law school bookstore…I picked one up because a guy in one of my classes wanted one for his daughter, but I sold it to him for exactly what I paid…(can’t overcharge a guy who’s buying something for his daughter)
Just like so many other issues on Consumerist, it comes back to basic economics.
If someone is willing to pay all that markup to have it RIGHT NOW, then fine, let them buy it. All you have to do is not create the black market demand for these items and you’ll be fine.
Look at the iPhone’s price drop. Same thing. They all paid the “firsties” tax because they couldn’t wait.
@Troy F.: Actually, selling water to disaster victims at a high price is a good thing. Here’s what happens:
(1) Disaster — no water
(2) Guy sees way to make easy buck, loads up truck with water bottles, goes to disaster area
(3) Guys starts selling water bottles for, say $20.
(4) People start buying
(5) 2nd – 5th Guys sees first guy making money, do the same thing
(6) competition and the price drops
Now, you have 5 trucks of water when before you had none.
The problem is that you never get to step (6) unless you have step (3), and step (3) has to be possible for step (2). Forcing the guy to sell at the pre-disaster price ensures that he doesn’t sell at all.
@azntg: 10 over the course of a year is “in bulk”? Considering that there’s what, a million times that in the market right now…
@The Meathead:
I’m not a whiner – some people do actually make the games that are played on these systems for a living, and when a bunch of douchebags squat on inventories of the units, it’s got a ripple down effect. It comes down to like I said before, the budget to buy X games isn’t there, or the people that want to buy Game Y, can’t for the sole reason that Garret and his like are sitting on a bunch of consoles that they don’t want to pay 2X MSRP, and by the time these people are able to buy the console at MSRP, its well into the lifecyle of the title, where it is either hard to find, or is able to be purchased used, which is an entirely different argument on how that is a detriment to the industry.
@darkened: Nor did I have the intestinal fortitude to even take doing it with a Credit Card into consideration.
Anyone who has a problem with this should simply put things in these terms.
You are walking down the street, and some guy offers you twice what you paid for your plain, ordinary, watch. Would you sell it? If not, then you are a fool.
Don’t be mad at the people willing to do the work to get the items so they can be sold for more, they are simply supplying the demand by the morons in this world who are willing to not do the work and overpay just so they can have something that they feel they need.
It’s hard for others to understand the “needs” of these people, but why should you question it? It’s not my concern that someone else is willing to overpay, that’s their choice. If I could get a Wii or two I would sell them if I could. If the value of the keeping the item is more than what I can sell it, I’d keep it. But it is just a gaming system, and so I would gladly sell it for cash now.
The other points that are being brought up is that this is income and people do need to claim it to be legal in regards to taxes. You, in essence, have become a store, and your profits are taxable. It’s a shame that the IRS isn’t monitoring those people who are listing items on Ebay and then seeing if they report those profits. It wouldn’t be hard to do.
I don’t get all this crazy hype. As for Garrett, I don’t think selling things at WAY over retail is a great idea. However, I also don’t understand why people BUY IT. It’s not like he’s breaking into your house, reverse robbing you MAKING you buy it.
None of these items are essential, for children OR adults. If Timmy doesn’t get a $300+ video game console or Johny Lawyer Pants doesn’t get his brand new iPhone it really doesn’t matter.
@Amsterdaam: Like I said, ask a friend to do it for you, then. I don’t think the 2 he’s sold are your problem. If it makes a difference to you, I’d like to let you know that he bought them one at a time, and stood in line for at least half of them. No unfair advantage here, just willingness to spend time and effort.
There is obviously too much demand for the $250 pricetag Nintendo sets on it. Otherwise, the scalping wouldn’t be profitable.
@azntg: So making profits is bad in your mind? What criteria do you use to determine if prices are unreasonable? Products are only worth what others are willing to pay. …please tell me where the fraud is? Do you think these the people buying these items don’t have a clue as to what prices they go for in stores?
@sifr: Actually, they would. There’s only maybe 20,000 consoles out and about on ebay and craigslist and what have you and these things are STILL selling out all the time. Even assuming there’s another 20,000 waiting to be sold or in transit or what have you..that’s not even 1 percent of what’s been manufactured thus far (hell it’s just over a quarter percent, if that).
So if there’s so few consoles, regardless of scalpers, demand would still be insane, thus requiring that some people go through those ridiculous steps in order to achieve a console.
Shouldn’t this be posted on the Opportunist not the Consumerist.
@sifr:
Uh, what? I always thought collusion implied illegality, which doesn’t seem to be occurring in this case. Is it somehow illegal for Bob at Gamestop to tell you when a shipment gets in? Hell, Gamestop is very obvious about posting when games and systems and accessories and what have you are out, and have no problem asking if I even want to put money down in advance.
Those who think this is okay are the same that will scream gas prices are to high! You don’t have to drive to work do you? You should live in the city and take public transportation! Living far from your work is a privilege, not a right. So get to huffing it, I think somebody should buy up all the gasoline and resell it for a tidy profit… oh wait, I think that already happens =)
@GreatCaesarsGhost: I couldn’t agree with your last statement more. The bottom line is that there are people willing to pay the resellers asking price for it.
@trollkiller: Along those same lines, Garrett does not have an inside track that any other person could not also get. He isn’t paying anyone off to hold Wiis for him or to not tell others when the shipment is coming in.
He does not have an edge over anyone else. He is simply doing what Bill Gates did, having a little ingenuity and being in the right place at the right time.
I purchased a pair of Wii component cables last year from Nintendo when they first came out for $30. I sold these cables on eBay for $130. A few weeks later (two weeks before Christmas) I bought the same cables from Nintendo’s web site again, when they said they got them back in stock, for $30 (but kept those for myself). I didn’t feel bad in the slightest.
@bigdirty: Supply and demand
@Phildawg: While the idea is not wrong it’s a nonsense comparison. Several people don’t live in cities or have access to public trans and still need to get to work. Gasoline is not ALWAYS a luxury. Video games and fancy pants cell phones are.
@Phildawg: No. No, they won’t. And living far isn’t a luxury; sometimes, it’s all you can afford.
Nothing like a popular post to bring out the utterly ignorant among us.
People commenting that this is only one guy with 10 units, need to calculate the other 1000+ scumbags who sell 10+ units.
Not being the first to own a Wii is not life threatening. People are indulging on it mostly because of its lack of availability. It sounds appealing when you hear ‘product A’ has been sold out at 90% of retailers and online stores.
The way I look at it, if you want something THAT bad and are KNOWINGLY paying $300 more then retail value – then why the hell do you blame the seller?
*looks through Craigslist*
Thats a lot of people to be arrested for “tax evasion”.
@cef21: Uhh…I have no idea what that has to do with anything.
My point is that people are expressing over video games and dolls the type of moral outrage that would be more appropriate for people price gouging life-sustaining items during a disaster.
This isn’t free market techniques though, because you’re creating an artificial demand for a product, which, in turn, creates your profits. Shame shame.
My GF let someone at her work log into our home machine (I have spent some time setting this up so I can get to files, and functions on my home machine) to buy rockies tickets. He made a killing, and didn’t even thank me. I can’t help but think that rockies tickets are pretty close to the same morals as game consoles or tickle me elmos. I guess we’ll just have to get our congressman to create legislation against you people.
@Shadowfire:
Hey I’ve actually purchased older complete, good condition, PC games at Goodwill/Salvation Army/second hand stores for a few dollars and sold them for multiple times purchase price to the collector market (via ebay). Does that make me rude? They still got a deal on a game that originally cost $49.95 in 1990 and are paying $18 for now… even though I only paid $3 for it.
Supply/demand and informed sellers/uninformed buyers equals profit for seller…
Supply. Demand. Capitalism. The only problem (that others have already pointed out) is if he’s not claiming the income on his tax return. Other than that, I see a smattering of comments from people who think we’d be better off as socialists. The “but what about the children?!” bullshit is just a poor disguise for your jealousy that someone else came up with a way to make a buck. If Garrett claims the income on his taxes, he’s just working hard to supply a demand. The demand in this case is lazy people with enough money or credit to pay a premium because they didn’t want to wake up early to stand in line. The retailers can’t meet that demand, so Garrett did. The stores would have run out before these lazy people got there regardless of whether or not Garrett bought 5 or 6 units.
Conventional way to live the American Dream? No, not conventional… but to say you wouldn’t feel bad if the guy died next week? Come on!
holy fuck, you’d think he was feeding crystal meth to a puppy. it’s a fucking gadget, and people who think they need them pay too much buy them. i can’t believe this post generated so much response.
the profit numbers he’s talking about – well, i’m calling bullshit there, but at the end of the day, i really don’t care how much he sells stuff for.
@ivanthepig: Because there will always be people who go ‘shame on you for making it possible for me to feel as if I can’t live without buying things I don’t need for twice the advertised amount!’
There has been a sucker born every minute since the beginning of man that will overpay for something. And this will go on till the 2nd to last human dies.
But then again that MackBookPRO you just bought has only $1 in profit. Yea Right.
I used to have an eBay business (buying bulk lots at auctions and selling them piecemeal). Did it full time for a few years. I assure you that we paid income taxes (quarterly estimated tax payments — I don’t miss them) and charged sales tax within our state, as required by law. You should NOT assume that every eBay reseller is not taking care of the taxes the way that they should.
@CaffeinatedSquint: I think that this would apply to all early adopters as well. That whole iPhone thing? Standing in line to get it. Why? Is an electronic device going to change your life SO dramatically that you just HAVE to have it? Well, maybe not. Then again, to be cool, you need to have the latest and greatest. You also need to start smoking too. Thats cool too. As a matter of fact, start drinking and driving and snorting coke – celebrities do it. Must be cool, right?
I think its rediculous that people have the nerve to buy a product at an inflated price, then complain about how much they spent on it. Thats what America is though. Buyers. We’re all just buyers. We see it. We want it. We get it. Then complain about it.
The company I work for has 16 boxes of a specific high-demand-low-supply product that they give out to employees as prizes. Lets boycott the company because little Timmy doesn’t get his gadget.
What happened to the old fashioned boardgame? Chess? Checkers? Card games? Gin Rummy? Poker? Things that require thought, and the ability to exercise the mind. Getting a Wii now is a win in the short run, but a loss in the long run.
Dear America,
Stop staring at computer/tv screens on your off time. Read a book.