Everyone mindlessly argues about Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Ramadan; meanwhile, the real Grinch that stole Christmas is not acknowledged. A customer finds a book, video game, Blu-ray, computer part, car part, etc. that they desire only to see the price rise from three to six times what it was worth at MSRP.
The real deplorables of America are treated as an afterthought. These are the people with no interest in a good or service who buy that product to hike up prices on eBay and Amazon. The worst part is we allow these scalpers to dictate prices and make an unethical living by buying from them. We enable them to prosper by sitting on our hands and doing nothing.
A recent example of scalping gone wrong comes from Arrow Video’s new Creepshow 2 Limited Edition release. This product cost $21.50 (due to Black Friday sales), and Amazon canceled several orders stating they did not have enough stock. The MSRP for this product is $40.00. The moment it went out on stock, the scalpers scooped in selling it for anywhere from $90.00 to $189.00 on eBay and Amazon. A lot of people who wanted this product did not receive it due to a screw-up by Arrow Video and numerous retailers (Best Buy, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.). Now, scalpers can charge $95 on average for the product. These people are not collectors who want a limited edition release. They could not care less about the product, yet they reap the benefits of an unfortunate screw-up, and no one does a thing about it. eBay and Amazon do not make sellers charge closer to the MSRP price. No, they let the scalpers take advantage of the situation in an unethical manner.
In a poetic twist, Amazon received extra stock two weeks later. Now, the product is back for sale but at full MSRP of $40.00. Other sites, like Grindhouse Video, will get a few more copies at the same price. BestBuy could get more copies at $27.99. However, the scalpers are still selling copies at $95.00 average. Look at this listing . What does one say to that? That picture is not right. In this case, at least Karma prevailed in a sense.
If you think limited edition items are the only products impacted by scalping, you’re wrong. Look up an old random book on Amazon. Confucianism: A Modern Interpretation costs $78.00 to $98.00. The recent Nintendo NES Classic Edition sold at $59.99 MSRP. Now, the product sells for $200.00 minimum on Amazon despite stores getting them back in stock every so often (that’s from 161 sellers). That means a 161 people had no interest in the item and are merely selling it for profit.
How does one tell their child on Christmas, "Sorry, I could not get you what was on your list"? Some jerk with no interest in the item bought them all up and sold them for double, triple, or six times the price.
Maybe, websites like eBay and Amazon should start taking the heat for allowing this unethical practice. How about instead of the government wasting time trying to police the internet, we police the art of scalping? There is a simple method for discouraging scalping. Allow sellers to sell the item for $10.00 above MSRP (nothing more). Items are rarely sold at MSRP anyway, so selling an item for MSRP already doubles profit. Do scalpers need to be so greedy that they make $160.00 extra dollars off a $20.00 dollar product?
Christmas is supposed to be a holiday of giving not for taking. As long as we continue to excuse scalping, these abominable acts will continue. To anyone that practices the art of scalping, one can only hope that you see the look of disappointment on a child’s face that you stole Christmas from.
