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Anyone "Scalping"?

mcdj said:
And a person who stays up all night to preorder, or waits in line for hours, then lays out the money, and takes time to pack and ship, deserves whatever profit he can realize from reselling.

Why can't people get it through their heads? It's a free market. If it wasn't, there wouldn't be any Apple products to scalp, because we'd all be making $5/hr and couldn't afford to buy anything, and no company would bother creating a single thing.
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I think you're the one that doesn't get it.
If you want to make money then do something productive that contributes to the economy like hmm....creating a product.

Don't try to piggy back off the success of others.

There's a reason why scalping is illegal in some states, because it's conduct reserved for low-lives.
 
superlawyer15 said:
I think you're the one that doesn't get it.
If you want to make money then do something productive that contributes to the economy like hmm....creating a product.

Don't try to piggy back off the success of others.

There's a reason why scalping is illegal in some states, because it conduct reserved for low-lives.
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This is a stupid thing to argue about considering I am not planning to scalp anything. Scalping tickets for a show, which have a fixed quantity, is one thing... you can buy them up and force people to pay more.

This is totally different. If I stay up all night and get an order in, that is value to someone else who didn't want to bother going through the trouble, but still wants the watch early. What is your issue with that?
 
bjdraw said:
Don't confuse legal with ethical. And there are plenty of things that are illegal for no other reason than to control people.
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There's no confusion, in certain states it is explicitly unlawful to scalp certain items.

Also, one can view the "launch-day supply" as a finite good. So the same line of reasoning that applies to tickets would apply to a physical product in low supply. While one could counter by saying "well, they could just make more", the same could be said to tickets for a concert ..."they could just have another show"

bottom line is I (and a lot of others) find the practice repulsive, and I would concur with those who advocate for it to be illegal with respect to all consumer goods.
 
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superlawyer15 said:
very super =)
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Okay. Your (as then unread by me) comment I could concur with those who advocate for it to be illegal with respect to all consumer goods could be a good income generator for you!

In recent memory in the UK there have been a couple of strikes by tanker drivers, resulting in fuel stations 'drying up'. Each time there are stories of owner-operated fuel stations charging 3x or 4x the usual price when they know they're the only local source of fuel. Would that qualify as scalping?

It *is* scalping, obviously, but would your laws cover it? Does it differ from any other business (or entire commodity industry) charging more in times of scarcity?

Obviously Apple control their own distribution system for the Watch, but effectively what's happening is that purchasers who choose to scalp are acting like the toyshops who charge two or three times regular retail when they're lucky enough to get hold of this year's Cabbage Patch Kid.

Is there a difference between a genuine retailer scalping, and a private retailer scalping via eBay?

***

EDIT: don't know about the US, but in the UK there is (soft) legislation against ticket scalping (known here as 'touting'). But you can 'scalp' perfectly legally by wrapping up the cost of the ticket in hospitality packages, eg a £100 ticket for a rugby match can be sold for £1000 if you accompany the ticket with a chicken drumstick and a glass of warm white wine. These hospitality companies are usually *very* closely associated with the concert promoters, stadium operators, etc. Is there existing legislation to prevent someone from selling a drawing of their cat for $2000, with complementary Apple Watch thrown in for nothing?
 
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mojolicious said:
Okay. Your (as then unread by me) comment I could concur with those who advocate for it to be illegal with respect to all consumer goods could be a good income generator for you!

In recent memory in the UK there have been a couple of strikes by tanker drivers, resulting in fuel stations 'drying up'. Each time there are stories of owner-operated fuel stations charging 3x or 4x the usual price when they know they're the only local source of fuel. Would that qualify as scalping?

It *is* scalping, obviously, but would your laws cover it? Does it differ from any other business (or entire commodity industry) charging more in times of scarcity?

Obviously Apple control their own distribution system for the Watch, but effectively what's happening is that purchasers who choose to scalp are acting like the toyshops who charge two or three times regular retail when they're lucky enough to get hold of this year's Cabbage Patch Kid.

Is there a difference between a genuine retailer scalping, and a private retailer scalping via eBay?
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I think there is room to argue that there is a difference, but its a difficult balance to strike, especially when it comes to a product that is essentially a necessity like gas.

For example, when hurricane sandy hit in the US, it was illegal to raise the price of anything by more than 10% in New Jersey.

See http://nj.gov/governor/news/news/552012/approved/20121027c.html

Also, there is a huge difference between an authorized retailer who's supply is limited by the OEM/distributor and a scalper of a consumer good who poses as an ordinary customer but has 0 interest keeping the device and is only purchasing it so that it can be resold.
 
superlawyer15 said:
stuff
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Sorry, just wanted your response to the edit I made to my earlier post...

Don't know about the US, but in the UK there is (soft) legislation against ticket scalping (known here as 'touting'). But you can 'scalp' perfectly legally by wrapping up the cost of the ticket in hospitality packages, eg a £100 ticket for a rugby match can be sold for £1000 if you accompany the ticket with a chicken drumstick and a glass of warm white wine. These hospitality companies are usually *very* closely associated with the concert promoters, stadium operators, etc. Is there existing legislation to prevent someone from selling a drawing of their cat for $2000, with complementary Apple Watch thrown in for nothing?
 
mojolicious said:
Sorry, just wanted your response to the edit I made to my earlier post...

Don't know about the US, but in the UK there is (soft) legislation against ticket scalping (known here as 'touting'). But you can 'scalp' perfectly legally by wrapping up the cost of the ticket in hospitality packages, eg a £100 ticket for a rugby match can be sold for £1000 if you accompany the ticket with a chicken drumstick and a glass of warm white wine. These hospitality companies are usually *very* closely associated with the concert promoters, stadium operators, etc. Is there existing legislation to prevent someone from selling a drawing of their cat for $2000, with complementary Apple Watch thrown in for nothing?
Click to expand...

I'm honestly not familiar with how something like this would play out.
Typically legislation is written in a way to allow law enforcement to still prosecute individuals who think they're being clever like that.
 
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