Reselling is EVIL!!!!!

[yepimonfire]

I was reading an add on craigslist and someone felt the need to make their own add explaining what that seller had done. The seller had a laptop that was recently a woot! that they were selling for more than the woot! price (go figure). Basically the dude called him out, which I found to be particularly ****ty. Maybe the dude doesn't have a job, or just needs a little extra money to make ends meet. People with no forethought like the fella calling him out on his "high price" really piss me off. If someone wants to pay the asking price then I fail to see the problem. It's not like that woot! will be available for more than one day anyway.

Recently Best Buy was had a clearance on an item that was marked way below market value. I purchased some and resold them. I'm sure someone, somewhere thinks that's an ***hole thing to do. But that's how I manage, I seize opportunities to make money when I can. All things considered, that's probably one of the worst things I've done as a reseller from a moral standpoint. That's simply because people do go to Best Buy to look for specific products. However I don't typically go to Best Buy hoping to find a deal so good I can make money from it. If Best Buy was that stupid to sell the item for that low, I see no reason why I shouldn't benefit from it.

Us resellers seem to have a bad stigma too. I've talked to a few people and told them what I do and I often get people turning their nose up to me until I explain in detail how the process works (this is where the misunderstanding of economics comes into play). They simply how no idea how the business world works. Principly, I do what virtually any company in sales does, but on a much smaller scale.

Sorry, but this was just kind of my 4:00 AM, what grinds my gears segment. If anything it will be entertaining to read people's responces.

it's not possible for it to be morally wrong, if a person agrees to pay an asking price for something then it's a fair trade. if some moron trys to sell something for 2x the retail value of it then no one will buy, you can't really do anything wrong.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Its absolutely productive... Best Buy had a reason for blowing those out, probably a net down on older goods or something. Either way, BB had to get rid of them.

And you think end users wouldn't have bought them? All the really good BB deals I've seen they would have sold out quickly regardless of whether one reseller bought 20 or 20 individuals bought one. That expensive HTPC oriented keyboard comes to mind. BB lowered the price to something crazy, a hundred resellers snatched up most of them, thousands of would be end users got stiffed. Stuff like that is annoying, but the Wii thing is too much. Taking an item out of the hands of someone that can pay 250 for it and putting in the hands of someone that can pay 600 for it isn't something you should pat yourself on the back for.



Yes, what can you say?

I agree with your line of thinking. When there are big sales, it would be nice to see the savings passed onto the consumer instead of them being snatched up in bulk and re-sold at an inflated market value. Supply shocks are definitely responsible for the Wii's and how re-sellers have taken advantage of it.

I see re-selling a product with an inflated MSRP as more along the business models of Monster Cable and Bose but on a much smaller scale. There will always be desperate and uninformed consumers that will pay a premium on products.

 

[Seth=L]

it's not possible for it to be morally wrong, if a person agrees to pay an asking price for something then it's a fair trade. if some moron trys to sell something for 2x the retail value of it then no one will buy, you can't really do anything wrong.

There's a hole on your logic. I say that convincing people that cables sound better if you spend more money on them is morally wrong. I say trying to convince people that little cube speakers and an acoustimass module sound better than similarly priced products from reputable companies is morally wrong. They are clearly overcharging and people are paying for it.

 

[yepimonfire]

thats different, i was talking about reselling normal items, like those cameras. i'm not talking about selling bad stuff at a "good stuff" price through marketing hype. and bose isn't really overcharging, sure its certainly not worth it, but they gotta pay their marketing managers somehow that's where all bose money goes, i was talking with one of the people up top in Polk audio who was explaining something like that about why bose is so expensive and why polk can be cheaper and better, it's because they spend so much money on marketing and they pay places like best buy so they can have someone come in and set all their stuff up in whatever spot they want etc. bose is only popular because of the amount of marketing they put into it, everyone knows about it, so everyone gets it (un educated consumers) then it certainly sounds better then their TV speakers, so they tell someone else and blah blah blah.

EDIT: wooo my 666th post, let's all celebrate with a big HAIL SATAN! (jk)

 

[Davemcc]

I can only speak for my own role in this. I've been buying vintage watches on the Bay. I cannot and could not reasonably expect to find the watches I'm looking for at yard sales or local pawn shops. Ebay is like a giant network of people scouting for exactly what I'm looking for and presenting me with multiple items and prices. It is entirely up to me what I buy, when and how much I'll pay...if I choose to buy at all. If I lose an auction, it's only because somebody else wanted it more. But there will always be another one just like it.

There is that type of eBay seller with eBay stores that only have buy it now auctions with crazy prices, often 2-3x what you can buy them for at auction. For example, I paid ~$300 for a vintage Hamilton. Right now, there is a seller with the same model in much worse condition with a buy it now of over $900. Should I be mad at the seller if I pay over $900 to him or should I be angry at myself? Realistically, that item should remain unsold indefinitely unless he adjusts his price accordingly.