"Scalping"

[marcipolett0]

Is anyone aware that sellers are selling New items above retail? For example, it is common for sellers of books to purchase books at retail, only to sell them at a higher cost than retail. Any ideas????

[annadryl]

I buy guitar parts in bulk and resell them for literally eight to ten times what I paid for them. USPS gets a large amount of that but I turn a profit and my customers are happy with their parts.

I am "scalping" volume knobs and string trees. It's been good for all of us, especially USPS.

[inhawaii]

Can't I go buy something at the store at retail price then sell it on ebay for more and make a profit? Is there something wrong with that?

[fashunu4eeuh]

Yes, we are aware. But are you as well?

In most situations, sellers are free to set their price of goods at any amount they see fit. Buyers, in turn, are free to accept or reject that amount as they see fit. This law of supply and demand is a crucial part of our free market system, where it is the goal of good business to sell an item for more than its cost to produce, in order to make a profit.

If you are suggesting the practice of selling for profit is illegal or immoral in some way, then you may be confusing that practice with scalping, also called price gouging.

Price gouging is the illegal practice of hoarding necessities in order to resell them at much inflated prices during a stated emergency, profiting off the misery of others with human disregard.

Charging an inflated premium price for prime seating at a Taylor Swift concert isn’t the same as selling N95 surgical masks for ten times their value during the pandemic. 

[chapeau-noir]

In other news, water is wet.

[az93]

Scalping is not illegal. Once we had an extra season ticket, advertised it and sold it to a scalper who then resold it for even more money. That's scalping. I know this for sure because I asked the guy who was sitting next to me how he got that ticket.

[mam98031]

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@marcipolett0 wrote:

Is anyone aware that sellers are selling New items above retail? For example, it is common for sellers of books to purchase books at retail, only to sell them at a higher cost than retail. Any ideas????

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I know you may be reluctant to join the conversations, but I wish you would.    You've sold a few things on Ebay and it appears paid above retail pricing for some of those items.

I'm curious what happened that caused you to ask this question.  What is it that concerns you?  And why you thought that Ebay sellers purchase their inventory at full retail?  They are all interesting questions and I'd love to have a civil conversation with you about your concerns.

[patrickbegood]

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@rugerskick wrote:

What about all the old stuff people mark as vintage or rare and sell for far more than it ever sold for new, twenty, forty to 50 years ago?  What's up with that?  How is that allowed?

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Do you want to live in a world where everyone's lives are so closely monitored, and rules from Authority are so minutely detailed and dictatorial, that this can't happen?

I most vehemently do NOT, and I doubt many others do either, since one seldom sees flows of defectors and asylum seekers INTO highly authoritarian states, where some Authority has its judgemental snout (which is almost inevitably deep into the simultaneous troughs of corruption and exploitation such immense State Power grants them) prying into your everyday choices, and dishing out punishments as it sees fit.

I'd be astonished anyone in 2023 trusts any Authority enough to even consider such an idea!

Meanwhile, unless/until you attain some utopia of "permitted pricing" monitored by Big Brother's Watchful Eye, I'd like to reassure you that us buyers aren't all incapable of agency and in need of a guardian to watch over us, and in fact that we can make our own darn minds up!

I can think of a few occasions where I missed out while something was readily available in stores for some reason, and was therefore very grateful and pleased to find it on sale, and completely fine with the seller making a profit.

[dbfolks166mt]

     It happens not only on eBay but other ecommerce sites as well, including Amazon, and with about any product you can name. This is a case of let the buyer beware. There are buyers that are addicted to eBay and do not shop around for the best price. Drop shippers are infamous for using this tactic to actually list items on eBay then once a sale is made purchase the item from a retailer and ship it to the buyer. 

     As others eluded to it's capitalism at its finest. 

[lux.ra_14]

Retail price of The Great Gatsby in 1925: $2.

Current value in the original dust jacket: $150,000 or so and going up all the time.

I realize OP is talking about more recent books, but there isn't a static relationship between retail and resale prices. Too many factors at play.

[bonjourami]

"Scalping" refers  to selling event tickets,not book sales.

[reallynicestamps]

old stuff people mark as vintage or rare and sell for far more than it ever sold for new, twenty, forty to 50 years ago? 

That's what vintage means, to the extent that vintage means anything.

One useful definition is "an item 20 to 99 years old" because antique is usually defined as "over 100 years old".

With vintage the seller should , but does not always, give if not the year of manufacture, at least the era.

So "Vintage 1940s housedress" "Vintage punk tee circa 1980" "Vintage calculator 1998"

Anything made in the 20th century is vintage. Anything made before 1923 is antique.

Rare is in the eye of the beholder. I saw a YouTube video the other day where a thrift shopper, a reseller was getting excited about a fish design Chinese bowl which was on the GoodWill shelf for only $4.99!!!!

Except that design is commonly used in Chinese restaurants and can be purchased by the dozen for a buck a bowl.

We Boomers are suffering from the shock of realizing that the stuff we thought was cool as kids, is now cool again, because it is so old and retro.

And a lot of that stuff went to the dump when we were done with it, so lesser supply when there is a demand means higher prices .

[showmecurrency4u]

this is america not a socialist country yet.  i have paid retail to the u.s. mint for and sold them wholesale a few minutes later for a  50 per cent over my cost.  so what ?

[marcipolett0]

So, you believe in price gouging? Hey, Supply and Demand.

[soh.maryl]

Where did that person state that he believed in price gouging?

And, as been explained by several responders, what you are describing is not price gouging.

[marcipolett0]

What if there is a heart medication that people need? A store sells it for a $1.50 a pill. Then Joe-Make-A-Quick-Bucks comes along and buys all the pills then puts them on sale for $5.00. An elderly person does not use the internet or doesn't drive. Her only source of medication and information is from Joe. That is Ok with you? Hey, that's capitalism. Don't tell me that's different. It is the same reasoning.