That is not the issue. The issue is that according to you a reseller shouldn't be making profit, while it is alright for everyone else to make profit. Do you realize that the store/website you are buying from is also a reseller. Aren't they impeding your morals by making profits. Why is it an issue that they can invest their money and make profit but not some other reseller.
Yes bro, I agree with this but as a reseller, the official middleman is restricted by mrp. That was an integral part of my argument all along. If Undertaker had bought at 46000 and sold at 49999 plus shipping we have no issue. But my problem stems with this need to sell at a price higher than mrp. Mrp is both a legal and moral measure put in, to prevent companies who own technologies/capital from exploiting customers. If we don't have this mechanism then a rich person, say Ambani, can buy out entire stock of ps5 and limit availability and sell at whatever price he wants. No free market will come to save gamers in this case. So shouldn't we limit anyone, be it middleman or retailer or resellers capacity to exploit? I just wish you could stick to mrp as this measure. Else gaming will become even more unaffordanle to poor Indians.
Now, there is a small difference in case of GPU. We all know that GPU is used for mining. When someone buys GPU, he looks at the investment as present value of future cash flows that he might generate by mining, hence he might be willing to pay a higher price. That's why there is lesser backlash though selling GPU above mrp by way of scalping is also unfair. Unlike this, a gaming console can only be used for entertainment, there is no future value in its purchase so the gamer is being exploited, more so than a miner as he is buying a purely depreciating asset.
I have no issues with the rights of a gamer and I am not saying that one is more important than the other. All I am saying is that supply and demand plays a major role in setting up the price when someone is deciding to sell something, whether it is an individual or a company and apart from the essential stuff, it is not immoral for a middleman to make money when he decides to invest his money and resell the stuff he bought. In fact, in India right now, more hoarding and black-marketing happens for essential stuff and it affects far more people than GPUs and consoles. People should be more enraged that they have to pay 40 bucks for the same tomatoes that a farmer gets paid 5 bucks for.
Now, if you imported and sold something, it will not have an mrp since it is not officially available in India, so power to you , since you took the effort to find this in demand product, learn about it and import it, hence you helped out another person who needed this thing by doing all this work for him. Profit is your well earned reward for this. You profited using arbitrage strategy.
Now tell me what Scalper does? He games the online store system, to ensure no one else gets their hands on the product and then sells it to the same people who couldn't buy the same product, at a higher price. In case of pure scalping there is absolutely no value addition to the buyer or the economy. That is why Scalper is different from Reseller. That is why we hate scalpers. At least there was some dignity in scalping for movie tickets( REMEMBER MOVIE TICKET SCALPERS WERE ARRESTED, IF CAUGHT BY MUFTI POLICE). They stood in long que under sun for long time but online scalpers just keep looking at computer screen (while enjoying music.lol.) or use bots(which are as unfair as using hacks in online gaming) while the rest of us are probably working or at school/college.lol. This is nothing more than cynical opportunism.
I also have a great anecdotal story which is one of the reasons I am a little more vociferous regarding this labelling of 'middleman' as immoral. My Nanaji opened one of the first dealerships for Tractors in his town of Ambala. This was back when GT Road used to be more of a dirt path than a road. Both his company and his clients were very happy with him until, his own father told him to stop running this business because it was immoral of him to make money while he was doing nothing but reselling. He said that why does my Nanaji get to make any money when all he is doing is acting as a middleman between the company and a client.
So I find it really disturbing that even 60 years after that, we are still trying to demonize middlemen for making profits on their investments. So please tell me why does everyone else get to make profits but not a reseller. And why is it alright for big companies to act as resellers from whom you will happily purchase stuff but not a common guy.
Damn bro, it's sad your nanaji had to suffer from the remenents of a toxic socialist era that kept India perpetually poor. I have nothing against resellers. Resellers are important tools in the economy, who market, store and sell. They learn, invest, build and sell to help economy grow. Like I said, I wouldn't call you a Scalper, you are an importer reseller like them duty free shop.
We are absolutely not against reselling we are only against this modern iteration of scalping which has an element of unfairness and sadism to it, Since they are taking advantage of an actual pandemic crisis to profit. Isn't there a need to raise this issue of morality? We can't let people profit off everything, that too with minimal effort.
Again to be sure, we are not calling for any ban on reselling in this forum, there wasnt a single post asking for that. I don't know who came up with that conclusion. I am for open markets everywhere just as much as you are, but we are only voicing our dissent/dissatisfaction with covid-scalping of video game consoles in video game discussion section of this forum. We will continue to call out scalpers here.
That $100 odd I'd made would have made me rich, I'm so devastated. Scalping is price gouging on essential goods, not luxury items. I buy a limited edition Ferrari for 300K, and resell it couple of months down the line for 600k is that scalping too or just supply and demand market economics? Ditto for a GPU, PS5 or Xbox. Definitely NOT for food, water, essentials things you need. Oh and if you sell your home be sure to sell it for exactly what you paid for it years ago or you will be a MEGA SCALPER, all those $$$$$$s or crores in profit, so unethical to the buyer. 