Scalping

 Taking that little off the top

Scalping, the dark underbelly of the free market that we all just persist with under the assumption that it's always been there and always will be. I mean, ever since scarcity has existed as a concept there would be those that exploit it; and if those very same exploiters can be the ones creating that scarcity, then it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy of awful. We've seen these sorts of practises come up whenever there are concert tickets for popular artists, designer brand apparel that earns it's value from exclusivity and, of course, physical video game tools because... You know, I think it's just because the world is terrible and we all need to be reminded of that fact every now and then. And if you think that I'm being a bit over the top with the disdain I hold for this very practice, well we're just going to have to agree to disagree because I simply despise those bottom-feeding wastrels who scrounge about in the online vermin pit in hopes of profiteering off of desperation. No love lost in the slightest.

Thus it's galling, for someone like me, to hear the practice bought up again and again in the gaming world, and not always for the actions of scummy opportunists. (Or rather, not the same scummy opportunist) I know I've done a blog on it before, but good god I cannot forget that nonsense with the Nintendo Super Mario 3D HD 3-game-pack and it's limited release window. This, I'll remind you, was a digital product and thus there's literally no excuse for it to be limited in sales. Nintendo just wanted an excuse to sell these decades old games at near premium price. But then, why achieve that by literally creating the perfect ecosystem for scalpers? Having unlimited supply as never got in the way of Nintendo's ridiculously overpriced old games before, why bother now? And you want to know the worst part? They literally did it again with a Dragon Quest game pack a year later; I know people try to say that Nintendo have really grown up in the gaming space, but I really do wonder about that sometimes.

I'm sure you know where I'm going with this, because it's the only place to go with this, but for the love of everything holy why are we still dealing with current gen console scalping? I mean sure, I understood for the first few weeks, heck even the first month, The Nintendo Switch had similar issues with scalping, but we're into the new year, it's February going on March; why are we still allowing this to happen? Some statistics have claimed, through extrapolation off some arguably imprecise numbers, that 15% of the PS5 consoles sold have been scalped. That's ridiculous; how could Sony allow this to happen? And, just to be clear, this isn't a Nintendo situation where I'm angry at them for the lack of supply. That's understandable in my eyes. The console is made up of so many specially made parts and we're in the middle of pandemic which limits production quantity; limited supply is to be expected. But in reflection there needs to be active attempts to squash the pandemic of self-righteous scalping weasels out there, otherwise all efforts to try and claw back some control of demand is only going to be undermined. (And I guess Microsoft share some blame too, but they're only selling half as many consoles as Sony so that just naturally makes them less relevant.)

And you know what? This might actually be the age where something is ultimately done about this scourge upon the market, and it might just be because of the same catalyst which is making it so bad for this instance. You see, it's bad enough trying to buy a luxury piece of expensive hardware and getting price-gouged over Ebay for it, but when that's happening in the middle of a world-wide financial downturn- well that's some next-level bad optics. At that point it really just looks like you're feeding on people's misery like some sort of vampire, and that sort of public imagery isn't going to win any friends. Now from their end they'll argue that this is exactly what makes their plight so justified, (I'll get to their verbal diarrhoea later) but all the rest of the world sees is the monster. As such, this has actually reached the ears of some of Parliament over here in England, and although I'm sure they'll not actually do anything about it (Parliament is notoriously a lot better at chatting then acting) it's sets a precedent for legislative consideration. What happens if that precedent is picked up by an actually effective government? Who knows...

Well the hopefuls are saying that it could lead to some sort of criminalisation of scalping practises, and wouldn't that be an interesting development to fall at these clown's doors? Of course, such practises are already frowned upon and I do believe there are some markets already in which scalping can land serious legal repercussions unless you have a serious legal team and an army of lobbyists to dissuade such. (such as medicine. You can't buy up that into scarcity unless you hide behind a pharmaceutical label) But a blanket ban on the very idea will certainly be enough to shake some sense into the deluded out there who think they're actually helping people. (And those type of scalpers do exist.) Personally I think that hoping for government regulation to save the day is the absolute bottom of the barrel, no where left to turn, solution; but that's where a lot of people are at.

Now what do the scalpers themselves think of such developments? That's actually been answered to about as well as a degree you could hope for given that you're not talking about a single specific group of people but a collective idea. What we do have is a sort of unofficial spokespeople for this particular scalping wave thanks to the 'do it yourself' scalping kit that a group of braggadocios scalpers have been selling and gabbing about. Maybe they don't represent the collective majority, but their words represent enough. As such you can imagine the sheer incredulity many felt when they read about how these scalpers feel they've been unfairly demonised by coverage. (I like to think when simply recounting your actions can be considered 'demonising', the problem might be in your actions) Still, this group has received hate, condemnation and now this, admittedly slim, chance of legal repercussions and they can't help but feel a little jilted. Apparently, through public statements they've made, the group see themselves as the 'good guys', helping people make money in the middle of the Pandemic by being the innocent middleman between the hardware manufacturers and the player.

Huh, you know that's a pretty good point. There really should be a middle man between manufactures and buyers, it's odd how that doesn't already exsi- oh wait it does, they're called Retailers. Now, I could go through each one of their arguments, but they're so frightfully fragile and moronic is surely isn't worth my time. Plus, I wouldn't want to insult your intelligence. Basically, just take into account how this guy equates his role to that of Tesco's, saying how no one complains when the supermarket chain buys milk from suppliers and then resells that milk to us an upscaled price. Wait nope, I lied I can't not say anything. What are you talking about? Tesco's doesn't gobble up the market's entire supply of milk so that they can inflate the price and sell it out to desperate masses that can't get it that elsewhere. They can't do that because it would illegal under the contracts they signed to become a retailer in the first place. These aren't the sorts of concepts you need to finish business college to comprehend; this here is basic stuff!

Whilst people like this continue to suffer no repercussion for their transgressions, the transgressions will continue, that's just the way of things. Humans aren't the morality imbued beasts of nobility that we paint ourselves as in fiction, we aren't fraught between clearly defined lines of right and wrong, we constantly justify and mould ourselves to be forever in the right, only really shifting our opinion when the ugly head of consequences rears it's head. (and sometimes we delude ourselves to overlook that too) But the scalpers do make one good point, and that's how these retailers don't have enough bot protection and update their stock without any indication to the public, and Sony/Microsoft don't demand such measures from their buyers. (Or heck, even sell the consoles themselves.) I sure that the stalemate will break after some time, like they always do, but if we really don't want to see ourselves in this stupid dance of whack-a-mole, it's going to take actual effort from some end. I'm just hoping we don't have to wait another console generation for that to materialise.