Imo the problems are really that there isn't enough supply, and online retailers don't let out the systems in a fair way
For all we know, they could actually be meeting demand fairly well, but when you have scalpers buying hundreds and thousands of the things, how can you really tell? They could be creating a scarcity that might not truly exist.
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Uhh no offense but does anyone have any evidence of this. I don't see why a scalper would sit on a product to sell later for a lower price for anything other than logicistcal reasons.
https://www.businessinsider.com/playstation-5-launch-day-us-europe-flooded-by-reseller-bots-2020-11
One group has claimed to have obtained 3500 of them
Uhh no offense but does anyone have any evidence of this. I don't see why a scalper would sit on a product to sell later for a lower price for anything other than logicistcal reasons.
If people see 3500 PS5s on eBay at $1000
To reply to this post specifically, they're not sitting on it to sell at a lower price later, they're sitting on them to keep them "scarce" so more people are willing to pay the high price. If you have 2000, you don't put them all up at once. You put up 20, then another 20 after those sell, then another, and so on. You string it out. By doing so, you create an artificial scarcity which allows you to inflate the price higher.
This only works if you have enough of the supply to actually create an artifical storage. If your withholding 1980 out of 5 million consoles you aren't creating an artifical storage.
It doesn't work that way because 5 million aren't for sale all at once. They get produced and sold in batches, and regular consumers have to try to compete with scalpers for them. The more you miss out, the more it's going to seem impossible to get one, and the more a scalper can charge.
Let's say there's 300 people that want a PS5, and a store gets 275. Yes, 25 people are going to go without one.
But then you introduce... Let's say 27 scalpers to the mix. And they buy 270 of those.
and online retailers don't let out the systems in a fair way
Lol defending scalpers.
The fact that one person can get a disproportionate amount of systems is a problem. Not the scalping in general. Realistically every online release should just be some form of lottery system with some kind of safeguard to allow each person to only get one. At that point if someone enters every lottery and wins say 5 consoles its not that big a deal
As a secret producers/retailers actually like there being artifical storages that they themselves create, it makes their product seem more valuable.)
There are measures in place to stop it, but scalpers are creating scripts and shit to get around it.
Why are you bending over backwards so far to the point of suggesting receiving an item become even MORE difficult just to avoid saying "Scalpers are dicks?"
Also this is just flat out wrong in cases like this where it hurts their bottom dollar. They're already selling the system at a loss, which they make up for in software sales. You can't get those software sales if people can't get the consoles.
It's actually in their best interest to only sell consoles to people that can afford to buy a lot of software (aka people who can afford to buy from a scalper) early on and then sell to the more thrify people a year down the line when their costs are down
At the end of the day, scalpers probably aren't killing it in the areas of empathy and selflessness.
Also at the end of the day, we're talking about people being denied luxury toys.
So it's all pretty "whatever"
Your "core problem" is flawed since it assumes:
A. Sony is purposely limiting supply to... Hurt their own profits?
B. Stores are purposely making it hard for people to buy the item for "reasons" when they've been outright making it known which days/times/etc. things would be available.
C. That we know such a large scarcity would exist even without scalpers when we don't have any proof that's actually true.
What we DO know:
A. Scalpers are buying the items in bulk and effectively cheating to do so.
B. This is having a direct impact on normal consumers and their ability to get the item at a reasonable price.
said the scarcity wouldn't be as bad because you'd have a higher percentage of actual consumers getting the item in each drop
Also you're making a lot of assumptions on what's "fair." Is it fair if they use a lottery system and scalpers cheat to get more entries?
People are clearly willing to pay those silly prices for a PS5. This wouldn't happen if there weren't people willing to pay that much money for it.I don't think anybody is saying that they aren't responsible at all. But clearly the scalpers themselves are the primary culprits.
Anyone who pays above MSRP for the console is enabling the resellers.
Theres plenty of ways to prevent this kind of thing tbh.
As a developer, let me tell you there's really not.
Something as simple as requiring an account to have a unique credit card associated to it would severely limit their capabilities.
Paypal would get around that very quick, unless you're suggesting they don't allow Paypal, but then that hurts both the consumer and the business.
Requiring people to keep a credit card on file would also be pretty anti-consumer.
The sad reality is that there is no easy way to deal with scalpers that doesn't also negatively impact the average consumer.
But I think precisely because it doesn't matter there should be at least some focus on figuring this out so we have real solutions in place for actual neccesities.The problem right now is exasperated because we don't want crowds rushing stores for merchandise. The retailers aren't going to invest in fixing this because it really is a one time deal for this scale.
Well, it's not so much "whatever" because scalping is a big problem in general. We've already seen it with shit like toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Sure, this particular item isn't important, but it's still part of a larger problem, and so the act of defending scalpers in any case is pretty gross.