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> When people in other fields try tricks like this, they are castigated by society, and perhaps even find themselves in trouble with the law. What would be exa

by ck45 3y ago

> When people in other fields try tricks like this, they are castigated by society, and perhaps even find themselves in trouble with the law. What would be examples for those fields? I'm kind of stuck with thinking about collectibles.

morisy 3y ago
I was trying to think of this as well. I think recently there's the great example of NFTs, but in 1998, I think that was around the era Beanie Babies collapsed in part from the speculation/collectible editions and maybe the Baseball Card collapse in the late 90s? https://allvintagecards.com/sports-card-market-crash-90s/ https://allvintagecards.com/sports-card-market-crash-90s/ And maybe in general, at that point, a lot of limited editions existed but were somewhat tacky and obvious, versus naturally limited or collectible items. But I do think around this time we saw a few collectible items go overboard in trying to push the phenomena as far as it could go.
akovaski 3y ago
I think the term to search for here is usually "price fixing" and maybe "price gouging". Usually artificial scarcity is used to raise prices. Think cartels, monopolies, Da Beers diamond artificial scarcity, drug companies hiking prices. I also vaguely recall some fashion brands destroying products that haven't been sold. Probably more controversial if you have to kill an animal to create the product. Similarly other stores, like grocery stores, throw out or destroy unsold goods. Some of these are easier to rationalize than others, but I think all have generated some notable level of hate from society. But they keep on doing it, so maybe it's worth it. There's also Cryptocurrency and NFTs to consider. Edit: Adjusting my tone a bit: I do think that society has stopped at least some price fixing. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: > The lysine cartel was the first successful prosecution of an international cartel by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in more than 40 years. Since then, the DOJ has discovered and successfully prosecuted nearly 20 international cartels.
prometheus76 3y ago
Diamonds?

by ck45 3y ago

morisy 3y ago

I was trying to think of this as well. I think recently there's the great example of NFTs, but in 1998, I think that was around the era Beanie Babies collapsed in part from the speculation/collectible editions and maybe the Baseball Card collapse in the late 90s? https://allvintagecards.com/sports-card-market-crash-90s/ https://allvintagecards.com/sports-card-market-crash-90s/ And maybe in general, at that point, a lot of limited editions existed but were somewhat tacky and obvious, versus naturally limited or collectible items. But I do think around this time we saw a few collectible items go overboard in trying to push the phenomena as far as it could go.

akovaski 3y ago

I think the term to search for here is usually "price fixing" and maybe "price gouging". Usually artificial scarcity is used to raise prices. Think cartels, monopolies, Da Beers diamond artificial scarcity, drug companies hiking prices. I also vaguely recall some fashion brands destroying products that haven't been sold. Probably more controversial if you have to kill an animal to create the product. Similarly other stores, like grocery stores, throw out or destroy unsold goods. Some of these are easier to rationalize than others, but I think all have generated some notable level of hate from society. But they keep on doing it, so maybe it's worth it. There's also Cryptocurrency and NFTs to consider. Edit: Adjusting my tone a bit: I do think that society has stopped at least some price fixing. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: > The lysine cartel was the first successful prosecution of an international cartel by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in more than 40 years. Since then, the DOJ has discovered and successfully prosecuted nearly 20 international cartels.

prometheus76 3y ago

Diamonds?