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> he's only doing himself a disservice. How precisely is the scalper, by increasing costs and adding _no value_ doing us a service?
by fusiongyro 14y ago
> he's only doing himself a disservice.
How precisely is the scalper, by increasing costs and adding _no value_ doing us a service?
- jbooth 14y agoBy increasing liquidity!!
- Androsynth 14y agoJust because he is doing himself a disservice doesn't mean the scalpers are doing us a service.
- fusiongyro 14y agoAs worded it is implied that the scalper is doing _somebody_ a service, and I disagree with that.
- philwelch 14y agoIf they weren't doing anyone a service, they wouldn't make money.
- masklinn 14y agoOf course they don't and still do: through speculation, they're artificially taking control of the supply allowing them to re-set its price point without providing value. The tickets would sell all the same through the original provider at the original price, they just inserted themselves between the producer and the consumer (usually through brute-forcing the producer's ordering scheme) in order to extract wealth from the consumer. That's parasitism.
- philwelch 14y agoThat's pretty much impossible. If the market clearing rate is face value, scalping tickets for more than that wouldn't be viable. Do you think running a corner store is "parasitism"?
- sambe 14y agoThey are doing a service to anyone who buys scalped tickets, who is happy to pay extra rather than not go. Competition at this price is lower. I know many people who have happily paid well over face value on several occasions. Of course everyone would rather pay an artificially low price. Wanting a better deal isn't the same as the premium being extortion. You may not like scalping but there's no point being blinkered about it.
- fusiongyro 14y agoExcept they're only paying extra because, ta-da!, the tickets were scalped. The competition is higher at the lower price because, ta-da!, the tickets were scalped. The arguments for scalping only work if the effects of the scalping are ignored. Eliminating scalpers benefits everyone.
- sambe 14y agoIt's not so much an argument "for scalping" as an argument against being emotional and extreme. So, once again, - no, not everyone benefits. Without the higher price tickets available from the scalpers, they would not have been able to go. They got what they wanted at a price they could afford. Disliking something is not the same as it being inherently and totally evil.
- fusiongyro 14y agoYou're putting words in my mouth. > Without the higher price tickets available from the scalpers, they would not have been able to go. Again, this is assuming that the amount of competition for the tickets is not affected by the scalpers. In reality, the scalpers are exactly the ones driving the scarcity.
- ionforce 14y agoThat's the whole point of scalping, to affect access to tickets. Has more money => has more access to scalped tickets vs normal tickets
- vacri 14y agoThe value that scalpers add is that you can get tickets at a later time. That's about the only value I can see that they provide, and whether that benefit is moral or not I guess depends on whether you believe in first-come-first-served for that item.