Anyone who had ever intended to buy any next gen console without a reservation immediately realized that they had made an unforgivable mistake. Xbox Series X | S and, above all, Playstation 5 have become nowhere to be found, both due to production difficulties linked to the pandemic, and due to the work of the "console touts“, Otherwise called scalpers.
We are talking about more or less large and articulated groups of people who, thanks to the support of very fast bots, are able to buy almost all stocks of goods available in limited quantities, and then resell them at super-increased prices (mostly cases, special edition shoes and consoles).
Nothing new under the sun, you might say: it is one of the oldest and most vulgar activities of mankind. Well no, there is a strange event to count! The well-known magazine Forbes interviewed a scalper named Jordan, founder of the group The Lab which, in fact, teaches its members how to effectively use the aforementioned bots to secure limited-edition, high-value goods. Scrolling through the home of the group, it is possible to read many “success” stories, of “normal” people who, in a short time, have accumulated large sums of money.
Where would the news be? In the fact that this scalper would not be happy with the opinion spread by the media about his activity; according to Jordan, the profits of him and his "category" would have enjoyed simple bad press, and would not be so different from those obtained by any other entrepreneur.
Do touts also have a soul?
No they have not.
Or, if they do, it's just because they haven't sold it at the "right price" yet.
Forgive me if, for a moment, the undersigned puts aside his "work uniform" and goes down to the staff, but underlining the truth is at least a duty. Touting is a phenomenon that moves in a gray area, often not regulated in detail by legal rules, and which therefore allows organized groups of people to make an asset unavailable to all consumers, only to then resell it at a disproportionately higher price. What we have seen happen with the secondary ticketing in the live music industry it easily extends to the current situation PS5 finds itself in.
"There seems to be a LOT of bad press about this incredibly valuable industry and I don't think it's justified, all we are doing is acting as a middleman for purchasing items in limited quantities."
These are some of the words reported by Jordan in his interview. According to the scalper in question, buying an asset for € 500 and reselling it for almost double the price would not be an illegal activity, on the contrary, it represents what any businessman normally does.
“Essentially every company resells its products. Tesco, for example, buys milk from farmers for around 26p per liter and sells it for more than 70p per liter. Nobody ever seems to complain to the extent that they are making it towards us. "
From a purely theoretical point of view, our little working class hero would not have said anything wrong, were it not for a small detail: Tesco buys certain quantities of milk, not ALL MILK on the market! Without considering that the famous British supermarket chain sells it at that price because it has costs to face (distribution, packaging and storage, just to mention the first that come to mind) which, of course, do not compete with ours. bagarino 2.0 and his associates.
How to protect yourself from scalpers?
Unfortunately, there is no real recipe to protect yourself from these "professional figures", other than to give the right value to objects (often corresponding to the market price) and to acquire lots of patience: because sooner or later the good will become available again.
On the other hand, if someone seized all the water on the market, and then approached you and offer you a purchase at a premium price, what would you do? As for the convinced pacifist who is writing this article, this would be one of the cases in which stealing water from the scalper would be a duty, but not before having stuffed a papagna on the nose of our worm disguised as an entrepreneur.
If we want to get serious again, it is impossible to ignore the difficulties in which scalpers have reduced thousands (if not millions) of gamers, who have often threatened the aforementioned business men with death with decidedly unflattering social messages, as Jordan himself claimed to have. received.
Good Jordan, along with his snacking partner named Regan, went on to say, in hard times like those marked by COVID-19, of having done nothing but help ordinary people to raise some extra money and, listen, have even made frequent donations for charitable purposes (except then not to mention the names of any specific association).
To end this bizarre story, in which we try to sell an action bordering on illegality for a common business, I want to unleash my best circle. Because it is true that every roach is beautiful to her mother, but it is equally true that, as she said Confucius, even if you put the parquet on the ground, a c * x is still a c * x!
