>>46977859>DebunkedVery few collectors buy as much as scalpers do. But there would be more collectors buying from the stores early mornings the day of the products' arrival and perhaps a day or two outward from there, if they're lucky. Store shelves would still be regularly barren, and since there wouldn't be as much product sold secondhand, it'd list for hundreds more online.
Guess what all the regular online shoppers would do if that were the case? They'd try to make up for it by being even more attracted to acquiring product in-person instead of paying the now extraordinary online prices. Droves more would flock to store inventories and empty them regularly, just as the scalpers are doing. The scalpers in effect operate as a middleman as the sole option for some folks who can't or don't want to schedule going to the stores early morning for one reason or another. If the scalpers were all erased tomorrow, you're screwing a big portion of collectors who wouldn't be able to make these new overnight product releases. The preteen who can't drive yet? Donezo. The dude who works that morning? Donezo. Anyone who'd rather not pick between the rock and the hard place of either going to a supermarket at 6 AM or buying online for prices multiples of what they are in real life? Donezo.
>Do you think the people who spent $100 on ETBs will let their singles go for pennies?Some wouldn't, preferring to hold onto them as a collectible or potential future flip. But some would. The same thing that's happening now. As it comes to selling at a loss or break even or with minor margins, the scalpers as of now particularly would have to if things hit the crapper price-wise. Many of them take out loans to do what they do and need to promptly liquidate. Otherwise they're killed.
It's never the scalpers' faults that prices go up. It's the underlying issue in and of itself. Scalpers are a side effect. The spontaneous demand for cards outpaced the supply that the printers could bear.
