To think people are taking the P1$$

[AliceMcK]

Buying up stock from shops and selling it online at a huge markup?

Yesterday I saw Poundland’s LOL cushions being sold for £20 on fb marketplace. This person had a huge supply. So they have gone into Poundland bought a huge supply of £1 cushions and selling them for £20 each.

It really annoys be, especially when it’s things people want to buy their children.

I see it all the time when shops put things on sale, they get sold out quickly and the next thing you know it’s on eBay or marketplace at a ridiculous price parents are either forced to pay or have to disappoint their child because they can’t get what they have asked for.

cant get worked up over this one OP

@Eckhart

using bots to buy up latest drops then selling them for ridiculous prices on eBay and genuine customers don't even get a chance to buy one pair for themselves

That's profiteering, because it's making it impossible for customers to choose another seller.

Pretty sure there's never any shortage of sneakers in this country, and if the latest trendy ones are not in stock (keeping them more desirable and maintaining the high price in the process), you have a pretty much unlimited selection to purchase anyway !

how is that remotely profiteering?

[quote SunShinesStill]@AliceMcK We’re all grownups here, your allowed to say piss, for fucks sake 😂[/quote]
I’m new to MN and wasn’t sure it would be allowed by the moderators, I know now 👍

@TeamLucille

how is that remotely profiteering

Because it's creating a dearth of something so that if people want it, they have no choice but to pay an elevated price. If people want model 1, it makes no difference if there are still a million model 2s available. Model 1 is where the dearth and the elevated profit margin is. That's where the profiteering is. Model 2 is irrelevant.

I'm a big fan of the Haunted Mansion ride and wanted this months Minnie Mouse that represented her. For those unfamiliar Disney have done a series of 12 Minnies with one each month with matching mugs, mouse ears, badges and bags.
I set my alarm for 8am, bought the Minnie and mug I was after and checked out. I could have purchased the badges and sold them on at a large profit, same with the ears but I didn't. Didn't feel right to me.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my tea in my lovely new £13 Haunted Mansion mug, which a cursory glance at eBay reveals is selling for up to £100.....

Because it's creating a dearth of something so that if people want it, they have no choice but to pay an elevated price.

Again, if you could only purchase ONE kind of sneakers and that only only, maybe.

The key is people want model 1, whilst there are thousands of other models available. There's no shortage of the product. They just want 1 design.

No profiteering, just good commercial sense.

People are just annoyed they are not smarter, faster and missed out. Nothing moral about it. That one kind of sneaker will be solved for 1/4 of the price a few months later... Less people will WANT it then funnily enough.

Not everyone is ‘annoyed’ by this. Some of us think it’s unethical. Depriving others of an opportunity and parasitically making money off it without adding any value is not especially clever.

And it’s only tolerated to the extent it is as it happens on a relatively low level.

Just because something is good business sense doesn’t mean it’s moral. We have laws to encourage competition precisely to ensure we don’t all get mugged by such common-sense commercial practices as price fixing and monopolies.

Why not email Poundland and ask them to inforce a 3 per customer rule?

enforce

@stackemhigh

Why not email Poundland and ask them to inforce a 3 per customer rule?

Why would they care? All they want to do is sell the stuff.

@CheetasOnFajitas lots of shops and supermarkets are enforcing 3 per customer rules. It's about responsible business.

Just because something is good business sense doesn’t mean it’s moral.

since when does anyone expect business to be "moral"?

In a world where people don't give a monkey about the treatment of factory workers, of animals, of the amount earned by farmers for their produce, and what happened to their waste ... because they want the cheapest clothes/toys/food

it's so hypocritical to be annoyed by someone making a few bucks over an armful of crappy cushion - when there's an abundance of cushions to the point that no one can sell or give them second-hand.

[quote stackemhigh]@CheetasOnFajitas lots of shops and supermarkets are enforcing 3 per customer rules. It's about responsible business.[/quote]
of course they don't

We are still in a free country where people can buy large quantities for any reason

If you want to buy a fashionable item, just be faster.

Well, some do have that kind of rule in panic buying situations to make sure a few customers aren’t hoarding all the loo roll while some of us have to manage without, but I don’t think anyone’s lives will suffer materially if Poundland have sold out of cushions.

Jeez, I see there a few sensitive types on today. Buying an item and selling for more, regardless of % mark up is fine.

When you go into the supermarket and pay £1.99 for an item, do you think that the supermarket paid £1.99 for that item too?

Some of you need to get over yourselves.

Some of us think it’s unethical. Depriving others of an opportunity and parasitically making money off it without adding any value is not especially clever

You're literally describing capitalism. Why are you not getting this?

You're literally describing capitalism. Why are you not getting this? Oh you mean the big corporations who employee people and pay taxes?

Rather than a ‘small business screwing people over, I mean if they were a business they would buy bulk and sell at a reasonable cost ... rather than screw people over for cash in hand profit ... but whatever

Oh you mean the big corporations who employee people and pay taxes?

No . Capitalism does not mean big corporations (and some of them dont' pay their taxes, as they are given so many loopholes they don;t have to). Small businesses, local shops, independent traders.....everyone who buys and sells. Literally, everyone. CAPITALISM.

You seem to have some bizarre notion that only faceless corporations are allowed to buy low and sell high.

I'm not literally describing capitalism at all. I'm describing one particular business model. I wrote a post yesterday describing why this business model is fundamentally different from what mainstream retailers and others are doing, so you can read that.

That's the problem with capitalism, It can easily turn into survival of the fittest or fastest or most greedy.
Google drop shipping, op! That will totally blow your mind, but I know kids at our local private school whose parents make their money doing this, (alongside the puppy farming and drug running).
Personally, ethics matter more to me than money.

I'm not literally describing capitalism at all. I'm describing one particular business model

Buy at low price, sell at higher price. That's all business models. That's the very essence of it all. If you think anyone is doing anything else, you're on the wrong planet.
It's not unethical to buy cheap and sell expensive, or if it is, then its unethical for Tesco to do it just as much as it is for some twat buying up shitty poundland cushions. There is no difference.

I know kids at our local private school whose parents make their money doing this, (alongside the puppy farming and drug running).

I really want to know what private school publicly advertise having drugs lords in their PTA, tell us more

It's not just people though, is it?

A trip to Hamley's showed me that. A toy that I paid £5 for was On SALE for £21. And another I paid 35 for last year was selling at £71.
And people are happy to pay those prices??

I think what they're doing is reasonable. That's how business works. Buy, add value, sell. The value they are adding is remarketing to a different userbase; a group who shop online & are presumably are unwilling to go to Poundland for whatever reason. No-one is being forced to buy them at those prices.

Haven't disputed that all businesses are pursuing profit. Am disputing there is no difference in how they do it.

There is no value being added by these sellers. (In the classic examples like ticket resellers, trainer bots or someone buying the last two of a desirable hard-to-find toy with the aim of selling one - if what they're doing is selling to people who can't or don't want to purchase from the original retailer I do agree there is value.)

In fact, value is often being removed - if your brand new playstation breaks after a week would you rather deal with an established retailer or someone off Facebook?

That is the factor I find objectionable. It's not the only business practice I find objectionable, but it is certainly one of them.