Do you think it's wrong for people to buy must have toys and sell them at huge profit on EBay etc?

[lottieandmia22]

I do. I think it’s pretty mercenary.

Well my dc certainly don’t have magically appearing gifts

One Christmas I paid for my own kids Christmas by selling on toys. I had done my research and at the time older style fisher price toys sold well on eBay and so I sourced lots from charity shops and car boot sales. I also went round pound style shops as lots of old Pokémon (the first time round) stock was sold there for £1-2 and I resold for £10 plus. I took the risk of outlay on toys that didn’t sell and I was very lucky that year. This was all before internet shopping really kicked off though.

Last year I got a bargain mini NES and got such a hard time for trying to sell it for above RRP neat Xmas when it was sold out everywhere. In the end I went on eBay and made around £80 profit. It was for my older teen ds who then got what he wanted with the money... I don’t see the harm in it. Supply and demand. Business innit?

Now if I saw something I knew people personally (IRL or even here on MN) were desperate for I would buy and offer at cost quite happily. If no one wanted it I would then offer to other people at a slight increase or maybe evenbe kind and donate to a charity.

Nope. I think it's the parents who are the problem thinking that they MUST get their child something at any cost. They are their own worst enemies.

If I think something is overpriced, even if one of the kids really wants it, I will say that Santa can't make it for everyone or can't spend so much every time etc. And then get them something else they would love. The possibilities are infinite. But I guess if you've already taught your child they can have anything they want atChristmas, well that's also your own problem.

Yep, I had decided that if I didn’t get one for the usual price I would not be buying ones for £££££ off eBay. I assume they are usually easier to acquire after Christmas. I did tell her I couldn’t promise it because they are hard to get hold of and she understood this even though she has ASD.

However I still think the greedy sellers probably aren’t nice people I guess.

It's not about not understanding about how business and economics work though, it's about fairness. People would have been able to buy whatever toy from a shop at it's RRP if the greedy fuckers hadn't stockpiled them to sell at an inflated price. They're toys for children that they KNOW parents will want to find to keep their children happy, and they're profiting, or attempting to profit, on parental guilt.

And like a PP says - bollocks are they declaring the extra income.

I genuinely hope that anyone who does this ends up with a box full of SNES Minis/fingerlings/LOL dolls. Not because I'm planning on buying any of those things but I think it's such a dickish thing to do.

I’m not demonising - I’m saying they are not good people. I could have bought an extra MHT and sell it at profit next month when people are desperate but I wouldn’t do it.

Where's the unwillingness though? You're really suggesting that people have to decide what their kids will want for Christmas months ahead - lack of planning?? My son has only just decided what he'd like to ask for - if I had been unfortunate enough for that thing to be a fingerling, something I'll add that I hadn't even bloody heard of before people on here started struggling to get them, we'd be screwed because I refuse to give the touts validation. Because excuse me for not wanting to spend my year guessing which toy will be the one that will sell out that year, because you can't really predict it.

There wouldn't be an inability to Make Everything Right, as you put it, if these touts didn't buy up all the stock for their own gain. Can we really argue that there isn't availability if there are individuals sitting with 10 of these toys in their possession which they then plan to sell on at twice the RRP?

I'm not placing all the blame on re-sellers, it must be shared with people who are so desperate to have the item that they will actually pay what they ask. But that they feel that they have to over a stupid toy is ridiculous, and that people prey on that desperation is pathetic. It's bad enough when shops do it.

And wisedad has it!

All this emotion people tie into the selling of goods is so odd. The companies initially setting the price consider what they can reasonably get for them. If lol thought when they initially marketed this years MHT that they could get anywhere near the eBay prices that is what they would have set the prices at. Would you be hand wringing then or just happily accepted it?

It is just capitalism.

Capitalism isn't pretty, but ultimately we are all trying to make a profit/living

If it happened to medical supplies and people were dying, I'd hope the government would step in, but for toys? It's not brilliant but not illegal either.

Not ‘good people’?? Lol 😂

Op.... you are the one letting your child watch endless unboxing videos of it ( whatever tat it is) on bloody YouTube!!

And driving 3 hours to get it!

Would you be hand wringing then or just happily accepted it?

I'd think it was overpriced tat, as I do with many toys these days, and if my children asked for it I'd be telling them to ask for something else. I suppose I've been lucky that my DC have so far not been too "things" orientated, and are very easily pleased, so haven't taken much notice of the MHTs.

Not always though. There's been MHTs from when I was small - Cabbage Patch Kids, anyone? Though I wouldn't have been aware if there was higher priced re-selling going on, just the scarcity in the shops.

It’s nonsense to say that it’s only a certain child who craves something. If a celebrity is seen in a certain dress or coat it sells out very quickly in the shop. Children hear about stuff from school. Your opinion doesn’t make sense.

Don’t fucking judge me for the fact I let my daughter watch YouTube. She is autistic and has very severe OCD - I’ll bet you have no idea what that’s like to live with for her and for us as a family. And letting her watch YouTube is the only thing that takes her mind off it. And don’t drag up stuff from other threads

My second point was to RunningOutOfChange

No, no one HAS to buy them. You don't expect the shops not to take their cut, they don't sell you the toy at the price they bought it for, so if someone sees an opportunity, then why shouldn't they? We live in a capitalist society. The important thing to remember is that you don't have to buy whatever it is.

I wouldn't do it, mainly because I couldn't be arsed, and I would not want to take the financial risk in case it didn't sell, but statements like this one:

Yes. I couldn't do it because it's essentially taking toys from children, or only allowing those children who have more wealthy parents to have the toys. All for the sellers own greed.

...are ludicrous. You could apply this statement to Argos, to Hamleys, to ToysR Us. That's what selling toys is about, to make a profit. Do people saying this sort of thing think that Fingerlings are made in the North Pole by elves who just love children and want them to be happy at xmas?

I don't know if you really can though ArcheryAnnie. Argos, Toys R Us e al sell products at an agreed price, it's standard people know what to expect. People buy things at those prices and flock when they do a 3 for 2 or whatever. It's a bit different to see something advertised at, say, £20 in Toys R Us, to then have your only option to pay more because people buy them in an attempt to sell them on at £40.

I don’t think it’s fair to say people who sell on MHTs are “not good people” though.
Surely there are a whole lot of other things to consider? Look at jimmy saville- nice guy did loads for charity, nice guy?

You don’t know people so don’t judge based on your assumptions.

et al*

Selling on is one thing Isadora, selling on at vastly inflated prices/profiteering is another.

Gherkin but there is another option - not to buy them at all. It's not life-saving medicine, it's a toy. It's an extra.

(I remember when Heston whole-orange xmas puddngs were going for a an absolute fortune on ebay. Couple of years later and they are old hat - they'd sorted out the supply the next few years and we'd all tried one at the regular price!)

I don’t think they are necessarily all bad people but I personally could not do it and I’ve had the opportunity. Someone was selling Luvabella for £900 on eBay.