What is Scalping

[Golden Phoenix]

I think it is based on a couple of things: Quantity, Size of Markup and Reason.
Quantity is what I think the main factor is. If they buy 10 of the same item just to sell, especially if they ain't keeping one, then you have to put that in a negative view.
The Size of the markup also come in. If they are adding a couple of bucks onto it, maybe to cover costs or something, then it should be ok. It's not like they are doing it to make some serious profit.
The reason is another key. If they are doing it because they have seen an opportunity to make money, then it is a bad thing. If it was a collector buying a second figure, or adding some hard to get items and either keeping them for a while or selling them about the same time, then it shouldn't be frowned upon.
I know that if I were to buy a second figure to sell later it would be to help cover costs of my initial purchase. I'm strapped for cash as it is, anything helps. But it is also because I know that out there somewhere there is someone who wants this figure and I can give them a hand by selling it to them. It is also comforting to know that the figure will be probably sold to another collector and the figure wont end up like many broken ones.

[Vector Sigma 13]

I think it is based on a couple of things: Quantity, Size of Markup and Reason.
Quantity is what I think the main factor is. If they buy 10 of the same item just to sell, especially if they ain't keeping one, then you have to put that in a negative view.
The Size of the markup also come in. If they are adding a couple of bucks onto it, maybe to cover costs or something, then it should be ok. It's not like they are doing it to make some serious profit.
The reason is another key. If they are doing it because they have seen an opportunity to make money, then it is a bad thing. If it was a collector buying a second figure, or adding some hard to get items and either keeping them for a while or selling them about the same time, then it shouldn't be frowned upon.
I know that if I were to buy a second figure to sell later it would be to help cover costs of my initial purchase. I'm strapped for cash as it is, anything helps. But it is also because I know that out there somewhere there is someone who wants this figure and I can give them a hand by selling it to them. It is also comforting to know that the figure will be probably sold to another collector and the figure wont end up like many broken ones.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Tober]

Scalping at it's most fundamental level refers to rapid profit making by selling large amounts of limited items. Historically - tickets for railway travel where scalpers would buy large amounts of tickets for themselves and auction them to travellers who desperately needed them.

So for our purposes it refers to people who intentionally create a shortage, thus creating demand, in order to sell at a higher price while the initial demand is still there.

[i_amtrunks]

I think MV75 has put it in the most succinct version here.

What annoys me most is not the scalper placing the items for sale at massively inflated prices, that is their perogitive, it's when they buy all the stock from a store/region of a hard to find/shortpacked figure that means that you have no alternative than to buy the item from them that truly infuriates me.