Quote Originally Posted by DarkHyren View Post
The arguments I've heard scalpers make to try and justify their prices can be quite laughable.
"Oh this is no longer in stores so that automatically doubles the price, it doesnt matter that it didnt sell back then and I got it for 5 cents, the fact that it's no longer sold now and that you want it means it's rare and rare = valuable"
Don't even get me started on the ones that buy every copy of an item that they can to artificially make it "rare" and "hard to find" just so they can inflate the prices, absolute scum of the earth and one of the reasons I never got a nes mini and why my mate missed out on ordering a snes mini, because neither of us will pay some jerk $500 for an item that's barely worth the $100 RRP.
Actually what I encounter is not so much scalpers, just clueless people who don't understand what a 2nd hand market is. It is common in Sydney and why pawn shops and general 2nd hand stores are usually so terrible here. You will have say a person selling a 2nd hand item at a cost that is too close to retail value (and often above it) which you can still get brand new in store. When you explain that to them, they will not budge or shave off only a small percent like $5 out of $100 item for example.

The item will then sit with them for months and months without moving until one day some poor idiot will walk in and actually buy it and justify their cost. That's what happens.

Here we have very poor business practices from both sellers and buyers. There is no understanding on how 2nd hand items should be priced or refuse reasonable offers. Yet they can always count on some zap eventually showing up who is just as clueless and ends up buying it anyways. Vicious cycle and why we tend to suck so hard in Sydney when it comes to secondary collector markets and why overseas seem like paradises.