Randerolf

The Consumerist

What are your thoughts? Have you ever done this? Is he a "monster?"

I think that what Garrett is doing is fine and have seen Wii's in stores while causally shopping. The reason that he is getting the prices that he does is because people have the GOTTA HAVE IT RIGHT NOW temperament. There is a price for that. First adopters pay high prices to be the first. For many, it's tough to say "No, not right now."

Daniel_

He's not a monster.

It's capitalism, baby!

Vote with your wallet, and don't buy over cost.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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jewels

Ditto. He can only charge what the market will bear.

Obviously, people have no problem paying to play with toys.

LoganSnake

Sounds great to me. I've done it in the past.

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Ustwo

I don't get why people buy over retail to get it a few days earlier.

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Rekna

Well in the case of the Wii it is over a year since release and it is still sold out. Also in some cases you have parents wanting to get their kids the gift they want for Christmas. In other cases an extra couple hundred dollars is pocket change to some people. Do you think Bill Gates wanted to wait for his Iphone and Wii?

Journeyman

I don't know about this "Gotta have it right now" assumption, but I am pretty pissed off that I haven't seen a Wii in stock at any one of 4 stores that are supposed to carry it in the 7 months I've been home. Christmas is coming up and I don't think I'ma be able to find my 15 year old brother a Wii because Joe Capitalist thinks he deserves a cut of somebody elses pie.

Jinn

I wish more people were like this. It's called being an entrepreneur. The only people pissed are those who wished they had the ambition (and risk taking personality) to do something like this. There is a chance of failure, and it's enough to dissuade most people, myself included.

EVERY COMPANY THAT MAKES MONEY BUYS SOMETHING FOR ONE PRICE AND SELLS IT FOR MORE THAN THAT PRICE. If they didn't, they wouldn't make money. Gamestop doesn't buy those 59.99 games for 59.99.

I think what he's doing is great. Commendable, even.

It's not like he's defrauding a charity, or anything. These are consumers making the free-choice to buy something for what they feel it is worth. That's how buying and selling work.

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ubertuber

That's not strictly true. Nintendo adds value to the raw materials it makes wiis from by turning them into wiis. This guy isn't adding value. He's taking advantage of limited supplies to exercise the prerogative of a monopoly (price gouging). I'm not saying that there was no risk involved -- after all, the items may not have sold, but it's not the same thing as "every company".

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snowy

As I see it, people buying from resellers are paying more simply for the ease of getting what they want. They don't have to do the work of finding the product they desire. If people have money to throw away like that, that's their business.

Personally, I didn't find it too hard to do the legwork required to find a Wii. We made a few calls to find out when freight arrived at the various retailers in our area, and asked when we could expect them to get new Wiis. Then we called the moment the store opened on the day their freight came to see if they had gotten the Wiis as expected. Sure enough, one Sunday morning about a week after we started looking seriously, Kmart had one in stock, and we went to get it. Yes, it took time and effort, but not that much. It really was not that hard to do.

But I know plenty of people who want what they want and want it RIGHT NOW, and those are the people who buy from resellers. I'm a bit more willing to have patience.

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Glory's Sun

The only people that should be upset about this are the dumbasses who paid the guy so much. Perhaps, if you didn't *HAVE* to get your kid the latest console just because he whines his ass off constantly, you wouldn't be selling his xmas away.

ratbastid

You think Bill got where he is by giving money to his competitors?

I have a friend who just bought 3 Wiis at $250, and is likely to turn a nice profit for them on Ebay. If I have the opportunity, I'll do the same.

Ustwo

Must be location. In the Chicago area this isn't really a problem. My friend walked into a local best buy a few months ago and got a Wii without an issue. He hasn't played it more than a few times but thats another issue.

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Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

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ratbastid

It was probably blind luck that he happened into the store the moment they were being shelved. They really are painfully rare pretty much everywhere. Certainly everywhere urban.

ironman

For the PS3 launch I bought a PS3 from another ebayer that had a pre order at $1,000.00 and immediately resold it for $1,600.00, and finally bought mine to keep last september when prices came down to 500 with 5 free movies and a free remote control. It was very risky what I did, cause Sony made sure there were enough consoles available at launch and prices fell even under retail price 2 or 3 days after the launch!!!
I managed to get 2 Wiis in Amazon the day they were launched, I kept one and resold the other for a little over $500, so my Wii was practically free of charge.
To me this is plain and good old capitalism and the only way to keep my wife of my back for wasting money on video games.

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blahblah454

I had no idea wiis were worth so much in USa, they are everywhere in canada (last time I checked).

I think this is the spirit of Capitolism. If the man can make some bucks people people are too stupid to wait for a product then all the power to him. And for people being sad that they can't get their children a Wii... boo hoo. Make your kid go play outside, but him something to get his fat ass off the couch.

Me, I love video games. I also bought a PS2 2 years after it came out because I wanted good games and I wanted to get it for cheap. the ps3, I am going to wait till it gets a little better but I already think its a steal for the blu ray player.

I think that if you are too dumb to wait for it to go down in price and you just have to have it that bad, then too bad for you. Its not like people are forcing you to pay these high costs on it.

inBOIL

I don't think this reselling is wrong, But I am ambivalent about someone taking advantage of the situation to make money when they're not contributing any value. However, that's an unfortunate side effect of capitalism, not unique to this situation.

I wonder how many people would feel the same if this reselling was happening with food or non-recreational drugs?

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And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.

canuckguy

that really is not a fair comparison as you need food, you don't need a wii or iphone, you just want it.


i say more power to him, but part of me hopes that it blows up in his face (on the hook for 10 of them and has to sell for a loss.) now that would be awesome.

drag0nmanes

Eh, doesn't bother me too much. When I bought my Wii a few months ago I thought I got lucky, but then I went through 3 other stores and saw them in stock. If people are complaining about them being out of stock and guys like this making money off em, too bad. Wait until demand is higher (Christmas) to buy something and of course it's going to be a pain to get. That be life.

biznatch

I'm seriously considering doing this if I'm in the city one morning...hunt for wiis, buy as many as possible, sell 'em on craigslist for $450-ish each. Also, the popular games.
then, I could buy my wife, and possibly myself, a real nice Xmas gift.

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host

If speculators interrupt the flow of goods to market, as they did by adding artificial demand to the housing market by contracting to buy houses that were yet to be built, they, in effect distorted or sabotaged the market.

Others noticed demand that drove up prices of yet to be built houses and they were influenced by upward price movement to follow the first speculators in for a "quick flip". Builders added capacity and the momentum created by speculators and "real" buyers, drove prices artificially high and resulted in a glut of housing supply that is either sitting empty, completing now, or in the cases of builders driven into bankruptcy, sitting unfinished in varying stages of construction.

The speculators who were caught holding their "flips" are rushing to sell, or are foreclosed on by lenders, pressuring down prices at a faster rate than if the market had been confined to "buy & hold" purchasers.

Stepping into a market to "flip" goods is a parasitic, distorting, and resource wasteful endeavor. That said, I engage in it in my business of quickly buying and selling stocks and options in the stock market. My endeavor does not send UPS trucks hither and yon on unnecesssary pickup and delivery trips, it is "just paper", represented by electronic transactions, but it does effect prices that others pay, at least at the moment of my bid or offer.

In the case of electronic consumer goods, this speculation affects perceptions of potential consumers as to scarcity (demand) and it influences them to pay more, and stores to order more units, and for every participant in the manufacturing and distribution chain to add capacity infrastructure.

At leas craigslist is a free service for sellers, ebay/paypal take a cut, further driving up prices and avoidable trips by package delivery services.

I wonder how much motor fuel is otherwise avoidably used because of all of the specculative "churning" going on today in the US. vs. the lower amount that would be consumed if only commercial wholesale and retail, and end use consumers were involved in trade?

Last I looked, petroleum products were a non-renewable resource consumed for the last few years, at rates exceeding the discovery and extraction of replacement assets.

Capitalistic activity is always acceptable, even exciting when prices are rising in a way where every buyer can make money, no matter the purchase price. It will be condemned as wasteful, unfair, and predatory in the economic conditions we have been nosing into, during all of this year.

It looks like an economic system that does not exact a heavy price, and people love it because the money they make in it is a great way (to them) of "keeping score", but in the US, when it goes bad, only World War has reduced it's decline or stagnation, and World War has been rendered obsolete by technological (war financed) advancement, since 1945.

jorgelito

You can look on craigslist ( www.craigslist.org - click on your area and look under electronics or games) or try eBay ( www.ebay.com ). You can get in time for Christmas - sorry, Winter Holidays if you are willing to pay for express shipping. Or do as the article suggested and do your own research and legwork. Good luck man.

Wait, do you really think Bill Gates would have an iPhone? Maybe an iWindows or something....

With speculators, the market will correct itself like it is now or at least should be doing but the government keeps interfering.

MSD

I camped on release day and got 2 Wiis, then flipped one three weeks later on ebay for over 400. If I can buy a luxury item that appreciates in value by more than 50% the moment "APPROVED" flashes on the card reader, why wouldn't I? I may check the stores around here after work today now that I know they're still selling for so much.