MikeM
Member
Artificially inflating the price of a scarce item is predatory, whether it be a ps5 or anything else. I’d even argue that, given all the lockdowns, that they are less a luxury item and more so to help mentally cope with the COVID situation. I know I can say they have helped make lockdowns far more enjoyable than not having them.Anything that can be asserted without evidence...
I understand but I disagree on a least one account.
- Pricing people out of luxury toys is not unethical even if you do it the most cutthroat way possible (which scalpers arguably do, as you aptly described). I don't care if poor people don't have access to a cutting edge console or an RTX. Poor people are priced out of virtually all luxury products and services and that's fine. Nobody needs a PS5.
- You're probably correct that MS and Sony don't raise the prices for brand perception reasons, yes. In a perfect market with no friction they should and would increase it. Scalpers are less concerned about their clout and bite the bullet for the profits. If MS and Sony increased the prices to their actual market value, you would be able to walk into a store and just grab a PS5 or Xbox and cut out the potentially shady middleman.
All scalpers are doing is demonstrating that some consumers will foot the higher bill to pay for the same product, thereby causing companies to reevaluate their pricing and adjust accordingly. Effectively, scalpers are threatening the value that GPUs and consoles provide (or used to) which consumers (and governments) should be looking at making illegal.