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Ebay Scalpers Targeting The Gaming Industry Is Getting Out Of Hand
Posted on Thursday, July 19 2012 @ 11:07:29 Eastern

This member blog post was promoted to the GameRevolution homepage.

Imagine yourself anxiously awaiting the release of a new game from one of your favorite video game series. You are a diehard fan of this series, and a recently announced Collector's Edition looks absolutely amazing. You MUST have it. You make sure you have enough money set aside to purchase this Collector's Edition and once the pre-ordering goes live you ensure that you place your order as soon as possible.

So the big day has come, the day to pre-order the fancy Collector's Edition, but you notice something that doesn't seem right. "Out of stock". WTF? WHAT IS THIS SORCERY!? Yep, that fancy Collector's Edition from the game franchise you love is gone forever. It was completely and immediately bought out by eBay resellers, who bought 10, 20, 50, 100 copies to flip on eBay for profit.

You furiously go to eBay to see hundreds of listings already, at double, triple, or even quadruple the MSRP. The Collector's Edition hasn't even been released yet, and it's ALREADY BEING FLIPPED ON EBAY.

This happened to me personally twice in the past couple months, one time for the Diablo III Collector's Edition and the other for Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest edition. I have been a hardcore Diablo II fan since it's original release so I had to pay a scalper a massive premium to get one. It pissed me off, but the scalpers had me by the balls so I caved in.

But the pain doesn't end here. Scalpers are launching a full-scale attack on the video game industry as a whole. The latest PAX Prime was an example of this. Once the ticket pre-orders went live, eBay flippers bought out the entire show instantly. Now, if you want to attend PAX you are at the mercy of scalpers. eBay listings popped up immediately for PAX tickets at a massive premium. The creators of PAX and of Collector's Edition's never intended for this to happen, but eBay scalpers has taken over the industry and have it in a vice-grip.

This problem exists in numerous other scenarios as well, not just the ones I listed. The people paying the price for this are the diehard fans, the ones who drive the indsutry, the ones who want nothing more than to have that amazing Collector's Edition of their favorite game series or to attend that awesome trade show.

Unfortunately the process is muddled, having to deal with shady thugs trying to rip you off. You have to go through what is essentially the black market to get what you want. I hope this gets fixed, for the sake of all true video game fans.

Comments

Jonathan_Leack
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Jul 14th, 2012 at 5:07 pm
I was about to agree with you and then I remembered I've made $300 off scalping games. Easiest money I made. Sorry. :(

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Anthony_Severino
Joined: Oct 2010

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 11:11 am
I sold a launch PS3 that I bought simply to scalp for $3400. I regret nothing. It paid for my second PS3 and all my games, and all my Xmas gifts that year. I did the work though. I had to sleep outside twice to get two PS3s.

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Anthony_Severino
Joined: Oct 2010

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 11:12 am
But I will add that I hate people that do this. Despite me doing it. I hate myself. I remember being in line and asking why they wanted a PS3, and they all were like "for eBay!". I didn't do that until I had already secured at least one PS3 for myself. There. That makes me feel like less of a crook. Ah **** it, I regret nothing.

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LawnGnome
Joined: Apr 2007

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
The problem isn't the scalpers, it's the people who pay them that perpetuate this system. If people stopped paying the mark-ups it would take away all incentives from the scalpers, especially once they start losing money. It's like gold farming in WoW. Don't create the demand if you want it to stop.

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Chunibrow
Joined: Mar 2010

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Sorry gnome, but that's bullshit. The problem is the scalpers. I shouldn't have to miss my favourite band in town because scalpers bought up half the tickets and so I'm m

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Chunibrow
Joined: Mar 2010

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Sorry gnome, but that's bullshit. The problem is the scalpers. I shouldn't have to miss my favourite band in town because scalpers bought up half the tickets and so I'm not buying a ticket on eBay on prinvipal

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 11:18 am
I never had the lead time to do this. I was always just thinking about how I wanted the expensive new hardware or what have you.

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DarkShoop
Joined: Jul 2012

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 11:25 am
This is the same as big name concert ticket scalpers. Kinda sucks when you really want to see Metallica, the tickets are well over 100 bucks as it is, then they sell out. Then the only way you can get a ticket is to buy one off some dude selling nosebleed seats for $300 or more. I've never seen them live because of this. On a gaming note, it's also the reason I've never bought a new console on release day.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Concert tickets are TERRIBLE in this way.

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wildmario
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Remember when the Wii first came out? People couldn't find one in stock for a while and people started to buy them all out to sell back online for almost triple the retail price.

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Sourdeez
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Louie CK actually came up with a pretty good ticket system to defeat ticket scalpers. As for game scalping we live in the age of digital distribution. Developers should at the least always have a digital collectors edition provided. All I ever want is the ingame stuff anyways. the artbook ill look at once and the cd ill never listen to. Ive been using my SWTOR statues light-saber to clear out some resin from a waterpipe. Swtor was a ****ing ripoff.

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OdiousLupous
Joined: Jul 2011

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
I use thick pipe cleaners and some lighter fluid.

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TheJx4
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jul 25th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
A rip off? How so? Isn't it only a ripoff when you don't get what you're entitled to?

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TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
"so I caved in" So what you're saying is that you're part of the problem? If stupid people wouldn't pay exorbitant prices for this crap, the scalpers would be out of business.

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Chunibrow
Joined: Mar 2010

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
People buying are only to blame if it's something that can be purchased later like a PS3. You can't tell people to not go to what could be a once in a lifetime concert because they are contributing to scalping.

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Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
As long as buyers exist, scalpers will exist, why is it so hard to understand? I've never bought from a scalper, I don't need them.

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OdiousLupous
Joined: Jul 2011

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
The internet is by all definition the Pandoras box of myth, decades ago they thought it was tv, but no. You cant buy, steal, sell, spy, and destroy on television. You masturbate wielding the power of Zeus to conjur forth nekkid people.

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elmoreoocyte
Joined: Apr 2012

Posted: Jul 19th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
This article is what I have against Capitalism. I'm in America, and by no means a Communist, Socialist, Anarchist, etc. With Capitalism someone ALWAYS has to get fvcked for someone else to make profit.

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