I read this thread, and see an add on the side of the page that shows someone selling Dollar Tree (and other dollar stores) ultra cheap figures for over 15$ plus another 15+ for shipping...
Now that's some classy scalping right there Lou....
But more to the point...
You are a scalper if:
- you're buying only with the purpose to resell at as high as inflated price, time factor is irrelevant
- you hunt and buy every figure of a specific character to create a void so to resell at higher price
- you hunt and clear out every store you can when there's a sale/liquidation so to resell at high price
- you use illicit approaches to buy large numbers and prevent individuals of doing single purchases
Some might say that it's a way of life, with some people reporting seeing owner of hobby stores doing this very sort of thing, but it's just a nasty way to just profit.
And I consider anyone that tries to justify any of it as being defensive as they know that they are doing it and trying to justify their own actions... no one wants to think or admit to be the "bad person", but well... the actions speak for themselves.
No one wants to loose out either and I understand that, and of course, if you decide to sell something and the selling price has increased, that's understandable, but to seek out to do it on purpose, to try and artificially increase the prices, that's the bad thing.
But when I see a liquidation or sale on an item and I see that guy pushing a cart with EVERY SINGLE figure of that sale... not one of each character... and no one else can get even a single one...well, I just end up hoping that person wraps his car around a cement post and that those figures end up with a massive overstock that's even cheaper and that they lose their freaking houses over being stuck with worthless stock.
