is "picking" the same as Scalping?

[wheeljaxx]

I"m a moderate fan of the History channel show, American Pickers. The hosts go around to flea markets and people homes going through old "junk" to stock their busniess' shelves, for the purpose of re-selling for a profit. They offer the owners just under what they think they can make, and usually offer more than what the owner asks in cases the owner does not know what they have in value.

This got me thinking, it sounds like what scalpers are blamed for often. buying something for a good price, with the intention of making a profit. In mike and franks case, it just happens to be old americana and vintage merchandise.

if i find a g1 hound figure at a yard sale for 1.00, and re-sell it for $30. by alot of peoples definition, i am a scalper, but if i find an old 60's bicycle for $10 and re-sell it for $100, i'm a picker....

Whats the line? IS there one?

ready! Set! DEBATE!!!

[digitalskull]

For me scalping is when someone empties the shelves of a product & then resales them at a higher price because it's no longer available for the others.

[Cheers Ian]

I tend to define scalping as buying "new" items (and by this, I mean the newest toys at retail) and then selling them for profit and not allowing collectors/kids to find the newest toys at retail. Anyone can walk into Wal-Mart/Zellers and buy toys.

I don't believe buying/hunter/picking vintage items is scalping and here's why:

Tracking down vintage stuff (weather it be Transformers, Antiques/Sports Memorabilia, etc) takes time and skill. You constantly have to be on the hunt and know where to hunt for stuff.

Anyone who knows me can tell you I really enjoy hunting/picking. I enjoy the thrill of the hunt and any profit I make from it goes back into my own collecting budget.

I have ZERO problem with buying vintage items for a low cost and then re-selling them at REASONABLE prices to collectors because the seller/hunter/picker was the one that took THEIR time and energy to find/hunt down the items and it's only fair that they should see a profit for their hard work. My biggest problem is when sellers try to charge exorbitant amounts for items they paid a very small amount for. Charge the current going value (or less) and it's fine with me.

[Pascal]

Yeah, I don't think you can scalp old items.

[jourdo]

Agreed. Scalpers create an artificial shortage on new/retail items. Pickers are digging through junk to find a pot of gold. Totally different in my books.

[Bruticus82]

Yeah, buying/reselling old items for profit is legit in my humble opinion.

Scalping is buying rare/sought after figures for resale, but more specifically in my mind it becomes scalping when you cause a localized shortage of product as a result of your actions.

Therefore someone who buys 5 sea attack ravages for resale is not scalping because there are still 35 on the shelves. Similarly, someone who buys all the lugnuts because he wants to make a lugnut army isn't a scalper because he's not reselling.

[Magnimus]

No, not the same thing.

What the Pickers do on that show would be the equivalent of a Transformers fan picking through someone's toy selection and finding a complete G1 Metroplex. The buyer offers to take the G1 Metroplex for $12 dollars, the seller accepts, and then the buyer goes on to sell the G1 Metroplex for a much higher amount than he or she originally bought it.

That's picking. Not scalping.

[Robimus]

I can see why it could be viewed as a fine line. Its essentially about someone with knowledge lowballing someone without knowledge to make a massive profit.

I certainly do this, be it through Garage Sales, Kijiji, Value Village or in other ways, yet I wouldn't term it as scalping in a pure sense.

Without my list of potential buyers and contacts those items aren't worth that much to the common folk. If I buy an item for $3 and resell it for $10 or $20 the reality remains that the seller never would have gotten those prices for it anyway.

Esspecially if they were just going to throw it out after the garage sale

Is it scalping, well kinda, but its far from the same as clearing out the short packed figures from a TRU.

[wheeljaxx]

Originally Posted by Cheers Ian

I tend to define scalping as buying "new" items (and by this, I mean the newest toys at retail) and then selling them for profit and not allowing collectors/kids to find the newest toys at retail. Anyone can walk into Wal-Mart/Zellers and buy toys.

I don't believe buying/hunter/picking vintage items is scalping and here's why:

Tracking down vintage stuff (weather it be Transformers, Antiques/Sports Memorabilia, etc) takes time and skill. You constantly have to be on the hunt and know where to hunt for stuff.

Anyone who knows me can tell you I really enjoy hunting/picking. I enjoy the thrill of the hunt and any profit I make from it goes back into my own collecting budget.

I have ZERO problem with buying vintage items for a low cost and then re-selling them at REASONABLE prices to collectors because the seller/hunter/picker was the one that took THEIR time and energy to find/hunt down the items and it's only fair that they should see a profit for their hard work. My biggest problem is when sellers try to charge exorbitant amounts for items they paid a very small amount for. Charge the current going value (or less) and it's fine with me.

I tend to agree with this almost word for word.

Awesome.

[Larkhainan]

Also wouldn't a scalper essentially be doing the opposite in terms of supply? A picker hunting down a G1 toy actually increases the easy availability of the toy, finding new supplies. A scalper will reduce the supply.

These are small scale thing, but it shifts things a ton for me.