is "picking" the same as Scalping?

[alternatorfan]

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 concure with this statement. the hours spent hunting and actually finding something had I known about rodimus for classics. would have bought the ones I found at misc places.

[Richter]

Not scalping, but my friend was telling me about this show and it rubbed me the wrong way.

People go to others houses and cherry pick the good stuff, lowballing the original owner, never giving a hint to what the item is actually worth.

Seems immoral to me.

[Nomad]

Well, with morality put aside for a moment (since any form of profit could be seen as that if we think about it enough), I've always believed that "scalping" itself had to do with artificially inflating the value or something, and it seems like I'm not alone in here with that mentality. Somebody already brought up the concert ticket example, which is probably where the term became widely known.

However even with that, one could argue that you're simply choosing to expand your business by cornering your specific market, which is nothing by a logical business tactic. Not saying that I like it either, but what about the fact that stores in the US can sell figures for quite a bit less than we have to pay for them here? Isn't that the same thing, only only on a much larger scale?

/2cents

[Richter]

Eh.. most regular business practices are pretty transparent. The 'picking' business model only works if the 'picked' person doesn't have all available information.

Stores use the buy low sell high tactic because they buy in volume, so that doesn't apply here.

[TFtoys]

I would say the amount of quanities buying and the knowledge of knowing the items would seperate the picker and scalper.

Originally Posted by Richter

Stores use the buy low sell high tactic because they buy in volume, so that doesn't apply here.

hum, what if the storekeeper find those resources and buy in volume and do the sell for himself/herself and start his/her own shop ?

[Richter]

Originally Posted by TFtoys

hum, what if the storekeeper find those resources and buy in volume and do the sell for himself/herself and start his/her own shop ?

I don't know

[TFtoys]

Originally Posted by Echotransformer

Agreed, not scalpers....BUT...There is a bit of vibe happening where the 'picker' takes advantage of the person that owns the older item and doesn't know the value. Intentionally lowballing them to make a huge profit is kinda dodgey...I can see why they do it, but it's not my particular cup of tea.

Originally Posted by 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..

so lowballing is a sight fo scalping?

I was also wondering that people who live in the US are so easily to become a scalper if they can buy their new stuffs as already cheaper price (even cheaper if they have sales in there) and might make a easy profit due to their relative low cost of the shipping. For example, buying item while US TRU has those onsale and then sell one dollar cheaper than the TRU after the sales on ebay. Hence, they are more scalpers in US for the new toys than here. Some of them might sell the item a bit of cheaper than the other to show he is less scalping than the others..

Originally Posted by Richter

I don't know

just a thought... not trying to refer any particular store.

[Bruticus82]

Originally Posted by Richter

Eh.. most regular business practices are pretty transparent. The 'picking' business model only works if the 'picked' person doesn't have all available information.

Stores use the buy low sell high tactic because they buy in volume, so that doesn't apply here.

I disagree with your statement that "picking only works if the "picked" person doesn't have all available information. Even where the picked person has all information they may feel it is a more efficient use of their resources to extract some value from you, while leaving you to do the hard work of trying to maximize your return. A farmer wants to farm, a baker wants to bake, they don't want to waste time trying to find a suitable buyer or researching and listing things on ebay.

I went out and picked some things from a guy - mostly bots in pretty rough condition and lots of parts. I told him what I thought they were worth if he took the time to list them on ebay and found buyers. Then I gave him my offer for them (which was less). He had already been lowballed by a collectible store, so he found my offer very generous. He was willing to sell them to me for less than their maximum value because he would rather receive 70% of that max from me all at once than try to extract that full 100% himself. He gets the "low hanging fruit" and I work for the extra.

To me, it's not necessary to really lowball someone (like offering 20% of what they are worth) in order to be a successful picker.

[Robimus]

Originally Posted by TFtoys

so lowballing is a sight fo scalping?

Depends on the definition. Some would call it good business, some would find it morally questionable.

As others have said scalping is more about creating an elevated demand for an item currently in stores.

[Cheers Ian]

Originally Posted by Richter

Not scalping, but my friend was telling me about this show and it rubbed me the wrong way.

People go to others houses and cherry pick the good stuff, lowballing the original owner, never giving a hint to what the item is actually worth.

Seems immoral to me.

If you've seen the show, you would see that the pickers really don't lowball the people at all. They give them a very fair offer for their item.

Pickers or Sellers have the resources to sell an item for top dollar, someone who owns the item might not have the resources to get top dollar or even if they sold them on eBay would lose 20-25% of the sale price with eBay and Paypal fees, plus would have to deal with shipping the stuff out.

Plus, the pickers on the show always ask what the persons wants for something before they make an offer - People will generally set a price that they want for something and the pickers will either take it, make a counter-offer or leave it. There's actually very little lowballing that goes on in the show. I can't say what happens in real life.