No, Console Scalpers Aren’t Ruining Christmas

Support Out of Frame on Patreon: https://ift.tt/2UnY3k1 Check out our podcast, Out of Frame: Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiS5rEmhnLwo1IG9bgr19Og As we enter peak holiday season, most people have their shopping done by now, but as always, many are scrambling last-minute for their purchases. And if you aren’t one of those early-birds fortunate enough to procure a PS5 or Xbox Series X, you can guarantee that you won’t be able to find one unless you’re willing to pay $1,200 to a scalper. Many are understandably frustrated. How is it fair for people to buy up the consoles at $500 and sell for nearly double or triple the cost? “There ought to be a law” against that kind of thing—right? Well, in short, there’s nothing wrong with scalping—and a few economic lessons will help explain why. Scarcity is real and so is time-preference. Scalpers (and even bots) show that demand for some goods is so high that people are willing to pay several times the list price—which could provide a lot of information to Sony and Microsoft on how many consoles to produce and in what parts of the world. They could factor that information into the future, so there would be less problems with availability, but most retailers make this information exchange impossible. ______________________________ CREDITS: Produced by Sean W. Malone Written by Jen Maffessanti & Sean W. Malone Edited by Paul Nelson Asst. Edited by Jason Reinhardt ______________________________ LINKS: — PS5/XBSX Scalping — https://ift.tt/2LvZLhv https://ift.tt/3nmUJC0 https://ift.tt/2jC3U4M https://ift.tt/38q7fL2 https://ift.tt/37ldcbj — Economics — https://ift.tt/2JfJ6KH https://ift.tt/3rhCqkl https://ift.tt/2WBKhe7 https://ift.tt/34xA0nR https://ift.tt/2LVnsQx https://ift.tt/2xYMi6L https://ift.tt/3mG0pWz https://ift.tt/3h9Thkl

Read the Full Article here: >Foundation for Economic Education (uploads) on YouTube