Shopping Bots and Scalpers Thread

[CATCH17]

So, some of you may not know about shopping bots. Basically, they are a commodity product with a specific coding that allow private entities to go out and target products for purchase.

Lets say I have access to a significant credit line. I can set up a shopbot and go out and buy up any hot product before consumers ever see it hit the market. For example, the new PlayStation 5. Your kid would like a play PS5 for Xmas, that retails for lets say 500 bucks. Well, a shopbot can buy them up before they ever hit a wallmart rack and set up an Ebay account, or what have you, and sell them for a 1000 bucks a unit. Do you want a PS5 for little Joni? Cough up the 1000 rather then the 4 of 5 hundred. This should be illegal but it's not. Now, you can't use these devices on things such as tickets because it is illegal but it's not outside of those types of markets. Why is that? This is wrong. Should not be allowed IMO.

I completely agree..

The more online dependent we become the more they need to crack down on things like this..

What if our groceries and medicines became more dependent from online purchases? We can’t compete with these bots.

 

[Jammer]

I was one of the people trying to get a PS5 on launch day. Time and time again I would have a system in my cart but when it came time to pay the cart would be empty. Frustrating.
I don't really blame the scalpers. If I was in need of money and I could do it I cannot say I wouldn't do it. The problem is there is incentive to do it because there are people willing to spend over $1,500 for something that retails for $499. It's beyond insane IMO. There are groups now hijacking trucks to get these things. I will gladly wait even if it takes months before they are plentiful. I have lived my life up until now without the want or need for one, I figure it's easy enough to wait it out.

 

[Reality]

One more reason I'm glad I don't have kids.

I agree that the whole concept of shopping bots sucks, and that they should be illegal, but I don't think anything they buy up is essential.

That's actually not true at all. They did the same thing to web cams and they have been doing the same to video cards for the last few months, all of which many remote workers (work-from-home) are required to have.

So, yes gamers are being impacted, but this goes well beyond gaming.

Not to mention, how long before the tech scalping market gets saturated and those people start focusing on other "required" or "must have" items outside of tech?

It is always easy to write off inconveniences of others until it ultimately lands at your door.

Given how the ecommerce market has exploded in popularity with people copying and reproducing every idea and product out there, it is only a matter of time before botters/scalpers set their eyes on other products we all use regularly.

 

[Jammer]

Today, to kill time, I watched a couple of auctions on Ebay and the prices are dropping somewhat. One console sold for $800 and a couple of others did not meet the minimum requirement. I went to another site (StockX) and their prices are in the $700-800 price range. There are still lots of people selling them at 3X the MSRP, but I noticed they are the ones who sold a lot of the units so they've more than made up their costs (and then some) so they can wait for the really desperate people. I think the lower price on some of these are people who need to get rid of them sooner than later. I still will never pay a penny more than the MSRP.

It's good on Walmart cancelling 20 million bot orders. I wish the other chains did the same thing.