Selling trident for a profit - okay or not?

[LV3]

Yes, I think it is ok. I think of it like a FastPass at a theme park. Everyone who wants to experience the ride will get an opportunity. Those who want to ride it sooner pay a premium to do that. I’m not upset with the FastPass rider or the park who gave that opportunity to experience the ride before those who prefer to wait.

Personally I’m grateful there are alternatives to waiting on a waitlist with no idea of how long it might be until your number is called.

 

[GregOyeah]

@ GregOyeah
Quote:
"Would a ticket be available at the regular asking price if he hadn’t bought extra? Yep.
Is there anything illegal about what he just did in our free market? Nope. Is he a raging ****** because of it. Hell yeah he is" End Quote.

This is how life is, I have on certain items (Replenish able but limited things) bought all that I could.
Silly but true example, our family had a craving for the chocolate covered graham crackers, we bought a package and the next few times we went back to the store they were out. So when they came back in stock I bought every package they had.
So am I a *******************? Jury is out on that one. I don't think so. So no I did not consider others here, this was a completely selfish act.
However that being said my personal Morals and Ethics would not allow me to do that with a one time deal such as concert, sporting, or other one time events, nore would I have turned around to the shopper behind me and say for a buck I will give you a pack.

I dont find anything wrong with what you did with the graham crackers.

what would be wrong is if you bought all of the graham crackers and then tried to sell them to your family memebers for double price because you know theyll want them. See the difference? Why would you want to do that someone youre supposed to be sharing some sort of comradery with?

All that being said, to youre original statement, that is how life is. Thats completely understood, i understand people will do crappy things in life, are you not allowed to be annoyed by it though??

 

[GregOyeah]

Yes, I think it is ok. I think of it like a FastPass at a theme park. Everyone who wants to experience the ride will get an opportunity. Those who want to ride it sooner pay a premium to do that. I’m not upset with the FastPass rider or the park who gave that opportunity to experience the ride before those who prefer to wait.

Personally I’m grateful there are alternatives to waiting on a waitlist with no idea of how long it might be until your number is called.

would you make a friend or someone you went to the park with as a group pay that extra premium if you had it? even though they were waiting in line just like you were? only difference is you bought it right before they did, and now want to profit off them having good time too

 

[K7BMG]

Im not in the camp that thinks this is detrimental to the hobby. This hobby became big business a long time ago.

What it does do is ruin the spirit of the websites like this. This is supposed to be a community where we all share a common hobby and want to help each other out so we can enjoy our own reefs just as much as the next guy. Loading up on products that we have all be waiting to purchase for many many months, just so you can short cut the next guy in line and make money off of his excitement is just cruddy if you ask me.

Understood, There is always a dark side to everything, even a great forum like this one.

I just had a conversation with my high school senior about what college she wants to go to.
The two local ones here she did not want to attend, when I asked her why she said I don't like the people here, that's why I am looking at out of state colleges.
I had to laugh, and told her geography will not make a different society. The same people you don't like here will be everywhere you go just with different names and faces, but you will have kind, nice, people and selfish, jerks, and the like everywhere you go.
The true measure of maturity is the willingness to overcome life's obstacles.
So your going to potentially sacrifice you're education, and a whole lot of extra money on extra tuition because of people you don't like.
For one I am sorry to see that your lack of character and maturity will allow those few people to direct your life in that way.
You can make the choice, to go elsewhere, but then what will you do when you meet the same unlikable personalities?
I have not gotten an answer back but I hope she thinks about it.

 

[LV3]

would you make a friend or someone you went to the park with as a group pay that extra premium if you had it? even though they were waiting in line just like you were? only difference is you bought it right before they did, and now want to profit off them having good time too

I don’t MAKE anyone do anything.

 

[K7BMG]

I dont find anything wrong with what you did with the graham crackers.

what would be wrong is if you bought all of the graham crackers and then tried to sell them to your family memebers for double price because you know theyll want them. See the difference? Why would you want to do that someone youre supposed to be sharing some sort of comradery with?

All that being said, to youre original statement, that is how life is. Thats completely understood, i understand people will do crappy things in life, are you not allowed to be annoyed by it though??

Oh yea I get annoyed by it and its allowed.

 

[GregOyeah]

would you make a friend or someone you went to the park with as a group pay that extra premium if you had it? even though they were waiting in line just like you were? only difference is you bought it right before they did, and now want to profit off them having good time too

I don’t MAKE anyone do anything.

way to avoid the question

...and by the way, the theme park provides the fast passes, not the jerk standing in front of you in line

 

[K7BMG]

would you make a friend or someone you went to the park with as a group pay that extra premium if you had it? even though they were waiting in line just like you were? only difference is you bought it right before they did, and now want to profit off them having good time too

LOL ROFL....Well yea I have two members of the family that if I could I would do whatever I could do to get one or many over on them.
But that's family. LOL LOL LOL

 

[LV3]

way to avoid the question

...and by the way, the theme park provides the fast passes, not the jerk standing in front of you in line

Look, I made my opinion on the thread topic. I’m not required to answer your follow up questions. If you don’t want to pay a premium for things, perfectly fine, continue testing your water manually until your name is called. Those who did, I’m sure they’re very excited and grateful they had an opportunity on R2R to find one.

 

[Scurvy]

Not much different than people who buy full setups when people package it all up cheaply to leave the hobby and flip most/all for profit. They may grab a couple of items that they want and flip the rest, often at a profit or at least to get their pieces for free.

Why? Because they're willing to put in the time and effort to part it out, list it, deal with the buyers and all the low ball offers/transactions/shipping. If you did the math, that skimmer they sold for $250 cost them $100 in the package deal. Are they bad people? 99% of the time No and we’d probably call them smart.

If someone has that time and is willing to sit online all day, wait for in stock notifications and go snag a Trident or two then flip for a profit to someone without the time who's willing to spend more than retail to get what they want when they want, who are we to judge?

Ill simply get mine when I can log on and get one at retail.

 

[HCl+NaHO=]

On the other hand, what they are doing is generally detrimental to the hobby as a whole. Imagine if the practice were taken to the full extreme and one person bought every available Trident and then sold them for an increased price while scarcity was still an issue. They are adding extra cost and delay to the broad group of hobbyists, with the benefit going directly to themselves.
.

That is exactly what a retailer does.

This is exactly what BRS or Marine Depot, whoever do.

They don’t buy retail from Neptune.

They buy a lot at wholesale. Mark it up.

Then sell at a profit.

That is not a detriment. That is a service.

Not to you, but to Neptune. They don’t want to deal with thousands of customers ordering and ******** at them.

 

[danoo]

That is exactly what a retailer does.

This is exactly what BRS or Marine Depot, whoever do.

They don’t buy retail from Neptune.

They buy a lot at wholesale. Mark it up.

Then sell at a profit.

That is not a detriment. That is a service.

Not to you, but to Neptune. They don’t want to deal with thousands of customers ordering and ******** at them.

Imagine this simplified situation: There are 2 people in line to buy Tridents from an authorized retailer who has 2 of them in stock, and each person wants 1 of them.

Scenario 1: Each person buys 1 and deals directly with a retailer. They both get their Tridents at retail price, shipped right away from the retailer with a valid warranty.
Scenario 2: The first person buys both, then posts a thread selling it on R2R at a markup, then the 2nd person deals with the first person, risks getting scammed, pays a markup, is delayed a week, pays extra shipping costs and voids their warranty.

So you are telling me that is a service and not a detriment?

And give me a break comparing that to the wholesale --> retail relationship. Neptune doesn't want to deal with 10,000 customers directly, they are a manufacturer, not a retailer. BRS, Marine Depot and other retailers obviously have no issue dealing with lots of customers, and you'd have to imagine the level of customer service and support a retailer can offer the end customer is a lot higher than that of a random reseller on the forums.

 

[TARHEEL78]

Imagine this simplified situation: There are 2 people in line to buy Tridents from an authorized retailer who has 2 of them in stock, and each person wants 1 of them.

Scenario 1: Each person buys 1 and deals directly with a retailer. They both get their Tridents at retail price, shipped right away from the retailer with a valid warranty.
Scenario 2: The first person buys both, then posts a thread selling it on R2R at a markup, then the 2nd person deals with the first person, risks getting scammed, pays a markup, is delayed a week, pays extra shipping costs and voids their warranty.

So you are telling me that is a service and not a detriment?

And give me a break comparing that to the wholesale --> retail relationship. Neptune doesn't want to deal with 10,000 customers directly, they are a manufacturer, not a retailer. BRS, Marine Depot and other retailers obviously have no issue dealing with lots of customers, and you'd have to imagine the level of customer service and support a retailer can offer the end customer is a lot higher than that of a random reseller on the forums.

Second guy should have gotten in line first if he wanted it that bad.

 

[Jinko]

That is exactly what a retailer does.

This is exactly what BRS or Marine Depot, whoever do.

They don’t buy retail from Neptune.

They buy a lot at wholesale. Mark it up.

Then sell at a profit.

That is not a detriment. That is a service.

Not to you, but to Neptune. They don’t want to deal with thousands of customers ordering and ******** at them.

I don't see why not, they are a big company who offer a lot of different products.
It seems smart to want to provide decent customer service on top of that.

I wonder what the warrenty is for buying a product from a nobody is also and how helpful they would be for defective products if you didn't buy from a retailer.

Games consoles are a big scalping item when they are first released and I know Sony can be less than happy to honor their warrenty if you buy from ebay for example.

 

[Silver14SS]

Will someone who’s upset about individuals reselling them explain to me why your anger isn’t directed at the root cause - very limited supply?

Individuals reselling at MAP won’t make more appear, and if they were sitting on shelves, this issue wouldn’t exist.

 

[Medic58]

I would sell it for a profit if I had it.

 

[danoo]

Second guy should have gotten in line first if he wanted it that bad.

For sure. And as I said in my first post, I don't think what the first person is doing is wrong. Just don't pretend this "service" is beneficial to their fellow hobbyists.

It is just pure reputational arbitrage. The retailer either can't raise prices based on Neptune's rules, or wouldn't want to anyways because of the negative PR they'd get. However the shameless reseller can raise the price as high as the market will bear because the damage to their long-term reputation is irrelevant.

 

[K7BMG]

I have not verified this but I am assuming you can buy direct from Neptune.
I base this assumption on the FACT that you currently HAVE to purchase the reagent refills directly from them.

So they ARE EQUIPPED to sell to the general public, but that does not mean they choose to do so with the Trident, or other merchandise.

@ Silver14SS, you are correct, the real problem is how Neptune decided to release the Trident.

I wonder what people here would say if a person bought several Tridents, took them out to the parking lot and ran them all over?
If that's what they wanted to do with them that's there right, yes or no.
Either way it would be less product available for others to be able to get.

 

[danoo]

Nobody is disputing that a person has the right to buy a Trident from a retailer and resell it and/or run it over.

I also don't see how blaming Neptune makes any sense. They clearly are making as many of them as they can, and the scarcity issue is almost certainly being exacerbated by the resellers. It would be like if I put out a tray of free brownies with a sign that said "Please take one". Then some shameless person took the whole tray and then starting selling the brownies for $1. Then you walk by and see there aren't any free brownies anymore. Certainly you *could* blame me for not putting more effort into preventing the shameless guy from taking advantage of the honor system, but at the end of the day the shameless person is the most responsible for you not getting a free brownie. But look, the shameless person is shameless and doesn't care. All they care about is the $20 they just made off my brownies.

 

[Silver14SS]

They clearly are making as many of them as they can, and the scarcity issue is almost certainly being exacerbated by the resellers. It would be like if I put out a tray of free brownies with a sign that said "Please take one". Then some shameless person took the whole tray and then starting selling the brownies for $1. Then you walk by and see there aren't any free brownies anymore. Certainly you *could* blame me for not putting more effort into preventing the shameless guy from taking advantage of the honor system, but at the end of the day the shameless person is the most responsible for you not getting a free brownie. But look, the shameless person is shameless and doesn't care. All they care about is the $20 they just made off my brownies.

If you were the only place that made brownies, spent years telling the brownie community about your revolutionary recipe, knew what the demand was, and then only had a few for sale, people may get upset with you. If you knew how many brownies you had on the way, when more would be available, but instead said nothing, it may lead to losing potential customers.