Capitalism is free-market enterprise. It’s the right to supply a product to a demanding market, at whatever price the market deems fair.

Contrary to some posts here, the *exact opposite* is illegal — if vendors were forced to stick to a, say, $299 price tag, Nintendo would be in major hot-water for price fixing.

If people want to pay $500 for a product that will sub-$150 within a few months and available in abundance, that’s their right, just as it is for the company who supplies it.

“Fair” is defined by the market. Is it “fair” that beach-front homes cost $10 million? Did it cost that much money to throw together a few bricks and cement? Of course not. If no-one wanted to live near the beach, they wouldn’t be 1/10th of the price. The fact that they do and that there are people willing to shell out bigger bucks establishes the market value.

The article isn’t about torrents is it?

And Im an ECONOmist, not a communist. Read up on deadweight loss to society.

Capitalism is founded upon exploitation, by not rewarding people fully for their assistance in the process of production and exploiting consumers in imperfect markets (like this prime example HERE with Wii’s and Nintendo DS’s). Where do you think profit comes from!? It’s not magic!

I just believe in these days of peak oil we should be attempting to use our limited resources as efficiently as possible, and black markets such as these are terrible for our economy.

My comment is just that Nintendo may be discounting their Wii consoles to a shop-front store because they expect a certain amount of shop-front exposure and walk-in sales etc. For online stores, on the other hand, Nintendo may choose to not discount their products as much, because they don’t get anywhere near as much exposure and “free” advertising to passers by. So I would possibly see Nintendo not wanting this to be happening, but apart from that, who cares?

There has always been inside information, emotion, price descrimiation, etc. etc. Always will be. If everyone who worked in a video store took the wiis and sold them online, ebay would be glutted with them and the price would go down.

SLACKERS sins are many.

1. Overcharging for in demand products to deny children of the ability to purchase another game. This has happened not only with the wii but anything in demand rock band and the original guitar hero come to mind.

2. Positioning itself close to Walmart to encourage stolen items to be traded in.

3. Minimizing trade in amounts in order to take advantage of it’s customers as much as possible.

4. Using Walmarts sub-cost DVD releases as their own product. They purchase the DVDs from Walmart tax free and turn around and sell them for a 20% mark up. If they do not sell in a few months time the DVDs will be returned so that slackers suffers no loss.

5. They go against the laws of the credit card companies requiring a minimum purchase of $5 and often requiring an ID.

6. The customer is always wrong. It is often assumed that the customer has done something to a product that is returned because of malfunction. It is only after it can be proved that the malfunction is not the fault of the customer that the return shall be taken.

Just thought you would like to know….

I would guess that Slackers knows what they are doing is wrong and just were hoping that no one would notice and would think that they were just some random person selling them on E-Bay.

No, I just happen to understand more than you. I know that certain stores have “No Dealers” policys. I was inquisitive about the rule where I work. This was done after the sale. I went to the proper personnel about my query. I found out the answer. And you took what I said out of context. I should have stated this in my post so that you would understand….

…After the sale was made, I talked to my supervisor and the head of electronics about the policy of dealers purchasing in quantity in relation to the “no dealers” rule pertaining to electronic goods, and they said it was perfectly OK for SLACKERS to buy all those CD’s…..

Like I said, I asked a question, I got it answered.

I would like to apologise to you, #35, because you decided to act like a bada$$ because you, yes, you, didn’t comprehend my post, fully or completely.

The employees at the store have asymmetric information relative to normal consumers as they know when deliveries will be arriving and “purchase” the consoles before the store even opens for business or as they arrive. There may well be a contract broken here between retailer and supplier, in which case, IS ILLEGAL!!!! It’s basic contract law.

This is not an efficient market. This causes a deadweight loss to society, although maximizes profit for the firm/individual. Seeing as we only have limited resources on this planet, on a larger scale, it can be seen as a reason why such practices are frowned upon no matter WHAT the product.

This is also why capitalism, in reality, is a terrible way of allocating scarce resources as it is BASED ON EXPLOITATION. Where do you think profit COMES from? Not paying workers sufficiently for their value-contributions to the process of production and exploiting consumers in imperfect markets.

I have to admit, this whole situation would never have come about if not for the shortsightedness of Nintendo and they should bare some responsibility for the insanity that has ensued this christmas.

Having a look at eBay in the UK and the less than sufficient “deliveries” which are apparently occurring every few days I have the feeling that exactly the same thing is happening with the Nintendo DS also.

These pro-capitalism advocates need to stop seeing the dollar signs and read some books. It will be the end of the US economy as we know it, given the way the Federal Reserve is designed. The clock is ticking.