How can scalping be prevented? (any industry)

[Haighus]

As per thread title. I suspect this is a losing battle on the whole as capitalism incentivises it, except where the availability is restricted by location and can be bypassed by loot groups.

Obviously I care about GW, but it is far from restricted to them.

[Disciple of Fate]

If the industry really cared, it could stop online sales of limited availability items. Like the limited GW kits or PS5/Xbox, sell them/the reservations in store only and limited to 1 per person (this sucks for people living far from stores however). It won't stop all scalping, but having to manually visit 10 GWs instead of having a bot make 100 pre-orders in 5 min is worth far less for far more effort.

But as you said, what is the incentive? It looks much better to sell out in 5 minutes.

[easye]

The solution is to stop using FOMO tactics.

Companies are incentivized to avoid waste and the best way to do that is artificially reduce supply while pumping demand.  Intentionally underproducing is not a problem if your quarterly financial forecasts account for it.  Since "value" is only made on a quarterly basis now, there is no incentive to do otherwise. 

This is typically where government steps in to create balance via regulation.  I.E. if someone Pre-orders you must produce/provide it for them.  This will not happen in the US/UK. 

Alternatively, the stock holders may realize they can make more money by creating as much product as people want, but that is risky.  You can overshoot the mark.  This also will not happen for the reasons listed above.

This is the worst timeline.....

  

[maddocgrotsnik]

May 22, 2023 11:10:54 GMT -5 easye said:

The solution is to stop using FOMO tactics.

Companies are incentivized to avoid waste and the best way to do that is artificially reduce supply while pumping demand.  Intentionally underproducing is not a problem if your quarterly financial forecasts account for it.  Since "value" is only made on a quarterly basis now, there is no incentive to do otherwise. 

This is typically where government steps in to create balance via regulation.  I.E. if someone Pre-orders you must produce/provide it for them.  This will not happen in the US/UK. 

Alternatively, the stock holders may realize they can make more money by creating as much product as people want, but that is risky.  You can overshoot the mark.  This also will not happen for the reasons listed above.

This is the worst timeline.....

  

For GW? Their advantage is they are in sole control of supply and demand of their products, barring sourcing the raw materials.

Offering a new boxed set? Produce X physical copies, commit to a one or two week Made To Order period.

I get that’s not necessarily practical for everything they churn out, and maximum capacity is absolutely a thing. They’re particularly bad when it comes to Black Library limited editions and hardbacks.

Sure you can enforce One Per Customer, but unless (and I do not know if this is possible) you’re limiting to One Per Payment Card, botfarms can and will dodge that by simply creating dozens of separate accounts.

The Loot Group can only do so much. I am proud of my daft idea made manifest, and I flatter myself to think we’ve out a dent in scalping to some degree, but it still continues apace. Though it seems Store Anniversary Models just aren’t going for the silly prices they did when I started up, so perhaps there is something to my self flattery.

Of course, a chunk of it is in on the consumer as well. I very nearly pissed myself laughing when Indomitus was announced as Made To Order, as we knew scalper cunts were suddenly stuck with a load of stock they had no chance of shifting at a profit - and limited chance of selling it at cost.

[Disciple of Fate]

Technically there are methods to defeat the bot pre-orders, but a pre-order remains a pre-order, GW get their money either way.

[herzlos]

1 per customer is probably sufficient, because it increases the work and cost for the scalper.

Of course, maintaining a constant supply of the thing means there's no demand for the scalper in the first place.


For tickets for events it should be pretty trivial - ban reselling of tickets outside the ticket providers portal and don't allow them to sell for more than the original price. Or ban reselling entirely and have a mechanism for people to return tickets to the provider instead.

[easye]

I think there are all ready anti-scalping laws on the books.

It is enforcement and jurisdiction issues that is the issue I would imagine.

[herzlos]

I think they tend to cover essentials in time of crisis - i.e. someone buying up all the toilet roll or hand sanitizer. It's unlikely to apply to Blink 182 tickets or plastic space dollies

[easye]

The laws apply to sports tickets, as that is how I usually hear about the laws in the first place. Not sure why concert tickets are any different.