MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Is Del a plonker for flogging Wiis on eBay?

Alykes

I agree with Krishna. If kids are deprived of certain items because they are
unavailable, they wont die. If they can't wait until they are available it's a bit
sad (but only a bit). Everyone should learn that you can't have everything in life when you want it, a lesson that is not being taught by parents, thus
causing kids to grow up to be greedy and selfish. Now that is more than a bit sad. Good luck Del.

seven-day-weekend

Of course Del is doing nothing wrong.

Anybody else could have taken the time and trouble that he has to get the item at that price. If they chose not to do so, and are happy to pay his price, what's the problem? No-one is forcing them to buy it!

seven-day-weekend

I don't know what a Wii is anyway.

TallyFrog

To answer the question - Del's certainly not a plonker - he sounds like a very astute business man who's spotted a niche in the market and is exploiting it.

it's not even unethical, as long as he's paying his taxes etc. but I agree it's not entirely within the spirit of the MSE community.

the real plonkers in this scenario are those who pay Del the higher prices because they are so desperate to get hold of this gadget. It's a luxury, not a necessity, and if you don't like the price, then wait for a while, or go and play real games with your children and take real exercise, instead of pretending to in front of a screen! Nintendo have created a market and are reaping the benefits, laughing all the way to the bank!!

Yakyb

absolutly nothing wrong with this at all AFAIK he and the people like him are providing a service by finding those in stock and putting them in a place for all to find ( and christ even the most expensive are only 20% more not much imho)

I bought my Gfriend a Wii last year off ebay for the same price as they are going for now and i do not regret it at all

For those of you moaning about this guy why did you not buy a wii 2 months ago when they where very availible?

it was very good thinking by this person for not sitting on his !!!! until the last minute the only questionable angle is that he uses the goodwill of people on MSE to find new stock and essentially races them to it

gingercordial

Do I think he's a plonker? No.

This time last year I was in the market for a Wii, for my younger brother. I bought one off eBay in the end for about £300. I could afford it, my brother was thrilled, and the seller was rewarded for being organised enough to go and queue up at Tesco on the launch night to get one. Everyone's happy. I certainly didn't think he/she was a plonker.

This year I find myself in the opposite position. I'm off to Germany to see a friend this weekend, and already I've been asked to bring back a Wii for a colleague. I'm not charging anything (except the additional luggage charge on easyjet) as she's paid Amazon.de directly to have it delivered to my friend's house. But I briefly considered picking up a few more when I saw this thread, as apparently they are freely available in the shops, then selling them on eBay when I got back. I won't, because I can't be bothered with the hassle of carrying them back, dealing with eBay, postage or collection etc etc. But I wouldn't think I was doing anything wrong if I chose to do it.

Maybe the fact that Del is monitoring MSE for supplies is a little bit, well, not in the spirit of MSE... But nobody NEEDS a Wii for Christmas. No child will die if deprived of one. He's doing the work, he takes on the risk of them not selling, he gets his reward. Good luck to him!

Oh, and don't forget to wear the strap on the remote, my brother smashed our new 42" plasma TV screen last year on Christmas Day, a fun evening that turned out to be...

Sigur_2

No. Everyone has the same opportunity to buy them as he has. His opportunity cost is the time and effort he puts into finding and buying them when I am sure he could be doing other things.

He puts them up for auction and lets people pay the maximum they are willing to pay. He gets his reward, the buyers get something a price they were willing to pay.

There really are no losers in this.

grayme-m

IMHO, he is a plonker if he posts on the Wii chasers' thread that he is making a killing and doesn't expect those that are working full time, bringing up the kids (i.e. don't have the time he appears to) that want the Wiis to flame him.

I don't believe that this site is set up to enable some to profiteer from others rather than save from the 'nasty' shops, and I can't see Woolworths using this site to find the Wiis it sells (which is the point); but there will always be those that profiteer from information they get from this site, if that's 'wrong' depends on your viewpoint.

russellgreeno

Souleater wrote: »

Is the current Wii shortage an artificial creation by Nintendo? Probably.
.

I really wouldn't think so - Nintendo are losing sales to Sony and Microsoft, it's not in their interest to cause an even bigger stir than there is now.

1.8 million consoles per month are made, for the whole world, not just for here or japan or usa, if you divide 1.8 million into each full on country selling Wii you will soon work out that there just is too much demand.

Titus_frogsbutt

Ghost wrote: »

I believe that Del's actions - whilst they may be lawful (unless he's not declaring tax) - are not in keeping with the true spirit of the MSE forum.

Exactly! This is a "moneysaver" abusing this site not just to save money but to profiteer. Clearly as stated by other contributers this is not an essential item but we all know about emotional blackmail with kids etc.
I would hope his better nature would stop Del from doing this, but a look in many of the forums here shows just how many like him there are. Sad but true I'm afraid.
Merry Xmas to all GENUINE moneysavers:santa2: