Scalper

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When That Guy uses EBAY. Suffer the scalper not to live.

What is a Scalper?

A scalper is someone who buys an in-demand item (such as miniatures) to resell it at a vastly inflated price. These scumbags make themselves an unwanted middleman in an attempt to make profit. Their modus operandi is simple, yet irritatingly effective:

• A scalper sees that a product is going to be highly demanded enough that the supply chain won't be able to deal with the demand fast enough.
• He then preorders/buys as many copies of said product as possible.
• After scarcity hits and customers start looking elsewhere, he then sells his massive stock of said product. With a massive increase of the initial price.
• If everything goes well, he'll sell enough copies of the product to get a substancial profit.

Needless to say, this is a increasingly problematic situation, especially with the advent of online stores that allow you to just order in bulk and sell it very easily. Though it can backfire on the scalper if the product doesn't sell as well as he hoped, leaving him with a massive stock and quite a lot of money lost. It can also happen that many countries are starting to regulate this phenomenom, although how much they can/should intervene is a matter of controversy.

How does this relate to /tg/?

A number of 40k items have been "graced" by scalpers, causing much RAGE among fa/tg/uys. The Sisters of Battle boxset is the most infamous example.

What Do?

Practice self control and wait till you find the item you want at a reasonable price (usually after the demand dies down). The main reason scalpers exist is because fa/tg/uys (and some could argue tabletop gamers in general) often lack self-control and are blinded by hype for the latest release.