For those that missed it, there was an interesting and somewhat heated debate about this in another thread. Here's the post that started it off.

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...l=1#post763147

Quote Originally Posted by Bryant Burnette View Post
Personally, I feel like the people who buy extra copies of these things with the express purpose of flipping them are scumbag pieces of shit. No offense.
Honestly, I agree to a point. I don't know that I'd go so far as to call the people that do it "scumbag pieces of shit" but the practice does annoy me a little. Especially the problems that it can create.

Mostly I'm thinking about 1996 when the Tickle-me-Elmo first came out. My wife and I picked up one for our daughter in September simply because she liked Elmo. By the time November and December rolled around people were literally fighting each other in the store aisles over them. Half of them didn't even want them to give to a child but to list them in a newspaper ad for $100. IIRC the same thing happened with "Teacher Barbie"

Anyone remember the Beanie Baby craze? When McDonald's started putting them in happy meals I witnessed people buying the happy meals and then simply throwing the food out. All so they could make a few bucks.

I worked at a toy store for a couple of years when the Star Wars action figures were first re-released and we constantly had people coming into the store hovering over us so they could grab the figures the second we took them out of the box. I know of one manger that actually got in trouble because he was holding a bunch of the McFarlane sports figures back so he could buy them himself and sell them to his buddies.

So I understand the though process behind the practice and the risk/reward factor. And maybe it's a little bit of jealousy of never being the one that was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of doing something like this (I'm always a day late and a dollar short in finding out what the hot new thing is) but it is a bit annoying to want to buy something simply because you want/like it and find out it's sold-out because everyone is selling it on eBay for 3 times the original price. Especially when it's a toy or doll meant for children.