Question Re: "Flipping"

Bushleaguer28

Let me just say first off that I'm kind of indifferent to merch flipping - I dont condone it and it's frustrating when something I wanted gets marked up like crazy, but I understand that its inevitable so I'm not gonna go on some moral crusade to try to stop it.

This board in large part is vehemently against flipping, which I get. But I have to say I find the whole thing a bit hypocritical . . . .

What exactly is the difference between selling something that you buy on the board two weeks after buying it, or selling a 1 yr old poster for $150? Is that not the same thing, just with a larger time gap in between? If people are ok with selling posters for huge mark-ups a yr later but not "flipping" something like the blu-ray set, what amount of time makes it ok? It seems entirely arbitrary to me . . .

As far as I've gathered, nobody has an issue with someone selling a Donkey Kong poster for 5+ times what it cost at the show, but if someone tries to sell new merch for what people are willing to pay for it everyone blows a gasket . . .

This is a legitimate question that I cant wrap my head around. The ONLY difference is that selling something so soon after purchasing indicates that you bought it with the purpose of flipping, but everyone knows that people will sit on posters to wait for the value to go up. For all intents and purposes its the exact same thing, yet one is severely frowned upon while the other is basically encouraged. Weird . . .

dimitrispearljam

Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of Flipping..

Chief Broom

dimitrispearljam wrote:

Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of Flipping..

Bushleaguer28

dimitrispearljam wrote:

Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of Flipping..

Haha classic

2-feign-reluctance

Its not a simple thing that can be explained. Part of the occurence CAN be explained by your thoughts here, but the other parts are complex. People buying merch with intent to make money. People buying merch, and selling it for lots of reasons months/years later.

Bushleaguer28

2-feign-reluctance wrote:

Its not a simple thing that can be explained. Part of the occurence CAN be explained by your thoughts here, but the other parts are complex. People buying merch with intent to make money. People buying merch, and selling it for lots of reasons months/years later.

I get that, but we all know people dont plan on keeping all the posters they buy. They often buy them with the intent to resell or trade them later on. I just dont really understand why its viewed so vastly different with extended time in between, or why when someone tries to sell a poster a yr later for X times the price nobody drops the "ill give you what you paid for it" line

oona left

In my opinion, the difference is simple:

What is the purpose of buying it in the first place?

If I buy a poster, frame it, and hang it in my home to remind me of a show I attended, then the point in me purchasing it was to enjoy the thing itself.

On the other hand, if I buy a poster solely for the purpose of SELLING IT for profit, then that's something different entirely.

Bushleaguer28

oona left wrote:

In my opinion, the difference is simple:

What is the purpose of buying it in the first place?

If I buy a poster, frame it, and hang it in my home to remind me of a show I attended, then the point in me purchasing it was to enjoy the thing itself.

On the other hand, if I buy a poster solely for the purpose of SELLING IT for profit, then that's something different entirely.

In your scenario tho you're keeping the poster as a souvenir - thats awesome. But there is a LOT of poster selling that is very obviously the product of buying it and sitting on it while the value goes up

oona left

Bushleaguer28 wrote:

oona left wrote:

In my opinion, the difference is simple:

What is the purpose of buying it in the first place?

If I buy a poster, frame it, and hang it in my home to remind me of a show I attended, then the point in me purchasing it was to enjoy the thing itself.

On the other hand, if I buy a poster solely for the purpose of SELLING IT for profit, then that's something different entirely.

In your scenario tho you're keeping the poster as a souvenir - thats awesome. But there is a LOT of poster selling that is very obviously the product of buying it and sitting on it while the value goes up

Again, in my opinion, if someone sits on it while the value goes up, but their reason for buying it in the first place was to make money off it later (whether that be a week later or five years later), then that's flipping.

Bushleaguer28

oona left wrote:

Bushleaguer28 wrote:

oona left wrote:

In my opinion, the difference is simple:

What is the purpose of buying it in the first place?

If I buy a poster, frame it, and hang it in my home to remind me of a show I attended, then the point in me purchasing it was to enjoy the thing itself.

On the other hand, if I buy a poster solely for the purpose of SELLING IT for profit, then that's something different entirely.

In your scenario tho you're keeping the poster as a souvenir - thats awesome. But there is a LOT of poster selling that is very obviously the product of buying it and sitting on it while the value goes up

Again, in my opinion, if someone sits on it while the value goes up, but their reason for buying it in the first place was to make money off it later (whether that be a week later or five years later), then that's flipping.

OK see this makes sense to me - I just dont think its the prevailing opinion on these boards

oona left

Bushleaguer28 wrote:

oona left wrote:

Bushleaguer28 wrote:

In my opinion, the difference is simple:

What is the purpose of buying it in the first place?

If I buy a poster, frame it, and hang it in my home to remind me of a show I attended, then the point in me purchasing it was to enjoy the thing itself.

On the other hand, if I buy a poster solely for the purpose of SELLING IT for profit, then that's something different entirely.

In your scenario tho you're keeping the poster as a souvenir - thats awesome. But there is a LOT of poster selling that is very obviously the product of buying it and sitting on it while the value goes up

Again, in my opinion, if someone sits on it while the value goes up, but their reason for buying it in the first place was to make money off it later (whether that be a week later or five years later), then that's flipping.

OK see this makes sense to me - I just dont think its the prevailing opinion on these boards

Yeah, I don't think it is either.

redkeeth

no one buys 10 copies of a movie (exact same copy) because they just like it allot. They will have different versions, but people that buy more than one of something with the intent to sell it is flipping.

If you buy 1 and sell it years later it is not. Its value may go up or stay the same this is flopping.

:ugeek:

Bushleaguer28

redkeeth wrote:

no one buys 10 copies of a movie (exact same copy) because they just like it allot. They will have different versions, but people that buy more than one of something with the intent to sell it is flipping.

If you buy 1 and sell it years later it is not. Its value may go up or stay the same this is flopping.

:ugeek:

Wait so theres flipping AND flopping?

Hugh Freaking Dillon

the difference to me is this:

the time frame makes it much more difficult to accuse someone of flipping the item. if someone sells it a week after the item is sold out, yes, it is flipping. but if someone sells it a year later with an "I need money" story, then no one can dispute that.

it's the intent you can't prove when there's more time that has passed. it's not that it's not frowned upon, but the accusation just can't be made. if someone came out and said "I bought x number of these 10 years ago,I'm selling 9 of them" then they'd be crucified just as if they bought the items last week.

spencer958

If you buy 5 of something that is marked as "limited" just for the purpose of selling it later, then I think that is wrong. If you buy something, then a year later you need to sell it, and that item happens to be worth 5 times the original price than good for you. PJ has a lot of stuff "worth" more than we paid. It's only "worth" what someone is willing to pay. I have a ton of PJ items. If I need some cash and have to sell in the future then I will. Hopefully that time will never come and I can keep my swag

Parksy

Bushleaguer28 wrote:

Let me just say first off that I'm kind of indifferent to merch flipping - I dont condone it and it's frustrating when something I wanted gets marked up like crazy, but I understand that its inevitable so I'm not gonna go on some moral crusade to try to stop it.

This board in large part is vehemently against flipping, which I get. But I have to say I find the whole thing a bit hypocritical . . . .

What exactly is the difference between selling something that you buy on the board two weeks after buying it, or selling a 1 yr old poster for $150? Is that not the same thing, just with a larger time gap in between? If people are ok with selling posters for huge mark-ups a yr later but not "flipping" something like the blu-ray set, what amount of time makes it ok? It seems entirely arbitrary to me . . .

As far as I've gathered, nobody has an issue with someone selling a Donkey Kong poster for 5+ times what it cost at the show, but if someone tries to sell new merch for what people are willing to pay for it everyone blows a gasket . . .

This is a legitimate question that I cant wrap my head around. The ONLY difference is that selling something so soon after purchasing indicates that you bought it with the purpose of flipping, but everyone knows that people will sit on posters to wait for the value to go up. For all intents and purposes its the exact same thing, yet one is severely frowned upon while the other is basically encouraged. Weird . . .

You make a good point. And really there is no clear answer. Some folks on here legitimatly bought items with the intent to owning the item.. and then due to circumstances beyond their control they needed funds and opted to go for "market value." To that I have no real issue.

However I do agree with you that a time difference makes no difference. It someone buys something with the intent to eventually sell... the time frame makes no difference to me. If people buy items knowing in their head simply "I'm going to buy this now because I know down the road it will be valuable..." To me that's very similar to flipping.

Ideally.. folks would just buy stuff to collect it or use it.

When it comes to forum users on here... I know there are some flipper assclowns on here but the majority of folks around here are astoundingly awesome when it comes to merch and selling/trading.

81

don't forget about the Johns in all this....somebody has to be willing to pay the silly prices for this stuff.