This only works for so long and some of these folks will be caught with product they don’t want and have to either keep it or sell it at a loss. Sucks when you’re looking for something and can’t get it but they will get theirs.

I do agree it a crappy thing to do. Not as much with pinball machines, but with daily essentials. Trying to makers a buck off of other people just trying to get by isn’t a kind way to live.

It’s called “The tragedy of the delayed treadmill”. Playing all over North America now

People are flipping everything including flipping out!

All kidding aside I was looking at lawn mowers on amazon and their newer model ships within 1 to 2 months. It's not even lawn mowing season for a big part of our country.

You are blaming "flippers" for unprecedented worldwide trends that are causing unprecedented disruptions in the supply chain.

"Flippers" are a symptom not a cause. They aren't the reason you can't buy a Cabbage Patch doll.

I find the whole thing pretty fascinating. Can we all live without the things we don't really need?

Just wait until everyone spends their government/covid money and realized they spent it all on crap they didnt need. It all come crashing eventually.. including housing market.

A new video card (3080Ti or 3090) is what is annoying me. Been tracking them for months, no chance of getting one at a reasonable price. While flippers are involved, there are multiple factors, including the supply chain but the main one being cryptomining.

WHy not just take a break from it this year? Who gives a shit?

The greatest gift of all is getting together with loved ones, especially after the last couple of years. As much as we all are "big fans of capitalism" it'll be pretty fascinating to see if we can just do without it this holiday season.

Why stress over a stainless steel toaster?

The problem is that everyone has to decide this at the same time. If your loved ones are still buying stuff and you don't, you're going to end up being one of the Kranks.

^^^This^^^ Things need to be put back into perspective.

Meh. If your family can't accept an IOU get a new family!

Seriously, I tried three years ago to get agreement to just buy for the kids and not the adults, and I got a "meh" response. I then suggested drawing names, and got "I can't do that. I love all of you equally." It's so entrenched that I just gave up. I don't need them buying me anything to feel appreciated, but what can you do when they insist?

If you have a family where you could get by with "Thanks for the gift. I didn't get you anything, but IOU one. Look for an email with a gift card." and no one has any hard feelings, I can pretty much guarantee you're the exception to the rule.

I don’t buy from flippers, simple as that. I also don’t buy family members Xmas presents even though they buy me stuff. Its their decision to do that. For nearly the last two decades I have told everyone to not get me gifts or donate the money to someone that really needs it, but they never do that. Again, its their decision. Its kinda like when someone gives you a hypothetical situation where someone is holding a gun to your head, wanting you to do what they want. As shocking as it is, the decision to get shot is still there. Make the decisions in your life you want to make, then accept the reaction of your action.

I think you just sit the kids down and make them watch the Schwarzenegger classic "Jingle All the Way" and they'll understand. Cap it off with a "Planes Trains and Automobiles" viewing and everybody will be set with the true meaning of the holidays!

Ask the people who ran out of toilet paper last year!! :O

Economically speaking yes, things are extremely f’ed due to incompetence at the top.
Realistically? People are spending assloads of money on stuff they don’t need.

All I buy are the basics, and there’s plenty to go around! The professional consumers however, are devastated by the shortages on useless junk. There is nothing I’m running out of, except more pinball machines to buy.

I COULD sell them, but I’ve got them setup at my arcade and immensely enjoy these games. I’m not buying to flip. This is really an elaborate way to say: reflect on your life and find out what you really need. You’ll be happier when you cut out all the extra crap

YOu're telling me. I was looking at finally buying a new card right before COVID, and of course playing the 'next gen is coming so current gen will go down'....what a mistake that was.

At the end of the day though, I don't really need one. I've been using the same PC for the last 8 years (2500k @ 4.2 and 290x) and it still runs 99% of things at 1440p on med-high settings. Long in the tooth? Sure, but still completely usable.

I don’t wear a watch and my current toaster makes perfect pop tarts, so I’m good for the long haul.

Last years Xbox fiasco comes to mind.I told my son I would get him 1 they were about 500 ish Best buy sold out but craigslist had them for 750 to 1000 bucks all day.My son pleasantly surprised me when I offered to pay the 750 from a craigslist scalper,He said lets just pay the 500 at Best Buy and I will wait the extra 2 months for delivery.

I'm not sure 30 pinball machines is 'just the basics'.

Could've signed up for a 3090 on EVGA waitlist when it opened last October, and had one 6+ months ago. Just saying.

Also, my 3080 non-LHR card that was like 800 retail now sells on ebay for 2200 bucks, so people are definitely losing their minds. It's not like even with the 100MH/sec, if you can even get there without watercooling (I can't...), is going to make you more than 7-10 bucks a day. ROI is absolute dogcrap.

Last year Xbox was the Turbo Man doll equivalent.Both movies have been family favorites around here.

I was at the meat market the other day and this huge Russian dude in front of me with a fat gold Rolex bought up like $500 worth of meat….I kept looking at his meat, then his watch…meat-watch-meat-watch, and decided I want a gold Rolex too…

We were camping years ago and run out of booze in a dry County on Sunday. A local took us to a "Bootlegger". I was expecting a still and a jug.
This guy bought pints of cheap whiskey at 5 bucks and sold them for 20. We were glad to pay.
Flipping is old-time Barter dating wayyy back.
Why not? Everything in the past 20 has killed the work ethic.
Lottery. Day Trading. Bitcoin. Government checks. Moms basement.
Smart phones showed the World the other side, fabulous quick profits. They want it too.
No more sun-dried brick making, mutton butchers, manure sales and salt mining.
"I want to mine Crypto! I will live in a Van rent free and flip merchandise and wear gold chains!"
Restaurant closed from no Employees? No Service at the lumber yard?
"We need more Workers, there is a labor shortage"

Do you sign up for the NewEgg shuffle? Took me months to pickup a 3080 Ti and still ended up paying about $1,730 for the damn thing.

Still waiting on my msrp ps5.

yup, shit is going to get nasty before long.

Well.......

Not to be a downer but this country has always had a huge surplus of prescription drugs since most everyone is on something and its a cash cow.

Since the components for most of these drugs are made overseas there has not been much new stock coming in to make more....

the surplus is going down and or expiring over time.

You think people went nuts over toilet paper? wait until they cant get their Oxyconton or whatever in the next year or so.

Going to look like World War Z

I saw an article saying that the supply chain issue is due to increased purchasing... well that's what happens when the government passes a bunch of stimulus checks...
I'm chillin though, all the stuff I buy outside of the essentials is for my hobbies, and while they may be getting more expensive, at least I don't have to worry about flipping because it's all old second-hand shit

Wow on the graphics cards. I walked in to the store and bought a 3070 based laptop without issue 6 months ago. Didn't realize it had gotten that bad.

Last year on one side of our family, we had all the kids each pick a charity, and tell us about the charity and why they picked it, and then the various aunts and uncles made donations in their names to those charities. Made shopping easier, made the holiday more meaningful and the kids were still going to get plenty of stuff.

I used to knock myself out getting gifts. Things they couldn't find, or things they couldn't afford.

I finally gave up. Since I used to bake 14 different kinds of Christmas cookies. Everybody then got a plate of Christmas cookies.

Anybody that wasn't happy, they didn't get the next year.

Made my holiday better. Everybody is supposed to enjoy it. Including the givers.

LTG : )

The graphics cards are really bananas. My brother has camped out multiple times to try to get one at Microcenter. (no he is not a flipper).

In my other hobby, I collect film props & costumes.

These items are not mass-produced, so there's not really a manufacturing supply chain like with store goods. A lot of these items are custom made in very small numbers by effects/props/costumer shops/staff/artists.

Just like in pinball, the number of people buying, selling, and flipping has grown. However, the supply is finite, so the price keeps getting driven up.

Maybe it started as pandemic boredom and started shifting into something else? Who knows.

Wouldn't "scalper" be the right term? I've always thought "flippers" referred to people who find things cheap and then fix them up, or do anything that adds value, to sell them for a profit. For example, buying a trashy house, an antique cabinet, or a filthy pinball machine for cheap, fixing it up, and then selling it to make a profit.

Scalpers are the people who, knowing that there will be a lot of demand, just buy things with the intention of reducing supply and re-selling them for a profit even though they haven't actually done anything to increase their value.

Maybe the words are interchangeable but I've always felt "flipper" was a more positive version of the concept.

I think the video card situation is mostly the crypto mining stuff. Easy money if you can get the hardware. It's crazy that now they are predicting 2023 before the video card situation gets better.

With chip shortages, I think that's probably overly optimistic.

I’m on the shuffle. Prices are still too high, I refuse to pay that. I’ll wait.I definitely have had multiple chances to get the Ti for around that price.

Mine is 9 years old, i7-3770k, updated to all SSD, and a GTX 1060. It still runs along fine, and I use it all day every day for work and production. Given how well it runs, in my view Moore’s Law is long dead. As far as gaming, I don’t do too much modern gaming. It runs most of the stuff I have at 1080p maxed out, or even 4k. I do have the new MSFS, that one does give it a run.

My plan is to finally upgrade over the next two months. I’ll go to an Alder Lake CPU with DDR5 ram. But I’ll stay on the 1060 as long as I need to, I’m not paying these scalper prices.

In my area it's 1 GPU per customer per month. IF you can even get lucky once a month.

I’m near Microcenter, I probably should put some more effort in there but I’m busy right now and don’t have time for the chase. I just checked the local store, they have a 1080Ti on the shelf right now. But the price is 2k. I’m not paying 2X list. Scalpers, all of them.

Addendum, meant 3080Ti, not 1080Ti

Best chance is a Best Buy online drop. They happen about every 2 weeks. I've been lucky and snagged one at the end of September and then last Thursday. No, not a flipper or miner, just like building gaming PCs. NewEgg has a 'shuffle', but you'll pay scalper prices from them if you are lucky enough to 'win' the shuffle and then they package the cards with crap they can't sell.

I don't think at current prices it is really 'lucky' unless you are planning on flipping

I just sold Bulova and Timex watches ( the real deals ) a couple of weeks ago, Had 12 of them to be exact and couldn't get more then $10 for all of them. Thats less then $1 each. I'm not doing something right.

John

I'm not flipping but rather liquidating my fathers HAM radio gear if anyone is interested in getting into that hobby, or I guess they could FLIP it if they want. Anyways, it all has to go in one large buy out. Early 90's Kenwood stuff mostly, very clean. Must be picked up in person, no shipping.
Thanks,
John

Only buy the FE cards and not the bloated AIB cards....

Not only movie props, but movie posters as well. Prices on a few of the pieces in my collection have quadrupled in the last twelve months and I hate it.

I just bought a dozen organic brown eggs for $3.99.

I’m just having trouble freaking out about the cost of baseball cards. Seems like I got it pretty damn good!