I listened to this on NPR on my way home for work: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05/568624246/grinch-bots-attempt-to-steal-christmas-by-driving-up-toy-prices

This troubles me because a reseller might use a specific algorithm to track a product, but that does not mean that a bot will purchase thousands of that product once launched, leading to price/ product manipulation. There seems to be a pretty big disconnect between perception and reality.  Nowhere in the article does it mention that most retailers put reasonable limits on online orders or that banning people, or I guess bots, occurs. 

Anyone got any Hamilton tickets?

This is stupid. Most resellers don't even use bots. We just know where to go and sometimes get lucky. The article is just a knee-jerk reaction to capitalism at its best . 

I remember the days when Tickle Me Elmo didn't need bots to purchase all available inventory before they became "Pony up the cash Elmo".

 

The funny thing is a lot of the Xmas hoarding is done by mum's wanting to pay for Xmas by screwing other mum's lol

Edited December 6, 20178 yr by Fenix_2k1

They had a report on this last night on NBC. I had to laugh really hard. They were claiming prices for the SNES Classic on ebay was $18,000 USD. Its like they didn't even care that it was probably the highest listing; no-one is buying that listing and it was merely used for the shock value.

5 minutes ago, CosmicSpeed said:

They had a report on this last night on NBC. I had to laugh really hard. They were claiming prices for the SNES Classic on ebay was $18,000 USD. Its like they didn't even care that it was probably the highest listing; no-one is buying that listing and it was merely used for the shock value.

The reporting on that was almost entirely inaccurate.  I'd be ashamed if I was that program director.

Saw the NPR article shared on facebook today. Hahahaha. Scammers. I don't really partake much in QFLL, but good grief. This is literally capitalism at work.