Subject:
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Re: FOTY, at least for me.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 19 Jan 2002 16:14:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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541 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
>
> In lugnet.market.shopping, John Heins writes:
> > Before the execution proceeds, a different pov. Isn't this simply a form or
> > arbitrage - where a buyer takes advantage of a localized oversupply or
> > pricing anomaly and resells the product at a price closer to what is the
> > "global market price"?
>
> YES. In fact even the scalper of tickets performs a service. I'm sorry, but
> I don't have time to play games with Ticketmaster, waiting in line for
> armbands to determine where in a ticket line I end up in, which determines
> my shot at a block of seats in the Ticketmaster computer, and so forth. I'm
> happy to pay over face value for tickets to the person who does.
>
> Jurisdictions that outlaw scalping are evil or misguided, as they are
> deliberately distorting natural market forces for their own twisted or
> confused reasons.
There was recently a flap in the paper here about scalping. NC State has
a new policy banning resale of tickets on their property which upset
people like season ticket holders or just folks who showed up for a game
and one person wasn't able to make it. They clarified that they were
going after the folks who buy large blocks of tickets, or buy that lone
ticket from the group of friends for less than face value and then turn
around and sell it for more than face value. Of course it is mostly
reasonable for them to limit the activities which take place on their
property (not quite so reasonable being a public university). On the
other hand, there is also a spot reserved for people selling tickets,
which is not on university property.
While I generally see no problem with scalping (if people can buy a
block of tickets from ticketmaster and sell them for more than they paid
for them, they are either doing a service as Larry mentions, or the
ticket is priced too low in the first place), I am still uncomfortable
with what would appear to be a similar market circumstance of the one
store which didn't get wrecked by the hurricane selling bottled water
for way more than the pre-disaster price. Or the guy who rolls up to the
store which is continuing to sell it for the pre-disaster price with his
truck and buys out the store and then proceeds to sell it for a huge
profit. The 2nd case of course can easily be stopped by the original
store limiting quantities which is it perfectly in it's right to do
(hopefully with some flexibility to allow the person with a huge family
to buy more, or the person whose got the ability to get out to the store
buying for all his neighbors).
Fortunately in the case of disasters, what I have continued to see is
that while a few take advantage of the situation, most folks are in fact
good and act reasonably. Rarely is the supply actually so limited as to
cause real problems, and when it is, it is clear that the system as a
whole is able to quickly get the necessary supplies into the area. After
Hurricane Fran, there was some problem getting bottled water the day
after, but it was generally possible (I had no problem whatsoever). The
next day or so the problem was essentially gone. One of the hardware
store chains had lined up several truckloads of chain saws out of the
predicted hurricane path, and were ready to immediately deliver them to
the afflicted areas (and probably saw a quite nice revenue to cost graph
without charging more than MSRP for the chain saws). I even benefited
from one grocery store which since it's freezers had lost power, decided
to cook up all their perishables before they spoiled and give them to
nearby folks who were without power (they are near our church and had
sent word to our church). I got a couple of the best pork tenderloins
I've ever tasted and some delicious baked goods for desert. I invited a
neighbor to share and re-heated them and cooked up some veggies on my
camp stove. There was also no trouble getting ice (I think it was ice
the grocery was giving away a bag of, and water they limited to one or
two gallon jugs, but it might have been the other way around). Of course
there was a very short shortage of ice.
All of these supply issues just continue to amaze me at how quickly the
bread and milk disappear when a snowstorm is predicted. If you've got a
few days worth of bread and milk, you're not in any problem. It is
highly unlikely that supplies will be unavailable for more than a day or
two, and if conditions were really that bad, I trust someone to figure
out how to move supplies.
Note that our situation is very different from other parts of the world
which don't have the same infrastructure. If you don't have the roads,
don't have distributors who can afford to stockpile goods and vehicles
to deliver them, etc. then it can be much harder. When you add the
possibility of armed bandits it is easy to see how there are parts of
the world which are starving.
Seeing the reaction to 9-11 has made it clear that the private sector is
more than capable of quickly responding to even pretty serious
disasters. I think it's bad that folks are pushing the government to not
reduce it's handout by the amount of insurance and charity received.
From what I can see, there is almost no need for government assistance
to the victims (note that government employees are a different animal,
as an employer, the government would be reasonable in securing
reasonable financial aid for it's employees and their families), at
least financially. There probably is value in some government services
such as helping certify need.
Frank
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: FOTY, at least for me.
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| (...) But you see NC State is wrong. Even those people are doing a service. My former employer got season ticks to the Pistons one year, and they were more hapless than usual, winning hardly any important games. So it got to where the firm was (...) (22 years ago, 19-Jan-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: FOTY, at least for me.
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| (...) YES. In fact even the scalper of tickets performs a service. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play games with Ticketmaster, waiting in line for armbands to determine where in a ticket line I end up in, which determines my shot at a block of (...) (22 years ago, 19-Jan-02, to lugnet.market.shopping, lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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