Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

We’re all friends here, so I’d like to take some time and respond to some of the recent articles out there about PS3 re-selling.

We recently pointed out an article on the all-to-appropriately named PS3Fanboy claiming that selling PS3′s is both ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL.

Um… actually…

Ticket scalping is not illegal in all 50 states (not sure about outside the U.S.). Certain states have varying restrictions on ticket scalping, only making certain kinds of events like sporting events or concerts as being illegal to scalp tickets for. (Only 15 states have actually prohibited scalping.)

As far as consoles or any other consumer goods, there really is no restriction whatsoever on reselling of goods (except for obvious cases like prescription drugs, hazardous materials and items like cars that require licenses and/or registration to own in the first place). So, to try and make a case that this is like ticket scalping starts to fall apart when you look at the details.

First of all, tickets to events are completely different from material goods for obvious reasons. An event is a service provided by a team or group of artists. Consequently, demand is the prime determinant of price. For such events, promoters or team owners must sell tickets in advance with a printed face value, much like firms issuing common stock with a par value or a contract being sold in a futures market. Most critically, the events have a quality of uniqueness, such as a one-time concert appearance or a once-per-year rival football game.

Secondly, I work at an ISP and web hosting company, and we have a lot of server space that we offer at various prices. It’s certainly not illegal for someone to rent our server space and then resell it to someone else at a higher price, in fact we have several clients that do just that, and you’ll see this kind of business model all over the place if you ever get behind the scenes. Most consumers don’t know about it, because they just aren’t ever exposed to it. Secondary markets exist all over the place.

Regarding ethics, if you’re claiming that it is unethical to resell a material good, then it follows that it MUST be also unethical for someone to BUY that particular item. Is it actually unethical for someone to pay $1000 for a PS3? Well, it may be kind of stupid, but I certainly wouldn’t make a statement about that person’s moral fiber.

I understand that people get all in a tizzy because they’re selling for X amount of dollars, but if you don’t want to pay that, then complain to the manufacturers that are selling such short supply in the face of obviously large demand. Either way, if you want one at the normal price, you’ll just have to wait. Otherwise, you can pay extra money for someone who took the extra time and effort to “camp out” or bribe the manager or whatever.

Calling this kind of activity illegal and unethical is both reactionary and just plain silly.