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Ford dealers can ban F-150 Lightning customers from reselling trucks to discourage scalpers:
Ford is cracking down on anyone with mercenary intentions when it comes to buying an F-150 Lightning next year. In an effort to stop customers from quickly flipping their electric pickup truck for a hefty profit, Ford delivered a notice to dealerships issuing a new clause for soon-to-be owners. The note was posted on the F-150 Gen 14 forum on Friday. Should a dealer opt in, customers will be required to sign a "No-Sale" provision, banning them from reselling the truck within one year of ownership. The key here is, it's not required, Ford told Roadshow.
"Such a requirement is between a dealer and their customer," a spokesperson said. "It is up to the dealer to decide to use it and to consult with local laws in the state they operate should they choose to do so."
The clause reads, "Purchaser hereby agrees that it will not sell, offer to sell or otherwise transfer ownership interest in the Vehicle prior to the first anniversary of the date hereof. Purchaser further agrees that Seller may seek injunctive relief to prevent the transfer of title of the Vehicle or demand payment from Purchaser of all value received as consideration for the sale or transfer."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday January 10 2022, @09:15PM (11 children)
What valuable service do scalpers provide?
In what way to they benefit society, or anyone, actually?
Buy up the supply of something highly coveted, then immediately sell it at an exorbitant price. How does this help anyone?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by linuxrocks123 on Monday January 10 2022, @09:55PM (5 children)
Scalpers prevent shortages. If the price of a good is too low, demand will exceed supply and some people won't be able to get something they want even if they want it so much they're willing to pay a high price for it. Scalpers ensure that people who are willing to pay a high enough price for something are able to get it.
The original seller should have the motivation and ability to set the price at a level that won't cause a shortage, and, if the original seller does that, scalpers will not able to profit. However, if the original seller messes up somehow, scalpers can both profit and fix the market by stepping in to correct the seller's mistake.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @10:38PM (4 children)
Scalpers typically create artificial shortages to drive up the price, often only selling part of what they buy. If you buy 100 items and then sell half of them at 10x the price then your ROI is 5:1. Selling the other half would tank the price for the next batch so the scalper is better off stockpiling or destroying the 'surplus'. Limited duration items like concert tickets are particularly bad, but any market they can corner is vulnerable.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday January 10 2022, @11:13PM (2 children)
Multinational megacorporation with factories all over the world, vs Bubba next door, lets see who wins a battle of "lets create a shortage".
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 11 2022, @01:52AM (1 child)
Uh, Bubba next door? Like he already did with graphics cards, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper?
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday January 11 2022, @12:30PM
Each of those is an example of the market not being allowed to price the product appropriately for the short-term spike in demand. So there were shortages. As was already clearly explained to you.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 11 2022, @05:33AM
The shortage was created in the first place by the original issuer of the product.
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Monday January 10 2022, @10:00PM (2 children)
Their service is the ability to trade money for time, you pay more but you don't have to be quick about getting it. If you're fine with waiting you can also just wait them out, if they make wrong choice about what to buy they'll have to sell it even cheaper than original price. Scalping issue is solely about either bleeding edge stuff for overpaying early adopters or or things of very temporary utility like concert tickets. In any case scalpers will end up losing money if demand isn't high enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 11 2022, @04:20AM (1 child)
What's a reasonable amount of time to wait? I've been waiting about 2 years now for a PS5 to be close to the MSRP. Nintendo OLED Switches? Graphics cards?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 11 2022, @03:36PM
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 10 2022, @10:42PM
Car Dealers **ARE** Scalpers. So your question still stands "In what way do they benefit society?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 11 2022, @05:00AM
They get money, ie they create wealth. Then they spend their newly created money so that other people can spend it in turn. So the benefits trickle down and help all of society.
At least that's what I read. On the web somewhere. So it must be true.