My Life, My Pace

I’m sure you’ve seen in the news all those stories about the crazy lines and camping out for the PlayStation 3 and to a lesser extent, the Nintendo Wii.  Now I can understand if all these people just had to have their video game systems right at launch.  I was even one of them (sort of) since I camped out all night at my laptop to get my Wii on Sunday, but what I can’t stand is that in reality, the majority of the people who went to such lengths did so to make a quick buck at the expense of the people they assed out because they took up all the space in the lines.  I read somewhere (I forget and I’m too lazy to look it up again) that of all the people who camped out for the PS3 that only 30% of them were actually getting it for themselves or family or whatever.  That means that a whopping 70% of them were getting them just to turn around and sell them for ridiculous prices (upwards of $3,000)!  Which I think is not fair to the poor moms and dads and other people who, for some reason or other, could not (or would not—people were robbed, shot, trampled, and had cars broken into at some PS3 launches) go to such crazy lengths for a gaming system.  Of course, they don’t have to turn around and buy these systems from scalpers for $3,000, but maybe they just have no choice because they really, really want them.  But I know—that’s capitalism for you and I can’t do anything about it.

Well, except for that I can.  I can choose to only buy one Wii for me and not be greedy.  Which I did.  But then my greedy sister-in-law (who by the way, makes $100K a year) chose to buy not one, but two Wiis so that she could sell one and use the profit to pay for the Wii that she kept.  Okay, fine, she can be a greedy bastard.  Did I also mention that she plans to buy an SUV now that we bought a Prius?  Someone’s just plain trying to be a one-upper here.  But back to my point.  I’m okay with her being a greedy bastard.  What I’m not okay with is the fact that she wants my husband to help her sell it on the popular auction site because she doesn’t have an account.  Now why did you buy a Wii to scalp if you had no way of scalping it, idiot?  And why drag us into your greediness?  And why do you have to be greedy in the first place when you make that much money?  What about the poor kid who didn’t get a Wii at launch and now has to shell out more than he should to get one or not get one until way later just because you’re greedy?  Which reminds me, we happened to go to Costco on Sunday when the Wii was launched (for other reasons, of course) and I saw a kid’s heart break because he couldn’t get a Wii.  He went running into the Costco and everything, but didn’t get one because they were already all gone.  This after I saw people stroll out with dollar signs in their eyes carrying more than one Wii.  And because of these people, this kid couldn’t get a Wii.  One can argue that maybe if he wanted one that badly, then he should have camped out too.  But isn’t that just a tad crazy?  He’s only a kid after all.  And not to mention that people wouldn’t have to camp out in the first place if people weren’t so greedy and buying them up to sell to the people they assed out.  So yeah, I’m glad that the scalping market is so saturated now that these scalpers don’t stand to make that much money from their Wiis.  But at the same time, those Wiis are not in the hands of the people who really wanted them.  Which just isn’t fair.  So my sister-in-law has just put herself at the top of my shitlist (wait, wasn’t she already there?) by being a greedy bastard about this whole thing.  I bet that she’s going to end up returning her second Wii when she realizes she can’t make a profit anymore.  And I hope that when she does, that it gets picked up by somebody who isn’t a greedy bastard.