At the beginning of 2022, I was looking for a birthday present for my wife. When going through our local electronics store’s website, I was surprised when I saw that the Xbox Series X was in stock. A much appreciated stock drop to start off the year. Determined to not let a good opportunity go to waste, I pulled the trigger on one at retail price. Actual retail price. No price gouging, no hidden fees. It was quite satisfying to defy the odds and get a highly sought-after piece of hardware for the price it was intended to be sold to consumers.
In the previous 18 months (give or take), a lot of people with enough disposable income were desperate to get new gaming hardware and take their minds off of what was going on in the world. However, many succumbed to their own greed and lack of patience to end up getting consoles and PC parts from scalpers at outrageous prices. They might not have done it on purpose, but they played a crucial role in the situation we found ourselves in at the time. Being the social parasites they are, scalpers were more than happy to massively profit from people succumbing to an intrinsic need to have what they want and not just what they need.
Advice for the day: don’t buy from scalpers. Fuck scalpers. They’re the scum of the Earth. Don’t feed the scum.