You're being naive if you think that there aren't good, honest, decent people who get caught up in drug addiction.
Also all this talk of exploitation and desperation is a little over the top. Collectibles are luxury items and are completely frivolous. This isn't the case of going to the supermarket and buying all the food to turn a profit. No one needs these toys, they are 'want' items, not 'need'.
"You're being naive if you think that there aren't good, honest, decent people who get caught up in drug addiction."
Those are relative terms. Truly good, honest, decent people never allow themselves to get involved with drugs.
Drugs are bad to your body and give money to bad people. It is bad to get involved with them. There is no excuse to be involved with illegal drugs, ESPECIALLY for "good, honest, decent people".
If you can't control your actions very well, you need to stay away from bad influences. That is what the alleged good,honest, decent people need to know when it comes to not doing drugs.
If you can't say no to peer pressure, then you need new peers, which might be lonely for awhile, but that is what a REAL good, honest, decent person would do.
Good people take steps to avoid drugs, and all other bad things. You are talking about average people with average morals. Average morals don't cut it if drug use is to be prevented.
You are saying that if an item is a luxury item, that it is ok to scalp them, because people don't really need them anyway? That's wrong. People use the same money they buy their food with to buy collectibles. If collectibles are sold by scalpers, people have less money for essentials if they want them. If they don't buy soon, then they will become totally unaffordable later, hence the sense of urgency to buy sooner, even at scalper prices for some.
Collectibles are emotional buys, made because people need joy in their lives. Joy is virtually just as important as food in keeping people alive, because without joy in life, why live?
Maybe your argument is that only the super rich should be able to buy nice collectibles, and not people with average incomes that have great passion for the characters or art like to have a few pieces that bring them great joy. That is elitist. A lot of people wouldn't agree with that. Most people who buy Hot Toys aren't rich.
I'll bet most people are of average incomes who like a nice figure once in awhile.
Are you saying that by forcing people to pay scalper prices and if they can't pay them and buy essentials you are teaching them a lesson?
Stealing joy from other people to line your own pockets or pay for your own collection is evil.
What if everyone scalped? They could not. If everyone bought what they didn't want and sold at scalper prices, and bought what they wanted at scalper prices from other scalpers, and everyone did that, that would send prices through the roof, making everything unaffordable to everyone but the super rich.
Would the super rich even bother scalping? Probably not, but those are the only people who could afford to pay scalper prices for everything.
These are just plastic action figures (some diecast parts now) not golden fly whisks. You shouldn't have to be the Pharaoh to afford figures. No, I don't care about ES. I just want a quality product.
You say only super rich people should be able to own Hot Toys. You said as much.
I disagree.
