Those who now look down at their desktop computer or see a neatly designed but empty game console shelf next to the TV in the living room are certainly annoyed by the shopping anomaly that has been going on for many months. The situation is that last year the economic shock caused by the global pandemic and the related systemic inconveniences may have seemed quite clear.
We knew that everyone was trying to survive a very special year somehow, and then people tend to sympathize even more. even with strangers whom you would probably not meet in an otherwise risk-free world, neither a private nor a business relationship would be established. However, the months just passed and passed, and we were faced with more and more incomprehensible, illogical, and thus unpleasant events. Would you like to buy a new video card? No chance. Would you rather vote for a game console? In vain. We will be here in the spring of 2021.
Are Covid19 sure to be at fault?
A year ago, the majority would have answered yes to this question. However, quite a lot has happened since then, and companies have also had time to adapt to the changed situation, while end users are becoming less and less aware of the densely inflated empty excuses. Let’s say, referring to Covid19 is still a fad in business: even when a simple bill settlement slips, it appears as a reason, or just among the top three explanations for a desired and long-ordered but terribly late product.
We would not now go into the question of how ethical it is to use the global health crisis in matches on mere business premises in a way that is not really the cause, but it is worth talking about
Several studies on work from home and digital education have shown that certain consumer electronics and leisure services have a much higher profile than those that have emerged last year. there was a demand for the former. And this is not a spike in the graph, it is just a short period of time, unsatisfactory demand is forecast for the whole year for certain product groups.
, in which it can continue to exist with adequate effectiveness. Somewhere here the story of the profiteers begins, although we quickly add that this circle and the activity itself is not new at all, only last year the mentally exhausted and sharpened consumer immediately immediately highlighted them as the lowest and most punishable elements of the capitalist-globalist world. .
People too, or does it not matter now?
To this question it’s really not easy to answer. The very fact that certain products are offered at multiple prices so that they know and understand exactly why they can do so, quasi-taking advantage of the very whimsical economic environment, is to be condemned in the first place. At the same time, it is worth calmly analyzing the symptom and refraining from generalizing.
If someone ordered a PlayStation 5 console in Hungary based on the US net consumer price when it was released last November, but was upset due to Hungarian tax rules and exchange rate changes, at a price much higher than a simple USD-HUF conversion, it unlawfully calls the given trade profitable. If, on the other hand, a luckier user were able to take over the next-gen port during the Christmas period and immediately advertise it on a classifieds site in an awkwardly overpriced way, or even put it up for bidding, then there is some reason to use the term.
But is it really the one-time buyer who distorts the market with this activity? Not at all, this time too the big players are the ones who presumably close a lot, they are mentioned so much by the shoppers.
Newly founded companies, micro-enterprises and a couple of enthusiastic programmers who, with the help of sticks, are able to turn on sets that would otherwise have landed in living rooms and game rooms in seconds.
Don’t worry anyone, the destination won’t change anyway, just another participant enters the sales chain who is fighting solely for their own benefit. This is the only priority; no matter what the product or service is, the aim is to make a profit and the necessary supply side.
The question may arise as to whether there is any internal market or international regulation against unreasonably high price levels. certain product groups. Well, certain methods of market surveillance can work, it’s enough to think only of antitrust penalties for pre-agreed and fixed prices, but basically along the lines of free trade, there is room in the system for those who tie giant businesses on so-called “second-hand” platforms. If we want to put it in very street language, we can pull out the terribly common saying, “everything can be sold for what it is bought for.” However, many people argue this, even if we fall over the other side of the horse.
Swim against the price
The price of the product selected for purchase is usually quoted for life. On the one hand, because then, at that moment, our wallet will be exactly as much for HUF, and on the other hand, if it is an IT tool, it can be a good starting point when selling on the second-hand market. Well, for the past few months, we could only memorize these price tags without buying anything anyway. Because it was either not available, it was only placed in a quasi-shop window to entice customers to the product, or it was at a price level where you could just laugh and / or whine.
However, it is worth clarifying what causes it in each channel. the price increase. Due to what is happening in the video card market, virtually everyone has now become profitable in the eyes of gamers; traders, miners, second-hand marketers, everyone without exception. Moreover, Nvidia also managed to hate the complete company because it turned out that the group earned hundreds of millions of dollars by serving the miners alone.
The latter news was apparently picked up by the trade press, but it was the trader from whom we have been buying for years, by the way, does not necessarily have to be stigmatized for trying to adapt to the current market situation. Let’s look at a typical supply chain for a video card: manufacturer-regional / national agency-wholesale-retail-end-user. The starting point itself already operates with multi-element pricing, as it incurs production, packaging and logistics costs, on which are added the percentages of product support and marketing expenses, as well as the profit itself.
You can start working with the price of the graphics controller from here. the next two stations in the process, additional percentages will be added to the price, and in our case the currency conversion phase and the local sales tax will be charged. At the end of the merchant process, the retailer comes with the incorporation of his own benefits, from which he maintains the employee team, the store, the webshop, and other services necessary for sales. In addition, due to its position, it sometimes has to take over the products of certain brands on terms that are not necessarily conducive to maintaining profitability.
The wholesaler level may decide, for example, to sell a graphics controller to its partners if other “in stock” stuck “hardware (motherboard, processor, peripherals) can also be sold with it. Anyone who doesn’t undertake this simply won’t get a video card. And this is just one example of a not-quite-fair business policy running the entire chain.
What does the end user see from this? Nothing, just the incredible rate of price increase, and do not understand how it could be that a year ago it was still half price.
Of course, there are also reasons for the change: manufacturing and logistics problems, delays, deficiencies, worsening exchange rate differentials, a fixed tax that multiplies a rising price base, inflation, and the local struggle for survival. Would it seem like a profit? It is not, and because of the operation outlined, the change in the positive direction will be slow.
Who really you can hate
You can always find a black lamb – some of them are relatively easy, but the others wheel the piles of money in the background, quietly. For someone who remembers the news of last year’s release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, sums like $ 65,000 for a PS5 could jump in. All of this on eBay, where the first owners tossed their fresh stock almost immediately.
Reactions to ads like this immediately became interesting to certain businesses who booked, bought, and sold with human effort and sticks. continue the almost untouched packages at five to ten times the price. But not we have to go to the North American continent, we have seen several typical classifieds in Hungary, in which the user hiding behind the avatar promised several pieces. All this with Microsoft and Sony trying to reassure the community and pass on some information about expected inventory levels during the Christmas season. Well, those sounds have since subsided, but unopened sales in the marketplaces have remained, but it is also true that we have returned from extremity levels to prices below earth.
The PC gaming community can be said to be it is very pointed at the miners, but the problem is much more complex and several external factors influence the final pricing. Anyone who has wanted to buy a new video card for months is probably no longer concerned with specific individuals or commercial facts, but can increasingly begin to believe in a great global conspiracy theory. Because how can it be that, to date, a certain semiconductor shortage has not been remedied, which not only limits the supply of IT components but also has a serious impact on other industries?
More than a year has passed moreover, since the outbreak of the pandemic in the western world, the far eastern countries have reportedly been extremely successful in dealing with the viral situation and the economic recovery is, in principle, progressing gradually.
For some reason, production difficulties are not alleviated, and more and more companies are saying that the situation is not expected to improve until the end of 2021.
The unfortunate state remains
As in the case of the crypto frenzy appeared in the minds of many as an idea, and may still be valid: is it worth boarding? This is difficult to answer because, like many of us, we are just looking for classic recreational opportunities, but for other activities that are not essentially fun but work-related, we do not focus on how to generate sales from our IT assets.
But it is also a fact that anyone who has bought a new graphics controller two years ago can now resell it to others without losing a forint compared to the initial investment, and even luckily can even earn on it. And this can be thought-provoking for those who have been living in financial insecurity for several months. So can ethical profit-making exist as a concept? To feel the opposite in the term, but if one just adapts to the present and does not play to the impossibility and market control of others, it may be acceptable.
Technically, we can search amply for a business we would otherwise lose, and that is it is considered to be sufficiently conscious business conduct rather than cynical market carpet bombing and profit-making.
If you liked this article, buy PC World magazine 2021/05, where you’ll find more, plus valuable software and a PC game.
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