The morals of selling used GPUs

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IronDeagle

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I recently got a lot of flak at work for "trading up" my graphics cards. It started last summer, when I sold my 1070 for the price of an open box 1080ti, then a few weeks ago, when I sold the said 1080ti and got a titan xp. Essentially, my coworkers think that instead of reselling gpus at the inflated prices to miners, gamers should sell them at or below MSRP, to other gamers. I feel like that would be charitable, and commendable, but it is really "bad morals" or greedy to take advantage of the market?
 
I recently got a lot of flak at work for "trading up" my graphics cards. It started last summer, when I sold my 1070 for the price of an open box 1080ti, then a few weeks ago, when I sold the said 1080ti and got a titan xp. Essentially, my coworkers think that instead of reselling gpus at the inflated prices to miners, gamers should sell them at or below MSRP, to other gamers. I feel like that would be charitable, and commendable, but it is really "bad morals" or greedy to take advantage of the market?

The answer is no, tell those socialists to get a life! ;-)
 
I recently got a lot of flak at work for "trading up" my graphics cards. It started last summer, when I sold my 1070 for the price of an open box 1080ti, then a few weeks ago, when I sold the said 1080ti and got a titan xp. Essentially, my coworkers think that instead of reselling gpus at the inflated prices to miners, gamers should sell them at or below MSRP, to other gamers. I feel like that would be charitable, and commendable, but it is really "bad morals" or greedy to take advantage of the market?

IMO, morals only come into play when you are selling people something they NEED for inflated pricing (food/water during a natural disaster for example). Selling a non-necessary item for market price is neither moral nor immoral. Would these same people complain if you sold your house for more than you paid for it and then moved into a bigger house? Probably not. It's essentially the same thing on a much smaller scale.

My experience has been that "most" people complaining about the way I use my resources are simply jealous that they aren't in the same position I am. I wouldn't let it bother you too much.
 
IMO, morals only come into play when you are selling people something they NEED for inflated pricing (food/water during a natural disaster for example). Selling a non-necessary item for market price is neither moral nor immoral. Would these same people complain if you sold your house for more than you paid for it and then moved into a bigger house? Probably not. It's essentially the same thing on a much smaller scale.

My experience has been that "most" people complaining about the way I use my resources are simply jealous that they aren't in the same position I am. I wouldn't let it bother you too much.

That is exactly what I am going to come back with. Want not need. Thanks!
 
You as a seller have a moral right to get whatever the best value for your product is.
You as a buyer have a moral right to get whatever the best deal you can on a product you want.

That is the basis of the free market that we enjoy today & has lead to great economic growth and prosperity. You try to get as much as you can for a product balanced by people trying to get the best deal possible & then the exact amount of want and need and supply eventually settle on what the price should be.

You are not forcing anyone to pay a price, you are simply offering a product at a price based on what people will pay & they buy it from you, or not, or from someone else that has it cheaper.

There are of course those who think the government or somebody else should get all involved in things to benefit their use case or because of some mistaken ideology. All the top down government controlled pricing schemes lead eventually to shortages, lack of anything and overall ruin. Just ask the literally starving people in Venezuela how the government controlled prices of food are working out.

If you want to give someone a better deal on something you are selling, that is your choice and totally up to you, but you are not under any obligation to do so.

All those whining about "you should give a below market deal on it to some "gamer"" bs should be told to shut up unless they would like to go to the store and buy you the new video card you want & then sell it to you for less than that just got it for because "you deserve a deal".

So many people are such entitled whiners these days thinking they are "owed" everything.
 
You have no obligation to sell below market value to anyone. It's a choice and I thank lots of those on this forum here that do it. I do think that lots of gamers are going to be a bit disappointed if they have a very hard time getting their hands on the next volta cards though.
 
You as a seller have a moral right to get whatever the best value for your product is.
You as a buyer have a moral right to get whatever the best deal you can on a product you want.

That is the basis of the free market that we enjoy today & has lead to great economic growth and prosperity. You try to get as much as you can for a product balanced by people trying to get the best deal possible & then the exact amount of want and need and supply eventually settle on what the price should be.

You are not forcing anyone to pay a price, you are simply offering a product at a price based on what people will pay & they buy it from you, or not, or from someone else that has it cheaper.

There are of course those who think the government or somebody else should get all involved in things to benefit their use case or because of some mistaken ideology. All the top down government controlled pricing schemes lead eventually to shortages, lack of anything and overall ruin. Just ask the literally starving people in Venezuela how the government controlled prices of food are working out.

If you want to give someone a better deal on something you are selling, that is your choice and totally up to you, but you are not under any obligation to do so.

All those whining about "you should give a below market deal on it to some "gamer"" bs should be told to shut up unless they would like to go to the store and buy you the new video card you want & then sell it to you for less than that just got it for because "you deserve a deal".

So many people are such entitled whiners these days thinking they are "owed" everything.

Adding this to my ammunition, thanks!

Please come back and post their reply when you use that statement on them.

To me... It's the simple principle of supply and demand. Demand is high, supply is low, so of course prices are inflated.

I will follow up after lunch!
 
One other thing you could add to your argument is:

You would be happy to give some gamer you know a deal on a card if:

a. They show up in person and get the card from you
b. They pay you in cash & the deal is done and final & no whining afterwards.

One thing people don't understand is that every middle man inbetween is raising the prices & usually adds risk (which equals costs) to the seller as well.

They want to buy it online... well the marketplace now wants a percentage... it also adds risk of the seller getting ripped off.
They want the "safety" of paying via paypal or credit card... well they want their 3% or more (It's amazing how many people don't realize there is an effective 3% national sales tax collected by and profiting only the banks & credit card companies because everything retail or end user facing is now is priced taking that into consideration). Another risk of the seller getting ripped off added.
They want the convenience of it being shipped from anywhere around the country to their door, well that costs money. Another risk for the seller that something goes wrong in transit.

So for example if I was to sell a card on eBay for $900 with free shipping.
I could give the same card to somebody in person in cash for $800 and come out about the exact same.

So for example a gamer may wonder why we are only going to sell a card for $985 to them on eBay when they want just 1 and bought on eBay & paid with paypal, but some professional miner calls us up directly and says they will take all 30 we have and have a wire transfer to our account that afternoon & we will give them near $100 off the price of each one.

There is a lot of risk and costs people don't understand till they actually start buying & selling things for a living and they don't understand how much of the cost is all the middlemen involved from the government all the way down the line, that all get their cut and that's a big driver of the cost.
 
Morality only really comes in to it if you are selling product that doesn't work (which you're not). Like thesmokingman says, don't tell people what you do and it won't be an issue. But since the cat is out of the bag, what kirbyrj and others have said are classic additions to your ammunition.
 
Do what ever makes you feel better when you're eyeing that 2080ti at $1200. There are two answers.
 
Is the titan xp even an upgrade from a 1080 ti? You still did well moving up the chain.
 
YOU spent the money on it, YOU figure out a price you want to sell it. Your coworkers sound jealous of you.
 
The only way you could have been immoral is if you mislead or extorted the buyer. Both parties agreeing to a price above MSRP is not extortion and by the sounds of things you disclosed exactly what was being sold.
 
I recently got a lot of flak at work for "trading up" my graphics cards. It started last summer, when I sold my 1070 for the price of an open box 1080ti, then a few weeks ago, when I sold the said 1080ti and got a titan xp. Essentially, my coworkers think that instead of reselling gpus at the inflated prices to miners, gamers should sell them at or below MSRP, to other gamers. I feel like that would be charitable, and commendable, but it is really "bad morals" or greedy to take advantage of the market?


Its a free market, if the market demands a price higher than MSRP, oh well, tell your co worker if he wants hand outs there are very few countries that are communist anymore ;)
 
Wow, what is wrong with people these days?

“Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it” — Publilius Syrus

You should buy them an economics book.
 
Everything aside: How do you even know if a buyer is going to be mining?? PLENTY of people mine with their main system even with 1 GPU while at work/sleeping (I do!).

Break out the polygraph boys... think we got ourselves a MINER!
 
It's your shit, do what you want with it. If you wanna be nice to your coworkers and give them cheaper hardware, cool, but if you don't, also cool. Personally I go the cheaper stuff for friends route mostly because I'm lazy. It is much easier to sell my old hardware to people I know if I offer them a nice deal than to deal with selling online. So that's what I tend to do. Of course I've never sold during a videocard craze, so it would never have been a money making proposition anyhow. You don't owe them cheap hardware any more than they owe you extra money.
 
It's your shit, do what you want with it. If you wanna be nice to your coworkers and give them cheaper hardware, cool, but if you don't, also cool. Personally I go the cheaper stuff for friends route mostly because I'm lazy. It is much easier to sell my old hardware to people I know if I offer them a nice deal than to deal with selling online. So that's what I tend to do. Of course I've never sold during a video card craze, so it would never have been a money making proposition anyhow. You don't owe them cheap hardware any more than they owe you extra money.

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Only a clown would consider the reselling of luxury goods like graphics cards for a profit during a surge in demand to be immoral. If you had flown to Puerto Rico after the hurricane hit and started selling food, water, soap, and other essential items for a profit, that would be immoral. Your coworkers are just salty they didn't decide to get in on the action while it was worthwhile and profitable.
 
Tell these people to sell their $20k car for $2k to a single Mom whose car broke down and she can't get to work.
Tell them to take a dozen illegals into their home because they need a place to live.

It's the moral thing to do. Why aren't they doing it?

.
 
I don’t know... To play devils advocate here.

You should really take their feeling into consideration...

Yeah I can’t really go any further with that, let the have nots stay where they are. I am sure they would do the exact thing they are telling you to do... Unless they are hypocrites.
 
morals do apear to be subjective lol. why only thing i think is stupid is there is prety much no logical explanation to why alot of ppl should have tonnes of graphics cards run 24/7 365. because it is waste of resources and electricity, and it does not create any value. crypto is fiction, in the end it is just a number on the screen. while i wont argue in favour of "real" money either lol. more money is always nice i guess, but i think im fine with what i got also. if i really wanted i can save for the next titanium card coming, wich i will get. and i will sell my card for price that market dictates, that depend on price on new cards and their performance and also demand ++
 
Maybe an Nvidia, you're gonna make me think theres something wrong with the amd and there's artifacts lol
 
Tell these people to sell their $20k car for $2k to a single Mom whose car broke down and she can't get to work.
Tell them to take a dozen illegals into their home because they need a place to live.

It's the moral thing to do. Why aren't they doing it?

.
2k?! Wtf is wrong with you. You should be giving her the car for free and pay her insurance on top of it. Check your white privilege asshole.
 
IMO, morals only come into play when you are selling people something they NEED for inflated pricing (food/water during a natural disaster for example). Selling a non-necessary item for market price is neither moral nor immoral. Would these same people complain if you sold your house for more than you paid for it and then moved into a bigger house? Probably not. It's essentially the same thing on a much smaller scale.

My experience has been that "most" people complaining about the way I use my resources are simply jealous that they aren't in the same position I am. I wouldn't let it bother you too much.
Yeah this. If you stockpiled insulin and then waited for a shortage to sell it at inflated prices you would be in fact a dick. Making people spend a few more hundred on a graphics card so they can play counter strike just makes you a businessman. One is intensely needed to live the other is a luxury.
 
Yeah this. If you stockpiled insulin and then waited for a shortage to sell it at inflated prices you would be in fact a dick. Making people spend a few more hundred on a graphics card so they can play counter strike just makes you a businessman. One is intensely needed to live the other is a luxury.
too bad that by how society work everything ppl do affect the world. let's think that if we let's say, we had 100k usd and u were given choice to give this money to someone who couldnt afford insuline or buy the best graphics card in the world. i think most ppl would buy the damn graphics card. society is designed to cater to the needs of the greedy. but yes in essence i agree with what u say.
 
Essentially, my coworkers think that instead of reselling gpus at the inflated prices to miners, gamers should sell them at or below MSRP, to other gamers. I feel like that would be charitable, and commendable, but it is really "bad morals" or greedy to take advantage of the market?
No, I wouldn't say it's wrong. You're not taking advantage of anyone really, market conditions are what they are - why should you sell at a lower price if there's people willing to buy at a higher one?
And I'm saying that as somebody who tends to low ball prices when I sell used parts - sold my 6700k + Z170-Pro for 200€ and a GTX 1080 for 400€ in November, which I still feel was on the low side.
 
Alright, so I waited until someone brought up the GPU thing again, and waited for the salt to start up. It did. In the end, I guess a lot of my coworkers are simply not capitalists at heart. And those that are, are just a little jealous. Also, apparently the line between NEEDS and WANTS can be a little blurry, but I guess I would be pretty desperate to get a hold of a card if I didn't have one too. Thanks guys for all the support, I feel justified.
 
I used the built-in graphics on my mother-in-law's computer when my wife's laptop bit the dust. Did I need a new graphics card? No. Did I want a new one? Hell yeah. But I sure as hell didn't feel entitled to one. (Ended up replacing the laptop but that's neither here nor there.)
 
Tell your coworker to learn basic economics and take that silver spoon out of his mouth.
 
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