logoalt Hacker News

ronsortoday at 3:21 AM2 repliesview on HN

> Sneakerbots killed it for everyone

Ultimately I think artificial scarcity/limited production for products offered online is a futile and erroneous venture. The bots exist because the product is valuable. The product is valuable because it's artificially limited.


Replies

epsteingpttoday at 3:39 AM

Slightly different take IMO.

There's a niche market for certain player's sneakers. If Nike services them at a price point (e.g. $200 base) then people can keep buying from Nike and will buy the next version.

If instead some sneakerbot takes ALL the consumer surplus (buys for $200, resells for $1000) yes that is the actual demand curve but it hurts NIKE'S business and the consumer.

show 2 replies
bawolfftoday at 4:08 AM

Its fine if you are targeting rich people. It doesn't work if you are targeting (relatively) poor people. You can't have both scarsity and low prices, something has to give.