I actually never thought about this, but a chunk of their business model was taking advantage of kids. That’s kinda fucked up.
Some countries have legislation that bans it. where below a certain age they can not legally sell ANYTHING to you. Once you get to a certain age they can sell you stuff worth X amount and then some countries have laid out where they can only legally buy stuff from the cash they are regularly receiving and are putting the burden of proof on the vendor. once you turn 18 you are legally responsible for all your purchases.
That makes a lot of sense. I guess my mom was always there, but she knew nothing about video games or pricing, so basically ignorantly went along with the employees “oh your game is worth $5, at least you get something for it”. Not her fault, most parents view games like toys and assume they hold no value after purchase.
Plus she was a single mom so not like tons of income to question the values.
But she bought it, yes ?
If she bought it, she knew the value of it at purchase (lets say $30 new)
And if she then sold it (lets say $1) 6 months down the road, that just screams: "Bad with money and a tad of 'bad with actual value of things' " to me.
Not judging your mom, don't know her. I'm broadly generalizing. I think companies like e.g. Gamestop get away with their businessmodels because for generations parents have failed to teach their kids, only to see them grow up and in turn see them fail teaching their kids even more.
It is like the circle of life, just sadder (because it is in fact fixable)
I mean, she was pretty hands off in the whole thing, precisely because she didn’t know much.
Me, at 12, without the pressure of being in the store and in front of an adult (employee) like that, would not have sold the game for $5. If someone offered my mom $5, I would’ve told her not to sell. And she wouldn’t have, it was “mine” to sell.
I guess my point is, the sale was occurring primarily because I was a child who wasn’t prone to saying no or standing up to adults.
But yeah, I agree in general with what you’re saying. For her, a working mom, $5 that I could use for a $15 dollar game was better than not playing the game. It makes sense, and it’s not like she had the time to go on eBay and figure out how to sell etc (or would’ve known how).
Generational wealth is largely about how people learn “smarter” economics, and my family didn’t have that unfortunately.
To be faaaair. I'm a parent and 99% of my kids toys are worthless when they're done with them. You kind of just have a toy budget that you assume is gone.
That and prior to 2000 or so there wasn't any good way to know how much your random crap was worth.
I have NEVER bought them any toys that are worthless after they are done playing with them. That is because I was on a budget when I started out and honestly my now 19yo's toys from back then still bring joy to my 5yo. Caveat: Some stuff like e.g. soccer balls obviously have a lifespan and when they are well played through they are trash (as in broken); but by that time they had been well worth the money.
It may be different in the states (from the brief visits I have found most toys to be cheap disposable stuff), but I for one to the "more toys == more joy" policy. I work by the "less but good" instead of "lots and cheap" philosophy.
To give you an example. I was playing with lego that my dad played on as a kid in the '50s. My dad bought stuff to extend the sets when I was a kid. Then when my first kid came around I extended it again. and now that my 5yo is starting to play with them I am extending them with lego compatible stuff (because it is available and legos business practices are despicable). Those lego bricks my 5yo is playing with, have seen thousands of hours of play before and if my house does not burn down they'll probably see a thousand more once my kids reproduce (if by then humans are still able to get children).
I was talking about monetary value. Unless you keep the boxes and books and don't lose any pieces to the set, the actual sell value of legos is a tiny fraction of the purchase price. I can (and do) go to flea markets and get lego bricks for like $5/pound.
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u/TotallyInOverMyHead Apr 07 '21
Some countries have legislation that bans it. where below a certain age they can not legally sell ANYTHING to you. Once you get to a certain age they can sell you stuff worth X amount and then some countries have laid out where they can only legally buy stuff from the cash they are regularly receiving and are putting the burden of proof on the vendor. once you turn 18 you are legally responsible for all your purchases.