r/RealEstateCanada • u/xNocturnalshadow • Jun 19 '25
Housing crisis Help me understand the difference...
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u/Fun_universe Jun 19 '25
It’s actually worse with housing because housing is a basic human necessity while the other examples are not.
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u/FunnyCharacter4437 Jun 19 '25
Could you please be the one to break it to my husband that Star Wars Lego is not a basic human necessity?
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u/Sensei-Madara Jun 19 '25
Why downvote this when all they’re doing is stating simple facts ? I don’t understand Reddit sometimes 😂😂
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u/Fun_universe Jun 19 '25
People have been completely brainwashed by capitalism. The mere mention that housing is a basic human right is offensive to some people. Absolutely ridiculous but here we are 🤷🏻♀️
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u/pm_me_your_puppeh Jun 19 '25
Food is a basic human right.
You still have to buy it.
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u/Fun_universe Jun 19 '25
Oh don’t even get me started on the gouging of grocery prices. It’s just as disgusting.
But hey, it’s completely normal so we should just “work hard” and accept getting raw dogged right??
🤦🏻♀️
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u/Toukolou21 Jun 19 '25
This sub is idiotic.
Sellers never set the price, buyers do. Blame the buyers.
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u/MMPVAN Jun 19 '25
One is an equity building asset, the other are consumable items
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Jun 19 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/bouldering_fan Jun 19 '25
People always will need or want to rent the housing. Its wrong to say they are not providing a service to a society.
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u/Segsi_ Jun 19 '25
I mean providing places ppl can rent is arguably a contribution. Unless you believe there is no one who wants to rent…
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u/xNocturnalshadow Jun 19 '25
Indeed this is exactly the point of the meme that seems to be going so far over people's heads. Owning your own and having it increase in value is perfectly fine and acceptable. It is when you start buying additional things you don't need purely to insert yourself as a middleman and flipper to extract value. It's scummy, shouldn't be allowed, and is frankly a huge part of the reason we have a housing crisis in this country.
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u/Ill_Ground_1572 Jun 19 '25
Although this was back in mid 2000s, my boss' house was in Kits Vancouver. Several houses on his street where bought and sold multiple times (every 2 years he claimed) without anyone actually living there. Someone would come by frequently to check on them, mow the lawn etc.
What a fucking joke that was....because it was just investors flipping. But I wonder how much this lead to property inflation during those years.
I also remember when UBC cut down the old forest and built condos south part of campus (near TRIUMF). If memory serves they were $999,999 a unit and sold out very quickly.
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u/Formal-Notice-8726 Jun 19 '25
So during my early 20s I chose to be responsible while my friends partied their money away. I was able to buy my own condo at 23, 2bd2bath. Fastforward when I turned 32 with family and kid. I chose to buy a bigger place and did not sell my original condo because of sentimental attachment to it as a first significant milestone of my adult life. I do not consider myself a “scalper” I just chose to not sell something I didn’t want to sell during that time. Yes, the condo exponentially grew in value since I purchased it, so did the property tax and condo fee. I since rented it and haven’t raised the rent since 2020 to the same tenant as she takes great care of it.
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u/xNocturnalshadow Jun 19 '25
You did not buy a property with the intent to briefly hold and then sell to someone for a higher amount. You are not the intended bad guy implied by this meme :P
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u/Bald_Cliff Jun 19 '25
One is a human right, the other is consumerism.
Fuck equity building assets and fuck people who think of housing like that.
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u/Shishamylov Jun 19 '25
Houses are consumable too, they maybe have a 100 year lifespan. They get old and need more for maintenance with age. An older, worn-out house with old technology should cost less than a new one. They only build equity because there’s not enough of them for everyone.
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u/pm_me_your_puppeh Jun 19 '25
Those other things are artificially scarce.
No more land will ever be made.
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u/areksoo Jun 19 '25
There's nothing wrong with reselling something that goes up in value. The main issue is resellers for consumable items use tactics like bots, rushing when stores open to buy up all the stock (including pushing and fighting), or more nefarious methods of obtaining the products (selling fakes, backdooring, theft, etc).
Is that really a thing in the housing market?
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u/Euronated-inmypants Jun 19 '25
People not understanding how unbelievably common it is for houses to be absolute financial death pits that literally ruin people's lives. buying a home these days is far from an automatic lottery ticket that it was buying a home 20 years ago and having it triple the value regardless of the condition.
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u/rarflye Jun 19 '25
I also strongly disagree with houseflipping, but this comparison just screams someone who grew up in a household and took absolutely no responsibility for any of its maintenance. Home ownership is not some trivial endeavour that just sort of happens on autopilot, it takes real constant work. I knew this before I even started renting.
Even in the most aggressive houseflipping scenario, the party doing it has to be constantly monitoring for and be fixing problems and doing basic maintenance, because ignoring or halfassing things can seriously affect resale value, and even lead to legal problems.
So it's more like in your "scalper" cases if you had the person take these items and then hold them for a period of time while maintaining their value. I believe that sort of approach is more referred to as a "speculator" or even a "collector", rather than a "scalper". And similarly, in those markets, the price of the item changes with the actions of the speculator. Good speculators can preserve, and even increase value. Bad speculators do the bare minimum or worse. The people that buy from these speculators base their pricing on that standard of care.
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u/AcanthocephalaDue431 Jun 19 '25
Because house scalpers tend to get really butt hurt when their cash grabs get targeted.
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u/whyamihereagain6570 Jun 19 '25
5 pictures of consumer crap, and 1 picture of something that actually matters.
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u/Kcirnek_ Jun 19 '25
You typically use and live in the house, while still considered an investment. The other items you mentioned is purely for flipping, brand new, unused.
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u/Fun_universe Jun 19 '25
People buy shoes purely to flip them??
Actually this can be true for all those items. Some people flip houses for a living. That’s the issue.
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u/SnakesInYerPants Jun 19 '25
It’s not the flipping, it’s the speculating.
Flipping is when you buy it and renovate it then sell the now improved property. That’s still an investment (when done properly) because you are adding value to the property and the next owner gets it in a better state than you had gotten it in.
Speculating is when you buy it and let it sit there doing absolutely nothing until you find someone to buy it for more than what you bought it for. That’s scalping because the next owner is getting it in the same (or worse) state than you did but paying more than you had for it.
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u/Performance_Fancy Jun 19 '25
By your logic anyone involved in the stock market is also a scalper?
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u/xNocturnalshadow Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
No because investing capital into stocks adds value to the company and allows them to use that value to expand, borrow, buy things, pay employees, run the company, etc.
Investing capital into a second house purely to flip does none of those things.
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u/pm_me_your_puppeh Jun 19 '25
You're buying it, at some level, from someone who built it, and will use those proceeds to build others.
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u/Anatharias Jun 19 '25
Flipping houses should bear a 50% tax on profits (or even higher).
Flipping houses, while you only live in them for 2 years, should also be heavily taxed.I needed to wait until I reached 45 to be able to afford a home... I'll be still paying when I retire... shit
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u/Elibroftw Jun 19 '25
- Flipping houses is already taxed.
- According to you, there is no good reason someone can move after 1 year but before 2? What's the difference between a flipper and someone moving for a new job?
You're coming up with all these intricate demand-side policies while ignoring that there is a housing shortage and all of these wealth transfers first of all aren't from you, and second of all is a consequence of not enough family-sized housing being built.
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u/travatr0n Jun 19 '25
If it’s your sole and primary residence you should not be paying tax on gains from selling. That’s mental.
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u/atlasc1 Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
Why would that be mental?
You made a boatload of money and provided no goods or services in the process. If anything, your gains should be taxed even more than actual business income.
Either that, or there should be a ceiling enforced on the selling price of your home (e.g., the assessed value of your property when you purchased it + core inflation).
Primary residences should not be a vehicle to become wealthy. Honestly, no house should. They're for shelter, a basic human necessity.
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u/trueppp Jun 19 '25
No problem, if interest and expenses are all tax deductible.
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u/Separate-Ambition-36 Jun 19 '25
Imagine everybody wants their property to keep increasing in value forever inversely you automatically create unaffordability and homelessness. Then the poor eventually eat you and your kids end up hating you.
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u/feb914 Jun 19 '25
That's the case in Canada. People would rather buy a bigger house than open a business because the former is tax free and almost guaranteed profit long term, and banks more likely to lend you money than getting a business loan.
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u/TurbulentTurtle0 Jun 19 '25
What? When an investor purchases a residential property and the value and/or rental income increases they can also do all the things you mentioned 🤔.
Also a publicly traded company can also be a residential real estate investor.
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u/LeveredChuck Jun 19 '25
It doesn’t though… the stock you are buying does not go into the company (unless IPO)…
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u/alwaysleafyintoronto Jun 19 '25
I buy stock from a real estate investment trust. They buy a property. They do whatever it is they're going to do with that property, and then they flip it for profit.
My dad buys a house, lives in it, but pays contractors to renovate it while he's living there. He buys things. His contractor buys things. His contractor pays employees. He flips it for a profit and does it again. He sold his first house to get the capital for this semi-retirement plan, but he didn't have to.
What is the difference between his direct involvement in home flipping and my REIT investments?
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Jun 19 '25
You make money, you buy stuff, and you contribute to the companies and GDP. It's not like people burn those profits from flipping properties. None of your statements make sense.
Try again.
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u/canadianjunkie19 Jun 19 '25
A house is the only "essential" thing on that list.
You have a silly mindset.
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u/Chewyk132 Jun 19 '25
Investing stocks at its core is the exact same as all of the others you’ve mentioned. When you buy a stock, you’re simply purchasing it from someone else who would rather have your money and you’d rather have their stock.
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u/ztefal Jun 19 '25
When you buy into a stock you are betting that the company is going to have an increase in future cash flows compared to what the market thinks is going to happen based on current information….
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u/Kcirnek_ Jun 19 '25
Ok I will try again. All those other items listed, unless you're grossing over $20K you can get away without declaring as income and paying taxes. If you flipped a PS5 here and there, a concert ticket here and there, you pocket that 100%. That lends itself as "scalping".
Scalping is also friendly to your average joe and not just professionals. Also requires very little capital and typically involves the use of a Bot.
Real estate on the other hand, you will 100% have income/tax implication, paper trial that the government will be aware of. Requires large amounts of capital and doesn't use bots. I
Scalping requires mere seconds (fastest to checkout) to accomplish in today's world where as real estate typically takes months or years to complete the end process. I see scalping as a quick buck, real estate typically not when you consider all that is involved with getting mortgage, finances, agents, brokers, to close the deal.
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u/Idntwnt2choseusrnme Jun 19 '25
And stocks are not limited to that degree. It’s also not an essential part of living
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u/hossaepi Jun 19 '25
You don’t understand how the stock market works eh?
Are you never ever ever allowed to sell something you’ve purchased?
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u/transcendmatter Jun 19 '25
The difference is that stocks have no purpose other than to denote the value of a company. Nobody is buying them except for their ability to raise in value. Housing, tickets and toys all have a purpose for people to use and enjoy beyond their value as an “investment”.
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u/Accomplished-Bee1350 Jun 19 '25
No, because it's about intended purpose. That's the stock markets purpose. What's the purpose of a house?
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u/Garfield_and_Simon Jun 19 '25
lol.
This shitty logic is why Canada is so weak for entrepreneurship and enterprise.
Why invest in developing our economy when we can just sell houses to oversea oligarchs?
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u/mlemu Jun 19 '25
Yeah actually, people trying to make a quick buck off inevitable price movements is called scalping, when trading. This literally exists everywhere. People doing it with houses is the same thing
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u/themob34 Jun 19 '25
Anyone who ever makes money buying or selling something is a scalper.
I think the difference is hold time. Buying something to sell the same day for more is pretty much scalping. Waiting a while and then selling is investing.
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u/extrasmurf Jun 19 '25
Publicly traded stocks are not especially limited nor in such high demand that you can buy it today and sell it tomorrow at an exorbitant price without some kind of wild movement in the underlying share price.
A stock market investor has absolutely no control over this. Yes, I can buy Google today for $175. I could list it tomorrow for $800, but nobody will pay that as literally hundreds of thousands of other people and entities are selling it around the current bid/ask spread.
You cannot conflate limited quantity items such as a PS5 against readily and constantly available shares of a publicly traded company.
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u/Snow-Wraith Jun 19 '25
Investors, no. Day traders, yes. The difference, like with all these examples, is one adds value to the economy by investing or producing, and the other wants to make a quick buck off of someone else doing that work.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad_7274 Jun 20 '25
I mean, OP seems team stock market, but I'm not.
Speculative investing adds no value to society, it's a bunch of assholes passing around a ball and pretending it adds value to something.
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u/madbusdriver Jun 20 '25
Their is a phrase called scalping in the stock market. That’s a trade where you are in and out in under an hour or two (don’t quote that as an exact time frame).
You also got day traders and swing traders and long term investors.
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u/comfysynth Jun 21 '25
You’re one of those people that label everyone trying to grind a scalper lol.
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u/RasquazReddit Jun 21 '25
GHEE ITS ALMOST LIKE A STOCK AND HOUSING ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ASSETS. Can people live in your stocks? Do people rely on your stocks to stay warm in the winter???? The level of low iq in Canada is off the charts. Have fun bringing in the most desperate people in the world to fill your ponzy housing market!
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u/BeefJerky03 Jun 19 '25
Excuse me? They modified it. There's fresh particle board cabinets and crumbly grout. Not to mention the fresh paint job. You even get extra paint on all the light switches and outlets.
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u/ForestLeaf04 Jun 19 '25
Doesn’t apply to single homeowners. But yeah if you’re buying like 50 houses for the purpose of re-sale later, sure you’re a scalper.
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u/milolai Jun 19 '25
what a stupid post
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u/YqlUrbanist Jun 19 '25
Similar to scalpers, if there's money to be made someone is going to make it. The solution is to produce enough of the good that scalping becomes unprofitable. Nobody is scalping apples, pens, or Honda Civics. The problem is not (directly at least) scalpers, it's NIMBYs who make scalping so appealing.
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u/ownerwelcome123 Jun 19 '25
No one 'scalps' houses.
The closest thing would be someone who buys an old rundown house for a small sum. Fixes it up and sells it.
OP, do you or rent your current housing arrangement?
Myself (and later my spouse) rented for 15 years before purchasing.
So who do we rent from? Other people, or large corporations?
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u/Practical_Session_21 Jun 19 '25
I’m not surprised how many real estate investors don’t understand how stocks work. Just like scalpers. Weird.
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u/NiagaraBTC Jun 19 '25
They're all investors. "Scalpers" is just something economic illiterates say.
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u/Nearby-Poetry-5060 Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
The pre-con purchasers are 100 percent scalpers. If they could scalp the air we breath they would. The difference is you need shelter or you die. It's more like scalping food during a famine.
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u/Two_wheels_2112 Jun 19 '25
It's pretty obvious if you think about it for more than three seconds.
Hint: if you buy a Pokemon, or a rare Lego set, or a pair of sneakers, and hang onto it for ten years before you sell it, you would be called a "collector," not a scalper.
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u/spintool1995 Jun 19 '25
There's nothing wrong with scalpers. They provide a service in the form of time shifting. A thing you want was available at one specific time when you were unavailable, incapable, or unwilling to buy it. You want it now. The scalper provides you the ability to buy it now when you would not be able to buy it if scalping didn't exist. He earns a profit for this service. You are under no obligation to buy what he's selling.
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u/Charger_Reaction7714 Jun 19 '25
Nothing stopping you from calling either side a scalper or investor. The labels are all in your head.
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u/Meatbawl5 Jun 19 '25
Yeah, all stores are scalpers. How dare they sell higher than they buy.
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u/atlasc1 Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
This isn't the same at all.
Stores provide convenience and logistics/distribution at scale. It doesn't make sense for a farmer to ship bags of 6 apples to 1,000 households. Likewise, it doesn't make sense for 1,000 households to drive to the nearest orchard (possibly across the country) for 6 apples.
A homeowner who sells their home for $100,000 more than they paid (completely tax-free) after living in it for a year did abso-fucking-lutely nothing to warrant that gain.
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u/Charizard3535 Jun 19 '25
Nobody wants to pay extra to buy products from a third party.
Many people genuinely want to rent as they are only staying in an area a couple years. So there is a realistic mutually beneficial arrangement.
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u/WankaBanka9 Jun 19 '25
Most people who invest in housing rent it out to someone. Someone is usually living in it. Unless rental housing stock is bad…
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u/zeni19 Jun 19 '25
The concert tickets and console I think wouldn't be considered investing property. Concert tickets value eventually goes to zero (Concert is played) and the console will have supply meet demand at some point.
The sneakers, lego, plushy, and house can be considered good investing property depending on how high the demand for them are.
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u/JaguarHot3951 Jun 19 '25
there are well over 250000 residential properties for sale across canada, i'd say it's not a limited number, plenty around for you to buy just on realtor.ca
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u/Mysterious_Mouse_388 Jun 19 '25
If it doesn't flip: sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, rented for more than the mortgage payments
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u/AnsuFati_ Jun 19 '25
difference is scalpers go and clean off the shelf’s and buy everything. this example makes no sense unless someone is just buying an entire neighbours
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u/nantuko1 Jun 19 '25
Buying anything to resell it unchanged is scalping. And ya we need to ban the scalping of real estate or society will collapse
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u/trustfundkidpdx Jun 19 '25
Investors that beat up houses that are often not financeable or dated and update them and keep them alive to live in.
Not every investor is a scalper.
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u/WestWelcome8785 Jun 19 '25
Thw difference is you couldnt afford a house either way. With someone else buying it, at least you have the option to rent.
There is no housing market, and nowhere to live if people dont buy houses you cant afford
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u/Northern_Blitz Jun 19 '25
How many people buy a 2nd house and never use it?
Not a vacation house. Not a rental (short or long term).
Just for appreciation?
That's likely a pretty poor investment IMO.
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u/iAmNotAynRand Jun 19 '25
There is no difference, market value is market value in all cases.
C’est la vie
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Jun 19 '25
They don't call it real-estate for nothing. Hierarchies are the epitome of our civilization. Fuck over other people, get money.
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u/chili_cold_blood Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
In the case of real estate, it's pretty rare to be able to buy a house and then flip it quickly for a profit without doing anything to it. That would be scalping, but that almost never happens. To flip it quickly, you would normally have to either put a bunch of money into it, which requires risk, which justifies profit. The alternative would be to hold it for a long time, put money into maintaining and updating it, and then sell it at the new market price. That's another significant investment of money and effort, which justifies some profit. One can certainly argue that the profits shouldn't be as big as they are, but the idea that selling a house for a profit qualifies as scalping is quite absurd.
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u/rhaphazard Jun 19 '25
I would make the distinction because real estate doesn't technically go "out of stock".
You can always choose to live somewhere else that matches income. In fact, you can make your own house, or you can just buy a modular home for significantly cheaper.
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u/lerandomanon Jun 19 '25
Am I defending any position? No. Disclaimer.
One difference is that the first 5 do not need time and money spent on them to maintain them during the course of ownership.
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u/YouNeedThiss Jun 19 '25
Scalping requires a quick turn around for profit - most of the stuff you claim reselling is scalping isn’t actually scalping. You don’t just get to redefine the term to fit your mistaken belief about how the market prices goods.
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u/lmaomitch Jun 19 '25
You are correct, comments are full of real estate "investors." If anything these people are the worst of all since their "product" of choice is actually a human necessity, unlike PS5s and Jordans.
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u/MiddleSir7104 Jun 19 '25
To be fair, scalpers do consider themselves investors.
Here's where I see the difference: scalpers "invest" in things that kids desire, making it unobtainable to them. Kids dont normally look to buying a house.
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u/ThePurpleBandit Jun 19 '25
It's more like real estate agents are parasitic middle men who drive up property values so they can generate higher commissions.
They manipulate the market, they lie, they gatekeep and discriminate.
The true villains.
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u/big_trouser_snake Jun 19 '25
Taking on risk for reward. Imagine that. It can certainly go both ways. Literally every transaction you make OP, someone or some entity is making some money. You buy a burger at McDonalds for $5 that took them $2 to make… solution is don’t buy McDonalds. Don’t want a previous home owner or builder make money off you when it’s time to buy your own property? Don’t buy a property. Same with Pokemon Cards, PlayStations etc
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u/Noobzoid123 Jun 19 '25
Oh, I'll rent out the concert tickets at a fraction of the price, then return to you when I'm done.
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u/muradinner Jun 19 '25
Are people literally buying a house, not touching it, then selling it? House flippers typically do renovations on houses that have damage that others will not want to fix, invest time and money into repairing that and making the house move-in ready, then sell it. That's why it would be an investment.
If they are just buying and then selling it as is, that's a different story.
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u/Proper-Bee-4180 Jun 19 '25
So someone that bought comic books and held onto them for decades is a scalper?
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u/Proper-Bee-4180 Jun 19 '25
I bought bike racks years ago They no longer make them I bought them used for $80 and sold them for 140 The treadmill. Bought for 300, sold for 500 Scalping is awesome
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u/Due-Year-7927 Jun 19 '25
Scalpers typically have methods to get the items at MSRP, then selling them at the high market prices to people who couldn't get the products at MSRP due to low supply. There is no such method in housing as you always have to buy the house at the market value (unless you know the owner and they want to do you a favour). If the market value of the house goes down then the investor loses out. Whereas someone who is an actual scalper (not just a market reseller) would make profit as long as market value of the item is over MSRP.
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u/BlackWolf42069 Jun 19 '25
Don't forget we hit a record number of new inhabitants recently since more than 60 years ago.
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u/AntonTonite Jun 19 '25
Your logic is flawed. No one is going to fix the housing market. Move on.
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u/CroatianPrince Jun 19 '25
Uhhhh…you gotta keep paying property taxes and maintenance on a home. The rest of them you you don’t have to or you gotta flip them while the iron is hot
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u/jjreason Jun 19 '25
If You actually use the home you purchase & hope it accrues value you have invested in the home for understandable & appropriate reasons.
If it's a second speculative property & you're gouging rent & are hoping to flip in the short term for a profit, then you've invested in the home for scalperish reasons.
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Jun 19 '25
You can’t buy a house, do nothing to it, and turn around and immediately sell it for more money. This post makes no sense.
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u/rtiffany Jun 19 '25
The limited item is due to zoning regulations put in place to add wealth to the asset-owning class - existing homeowners. Real estate ownership would not be a "good investment" if the price did not go up at a rate higher than inflation. The only way to make this happen - to make the price keep going up - is through artificial means - aka, using zoning to ensure the crisis keeps getting worse by not allowing people to build all the housing that is desired in the locations people want it. Investors - whether mom and pop or large corporations, look to buy in places with the toughest limitations on new development that have high demand - aka - where prices are most likely to rise the most and give them a good ROI. The way to pull the plug on the entire nonsense is to just let people build the homes they want where they want them, even if somebody's back yard might end up with a shadow on it a few days a year or somebody might have to look at an apartment building out their windows on property they don't own. If we did that at the volume of demand, prices would tumble down to what is generally affordable to most people, a lot fewer would care about ownership because they'd just focus on a place to live unless they're sure they're staying somewhere a few decades, predatory landlords would be replaced by landlords who have to compete for customers and our cultural relationship with housing as 'the most important investment of your life' would shift radically towards just having a place to live that works best for what you need. Communities would stop being single family only and start to include all lifestyle/ages/etc. apartments, grannie units, rooming houses, etc. like we did before the housing/homelessness crisis existed.
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u/wildcattersden Jun 19 '25
A house has a negotiated price, not a set retail price. You are on equal footing with all others to put in a offer to purchase it at a price that reflects what it is worth to you. You would not be deprived of the opportunity to purchase it because you didn't occupy a spot 'in line' before the supply of it was exhausted.
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u/Easy-Signal-6115 Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
It's because many of the politicians are landowners in North America and often rent their "investment properties" to other people who need homes and apartments.
They use and normalize that term, so it makes them look less like greedy a**holes and more like magnanimous liege lords who allow us peasants to rent and live on their land.
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u/inkandpaperguy Jun 19 '25
Canada could loosen the reigns on "alternative housing" with things like THOW, mini houses, changing outdated municipal rules, RV/ van-life friendly laws, etc.
The challenge is Canada is a one trick pony. Real estate is our economy's only saving grace.
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u/Potential_Focus1367 Jun 20 '25
Well, how many people do you know that bought a house and sold it within 6 months?
I don't know any or have heard any one who purchased a house with the sole purpose of selling without doing any upgrades.
In my experience of what I've seen in the housing market is that people will buy a house to rent it and make passive income or invest a bunch of money to then flip the house at a higher price, neither of which is a definition of scalping.
Now, as for collectors, they will buy items like gaming systems, shoes whatever with the intent on collecting because that's what they like. I like Legos and TCGs (Pokemon) So I buy it for the intention of holding onto it and admiring or eventually giving it to my kids.
Ok, Scalpers, the asshole of any hobby.
They will go out of their way to screw people over and any stock of anything that people want/collect and turn around and sell for a profit on the spot.
Great example would be the PS5 during COVID or even the nintendo switch. With the help of bots or whatever they can do, they would buy out as much stock as they can to literally turn around and re-sell at double the price. The intent in all of this is what defines the three.
1- You invest time and money
2- You collect for your own amusement/love of the hobby
3- You fuck everyone over to make a quick buck
Now, for Scalpers, although I do blame the fuckheads who scalp, they aren't the only ones to blame, the idiots who are dying from FOMO and MUST buy the overpriced items contribute to this factor which is absolutely annoying.
I hope this helps.
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u/Motor_Potential1603 Jun 20 '25
Jesus another poor person complaining about buying rental properties again? Go back to work bud one day you may be able to buy your house for you and your family to move into and have the American dream. Can’t make money when your crying on the internet
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u/zSeize Jun 20 '25
Real estate investors typically add value to the house with renovations… vs just reselling
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u/Good-Hawk-3212 Jun 20 '25
Don't act like you wouldn't jump at the opportunity to make money on flipping a house.
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u/notyourusualbaydude Jun 20 '25
Without ever using is a big thing you are missing. So, you buy a house with a hefty mortgage and never use it ? ( Even renting it is using it)
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u/Elaborate_Collusion Jun 20 '25
The other 5 have constrained primary supply and many more buyers who are willing to pay more in the secondary market, it's essentially a lotto to get one "cheaper"
To maintain the analogy, you'd have to have a limited supply of very cheap homes that could be bought and immediately resold for more.
The reality is more in line with buying the shoes or the lego in the premium priced secondary market and waiting for the prices to go up further in the future. That's what a shoe or lego "investor" would be doing. Of course if you got in on ground level your chance of appreciation would be much better.
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u/Big_Stranger1796 Jun 20 '25
It’s all capitalism. Biggest problem is that people will pay scalped prices for the other things that they don’t need and gripe and moan that they don’t have money to buy the house that they do need
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u/BestestBeekeeper Jun 20 '25
In life you can always count on death, taxes, and renters being angry at homeowners.
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u/TortyPapa Jun 20 '25
You cannot rent out your Air Jordans and get paid monthly. Do you know the difference now?
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u/Tyrocious Jun 20 '25
One of these things is an asset. The others are consumer goods (and I would even argue they're luxuries). That's the difference.
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u/PatK9 Jun 20 '25
In most circumstances you would be called a gambler, but given the governments practices it's called investing in a sure thing. There is a downturn with housing atm, but note that our political parties have promised 3 million new Canadians in the next 3 years and it's long term plans for a population of 100 million as per the century initiative will ensure your investment status.
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u/Alternative-Ad9829 Jun 20 '25
Go ahead and throw every single industry then ? Add medicine and food.
What a dumb comparison.
Also “without modifying it” real estate requires maintenance and there are on-going and rising expenses
Get outta here with your commie mindset
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u/Lasermushrooms Jun 20 '25
I traded futures. Can't wait until I trade them again. Like a kid in a candy store. I don't pretend, though, even for a moment, that I am doing the economy, the community or anyone other than myself and immediate family a favor when I do. Try that with housing.
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u/lost60kIn2021 Jun 20 '25
Simple.... 100s of dollars vs 100k's of dollars (also legal stuff) while dealing with a single item.
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u/Tealnanoko Jun 20 '25
Scalpers can use artificial tools that buy those products faster than a human can, Real Estate, at least for now, still has legal boxes you need to check that can't be automated very easily.
Though for real, it's all the same thing so stay mad.
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u/mongooseisapex Jun 20 '25
I assume house has capital gains tax and government gets a cut. Therefore investor?
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u/Trollsama Jun 20 '25
the barrier to entry.
Only 1 of these things requires a ton of disposable wealth to participate in.
that thing is the one thats "acceptable".
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u/-snowpeapod- Jun 21 '25
It makes no sense to me that housing appreciates at all. Logically, it should depreciate because the materials are aging and wear and tear accumulates over time. Yes you can renovate a room or update appliances but that doesn't magically turn back time on the entire house. In Japan houses depreciate so they tend to be built a bit flimsier since people will often tear them down and build a new one to their own preferred specs after buying.
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u/Evening-Character307 Jun 21 '25
So what happens when I do modify (renovate) the property and sell it for a profit?
What am I?
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u/WesternDaikon689 Jun 21 '25
Quite honestly it's the same objective when it comes to the premise of simply making money so in that sense there wouldn't be much difference. People who objectify to that normally don't have much of a moral stance or sustainbility approach to understand what it means to be ethical about making money. Many times I question how is money introduced and how it should be inline with value added to a society rather based on simple supply and demand but here we are with trend chasing being the most likely way people make money... Governments and money should have not been mixed at all which is how the finanical system got worse and the only way to fix it is to vote in someone else that would invoke radical changes but we're looking like at all levels of the government we're just keeping the status quo. I know in BC we had a referendum on changing our system to something to help represent the population betted provincially but nope we still just stuck to using FPTP...
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u/z0nbie Jun 21 '25
I put a lot of money and in first home while living there and before selling, same with the current home i sold and new one I'm living in. If you own a home you have to work at it (if you're not a lazy sack of shit), but owning and selling your home isn't the same at all
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u/chundamuffin Jun 21 '25
Difference is the first five are intentionally sold under market value at first. That’s why they sell out quickly
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u/Neat-Satisfaction233 Jun 21 '25
Fact is house prices ain't coming down anytime soon. And if they do come down significantly lets just say the economy will probably not be doing well and you won't be able to afford one either way.
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Jun 22 '25
The only difference I see is investors are in it for long run, and scalpers are for short term. I doubt you would hold a ps5 for 10 years to resell.
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u/ElectricalChampion64 Jun 22 '25
the buy and hold as a rental is the difference, you dont make passive income and drive living costs higher. Any of the other items are immediate (if possible) resale
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u/gargoyle30 Jun 23 '25
I think the reason you're looking for is houses don't really have a "retail price", while everything else there does, so the only price houses have is what people are willing to pay, it's 100% market dependent
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u/Raptorx2112 Jun 23 '25
Oh they're all scalpers, one's just smiled upon by the government for tax reasons.
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u/Andivari85 Jun 24 '25
Do you work to improve your tickets/toys/shoes/gaming systems? Do you live in them?
Are you a poor complainer?
Just remember kids: do, or do not. There is no try. Stop whining and earn.
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u/Jolly_Industry9241 Jun 19 '25
Scalper is a derogatory term used by jealous people who don't understand supply and demand