Vaporfly 4%: One thing we can ALL agree on:

why would they ever have to sell at lower than cost and have more than marginal losses?

Dril wrote:

why would they ever have to sell at lower than cost and have more than marginal losses?

Why would you buy from a sketchy reseller what you can get straight from Nike for the same price?

Hey,

Re-seller here. No need to sell at a loss as I can return unused and unsold shoes back to the website that I purchased them from for a full refund up to 3 months after the purchase.

Thanks for your concern though.

Re-seller here wrote:

Hey,

Re-seller here. No need to sell at a loss as I can return unused and unsold shoes back to the website that I purchased them from for a full refund up to 3 months after the purchase.

Thanks for your concern though.

To play along: Even if you got free return shipping, it will cost you money to repackage it. Just the thought of you running out of packing tape sooner than expected and having to make an unplanned trip to Wal-Mart to buy more brings me a small - but not insignificant - sense of joy.

Maybe you'll even get a paper cut.

Djfkdke wrote:

Dril wrote:

why would they ever have to sell at lower than cost and have more than marginal losses?

Why would you buy from a sketchy reseller what you can get straight from Nike for the same price?

What he/she/za said.

Re-seller here wrote:

Hey,

Re-seller here. No need to sell at a loss as I can return unused and unsold shoes back to the website that I purchased them from for a full refund up to 3 months after the purchase.

Thanks for your concern though.

Weak.

theJeff wrote:

Since they seem to be in steady supply now, the hoarders and scalpers will finally get caught with a bunch of product they are forced to sell at a loss.

One dude on ebay has the new blue colorway for $399.99... on PREORDER. Hope he loses his arse and learns to make a few extra bucks in a non-parasitic way.

1. Didn't you do the exact same thing last year?

2. I don't blame the scalpers, because Nike intentionally enabled and encouraged it by restricting the supply order to create extra buzz, which worked.

theJeff wrote:

Since they seem to be in steady supply now, the hoarders and scalpers will finally get caught with a bunch of product they are forced to sell at a loss.

One dude on ebay has the new blue colorway for $399.99... on PREORDER. Hope he loses his arse and learns to make a few extra bucks in a non-parasitic way.

This is the way scalping always is. There are people who aim to sell a lot of product by selling closer to retail and those who aim to get more for product by selling at higher cost. Its rare that running shoes get scalped, especially those still in production. For a while it was just discontinued spikes like the jasari, eldoret, etc. that went for high prices on ebay.

Also $400 is what, 150 over retail. At one point the cheapest you could find the book Once a Runner for was $250 on ebay and now it sells used for $0.99 on amazon.

I don't think that $400 vaporfly 4% will sell, but the seller will either a) shrug, and run in them himself b) get out of the selling game c) lower the price to retail or d) move on to a different product.

Anybody know when it's possible to order outside US? As it is now you can only order on Nike.com US and they don't deliver internationally.

Hardloper wrote:

theJeff wrote:

Since they seem to be in steady supply now, the hoarders and scalpers will finally get caught with a bunch of product they are forced to sell at a loss.

One dude on ebay has the new blue colorway for $399.99... on PREORDER. Hope he loses his arse and learns to make a few extra bucks in a non-parasitic way.

1. Didn't you do the exact same thing last year?

2. I don't blame the scalpers, because Nike intentionally enabled and encouraged it by restricting the supply order to create extra buzz, which worked.

1. Ha! You have a good memory!

No, not exactly. I bought several pairs of VFs when they came out on RW and immediately put them up on eBay as 7-Day No-Reserve $0.99 Auctions. The purpose wasn't to scalp - if it was, I would have sold them only for a profit as Buy it Nows - it was something of a socio-economic experiment to see what the actual market value was for these shoes at auction. I could have taken a loss or made money.

As it turned out, there were some internet problems - RW showed some sizes in stock that it didn't actually have - and I ended up canceling the order and all of the auctions. I think about that frequently, actually. I am still very curious to know what they would have sold for. (One pair was already up to $250 within the first hour, but most pairs were still at $0.99 the next morning...)

2. Fair point. Still, two wrongs don't make a right. It isn't as if the scalpers are punishing Nike for their tactics.

theJeff wrote:

Re-seller here wrote:

Hey,

Re-seller here. No need to sell at a loss as I can return unused and unsold shoes back to the website that I purchased them from for a full refund up to 3 months after the purchase.

Thanks for your concern though.

To play along: Even if you got free return shipping, it will cost you money to repackage it. Just the thought of you running out of packing tape sooner than expected and having to make an unplanned trip to Wal-Mart to buy more brings me a small - but not insignificant - sense of joy.

Maybe you'll even get a paper cut.

How pathetic you are makes me sad on the inside. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Dril wrote:

theJeff wrote:

To play along: Even if you got free return shipping, it will cost you money to repackage it. Just the thought of you running out of packing tape sooner than expected and having to make an unplanned trip to Wal-Mart to buy more brings me a small - but not insignificant - sense of joy.

Maybe you'll even get a paper cut.

How pathetic you are makes me sad on the inside. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Wow. That seems unkind.

I forgive you.

Speaking of selling shoes, got some slighty used Maxcats circa 2006 (8 -10 races maybe) and black jasaris circa 2003 (10 - 15 races maximum no spike wear evident) available in size 12 US... any takers?

Then don't buy them. Problem solved. Noting unethical or illegal about it. I make more money off of reselling than probably most of you combined from your jobs.

Wow, Jeff HATES capitalism! Shocking revelation! Terrible betrayal of American values! Go away, commie!

Hi, I am both a college distance runner (at a Nike school, no less) and a casual sneaker/streetwear reseller. I therefore feel I am qualified to speak about this topic.

When you are able to resell shoes at a higher price than retail, you are getting that premium for one of a few reasons:

1) You have a pair from the latest limited release that people who were unable to get a pair from Nike still want.

2) You have access to a pair prior to a shoes drop date.

3) You are able and willing to secure a pair on drop day for someone else, thus eliminating their need to stress about whether or not they'll be able to get a pair. Many such proxies use online bot services to check out faster than any human ever could.

4) Long after a shoes release date, you have access to a colorway that hasn't been re-released. Case in point would be the Off-white Nike Zoom VaporFly and VaporFly 4% Flyknit sneakers. Designer Virgil Abloh has stated that while he will continue to work with Nike, these shoes won't ever be re-released. A deadstock pair therefore goes up in value by the day.

So if Nike begins to saturate the market with releases large enough such that everyone who wants a pair can just go to Nike and pick out whatever color in whatever size at any time, the resale market will dry up for the 4%. Otherwise, it will still be there.