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How It's Ending

Image: Disney

Ahead of RunDisney's Wine and Dine events in November 2021, images of a particularly notorious "reseller" at the pre-race Expo (where runners can buy swag to remember their run) made waves. The reseller – who, it appears, signed up for the RunDisney event just to access the Expo and its limited edition gear with no intention of running – was quickly photographed with their ever-present wagon-mountain of merch by RunDisney fans, who tweeted Disney upset that a scalper had bought out so much of the Expo's supply with the intention of selling race memorobilia... to people who didn't run the race.

Despite Disney never seemingly taking action in the past, something clicked. Though we'll never know the specifics, that particularly notorious "reseller" closed shop later in November. The prevailing theory is that Disney revoked the individual's Annual Pass (and perhaps banned them from the property) based on the terms and conditions guests agree to when they purchase a pass, which discuss the merchandise discount benefit and note:

Such benefits and discounts are for personal use only and may not be used for any commercial purpose including, without limitation, to obtain or purchase items or services with the intent to resell such items or services.

In other words, you can't use your Annual Pass discount to buy a $25 shirt for $22.50, then sell it for $25... much less $60. Whether or not you consider it morally objectionable, it's a clear breach of the terms of using the discount.

Image: Disney

Disney "cracking down" on these resellers means more merchandise for regular ole' day guests... but potentially less merchandise for guests who count on Ebay or other reselling sites to get the merchandise they love, even at inflated prices. And besides, isn't that capitalism at its finest?

That's what makes the conversation tricky. "Scalper" or "personal shopper?" Do you get a sense of schadenfreude seeing notorious resellers get shut down? Have you ever used a reseller, even begrudgingly? Or were you glad this "service" was available, even if it looked a little slimy on the surface?

 
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Comments

First it's not a black market, it is a market. It is not illegal. Second, every market in the world is buy for less than it costs and sell it for more than you paid. That is what Disney is literally doing on every item it sells. These people are doing the exact same thing that every market in the world does. If Disney doesn't want it to happen they can put limits on it, but they of course would never do that because they are selling in a market the point is to sell. Blame Disney, on not creating lotteries or limits, not the market which is working because people are buying on that market. The buyers obviously do not care, otherwise the sellers would be out of business.

This article is literally about Disney putting limits on it and cancelling the Annual Passes of people who do it and banning them from the property so... Haha.

Of course it's not illegal (though it *is* against the terms of these people's Annual Passes). A lot of things that are legal aren't ethical. I guess you can pat these "entrepreneurs" on the back and say "Good for them, all's fair in capitalism." And that's true. But buying out a store of merchandise so there's none left for families and instead directing them toward your site where you sell it for 200% markup is an eye-rolling thing to defend. I bet you're not happy when the same thing happens when you want to buy tickets to a concert, they sell out in minutes, and organized scalpers put them on StubHub for hundreds of dollars more than their market value.

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