[matwood]

To really create the scarcity the scalper must continue to buy all of the items that come out. That is not going to happen, because they never created the scarcity in the first place. Nintendo released too few items to start, and possibly charged too low of price.

The customer is also not forced to pay anything. There is typically a short timeframe where the items are out of stock.

I personally find tons of value in scalping. I've done it myself with tickets, and bought tickets in the same manner. It lets me trade time (waiting at a website or in line) for money.