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Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

reuters.com

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Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#321

Post by birdyrooster »

drdeca wrote: post #313
TeMPOraL wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, this makes sense in a hypothetical world of perfect theoretical models (you may recognize this world as being the one inhabited by frictionless, perfectly spherical cows). In this world, scalpers cause the market to price in "stickiness" - the more critical an item is to the buyer, the more they'll be willing to pay - so the supply ultimately gets allocated to the most desperate of buyers, for the p…

It seems to me like most of the (alleged) benefits of scalpers would be equally well achieved by selling (some fraction of) the items in auctions, instead of just picking a price. However, my impression is that consumers would view this in a negative light, and that the harms to the seller’s reputation would be enough to outweigh the initially increased income. This seems to be the source of the inefficiencies that s…

I and many other gamers have a negative view of Nvidia because of their inability to thwart scalpers and crypto miners. To quote a wise man, "so Nvidia, fuck you!"

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#322

Post by mey »

hutrdvnj wrote: post #137
kbaker wrote: post #114

One important part of the chip shortage is the massive amount of price gouging going on. Every IC is being bought up by new 3rd party distributors to scalp to desperate electronics manufacturers. Take a look at this chip we are just now crossing as an example, click on 'Non-authorized stocking distributors': https://octopart.com/tps2052bdgnr-texas+instruments-699312?r... Win Source has a bunch, but you will pay 6x th…

Scalpers are not the problem as they seem, they are like market makers for stock exchanges. They buy low and sell high, always. The factory could tell you that they're currently out of stock for the next few months, but a scalper will never be out of stock, because their prices rises so high that only very few desperate companies would buy. The point is, it's better to have the option to buy something at a high price…

They make supply chain validation problematic and introduce room for fraud. Not saying market making is bad, just in this case loosing supply chain validation may be worse.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#323

Post by bluecalm »

medvezhenok wrote: post #244
TeMPOraL wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction: they make it possible for people/entities who can afford to waste most money to get them instead of those first/lucky. But how is that a better outcome? And why should this involve people spending more money, and all the delta going to the person who was first in line or in lucky position to secure a loan and buy off all the supply?

Scalpers allow people who are not price sensitive or have inelastic demand priority over people who are lucky / first. The ethics depends on the exact case study provided. If it's a rich person buying an xbox (not price sensitive) - that's one thing, and most people would not support it. If it's someone needing an IC for a heart monitor to stay alive (inelastic demand), most would say that providing them an IC over s…

Or maybe they are price sensitive but the goods are just worth more to them.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#324

Post by drdeca »

birdyrooster wrote: post #321
drdeca wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me like most of the (alleged) benefits of scalpers would be equally well achieved by selling (some fraction of) the items in auctions, instead of just picking a price. However, my impression is that consumers would view this in a negative light, and that the harms to the seller’s reputation would be enough to outweigh the initially increased income. This seems to be the source of the inefficiencies that s…

I and many other gamers have a negative view of Nvidia because of their inability to thwart scalpers and crypto miners. To quote a wise man, "so Nvidia, fuck you!"

Ok, but like, would their overall reputation be higher if they were to directly put some proportion of their inventory up for auction (like, each item individually, not like one auction for a bundle of a very large number of GPUs) instead?

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#325

Post by markrages »

beachy wrote: post #185
teeray wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cars used to break down much more often and require much more skilled maintenance. Yeah, but “skilled maintenance “ was an easy skill. There could only be a handful of things wrong if it didn’t start: e.g. no spark, no fuel. In the case of no spark, you check the plug, see if it’s dirty, change it if so; check the distributor, maybe the points are bad; check the coil or condenser… yeah there were things to check, b…

When I was a lad I had an illegal ancient motor scooter that didn't start. One of the dads told me: "If it's got compression, and it's got fuel, and it's got a spark, then it's got to go". He was right.

Just wait until you get a sheared pin on the distributor drive... Compression, fuel, spark, no go.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#326

Post by spectramax »

Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #306
yholio wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scalpers perform a social service by rationing demand and ensuring availability. They don't eat the whole consumer surplus, rather, they must compete amongst themselves and the price you pay is the amount that makes client N+1 walk away if total supply is N. Some of the buyers will find that close to their margin, but others, for which the product is essential in very valuable (thus socially useful) goods or services…

In a civilized society it is the governments burden and obligation to ensure scarce resources are shared responsibly. When this process is disrupted and not quickly remedied you will inevitably discover that people take matters into their hands to get what they need. They might commit white collar crimes or engage in destructive or violent robberies and protests. They might also roll out the guillotines and collect s…

Absolutely not. “Sharing resources” doesn’t work when there is not enough to share.

A civilized society works when supply and demand intersection determines the price of goods and services.

Governments should interfere for specific cases (life emergency, masks, etc) and there are laws prohibiting scalping for these commodities - rightfully so.

Your idea of government intervention would assume that government is a rational entity. The truth couldn’t be further from it. Bribes and political favors from large companies would leave everything worse than it was before.

Imagine you're a low volume medical instrument maker and you need a dozen STM32 chips for your life saving device. Scalpers make sure that these chips are available and ready to ship, albeit at a premium which the company is happy to pay for given the circumstances.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#327

Post by SilverRed »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #232
foobarian wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My must-have now is the backup camera with steering integration. I can hook up a trailer like a god now.

Actually new vehicles are legally required to have backup cameras. At least if they are sold in the US [1]. I would love to see a simple, back to the basics vehicle but there is so much regulation and safety requirements that it is unlikely for any basic vehicle to be sold in the US. [1]: https://abcnews.go.com/US/cars-us-now-required-backup-camera...

It's absolutely a good thing that these cameras are required with how many children are run over frequently as drivers reverse their cars.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#328

Post by SilverRed »

thriftwy wrote: post #156
Ekaros wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ease of use. I would love if I could just leave key in my pocket and not worry about opening doors or putting it in ignition. I could even connect it to my keychain.

I wonder if nobody did ssh+nfc keys yet. At least I could trust it.

The security of key fobs is not a great concern when the windows can still be smashed.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#329

Post by fomine3 »

kenniskrag wrote: post #25
caeril wrote: post #21

What I'll never understand is why carmakers don't take advantage of this situation and address a market that's been literally BEGGING for decades for a new product: A simple, basic car, with the ONLY electronic control being for: - Valve timing - Fuel injection - Oxygen and throttle - Emissions There's a market for budget and privacy oriented customers that all carmakers seem to have ignored for two decades now. Give…

tire pressure sensor, gps and e-call is needed by law.

I didn't know TPMS is mandatory in US and EU about a decade ago. It's still not mandatory in Japan so most cars except luxury or imported don't equip it. Maybe vehicle inspection program (shaken) for every two years helps to avoid using worn tires. Also maybe due to less people use run flat tires than US/EU, or roads in Japan is better.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#330

Post by bsder »

kbaker wrote: post #114

One important part of the chip shortage is the massive amount of price gouging going on. Every IC is being bought up by new 3rd party distributors to scalp to desperate electronics manufacturers. Take a look at this chip we are just now crossing as an example, click on 'Non-authorized stocking distributors': https://octopart.com/tps2052bdgnr-texas+instruments-699312?r... Win Source has a bunch, but you will pay 6x th…

> Having scalpers in the mix raising the price for all components worries me that the chip shortage might not end for many years, as they can self-fund by raising their prices to stock up on new supply.

Tough. Then run a fab or start carrying inventory.

Just-in-time and fabless had risks that everybody simply ignored over and over. I'm happy to see companies taking it in the shorts for that.

Everybody loves the "free market" when it works in their favor and whines when the same winds turn around and bite them in the ass, personally.

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