It's funny he mentions this. I know someone who makes millions a year doing exactly this. Her value add is finding vendors, finding drop shippers, and marketing the products. But she doesn't build any tech or hold or make any inventory.
Yeah, you have a weak moat, but if your niche isn’t big then even a weak moat may not be worth crossing
if you are making money, you are adding value. You are putting products in front of people who want them at an attractive price for them. If you make the products from scratch and do that, or if you drag them the full length of the silk road, or if you buy a pack of cigarettes and stand outside and sell them as loosies, if people are buying from you, you're putting in your effort and making money which is the measure of value-add. Convenience stores can make money right next to lower priced supermarkets because walking accross the parking lot and to the back of the supermarket to get a quart of milk can feel like the silk road.
edit: downvoted for explaining how actual economics works? If you haven't studied economics, you shouldn't be making your feelings known, it's not a matter of opinion or preference, it's a field of study.
how is value-added tax calculated? on your feelings, or simply on how much money you make? QED
But now that the venues manage their own secondary sales, the scalper is just extracting rent.
My sister was coming to visit me in NYC, she's a huge Red Sox fan, I bought her and her friends Red Sox Yankees tickets, they had a blast. I was happy to have done it. The tickets were expensive. I got value for my money.
ticket scalpers are no different than stock brokers, I go to them when I want to buy shares of Tesla, and I have to pay the market price. They are the people who are willing to sit there and wait for my transaction without knowing if I'll ever show up, an activity that I don't want to engage in and I'm happy to pay them for it.