There’s a very big and important difference between shops/dealers and individuals.
Dealers and shops provide a service, they source you things that are normally not accessible and bring them here. They pay importation fees, shipping, etc, and make a product available to you.
If I bought a car for $2000 that is worth 5, I would buy it to keep for myself because it’s a good deal. I would never buy a car to resell, because I have things called morals and a conscience. Buying and reselling things locally simply inflates the market and earns you a profit at the expense of others. You become a drain on society.
As for buying something for 1k and selling for 2k, I’d argue that a conscientuous person wouldn’t buy an item to resell to begin with. Only greedy people would.
I’ve argued this a lot on SON, because a lot of people on SON run these kinds of scams. They buy heap cars, do a half assed job of repairing them, and then rip off fellow members. Sometimes they don’t even repair, they just flip.
To summarize there is no crime in EARNING profit, through some sort of value added action, such as importation, buying bulk and taking advantage of savings, but flipping things locally for a profit makes you scum, and anyone that does it will always be scum in my eyes.
This is not directed at you personally by any means, so don’t take it as such, but I’m just disgusted with the general attitude that people have toward “free money”. It’s flipping shit that caused the housing market and financial collapse of the USA. People were greedy and irresoponsible, and wanted to make a quick buck at the expense of their fellow man. If you want to make money, DO something, ADD value to your goods, don’t just buy low and sell high like some worthless leech.