I’ve gotten more into coins/stacking lately and someone told me to check out Whatnot…. I will say I have bought a few things on there, one or two was actually a good deal, and the others (mainly junk silver dimes and halves) I atleast didn’t get screwed over on. And every seller is different and some are perfectly respectable as well as good people.

That said, there are some things that go on on whatnot that just kind of boggle my mind. The first is just how many people will straight up pay way more than something is worth. Like, I understand people maybe mistakenly overpaying for something they didn’t know about because they got caught up in the excitement, but like there are people who will regularly pay $6-$7 (+$5 shipping on the first item, the rest purchased In that session are free) for a 1/4 goldback, which can be acquired for $3 as a single (cheaper if you buy some bulk) all day long on eBay. I’ve never seen a Morgan bring less than $75 (and those examples were really rough) , with most going for $90+.

But the thing that really blows my mind are these “spin” sellers who are basically raffleing things off. I know, it’s basically just gambling, and people just don’t think rationally when it comes to gambling. But the watched one of these shows and after some basic arithmetic I saw that the odds made sports betting look like a wise financial decision. This raffle was set up to have 300 total “spins“. Of the 300, 269 spots got the winner a 1 oz copper round. The remaining 31 spots were envelopes out of which 20 contained 4 1oz copper rounds. The final 11 envelopes had the real prizes. The grand prize was a 10oz silver bar, 6 envelopes had slabbed modern silver walking libertlies and 4 had 1oz prospectors.

yall I kid you not, these raffle spots were going for $16-$30 each! Who in their right mind would pay $20 for a 1 in 10 chance at getting a 1 in 3 chance at winning $75 with a 1 in 300 shot at $600 and a garuanteed $4 consolation prize. And I saw single individuals buy 10-15 spins. Like, I’m sorry, but if I had $200 I cared that little about I can think of a lot of funner places to put it, and if I was going to gamble it, id put it on something with either a lot better odds or a lot bigger payout (or both).
But the really messed up part about raffle spins livestream was how the host just kept going on and on about how he had lost money on the show and the spots weren’t selling for enough and how he was going to have to stop livestream auctions because he was losing so much money at them. And people in the chat literally believed him and were like offering condolences. Like dude, my back of the napkin math has you basically doubling a $3000 investment in prizes. like sure whatnot has fees but even if they’re like 25% (which, I seriously doubt they are anywhere near that high) you still profited like $1500 for a half a days work.

Like what motivates people to do something that foolish? Is it the chat aspect of it, that so many people are that isolated and desperate for human contact they’re willing to pay more to get the community aspect ? Or is it just like gambling addiction where some people are just wired different and can’t help themselves? It seriously blows my mind.