Why will consumers buy a potentially ragged used copy of my product for only $5 less than a full copy?

Why would consumers want to sell my brand new product that they just bought within the past two weeks? And sell it for merely pennies on the dollar?

I never see publishers or developers wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth over these things. It's always the same dog and pony show about how mean ol' consumers are keeping them from turning the big profits their game really deserves. Not that it was a shitty game with an overblown budget and you pressed about twice the disks as you actually had ordered. Oh no, not that.

What I always find funny is the compassion shown by gamers towards some of these very same people. Come on... game companies are a capitalist venture, not some collective of altruistic artists! With very few exceptions, games are designed from the ground up for the highest profit margin possible! Why be apologists for their fuck ups? Could you imagine if we applied some of this same logic to other products or entertainment?

"Yeah, I know this Italian restaurant is rather crap, but lets eat there several days a week. Maybe someone will see there's a market for Italian restaurants and put in a new one."

"My transmission went out again in the car. Even though it was covered by the warranty, this is the 2nd time in a year it went out. I'd buy different one but I just really love Fords."

"That movie was so mediocre, but I wanted it to be awesome. Let's go back and purchase more tickets, that way they'll make a sequel that I know will be better."