Chicken...egg. The flippers are there because there is demand for certain product in excess of supply (not In general - plenty of that around - bottle specific). Even if all 100 allocated bottles were on shelves for JQP to buy, there are more than 100 JQPs that want it. So the imbalance already exists. Flippers know this and take advantage of the market dynamic for gain. As Bill said, they provide a service and secondary buyers pay for that service (if they so choose). The flipper does not prevent anyone from acquiring that bottle at retail by the same means. Also the fact that most of these never see the shelf anyway is another dynamic at play. Most stores offer these to individuals that patronize their stores in volume significant to attain these allocations. So unless you are a big money spender, or want to wait in line overnight, you’ll never see them. Blame the stores? The secondary market exists such that anyone can get access to the limited bottles. It isn’t going away for so long as this imbalance exists. And as I said, my purchase of a Pappy bottle from 2009 on January 2, 2020 does not change in any way the pricing of a bottle of Blantons today. Just doesn’t. Consumer behavior is what changes anything and everything. Simply stop buying allocated items and buy what is readily available on the shelf. Plenty of bourbon out there. Or stop drinking bourbon and try rum. Trying to lay blame at the feet of a secondary buyer is hogwash. Under the above board only model - where there is no secondary market - then the 100 bottles of Pappy Van Staggtons would go to whoever was lucky enough to be in the store that day to grab as much as he/she wished for his/her personal consumption. And I guess the 1000, 10,000, 100,000 other people wanting that allocated bottle would just never get to drink one. All of which assumes the wholesalers wouldn’t jack the price and/or Retailers wouldn’t jack the price and/or the stores wouldn’t still play the hide the bottle game for their best customers.