Speculation. A divisive subject.
Political rant follows. To avoid it, jump to *** below or skip this post!
Under certain circumstances of imperfect markets, it can be argued that a degree of arbitrage is helpful in oiling the wheels. Again under certain circumstances, futures speculations can even out market fluctuations. But, even then, a high price is or can be paid by those not privy to the market. In extreme cases it leads to the starvation and food riots across the developing world as we've seen in the past couple of years.
In general, spivs and profiteers, who are people who rely on or even generate imperfect markets, are despised, for good reason (particularly but not only if the goods involved, such as food, are more critical than model engines). In many countries, especially but by no means only in war time, it's a death sentence.
We live in a liberal, or neo-liberal, society: speculation is permitted, under considerable protest. However; restricting a market to help speculators (as opposed to, say, protecting patents) is almost universally a civil or criminal offence in most ordered countries. Again, in China, it can be punished by death. That, living in a neo-liberal society, we suffer an increasingly insoucient, divided and economically inefficient society, may have come to your notice; some of the more left-politically driven amongst us may feel aware of an unhealthy link between a neo-liberal government (which claims to be deristricting the economy) and precisely those speculators benefitting from restrictions, including speculatory, which remain untouched.
*** So. What to make of admitted, if not proud, speculators who want to see the output of models trains restricted, so that people who want the models go without in favour of those who want to make a profit? Well, nobody is going to starve or go without necessities as a result, so a death sentence would probably be a bit ott.
But I hope that in my poor way I have demonstrated why I don't find speculators attractive. And I hope that some people, reading my post here, may agree with me that another post, seeking speculative restriction of our little market, has actually been profoundly political, as well as provocative and - frankly, to me - offensive. And, by the way, I didn't like spivs long before I understood why, which is why there are one or two shops I won't touch, even though it means cutting off my nose...
PostScript: it would be quite wrong to take my rant here as in any way seeking to deny anyone's right to have a diametrically opposed opinion to mine, or to try to stop them from expressing it. But, if you express provocative opinions, even unitentionally, you may expect that someone like me will rise to the bait. I hope, of course, that you will either argue your corner or concede. Or you can just ignore me, of course!
Edited for typos.