Speculation in the Market Economy: the Social Order of the Limited Sneakers Resale Market

"Scarcity" and "speculation" - words that were inherent in the USSR. However, in modern Russia with a market economy, there is at least one market that reproduces these two concepts anew: the resale market for limited sneakers. It gives rise to speculators of the new era - resellers. The aim of this work is to identify the social mechanisms of organizing and conducting transactions by resellers in the limited sneaker market. To obtain meaningful results, an analysis of the device of the resell market, its description was carried out, the reasons and motives of resellers to engage in reselling were identified, and the risks faced by the participants of the resell market were typologized. This study contains an analysis of 15 interviews with resellers. The analysis made it possible to identify the main strategies used by resellers, the reasons for the occurrence of speculation and shortages in this market, which lies in ambivalence: the opposition of prestigious consumption and payment for reseller services. There are not many studies of the resell market in Russia for 2021, therefore this work is aimed at popularizing this direction for further scientific research of this phenomenon.