Topic: What is it about "limited" Nintendo products that create such a high demand (and price)???

Want the figure above just announced today? Well, you may have to be secondary prices because preorders went live this morning on Gamestop and Amazon and they are already sold out with in a matter of a few hours. Between amiibo's, and now Skull Kid and even previously Ganondorf with Wind Waker HD and Gamecube adapters, what is it about Nintendo limited edition products that make them so desirable? Yes, people have to battle scalpers (don't believe me about Skull Kid being bought up, read this: http://slickdeals.net/f/7576800-the-legend-of-zelda-majora-s-... but there wouldn't be scalpers in the first place if there were not consumers paying the higher prices.

1) So, why do you think their is an unusually high demand for limited Nintendo products?
2) What should(or should they) Nintendo do to allow its fans the most equal and fair way to get a limited edition release without having to pay for it on the secondary market?

1) because they are limited, when something is limited, collector's and general buyers will want it even more
2) nothing, they managed to sell their shipment, their stock, so everything sold outside their official stores, represents no earning/loss to Nintendo

I don't think the actual problem is that "everyone wants them", more like they're REAL limited editions, in that a really small amount of copies are produced, mainly because even Nintendo doesn't think they'll sell that much (that's what happened with the Wind Waker HD LE, afaik).

EDIT: that's what admittedly happened with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate by the way, they'd never thought it'd sell like it did.

I wonder how many New 3DSs (Ambassador) were shipped

Nintendo has fumbled almost every major product launch over the last decade now. The Wii had stock issues for years, but that's a little understandable because of how pants-on-head insane it sold 2006-2010. But then the Wii U had stock issues on launch too, and it didn't hit the earth like a meteor the way the Wii did. Then Nintendo went and ordered 10 million Wii Us manufactured, which they're still trying to get rid of 2 years later. Even online retailers were out of stock for most of the year on every bundle except the NSMBU one though, which clearly hit its saturation point. Reggie likes to say that software sells hardware, but then they don't seem to have interest in keeping desirable software bundles in stock. Want to sell some of that 10 million stock? Put Smash in the box. It's really that easy.

And of course the ongoing befuddlement with amiibos and Nintendo apparently being entirely unaware that demand is significantly higher than their initial stock.

Also, the Gamecube controller adapter. Nintendo had to be keenly aware that Smash would sell millions before the end of the year and that most of the core audience prefers the Gamecube controller. They wouldn't have even bothered to make the adapter and special edition controllers if they didn't think there was an audience for it. Why would there be stock issues on a product that they went out of their way to put on the market to appease a significant audience?

I have to say more often the not it's resellers that are buying them out. They figure they can flip them on places like eBay for hundreds more then they are worth just because on the collection value. I can go on a huge rant about these kind of people but I wont cause I am sure I will get in an argument over it.

What can Nintendo do? Just produce more. Even if they sell out of their first shipment they can always make more and put more on the market place which will drive the collection value down.

Well for me, it is because Nintendo rarely has figures that are affordable (as in don't require me to actually save money like the Zelda statue I'm getting) and also Nostalgia factor. This is one of my favorite Zelda's so I jumped on the GS preorder as soon as I could this morning. I didn't realize they sold out so soon though. I hope that changes as I would want others to have the chance to buy it.

It almost seems like producing this stuff takes months though. Otherwise, there's no real excuse for them not producing more Villager and Marth amiibos after they sold out everywhere in like 2 days.

Still, the point is they can produce more. It doesn't matter how long it takes and I am sure if they produced more people will buy them up just as fast.

Question for some of you; is it mainly aNintendo thing, or do other video game related limited products sell out just as fast and have such a high secondary market?

Other companies actually produce a ton of limited edition copies of their games, among other things. Unlike Nintendo, who hardly produces a comparable amount.

That's why they rarely sell out.

Do scalpers go after those other products like they do with Nintendo? Example, the guy that wants to buy 9 copies of LE MM 3D? http://slickdeals.net/f/7576800-the-legend-of-zelda-majora-s-...

Not really. Scalpers are extremely prevalent on Nintendo's LEs because of how little stock there always is. Because other companies produce more stock, scalping is ineffective.

Bottom line is that scalpers exist solely because of limited stock, in which Nintendo constantly limits stock on LEs.

This is a basic premise in economics..... supply and demand......

@Ryno: Yes and no. As @brewsky says most companies produce alot of limited edition copies while Nintendo doesn't for some odd reason. So scalpers tend to not be as aggressive with them as they are Nintendo products since they know that Nintendo products are limited.

For example I can buy right now on Amazon Blizzard's Collector's Edition of the newest World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor for the same price it was at launch. Heck I can even buy the Mist of Pandaria one for a little more then launch price. I can still buy copies of them at Target and Gamestop as well. Which means they produced alot of stock. Now try looking for Villager Amiibos for example.

I mean I can see why Nintendo tries to make stuff limited, so it seems special but honestly in this day and age with scalpers it's bad business to make things limited since your true fans probably wont buy the item or end up paying a much higher price for them. These scalpers have bots and other ways to quickly buy up online products that gives no chance of fans to even buy the products. Don't get me wrong love Nintendo but some of their thinking is in the past.

Well I mean first of all, Its supposed to be a limited edition. But also, NoA generally doesn't do this kind of stuff anymore. And when they finally do and its something as amazing as this, there's going to be a lot of demand.

speaking preorders, event though they're gone online, could I still get in a preorder at a retail GameStop?

I wish we (I?) knew what Nintendo meant by limited. I am curious how much less Nintendo really produces versus other companies. I guess I'm looking for something deeper then Nintendo is lame because they don't produce enough limited editions unlike the other guys... Something to help explain why only with Nintendo there are people willing to spend $125.00 on an item that hasn't even been available for a day that retailed for $50.00 and may be available for preorder later? Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Legend-of-Zelda-Majoras-Mask-3D-C...

@Ryno: I think people spending 125 on an item is simply the fact it's Nintendo producing Limited supplies and people know that. They want the item and they know that there is a slim to no chance of Nintendo producing more so they are willing to pay the 125 cause in a few months, years I am sure it will be more.

As far as Nintendo being lame cause they don't produce enough I think it's just miscommunication that's all. They want their items to be special as I said a few posts above but the problem is with ebay and craiglist nowadays you have people making a quick buck off of that, and preventing true fans from getting the items.

Honestly I wish I would have known this when the GC adapter was available for preorder cause I really wanted one but I figured nah I will get one when they come out I don't need to preorder. Which I was wrong. Will I be willing to pay 200 for one now heck know, just means I have to find another way to play Smash Bros.

The most annoying thing is scalpers are the only ones making the most money out of this never-ending mess.

Nintendo gets regular profit, scalpers get max profit, and everyone else is screwed out of either an unreasonable amount of cash or a cool item that otherwise should've been in their price range. If Nintendo actually stocked things beyond one item per store (I'm not kidding, stories abound of certain amiibos only getting a single figure in a store with no more afterwards), then this problem wouldn't exist.