It's old news, at the moment, that whenever Nintendo announces a limited edition product the following will happen - online pre-orders will sell out in minutes, and scalpers will sell the goods (often pre-orders, not the actual product) on eBay. It's an unescapable reality at present, though we did recently outline some ideas for how Nintendo and retailers could try and minimise the problem.
Some would say that eBay itself isn't particularly to blame, though the marketplace has inexplicably decided to troll - and that's a term we feel is appropriate - amiibo fans over the weekend. It posted the following tweet which, at the time of writing, is still live.
It's a thin line between humour and poor taste, sometimes, and we feel this qualifies as the latter. It's also worth pointing out that the linked listing is for a $200 Buy it Now option that is, of course, selling a pre-order. It's shoddy on multiple levels.
It's not particularly smart of eBay, with over 470,000 followers, to post daft tweets like this.
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Comments 106
That's pretty low, but again, Nintendo fans created this environment when they were willing to pay over retail, from scalpers, for these items.
Yes, Nintendo should have been smart enough to simply make more of all of these items, but without fans willing to let scalpers have power over them, they wouldn't have any power over them.
I look forward to the Nintendo tweet that spins this scalping as some kind of positive note of their popularity.
I don't know, I didn't feel particularly outraged. Kinda jerky of them, but I certainly don't think it's their fault that this sort of thing happens.
Sorry but I don't see that as trolling. Not even close. It's not even an attempt at humour, it's promoting their business. Ebay love it when things sell for high prices as it means more for them.
Has it been announced if this is coming to the UK?
Oh ebay! Oh Consumerism!
Oh eBay, the amiibo may only be available on you for outrageous prices, but you don't have to remind us of that.
As long as fans who "must own it at any cost" continue enabling scalpers, this problem will only get worse.
Gold Mario is not going to magically sell out on eBay. He's still going to be available for outrageous prices, probably indefinitely. Idk why people pay these absurd amounts, as if tomorrow they're gonna wake up and he's gonna be gone.
Let him sit, don't give these guys a single sale. When they keep relisting and no one buys, prices will drop. People are so impulsive they tell themselves they HAVE to own a certain amiibo. They HAVE to own them all. Why? What's the worst case scenario if you don't own them all? No one will care. No one will walk in your room and be disgusted that you only own 43 amiibos. The world will go on. You will not be any happier having spent $100 on an amiibo just for completeness sake. Quite the opposite really. Like a drug addict who will pay anything for their next fix. Control your addiction, don't let your addiction control you.
Nintendo did this.
Lol Nintendo. Simple supply and demand. You are losing customers and turning off new ones with your low stock. Get your crap together and stop ruining little kids birthdays!
Yeah.....I see no issues with their tweet. Isn't that the idea behind their business? Find stuff here you can't find anywhere else, sell stuff here for more because you find people who want it and are willing to pay more to get it.
I realize there are fans who would like access to the pre orders and we all hate scalpers, unless we are fortune enough to buy something that we can sell for 5 times the price, but I think we are being overly emotional if we condemn eBay for promoting their business.
Is eBay even aware of what they just posted?
I don't think this is trolling. It's giving Amiibo fans a way to buy them.
There's no Amiibo on display anywhere in any of my local game shops but I saw a draw full of them when I cleared out the GAME bargain bin the other day. (GAME in Bromley)
In regards to Nintendo not providing enough stock. They have sold millions of these things. MILLIONS. How many Wii U units have sold world wide? I believe that they produced enough stock based on how many compatible systems they have sold. I would put my own hard earned dollars down that if the Wii U had sold in the PS4 area of sales, there would have been a lot more amiibo on those shelves. You can't blame a company for watching numbers and basing production decisions on those numbers.
In regards to the tweet. That's how eBay works. They know it. We know it. So it's not daft of them to promote themselves in this way. In fact, it's the opposite. They just told a ton of people that you can buy one of these things there. And, if you are willing to pay that much for one and the seller doesn't end up getting one thus leaving you out in the rain, eBay terms of service cover the purchaser so that they are not left paying for something they didn't receive.
(Sunglasses drop down on my face.)
Deal with it.
BOUGHT!
Nah, that's crazy. eBay aren't covering themselves in glory by encouraging scalpers.
Sad
Pff, I find it funny.
Why are you guys even whining? If you don't like the price, don't buy it for the price. It's not like your life is over without this. Besides, buying a regular Mario amiibo and painting it golden is probably the easiest thing you can do to have an individual one.
For a preorder. That could get cancelled. That's low eBay, really low.
lol, eBay is just looking out for their own interests. It is very much in the interests of eBay to draw in auctions like these. They make 10% off the auction plus another 3% minimum from Paypal (albeit, some of that may go to card processing fees). I'm surprised by the post on the one hand since it is such a touchy subject, but on the other hand, I'm really not. My favorite was when eBay was acting so chivalrous when the US was looking at passing Internet tax laws and eBay was opposing them vehemently "in the interest of its users" when the fact of the matter is the law would've been a big blow to eBay itself.
Not sure if you can tell, but I have sort of a love/hate relationship with eBay lol.
I pass. Not going after Amiibos any more. I've been looking for Amiibos on Madrid Capital and closer cities, and I didn't saw more than half of them. I HAD ENOUGH.
They're simply not going to get my money with Amiibos.
@Kaze_Memaryu Except even the normal Mario Party - Mario amiibo is going to be somewhat rare since it only comes with the MP10 bundle, at least in the US. But still, yea, in 5 years (maybe even 1 year), will most of us care about these things anymore?
I got my Walmart order in two days after the initial launch. Here's hoping my order isn't canceled.
There's a really easy solution to this...and that's for people to not be dumb and spend more than MSRP on pre-orders from third-party websites. Unfortunately idiots will continue to pay upwards of $200 for crap like this because they "need" it.
@JaxonH
Best comment on this article.
@JaxonH very well said! I wanna collect them all, but I refuse to line the pockets of scalpers in that way. So I suppose I'm not getting a Gold Mario and you know what? I'm fine with that. It's something in not losing sleep on.
I have noticed that with the exception of a select few, it appears most amiibos posted on eBay have come down significantly on average selling price. What used to be $80+ looks like is settling down in the $25-40 range. Hopefully folks will heed your advice and leave these scalpers sitting on a bunch of gold Mario's they can't push.
Ebay man...
Ha!This was funny!Don't know why people here are so sensitive.
@Spoony millions of amiibo sales have mostly been due to scalpers
Don't blame Ebay, blame Nintendo. Nintendo has purposely created a market for these by under-producing. They love all the attention they get from the consumer's horror stories as it produces buzz and "want" for their products. Ebay is not at fault at all. It's Nintendo mainly, followed by the scalpers and people who are willing to go onto Ebay and overpay for the Amiibos.
@hypercoyote I was under the impression that the Mario amiibo pack-in was a limited time thing, presumably to push more sales of MP10.
@hypercoyote Oh, didn't know about that. But I doubt that Nintendo won't release MP-Mario separately. And yes, I don't expect the collectible status of some amiibo's to last long, either.
@JaxonH Praise him who speaks wise words!
@justlink
I highly doubt that the majority of amiibo sales are due to scalpers. You could never really prove that anyway. I have sold amiibo for profit on eBay, but I collect them too. I'm not a scalper, but if one I own becomes worth more than double than what I paid I will sell it. I think there is a lot of that going on.
So again, I HIGHLY doubt the sales are due to scalpers. It's a mixed bag.
wow that is pretty silly for ebay to have done that. who let the intern run the twitter account?
I don't see why this is ebays fault? Isn't it Nintedo who is making the profit with going exclusive and making too few copies?
This isn't a football match with limited seating capacity, but on purpose made rare collectible?
With luck and a little justice, ebay scalpers had their multiple orders cancelled by Walmart and now have no means of fullfilling their auction orders other than paying full-scalper price to make-up for their greed and shortsightedness.
Also, Nintendo, how about fixing your production supply issues, already, so that this ridiculous cycle becomes a thing of the past????
I feel a lot of people are overreacting here (and elsewhere). This isn't weird or unexpected, really. If I was in charge of such matters at eBay, I'd do stuff like this far more often. They're a business, not some fanboy charity.
Here's to capitalism!
EDIT: Jesus christ, it goes for 200 DOLLARS?! For a plastic figure!? Some people just have too much money. It's either that or the scalpers themselves who are bidding to make it SEEM like it goes for that much!
The solution is to just stop buying off scalpers. Stick them with their inventory and they will stop scooping up all the amiibo. Nintendo should be stocking the SSB line better though.
And this is EXACTLY what ruined amiibo in general for me, and why I REFUSE to buy another one. The whole limited initial stock, and scalpers selling them for ridiculous prices has left a poor taste in my mouth with Nintendo.
$200? Wow, is there anyone really foolish enough to pay that? Personally, I feel like regular price is too much for these things. I did buy a Pikachu, cuz I loves me some Pikachu. Definitely had some buyer's remorse tho. I still feel like they should actually come as a better value, like have a code for a game. Especially the ones that don't really do anything, (looking at you, Pikachu!) I mean why couldn't it have come with a download of Pokemon Yellow? Oh yeah, Nintendo doesn't need to add value, because fools will gladly overpay anyway.
@ Article Author: This is not unbelievably stupid; this is fairly sound marketing. The minor amount goodwill that will be lost pales in comparison to the awareness, eyeballs, and potential traffic it grabs. That it targets a market niche known to throw cash is just icing on the cake.
Not sure if they are making fun of nintendo fans/ amiibo fans hmmm! :/ weird
@Quorthon correct! Is called free market supply and demand, don't pay it if you think the price is to high.
Well, it made me laugh!
You can get better quality figures for $200.
@BLPs Tesco Direct, Amazon and Shopto, three places off the top of my head that you can get amiibo in the UK for less than the Nintendo UK store. Sometimes it helps to look around.
@Quorthon the problem is that they can't get the item from anyone else other than the scalpers. The only other option is to never own it and some fans can't live with that
The Gold Marios are collectors items and variants at that. If the average person just wanted a Mario Amiibo to play with then they have ready affordable access to them. I may not love scalpers but I don't see this particular Amiibo as being a serious problem.
I thought this was incredibly poor taste. There should be a line between marketing, and being an ass and EBay crossed it here.
On another topic, it is not a simple answer to just not buy from.scalpers. Then what? Hope they'll lower the price to something reasonable, but when will that be? For this amiibo, waiting is a good option ,but what about other products, like the new 3DS XL? Scalpers and fans willing to pay to own product is never going to really change. The only thing that can is how Nintendo and other retailers handle situations like this in the future.
Omg... Why is this damn thing so expensive anyway?
The whole amiibo situation is annoying. Local gamestop actually had a toon link which has been hard to find in my area so I'm happy about that.
I don't have much a problem with this. Honestly, I find it worse when I see posts on Nintendo's Twitter account when they place the extremely rare amiibo (King Dedede, Meta Knight, Rosalina, etc.) in quirky places and say something cute and silly like "Meta Knight looks amazing soaring through the skies! Get him today to add to your Rainbow Curse experience!" As if that wasn't what people were already trying to do. It's like they themselves are oblivious to the stock problem and think it's just as easy as walking into a Best Buy and seeing 20 Meta Knights on the shelves.
Just to note, the only amiibo I'm currently missing is King Dedede of the available 29. I just feel for those that want to get their hands on these things without draining their funds going beyond MSRP. I know I'll never pay above MSRP for these things. And I don't think anyone else should either.
Uh....well of course eBay is going to promote scalping. That's kind of their thing.
Gotta agree w/ @Peach64 on this one, it seems like a straight up business promotion post, not a troll. May be intentionally walking a fine line on eBay's part, but it doesn't seem nasty, just informative. But as stupid as this may sound, if there were winky face after "right now!" then it might read trolly.
I do think promoting pre-orders should be banned on eBay though. Nothing to do w/ amiibo, just a person shouldn't be able to sell something before they actually have it in their possession, or at least it's already been released so they can have it in there possession. Nobody has these yet.
thats just mean....
@dariusq - That was my initial response when this was announced. Of all the hard to find amiibo - Fit Trainer, Villager, Little Mac - this "gold" Mario is nothing more than a paint job on any other Mario amiibo which I see everywhere. Let the scalpers have it.
In a way it is kind of funny when you think about the different groups of people who react to this. The group who are into amiibo will find this in bad taste on eBay's behave but to everyone else they'll think something is seriously wrong with the crazy amiibo group and their toys.
@JaxonH - It's almost hard to believe the same person who wrote that well received post 2 hours ago STARTED this thread 2 weeks ago. You must be in a better mood.
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/3ds/wth_is_wrong_with_people1
@KodyDawg Because they make money from it. If I'm not wrong, the higher your price is on eBay, the bigger price you pay them for commission.
@Sir_JBizzle @Kaze_Memaryu I might have misread, but the way it sounded was the Mario Party - Mario Amiibo was exclusive to that release, though I have a hard time believe it as Kaze says. As far as the rarity of the figures, I imagine some of these will continue to be rare, but others I believe would likely get reprints.
I can't really agree that this is in poor taste. Allowing 3rd parties to sell each other things, sometimes things which would otherwise be difficult to find through normal retail means, is basically eBay's entire business. To eBay, this is a way of advertising that you can buy hard-to-find items through their service.
@rjejr
[chuckles...] Yeaaaah I wasn't sure you knew about that thread lol. Let's just say I've made my peace with it.
@DracioKoi
eBay gets 10% so while it is true that the larger the price the larger their cut (just like any retailer), it is also true that maximum revenue almost never corresponds with higher prices, because while revenue per sale is higher, total sales are fewer. There's math you can do to figure out the price to set to maximize revenue (that's what economists do), but we won't get into all that. The point I'm trying to make is eBay surely knows they'll make more money with a lower price tag (better to see 300 $40 sales than 50 $100 sales, or heck even 100). I don't think they like to see scalpers prices any more than we do. I just think they are happy that their website is the only website you can obtain them.
@Iggly: You can get figures with real gold for 200$.
Yep Nintendo's fault. But anyone who pays $200 for a pre order on a $13 item needs to better prioritize their life.
@justlink Source?
Scalp this, scalp that... Seriously it's called supply and demand. Low supply, high demand is always going to push prices up. If someone with more money than sense wants to pay over the odds for something instead of buying a standard amiibo and some gold paint who are they hurting?
If you guys wanna blame someone blame nintendo. They are the source of the problem. Ebay is simply profiting from it.
@Acein210 If you (not you, specifically) decide to break your ties with a company you love, simply because you can't find one of their products, there's something wrong with you.
For those smart enough to not buy from scalpers, just ignore it as you should. Anyone that likes throwing money away, opportunity knocks!
Y'know, in the end... It's just gold painted plastic. It's cool for sure, but in my opinion, not worth letting trolls and scalpers get the better of you.
@Skullcruncher
It's not anyone's fault. i wish people would stop blaming Nintendo when (God forbid) they make a limited edition item.
I know everyone here is butt-hurt about the scarcity of amiibo figures, and not being able to get a limited edition 3DS XL, but Nintendo is the source of the products, not the problem! If they made BILLIONS of limited edition items, they wouldn't be special for the people who were able to get them!
Greed is the only problem here — scalpers that is.
Sometimes you guys can be so salty. It's just a tweet advertising a thing. It's not meant to be a troll. Don't take it for something it's not.
Nintendo seem to be making an awful lot of 'limited editions' of late, I think perhaps to keep selling to existing fans of the games / company / brand, rather than drawing in new fans. I dont see this as 'trolling' by eBay though, they are a company publicising the selling of a product, its inflated resale 'value' is a direct result of the limited release.
Eh...I'm not sure if it's exactly trolling. It's more like advertising if anything. Though I am a little peeved that this is basically advertising for scalpers. Seriously. People. Don't buy from scalpers! You do that, and they'll just keep doing what they're doing!
You would think that when it comes to exclusive new in box items that the retailers would be able to go to ebay and tell them to take it off their site as they are the only ones that are allowed to sell them.
Boy, will I be glad when amiibo go out of style. This whole thing brings out the absolute worst in people.
Making controversy out of nothing, it was just a little joke Nintendolife, yeesh kabeesh!
It's always funny seeing folks going "That's just supply and demand". But the issue with the concept of "Supply and Demand" is that if it was a commodity with no supplier or no set price, then sure, let the market do its thing. But the suppliers (Walmart) exist, and the MSRP ($13) is set so that the providers get a profit while staying accessible to the general public, not just who has the most money to throw away. That keeps the market free AND fair.
To scalp [new products] is to wedge yourself into the already established market, purposely creating supply shortages to drive up the demand and cost. That's straight up sleazy, and is only not illegal because there's no rules in place. Of course setting such rules would be a conflict of interest in ebay and/or retailers' bottom line.
I bet Nintendo could set some kind of rule or embargo against ebay/retailers, but they would just take Nintendo to court saying how it's unconstitutional to the free market or something.
ugh... even worse! eBay themselves tweeted this! How cheeky!
Keep on top of it folks and this crap wont happen.
I own all the amiibos I wanted, with the only one I missed being little mac because I snoozed.
Eat your wheaties, wake up early, check the hell out of online sells and pay attention and you'll get what you want. This is how scalpers do it, think like a scalper and you'll get your precious figures.
@LemonSlice That's better than having to pay more than twice the suggested price of a Gold Mario amiibo.
@Quorthon Agreed. I've sold 2 amiibos, 2 Majora's, and another item I think not out of pure greed, but I had an extra amiibo during a sale, and I had pre-ordered Majora for friends knowing it would sell out long before they could afford it, or find it.
Each item i listed at $9. Within minutes, one amiibo hit $35.
The Majora hit $150 within a day i believe. That's not the scalpers- that's Nintendo fans screaming "i have $150 to spend on this game, and if you only have 146, tough #%@%".
@DTFaux Not exactly. The items are still in demand and in short supply because they are wanted. You can't go to a store and buy 100 copies of 1886 or whatever it is, and sit at home laughing manically that people will now pay $200 for the game- no one wants to pay $20 for it. Sure, the $12 Lucario i bought a friend might be worth $30 to someone in the parking lot, now that toys r us doesnt have it anymore, whereas it was only worth $12 to them if the store still had it in session. But in the end, the only toys r us within 15 miles only had 2 lucarios. The supply is Nintendos fault, and the demand is Nintendos pride.
Waking up at 6am and sitting outside a toys r us half snoring before i have to get to work is just friend love, and you better appreciate it, mister.
You know who you are.
@JellySplat the thing is that this isn't just with limited edition items. Basically any amiibo who is not wave one are impossible to find at MSRP.
there's no bad publicity for amiibos
"It's old news, at the moment, that whenever Nintendo announces a limited edition product the following will happen - Thomas Whitehead will write an article crying about online resellers."
Fixed the first sentence for ya!
e-Bay are aware of the latest fad lining their pockets. Not surprising.
@Peach64 But it's against their own rules. They're promoting breaking their own rules.
If they're doing it for business and not as a joke, then they're basics saying "we don't care if you break the rules, that are in place to protect the interests of buyers, so long as we're profiting off it too.".
And that is just disgusting.
Thankfully I have no interest in the gold edition amiibo so this doesn't bother me. It's just really unfortunate for collectors. Those amiibo are simply not worth more than their retail price. As others have posted, it is the consumer's fault for being willing to pay top dollar for a new amiibo they don't have. Part of the blame is still on Nintendo though. If they would increase production none of this would happen. Must be part of their business plan to only make the amount they are sure will sell. Amiibo are a pretty good success so far so I'm not completely sure why Nintendo isn't increasing production. Cards won't replace figurines for me, and if I can't have the figurine for retail price I won't get them at all.
I can totally picture myself handling their Twitter account as their new community manager who just got appointed a week earlier.... After I got fired I'd still think it was totally worth it!
wow
I still think Nintendo is putting something in place for this with their new version of Club Nintendo. I think they're probably not too happy about big fans being let down that they can't get some of their rare figures without shelling out major cash on ebay/resellers. Which leads to these big fans being upset with them for future purchases.
If their new fan service program simply has you register products related to amiibo or recognizes that you've been a platinum member for x amount of years, I don't see why there shouldn't be a system in place that gives these members first dibs at these limited or rare items. I dunno, makes sense in my mind.
@Spoony New 3DS and soon the regular 3DS on the other hand is compatible with Amiibo and have sold millions world wide. Combined with Wii U and you have a large market for these things with low stock
@JaxonH Not sure if Ebay still own Paypal or not, but they were making a further 5% off those fees as well, and postage is counted on Ebay fees on top.
I don't care who's responsible, that's just a crappy thing to do. Don't worry scalpers, I'm not buying anything from you anyway.
@Morbius
There's a 3% fee + 50 cents that goes to PayPal, but that's not eBay that gets the money.
Bahahaha that's hilarious! Some people need to lighten up methinks.
Ebay owns Paypal. I don't know about the states, but in the UK you pay approx 10% fees to Ebay and that is the total inc shipping + approx. 5% to Paypal .
@russellohh
Indeed. If it weren't for that ridiculous demand, no scalper would be buying more than his fair share and selling them online. The second Nintendo fans felt like these things were going to be hard to find, they made them hard to find.
As a reminder, here's a post from one of GameInformer's writers shortly after Amiibos came out:
It was a Twitter post that said, "We love Amiibos!! Except Wii Fit Trainer, Marth, and Villager!"
This is hysteria that is ultimately driving up prices. I wanted the Wii Fit Trainer because, quite simply, I wanted her. My girlfriend picked her up for me before anyone was running amok desperate to get the figure thinking it was rare. Ultimately, Nintendo should have shipped more Amiibos, but Nintendo fans made this mess.
@Quorthon Ehh sorta. Nintendo fans maybe made 1/3 of the mess, the rest is all Nintendo. I live in one of the most densely populated parts of the country, and there were.....7 Lucarios within 70 miles. For well over 2 million people in this area.
Every other house on this street owns a wii, yet every third city has a lucario amiibo.
BAD Nintendo, BAD!
Eh. That's not so bad.
@russellohh
Oh I have long acknowledged that Nintendo failed in simply delivering enough to market--but the pricing situation is the fault of the fans. My attitude is that if Nintendo wanted me to buy them, they'd actually supply the damn things. I'm not paying over retail for something that's only been around for a couple months. Cripes, I can still buy new Transformers from the movie that came out nearly a year ago.
Scalpers only have power if the fans give it to them--and they did precisely that.
@JaxonH - That thread is the main reason why I've been busting your chops the past few days. Usually I do it just because
One of the true unfair facts of life - women have a built in "get out of jail free card" for acting nutty every month, men have no such excuse and are expected to tough it out and keep a stiff upper lip all the time. From deep personal introspection the past 35 years and too many years studying in grad school I honestly think men loose it occasionally as well, only western civilization views it as w/o explanation, "Just one of those days". Maybe less rhyme and reason w/ males, but I think it exists.
@JaxonH
Couldn't say it better myself!
It amazes me how high these Gold Mario amiibo auctions have rose to, I've seen some top $700 this week and they were just the ones I happened to add to my watch list so I could see what they closed at.
It's not really that bad that ebay made that tweet, although I really don't see them drumming up much business from writing that. Majority are just going to see the price of that listing and think "err no!" and never return.
They probably want all that money so they can buy drugs
Limited edions are supposed to be hard to get. They are after all "limited".
It's ofcourse unetichal to do this, but that's sadly what the free market works.
I get why scalping is awful for us fans but there is nothing illegal about it in this case. What exactly should Ebay or any other business have to do about it? They are only interested in selling the pre-orders, as long as they do so they are happy.
Some fans are weird,some fans are crazy,BUT THIS IS BURNING MAD! THATS THE WORST TRICK PULLED OFF IN AMIIBO HISTORY!
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