Slowly and surely, the stock scenario with amiibo has become a little better. Through a combination of Nintendo churning out stock and retailers trying to help fans, more of the figures have been up for grabs. It's still difficult for hardcore collectors, of course, but there have been signs of progress.
So, what about amiibo cards for Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer? It should be easy-peasy to produce NFC-enable cards, right? In theory, yes, but it's a new product and plenty can go wrong in manufacturing and printing.
It seems that there could be issues with the amiibo card stock, in Japan at least. With Happy Home Designer due in less than a week, multiple customers are reporting that AmiAmi has cancelled their orders for the separate 5-pack set, which is apart from bundle options. The following email has been posted on Reddit.
Dear Customer,
Thank you for shopping at AmiAmi.
This message is being sent with regards your order for the item "Animal Crossing amiibo Card Vol.1 5Pack Set" (GAME-0014482).
Unfortunately due to production issues, we have been notified by the maker that there is a major stock shortage of this item. We will be unable to fulfill most orders for the item placed at our store because of this, and we are sorry to say that your order is among those we will not be able to fulfill. Your order for the item will be canceled[sic].
While we have not yet received any official notification, it is very possible that the release of the item "Animal Crossing amiibo Card Vol.2 5Pack Set" (GAME-0014484) may be discontinued due to the issues experienced with the production/release of Vol.1. Notices will be sent accordingly if the need arises.
On behalf of the maker, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.
Best regards, AmiAmi
That's not happy news, though it should be noted that well-known import retailer Play-Asia is still listing pre-orders for the pack.
We're hopeful this is a retailer-specific or temporary issue, while it's logical to suggest that manufacturing and stock issues with the cards should be easier and quicker to resolve than with equivalent amiibo figures.
An amiibo tale to be continued, it seems...
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[source reddit.com]
Comments 31
I went to a Hastings store (that's an American book/movies/music store) yesterday and found a Lucario and Gold Mario amiibo out of the package for 10 dollars each. I couldn't believe it. Still, I'm pessimistic about the Animal Crossing amiibo situation for North America, and I'll definitely be waiting on Happy Home Designer. Not sure yet on Amiibo Festival, but if it really requires amiibo to play, it's probably not worth the trouble.
Seriously Nintendo?! I guess in theory these will be easier to reproduce so the turn around should be significantly shorter. Still pretty short sighted production.
No!! Not more issues; especially after starting to get the Amiibo problem under control.
Of course. Why freakin' not? And it's only cards!
C'mon, Nintendo... surely this type of amiibo is easier to produce than miniature trophies...
I've just been charged for my Play Asia packs and I pre ordered them a while after pre orders opened, so they don't seem to be having problems :S
Surely there can't be problems with the stock with the cards. Just sad.
So, can we say that every article containing the word "Amiibo" will have stock issues by default ? This is really really sad.
And the worst thing, from this we can conclude, that the problem with Amiibo items isnt the figures themselfes, it seems they lack a proper partner for their NFC chips....
This sounds like an issue in producing the cards rather than not manufacturing enough stock due to demand worries.
Wow! I do NOT like the price on Play Asia for 3 cards -£3.84/$5.99! Plus £3.78 shipping to EU. Not buying at those rates.
@the-madprofessor yeah sounds more like a heap of the first wave of cards came out wrong or poor
@Sakura plus they are blind packed too aren't they?
@Mr_Zurkon Yes, they are all blind packed. In Japan they only cost the equivalent of about £1.55, so there's hope still that the price will be more acceptable once officially launched. Could be the supply problems pushing up costs, I suppose.
|sf>Nintendo had problems selling the AC e-Reader cards in the US and those cards didn't even use special chips. From what I remember, only two chains of stores in my area carried those e-Reader AC cards. I'm hopeful that Nintendo will improve the situation with this new AC card series, but I'm cautious.
lol and they created these to "alleviate" stock concerns with the normal amiibo.
@Sakura I believe Japan get 6 cards not 3.
@Starz The US gets 6 cards, everywhere else gets 3 :/
@Starz Unfortunately I don't read Japanese, but I did put the description into a translation page and it said 3 out of a possible 100 cards. The cards are in Japanese packaging though so could be an explanation and I'd definitely feel much better paying around £4 for 6 cards! Guess I need to wait for official pricing really, just seemed a bit steep.
@emiingham Oh yes, it's the US that gets 6 cards! IDK any more.
@Sakura I have just ordered some for that dumb PlayAsia price. Damn I'm a sucker for amiibo... and I don't even know if these things are region free yet
@CTMike Pretty safe to bet that these will be region free since the NFC chips won't be any different to those used in the figure amiibo and those are all region free. Might have Japanese writing on though. Know what you mean about taking risky leaps! I try to wait for collections to have been out a while and then buy a bundle second hand on Ebay. Lego Dimesions is very tempting though as I love the humour in Lego games, but at £80 for the game, £30 per extra level and team pack and £15 per fun pack, 2017 might be the year I actually get it.
Nintendo shouldn't worry to much about stock issues, amiibo in card format are going to be waaaaay easier to counterfeit than their plastic cousins.
@Sakura that is a very valid point actually, they're supposed to be rolling out cards to replicate figures so the NFC chips will be identical. Good call!
The Japanese is a bonus haha. Lego D prices are terrifying...
This seems anecdotal at best. Nice to see people jump on the complaint wagon anyway. :/ So is Nintendo really going to release cards that match the already released figurines? I think they should eventually but I don't think they ever promised it.
I am not doing blind packs. NO WAY. They can shove those up their you know what.
Dem Japan-ish types sure love them some Animal Crossing.
@AyeHaley how else did you expect them to sell for?
indivitual AC cards would be a waste of shelf space and just be Amiibo 2.0: Card edition.
sad but true. Like Isabel's and KK's would be commons, everything else? not so much.
@aaronsullivan I'm sure it was mentioned at some point when they spoke of dropping certain figures.
Having said that, I just had a search and in the October investor's Q&A, Iwata said amiibo cards are coming 2015 bit not much else. Seems the whole duplication of figures thing looks to be an interpretation by game sites.
Meh, I'm totally down with all of it if they keep the stock coming. I highly doubt they're selling out, bet it is just the one retailer
@CTMike
That sounds right. Thanks for looking into it.
Saw a few Jigglypuffs at Target yesterday. Little signs here and there that the stock issue is getting fixed but you can't convince many people who aren't getting the ones they want. I'd like to get a Pit at retail price.
@rjejr
The Japan import prices can be very good and I think I've never seen options like that (import country options) on Amazon before. Makes me wonder if it's just Amazon seeing $$$ or Nintendo is involved a bit more. (Would be nice for 3D Disney blu-ray releases since they don't come to US anymore.)
Haha, I saw this coming! It's just a scam really: Nintendo does this to get the people talking and to get them to the (virtual) shops.
If Nintendo made Amiibo (and Amiibo cards) in great abundance, they would be far less popular!
@Yorumi "Agreed!"
What the !"#¤ is going on with the price of these cards!?
6 pounds for 3 cards?! That's even more of a theft than the price of the figures.
Buying cards at these prices is worse than bending over for money.
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