The eBay Scalpers Are At It Already With The Super NES Classic Edition

Oh I seen them alright last night. Dirtbags. Seen loads going from usually between £180 and £250. Someone even paid for one but I hope that they were joking. There's still pre orders available in certain places. Whether Nintendo can match them, now that's another story.

Edit: Had another look and this guy wants £300.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NINTENDO-CLASSIC-MINI-CONSOLE-SNES-GUARANTEED-PREORDER-SOLD-OUT-EVERYWHERE-/322569408692?hash=item4b1aa290b4:g:TgUAAOSwwvZZUiJJ

Madness!

Edit: That Ebay seller had to remove the listing as it's no longer available. I'd laugh so hard if he failed to secure a pre-order and therefore couldn't try to rob people blind.

€90 in gamestop ireland. Have mine ordered.

@Menchi187 Smyths have it for €85(Edit: I see they're now sold out too). That's where my pre-order is. Word of advice to everyone. If Zavvi puts up a listing, avoid them like a plague. After what they did with the NES Classic Mini, they'll never get business from me again.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Scalpers are a bane that needs to be mitigated somehow...

Crazy but this will be more popular than the NES mini. I bought NES mini & didnt at time have another Nintendo console. But in uk SNES was huge & lots of gamers will want one. My dad pre ordered one & he gave up console gaming when all the kids left home.

Well those scalpers aren't gonna affect me because I already pre ordered from Amazon, which I am hoping they will not cancel it because I did it 20 mins after nintendolife reported it :/

I have two on order but honestly I'm going to probably take both and ask around my friends and acquantances if they want to buy it for what I paid. Better than cancelling it and letting one of these scumbags make a profit.

I understand this is the basics of supply and demand but there is such a thing as being moral and not denying someone something they want just to make a quick buck.

Well, it's Nintendo, whose policy is its better to restock than stock up. And sometimes the restocking stops just before everyone can get a thing probably so they can chain demand between products

Nintendo are the masters of nostalgia and underproduction.

If nobody purchased these then they wouldn't do it. Some people are just too impatient or have more money than sense. At the same time I don't see why these should be 'limited edition' in the first place, there's no sensible reason I can think of why Nintendo wouldn't just sell the SNES and NES Mini indefinitely. There's clearly the demand for them.

I think what bothers me most about this is not the price or how they buy in bulk. That is just the world of business people. Dog eat dog world. Money makes the world go round and all that.

What bothers me is how quick they are to post it on eBay and start reaping it in. They have no sense of morality in it.

If say someone had a spare pre-order and posted a listing a few weeks or a month before it was released, then I could believe they just happened to have a spare and wanted to make some pocket money

But this? What these scalpers do is disgusting.

@BenAV
It is quite hard actually. If you're a more casual gamer, chances are you won't have heard about this until now. If that. By which time they have all gone. I consider myself pretty clued up. I knew what day the Fire Emblem Fates 3-game SE was coming out, and I still didn't get a pre-order in on time. I only hope they make enough of these so that the scalpers are sitting on stock that will make them a loss.

I'm simply not buying it for a very high prize. The fact is that Nintendo decides how many to make. If it's more popular than what is supplied it will be expensive for the majority of people to get. Only sad Nintendo is not the ones charging the high price. Being angry is like hating on gravity when you fall. It's just the way of reality. Get on with your life.

Nintendo are so good at making products for the scalper market - they should consider just putting them straight on eBay to take advantage of the increased profit margins! ..look out for the 'N64 Classic Mini: eBay Edition' launching next year!

@BinaryFragger maybee ask them for their ebay user names to see the snes mini's they have for sale

I didn't want a NES mini, but I was frustrated to hear all the scalping stories. Now I'm scared because I want a SNES mini.

I seriously hope Nintendo will make enough Snes mini´s resulting in these scalpers not making the money they are hoping for. Will be fun.

With exception to Star Fox 2, I wonder if it's possible to buy a used SNES and all the games included in the SNES Mini for under £200.

I'll openly admit I've preordered 2 but each at different places! Reason being the risk of having a preorder get cancelled..and if I'm to receive both I'll either give one to a mate who missed out or happily sell it on at retail price to a fellow Nintendo fan that missed out...I wouldn't have it in me to try sell it on for profit after being someone who's missed out on stuff at the hands of scalpers myself

Scalpers, the Internet's very own cancer. Somebody or some governing instance should really do something about disgusting practices like this, but unfortunately, that's probably an unachievable goal...

People that buy it for them stupid prices are the problem. Not gonna lie if someone wants to pay me 300 pounds for snes mini. I'll sell it with a smile

@SLIGEACH_EIRE It'd cost me more than a fiver to get to my closest smyths and back anyways

The internet is expressing its fear in hopes that Nintendo will see and just make enough for everyone. But that fear is merely bonus marketing within a consumer section, and not what corporations rely on to calculate their production. Their data for this product came from people not getting the last one. And they don't feel bad about that!

@Shanehorn I do the same. But I have higher number of pre-orders because I know there are many in my gaming group who wants Minis/Amiibos/Special Editions so I grab in bulk and sell on for what I paid so they get them at the price they are supposed to.

It's all about helping those who missed out. The satisfaction of a good deed is far more important than money. Besides, if I made any money I'd just donate it to charity instead. Like you I'd feel off about making profit when I could instead help someone out.

AS nobody knows how many systems they will be granted, lots of these people might not even get the systems they are supposedly selling/scamming!

@ThanosReXXX For what? I hate to side with scalpers but it is not illegal to do so. They pre-ordered them so have full legal right in what they do with the pre-order. Possession is a large percentage of the law. Even eBay have done all they can by limiting it to 30 days pre-sale. But then they would just post them later.

Granted it is disgusting and poisonous. But there is nothing in the law that prevents them doing so. They are doing it by the book.

shudders I just sided with scalpers. I need to take a wash...

Ebay rules might as well not exist. This is what the rules state:
"For pre-release items and their accessories, we may block listings until there are no more than 30 days to the release date of the item."

Good job ebay, because 18 morons today have pre-order them...
The scary part is, after the 30 day period, ebay don't have the power to return your money if the person doesn't send it. So they could steal your money very easily.

@dizzy_boy No Chance. Secret of Mana alone can be a very expensive game to buy. I remember seeing it once in a shop second hand about 10 years ago for around £100.

I've never seen FF3 or Super Mario RPG second hand here in the UK but I'd imagine that they're also very expensive.

As for Earthbound... That's a game where even super fans of the game will occasionally sell their cartridges because it's just so valuable.

@GravyThief I think it's because these systems don't sell software, and also undercut VC profits.

I actually think the timing of the SNES Mini doesn't bode well for VC on Switch - unless they're going to launch the VC focusing on everything except SNES.

I immediately wanted to give my money to someone for this; but now I’m thinking it might actually just sit in its box once (if) the VC comes to the switch? Does anyone with the Wii U think they will pick one up? I would have thought you’d have access to the same games already on the VC?

@Grandpa_Pixel Yeah, makes you feel dirty, doesn't it?

But seriously: like I said, it's probably not even possible to do something about it, but practices like these shouldn't be defended or allowed. The fact that it isn't illegal doesn't make it any less immoral.

Making money over the backs of others is a disgusting thing. If I would ever meet some of these characters in person, I'd more than likely smash their face into the pavement.

Like with the NES, a lot of people with moderate/normal size incomes wanted to buy one, but because of these giant back-end openings, they never stood a chance. They are taking away the honest chance of someone not being able to spend hundreds of dollars/pounds on this to purchase one for the normal retail price, a right and possibility they should have had.

But I truly do hope that Nintendo isn't kidding us with their promise to produce considerably more units this time, making the scalpers a bit less powerful this time around.

The sad thing is that, although in the end I didn't do it, I've actually seriously considered buying a NES Mini from a scalper for €125, because I was never able to get one in any store, so that's the effect that they already have, even on someone like me.

Depending on how bad you want something, you may succumb to these rats at any given moment, and it's a very sad thing.

@Yas
Yep, hope Nintendo learnt from NES mini and their Amiibo's. There's more demand and profit out there for them than they think and provide enough stock for the fans and casual shoppers who see these on a store shelf. Perfect Xmas present.

Would love to see the scalpers sitting on a mountain of stock that they even struggle to offload at retail.

@Grandpa_Pixel Barely any of them don't have any proof.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRE-ORDER-SUPER-NINTENDO-MINI-CLASSIC-SNES-ENTERTAINMENT-SYSTEM-/272737449226?hash=item3f806b350a:g:ZwwAAOSwHLNZUjVT

"CONFIRMED GAME PREORDER!!!ULTRA RARE!!!GUARANTEE YOU WILL RECIEVE THIS ITEM AND NOT LOSE OUT!"

I could have easily made that eBay auction and claim I had one. Plus if any dumb person did buy the auction, after 30 days I could easily keep the money and not send the item I don't have.

@dizzy_boy it's not.

@UK-Nintendo
Aha...!
I know it, you are the one of those scalper.

Just kidding.

@ThanosReXXX Nostalgia is a strong feeling, something scalpers happily make use of.

Realistically spoken, one can only hope Nintendo gives a damn and produces enough units to have the legitimate and deserving customer get their part. That these scalpers may stuff the components of the NES Mini down their throats, one by one.

Also be sure to inform me when you do said pavement smashing, I'll pay for front-seat tickets!

Hope nobody buys from those dirtbags and they have to sell them at regular price. And I hope Nintendo has learned its lesson and has appropriate stocks.

@Grudgebearer Hear, hear. Appropriate name you have there for this article, by the way...

@ThanosReXXX Why thank you, I'm a very non-functional Warhammer dwarf at heart (I don't drink alcohol), but A grudge or 2 by the side, it's hard not to indulge in that

Ah, I see we have the obligatory scalpers article. Why is this news again?

Looks like now I have a legitimate reason to hate ebay.

Another sad thing is that, seeing as these scalpers are (apparently) able to buy several units in order for them to be able to offer them for their ridiculous prices (assuming they actually have units, since they could also be frauds), they already have more than enough money, so wanting to make even more money (and over the backs of genuinely interested buyers) is just them being disgustingly greedy.

Now where's my pitchfork?

@Stubi I'd like to see them put a limit on how much one can ask for these sorts of goods, like a max 10-20 extra. That's sure to give scalpers a nicely-sized middle-finger.

I bet Nintendo learned.so I hope these don't sell,I will get one

@Anti-Matter lol. I just want the controller for my Wii-wiiu the snes mini can be given away to someone. I already have most of these games. 😉

@UK-Nintendo The wii connector SNES pads have been available for years. 1st party officially from Nintendo. Got mine about 5 or 6 years ago when they actually used to ship to Ireland from Nintendo UK.

I managed to pre order one from GAME last night. It took a while as the site kept returning error messages but eventually I placed the order. Hopefully Nintendo have plenty of stock and continue to restock on their own store.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE What did Zavvi do with the NES Classic Mini?
I am genuinely curious as I got my NES Classic Mini elsewhere.

@ThanosReXXX Unfortunately it contradicts the law and free will so it will never happen. Doesn't stop me hating them every bit. I was tempted to scalp once. That Marth amiibo back in 2014? I then realized I was too kind hearted. So instead I help fight against the scalpers all I can.

Sadly making money at the expense of others is all around us. Cheap labour runs our stores. Cheap labour make our clothes. We are humans exploit every chance we get. Not all of us mind you. Violence never solves it. But shouting in public that they are filth and scalp damages their reputation as a human being. Far more damaging

I had a spare NES and sold it on. But that happened last month when I thought my order was all dead and buried and it arrived on my doorstep. So I put an auction up eBay as no-one wanted it. Told them as long as I got my costs covered the price did not matter and profits do not matter. But I made a nice profit. So I donated it to charity and kept what I needed to cover my costs. If I make gains I'd rather it went to charity and helped less fortunate people out.

If it helps, it took the SNES Mini a lot longer to run out of pre-orders. About 6+ hours I counted. Crazy stuff!

If I had known that I probably would have sold you the spare I had for RRP + shipping.

All I hope is that everyone can find their pre-orders. My spares are being used to stop my friends and gaming group fall victim to scalpers.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Even with them sold out they went up €5 when I preordered it yesterday. Lucky they do the pre-order promise so I will have it for €85

@Stubi
Good idea and could they not utilise data from My Nintendo or do pre-orders through My Nintendo? 1 per household again so it goes to the real fans with play and purchase history and not just for scalpable items.

Rather spend that money on a snes2sd to be honest.

I posted this on Nintendo's Facebook page:

I still don't know how scalping is such a widespread problem. At least for gaming consoles. While Nintendo does hold a lot of blame for what happened with the NES Classic, I don't understand how retailers (brick and mortar and online) haven't figured out how to combat scalping. At the very least, warning bells should sound if a cashier notices a person buying an obscene amount of products at a given time

@UmbreonsPapa I walked into GAME and pre-ordered 4 FE Fates editions. I think they honestly don't care. Fortunately one was for me, another was a gift and the other two were for my friends.

At the end of the day, companies are not going to limit people buying their stock. The 1 per customer is an optional benefit. One that I personally really welcome

@123akis

Same here

@Menchi187 that's the club Nintendo exclusive ones is that correct

@Grandpa_Pixel Of course, making profit is everywhere, but there's a difference between a business profit, which in most cases isn't morally disgusting, and scalping, which definitely is. The profit is already made on those units sold, so they are making money on top of that.

And violence obviously never solves anything, I'm well aware of that, but if I would be able to smack one over the head, it would sure as heck make me feel a whole lot better in the moment...

But we basically agree on this being something vile, so I guess there's no more need for me to preach to the choir...

Funny that pre-orders over there are already fulfilled. Haven't seen a single one here yet, not in my regular game store either.

@UK-Nintendo Right

@Menchi187 I couldn't get that. I didn't have enough points.

Shocking that one person on EBay has 9 of them how the hell did he manage to pre order that many. I'm also not happy with Amazon U.K allowing U.S orders to go through when they state U.K only yet they will cancel them just before launch 🚀. Why not just not let the order go through in the first place so people actually from the U.K can order. America have their own Amazon to order their lovely 😊 purple snes mini from.

Scalpers are a byproduct of Nintendo being cautious about over producing stock, or their limited ability to do so. If you want to blame someone on this, blame them. But don't blame someone who engages in a voluntary transaction, and then offers to engage in another voluntary transaction in order to make a profit. The only difference between the scalper and Nintendo is Nintendo produce the product. And if they produce so few that they can't meet demand, how can you blame someone for trying to do what Nintendo do, which is turn a profit? Is that not what every person on the planet does? Offer goods and services in exchange for money/other goods and services? Or do we want to live in some communist hellscape where Nintendo attempts to distribute Amiibo evenly across the population, leading to Amiibo lines, and Amiibo famine? And then someone who tries to buy more than one of a given Amiibo is thrown in some sort of Mario themed Gulag? Where will it end?!

**Edit: I never mentioned the SNES Mini because as I continued along this rant I was thinking of how the exact same thing happens with Amiibo in high demand. But the point remains the same. SNES FAMINE PEOPLE.

@Jacob1092 wont buy any amiibo as its a farce situation. Either make them or fffffffffff get rid of them. I got 18 zelda amiibo cards from china for £10 that work fine on BOTW

@Anguspuss And that's fair enough. Nintendo's loss. They should be taking this stuff upon themselves, and making money on it, not letting other people do it.

It's not even out yet and it's already being scalped. Capitalism is a disgrace.

Oh great, can't wait to see how much CEX will be over charging for this.

"The SNES Classic will go on sale this September 29th online at ebay dot come for $350."

I can't... scalpers hold my nostalgia hostage. But that's capitalism for ya...

If Nintendo doesn't come anywhere close to demand again, it is the scalpers who win, not the fans. I hope Nintendo finally understands this, but they have showed us time and time again that "for the fans" is a set of empty words.

@TossedLlama You don't. Only Nintendo can do it. They either have to make more, or charge more. They have a supply issue, so you either increase supply to meet demand, or increase the price to lower demand. Simples.

Scalpels are truly the scum of the Earth. I hope Nintendo produces enough this time so the scalpels get stuck with all the stock they get and take a giant loss!

@ThanosReXXX : Hahaha, I just imagined Thanos coming down from space, and finding one of these scalpers and pounding their face to the pavement. That's a glorious visual.
On the SNES mini, the best thing to do is not buy it. It gives Nintendo the impression that under supplying is good business. How do they keep getting away with this?

"SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE!"

Haha.

@HeroponRiki

Quiet, Brit. Capitalism is a saviour.

It's just being used wrong in this instance.

I sincerely wish there was a way to punish this people, like somehow make them go bankrupt.

@MoonKnight7 Maybe Nintendo could do something about it, but I think unless Nintendo completely flooded the market, there would always be scalpers taking advantage.

@Cyberbotv2 If I was still angry, I would say: think something along the lines of "American History X". And if I really was Thanos, I would even do it without the Infinity Gauntlet, since I wouldn't really need it to squash a bug...

But... then I read your comment and it brought a smile to my face. And poof! Anger gone...

The best way to combat scalpers really is to not give em your money in the first place

I actually saw one on ebay going for $500 usd. No joke. That's why I'm not confident that Nintendo will actually ship enough stock. Like Shiryu said "50 units is significantly more than 5 units"

It's ok to scalp but not to pirate. I'll continue to wave that skull and crossbones.

Although Nintendo promises better stock than when they released the NES mini.
They have already publically said that they will not produce the SNES mini after 2017. So that already means they have a finite number planned to produce and release worldwide.
How many can be produced in three months?
That comment alone fuels the scalpers to believe they are in for a windfall.

It would be funny if Nintendo met demand and the scalpers were stuck...I doubt it will happen but we will see.

This makes my blood boil. Not only do a lot of those listings have the potential to be complete bull, but the ones that are legit just more or less took a unit away from a customer and are forcing those desperate enough to buy it at a ludicrous price.

Like others, I hope this really backfires on the resellers, but I'm not confident that'll happen.

Please, God. Let Nintendo meet demand this time. I want to see these scalpers stuck with basements of SNES Classics.

I hope all these scalpers recieve piles of garbage when their mass orders arrive, flipping scum

Is there any way to report them? They all deserve to lose their positive feedback instantly!

The cure to the disease is for nintendo to flood the market.

Something truly has to be done about scalpers. It's utterly horrid behaviour. I've even taken to reporting a chunk of them. I'm lucky enough to have got a pre order in via an amazing mate who knew I'd want one and ordered me one, but its so unfair to sell pre orders. Fair do's; if they hand them in hand - fine I guess.... But a pre-order?! Nope.

Half of those listings are from me. Yeah I like to make money, shove it. 😉

@HeroponRiki Because Socialism and Communism are so much better and perfect. Gotcha.

@ThanosReXXX
If there in the EU they should be fined 2.4Billion.

It should be illegal for websites to accept listings for things like that over the retail price. Sure they could bump a load of postage on it to compensate but eBay already have an unfair postage policy to counteract that. It should be illegal for GAME and CEX to list "pre-owned" items for higher than the retail price. There should be a time limit of two years after street release date that makes it illegal to sell something on for a profit outside of a private sale. They shouldn't be allowed to sell amiibo for a high price from 3rd party sellers on Amazon. This law should also apply to concert and event tickets across all websites. eBay already says they don't allow people to sell tickets, but will happily list tickets on their own StubHub site for 4x the face value plus a healthy commission fee that the buyer, not the seller, has to pay. Same goes for all ticket resale sites that allow people to name an asking price much higher than the price they paid. This practice should be illegal, or limited to a very small percentage (5%) of the face value. It. Should. Be. Illegal. If it was, scalpers would have nowhere to sell and they wouldn't keep buying up all the stock and tickets that are high in demand because they wouldn't be able to make a profit.

In the meantime, no one should ever buy something listed online for an inflated price because it's sold out everywhere. Don't put money in their pockets. Make them get stuck with all this stock they're unable to flog and a hole in their pocket where their bank balance used to be. Don't feed this culture, and it will eventually change. But of course, there will always be people desperate enough and willing to pay over the odds, so it will never change until it is illegal to do it.

The Ebay scalpers are two words: Disgusting and Obnoxious!

@WaveBoy

@InternetBowser
How tiny would the Gameboy Classic be!

I'm still mad about the nes classic edition.

@WaveBoy
hey whats up?
im getting ready to get my scalp on
you should join me!