Amazon's Sudden Restriction On Used Nintendo Game Sales Was An "Error"

Maybe this relates to another story from a while back where Amazon France wouldn't carry Nintendo products anymore because Nintendo wouldn't supply them anymore?

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/10/random_nintendo_is_now_refusing_to_offer_stock_to_amazon_france_after_disagreements

good. there's a lot of bootlegs on Amazon.
if you can't see pictures of used items, don't buy them.

This is going to suck for legitimate sellers but in theory this should crack down on the bootlegs.

Amazon would rather us trade in our games for less so they can resell them for more by controlling the price of used games.

It’s really upsetting that they’re doing this. I got the email last night, so I guess I’ll start selling eBay again.

Hey this is good news! A year ago I purchased Pokemon Green from an amazon seller and it never even made it to my door or even to my local shipping center. Hoping this will make purchasing from online sellers more reliable!

eBay is much better for used stuff. Amazon doesn’t even require pictures for their used games so I can never tell what I’m buying. If I don’t see board pics I don’t bother with the listing.

"...appears to be an attempt at cracking down on the sale of counterfeit products..."

Bull. It looks more like a blatant attempt to shutdown the used market, which publishers have been trying to do for years.

The one thing that many want to know is how do we obtain approval? Is it only approved by just being on excellent condition and the usual requirements or does one needs more than just that?

I get the upset for the sellers but it’s also funny any would claim Amazon is selling them for a higher price. A lot of sellers on Amazon are notorious for insane markups

I recently bought Hyrule Warriors for Switch on Amazon. The picture listed in the description showed the NA version. I was shipped the Australian version, and the seller never got back to me when I requested to return it. Amazon's excerpt also states a more generalized "products" than the narrow "games" category named in the article. That's worth pointing out because I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's been screwed buying amiibos on Amazon.

I support any policies that hinder the scammer and scalper presence on Amazon. No one should be able to buy up a large portion of a distributor's stock with the intention of artificially inflating costs. Further, no honest practice should allow customers to be sent a box full of Party City gift bags after spending $100+ on amiibos, like in my case.

Much like Nintendo's crackdown on ROMs, this is probably another move to steer people to Nintendo Switch Online to play old games.

@CharlieGirl that may be a danger but it’s a blatant attempt by Nintendo to control the used games market. Once you bought a game you should be free to sell It on without interference from Nintendo. It is after all your property.

@AlphaElite Much like Nintendo's crackdown on ROMs, this is probably another move to steer people to Nintendo Switch Online to play old games.

Nintendo doesn't care about the retro games on the Switch. They don't even release them monthly anymore.

I don't have a problem with this, but I do wish they were more aggressive in general with cheap knock-offs. However, I have started supporting a local game shop for my retro purchases as I am dealing with someone directly.

Something tells me customers are eventually going to get fed up with all this crap companies are coming up with. You can only rely on your hardcore fans for so long until they too decide that they've had enough. Video games may be a hell of a lot more popular now than they were in the very early 1980s, but that doesn't mean there's no chance of another video game crash.

This is why competition is good. Back to eBay, guys!

I actually like bootlegs. Where else can I buy Resident Evil's weird unreleased gameboy port, or English Mother 3 on a real cartridge?

Good I'm glad they do this so only real copies are in the wild

There has been a lot of changes to the marketplace recently which really makes me think of just putting the crap I can't sell elsewhere on Amazon. Their policies are starting to go against sellers and I'm wondering if they really want a real marketplace at all or just one with distributors that will get fulfilled by Amazon.

So in other words it's back to Ebay and I am going to buy far less products on Amazon for now on.

@DrDaisy I honestly feel like the video game industry is heading into another crash soon if they keep doing things the way they have been doing them. I mean the writing is on the wall, big video game sites are already starting to collapse and big video game retail chains such as Gamestop are having to shut down a lot of their locations. Gamers are furious at all the big businesses and a lot of the big developers have recently become highly unpopular due to controversies. This can't be good for any industry.

That's stupid amazon. And you aint the only place to sell used items, why do you care if people wanna sell stuff they don't want anymore?

Amazon is rapidly becoming a joke. For the first time in my life I'm actually considering switching most of my business to WalMart. I'm gagging just thinking of it.

Amazon's prices keep getting higher, their deliveries less reliable (for a huge annual fee!), and now they're treating their Marketplace sellers, arguably Amazon's greatest differentiator as a "digital shopping mall manager" the way WalMart always treated vendors, forcing everyone through approvals and making sure everyone is "in line" behind how they want it to be sold, and by whom.

The Evil Empire of Wally World is starting to actually look good. or maybe AliExpress. If I'm going to buy poorly made Chinese made products from totalitarian collectivists, I might as well pay 20% less and buy direct from the world masters of the policy.

They're trying to turn the Marketplace into a closed and controlled vendor stream rather than an actual Marketplace so it's all controlled by Amazon. Maybe Jeff Bezos' real father is Sam Walton.

@kuliddar Yeah, Amazon overall is starting to feel like Amazon wants to get out of retail entirely, and just wants to be a digital storefront for carefully curated large vendors. That leaves Walmart as the last actual large retailer in the US more or less, digital or physical. So much for competition. Who needs retail when you've got the Pentagon under contract for data hosting?

@LUIGITORNADO except they dont allow trade ins anymore

Screw them. Glad I just got Mario sports superstars from a 3rd party vendor.

Dang, last month I managed to rebuild most of my old lost N64 library by buying from a store that specializes in used games, and am only missing Mario Party 3 and Banjo-Kazooie. I considered buying them from Amazon if I couldn't get them through the local market. If this new policy gets in the way of that, I might use my ED64 cart for more than just mods/randomizers.

@Nookingtons Ha! Yes! Like that guy that had a pyramid of NES minis and selling them for a fortune when they were scarce (though I think he was on eBay).

They should require approval for cartridge/card based games else they will be labeled as reproductions. Sellers can prove the cart is real by taking a picture of the PCB and for DS games raking a picture of the area that shows 'Nintendo'.

Maybe Amazon got too many complaint about people selling repros as authentic and have decided to do something about it.

@Crono1973
What you say would make sense if Amazon had any rights to approve or not the sale of Nintendo related products per se.
But they are Amazon, not Nintendo, hence such rights must have been given them by Nintendo itself. So Nintendo is behind all of this.
Anyway, falsification of their trademarks is already not allowed in any case for obvious legal constraints. This is why I think they did all of this for advantaging products that have a legit Nintendo license to sell (such as the suckish Hori products).

It's good I did it in time to buy a Yocktec controller which has a damn rumble, unlike all 3rd party Nintendo licensed controllers.

@Cartridgemaster Of course they have the authority to be selective about what people sell on their platform just as any retro game store checks the games they buy for authenticity.

@Crono1973 sorry, I had already sent my comment before I could complete it. Of course they have the right to check for the authenticity of a product, but this is because it's illegal to counterfeit a trademark.
What they can't do is to deny the resale of a "nintendo compatible" product just because nintendo didn't approve it.

I bought some things used from there. Couple Zelda games and Wii U games. Usually ones with pictures. Sucks this won't be an option anymore.

@Cartridgemaster They should mark unverified items so consumers know.

New boss same as the old boss.

It's too bad they couldn't find another way, but any sideways glance at eBay will show you that pirate cartridges are rampant. I'm always wary of buying products with no photos, and it's surprising that Amazon doesn't think it's important at all.

@Asaki Many eBay sellers will take a picture of the PCB.

I read this as “Amazon is having a sale on clamps”. Then I realised that this isn’t Besseylife.

Being sued by Nintendo vs losing some revenue. Easy choice.

@Crono1973 Well that's a different story, deliberately selling a knock off as an original is more to do with a particular seller being a scumbag then someone simply selling a used game they don't want anymore.

Ebay people....Ebay

@Tempestryke Well no, it's about people being afraid to buy games on Amazon because they are likely to pay for an authentic game and get a reproduction.

Reproductions have their place, clearly marked.

I'm not sure why they're speculating about if it was Amazon or Nintendo driving this decision. It's obviously Nintendo. This new rule only affects first party games on Nintendo's consoles. Not only would such a specific restriction coming from Amazon not make sense, but this fits perfectly with Nintendo's MO. They've always been #@%& like that.

Approval from who? Amazon? Nintendo? Luigi?
How?

I miss the old days of Half.com, back before eBay bought them. Half.com used to be great for buying used everything. Video Games. Movies. Music. Books. Etc. Lots of things. Great prices for used things on there. I bought a lot of stuff there. Then eBay finally bought them, and eventually shut it down. Shame. I haven't come across another site that was nearly as good as Half.com was for used Video Game/Movies/Music/Books/etc.

Sounds like a great way to have buyers and sellers to move over to eBay.

If I'm reading this correctly, this could be a huge problem for retro gamers who shop there. Luckily, we still have Ebay, which is generally better for retro gaming anyway.

@Mountain_Man Please put away your tinfoil hat. There is a literal DELUGE of counterfeit gaming stuffs being sold on eBay and Amazon, so it's great that at least Amazon is FINALLY tightening up on it. If anybody is concerned that sells legit games, they are probably trying to hide something. If they are an honest seller, they should have no fear. If they sell fakes, they should at least put in bold writing "REPRO" or something.

I think this is for the best. There are so many bootleg Nintendo carts out there on eBay especially as well as Amazon. It hurts to pay for what you think is official only to find out you were conned.

I wonder if this will help to prevent bootlegs?

I remember, long ago, I purchased SMA3: Yoshi Island on the GBA and was happy to finally own the game.

Then it turns out if was a bootleg because the game didn't save... I was really bummered out.
It wasn't until recently that I finally managed to get an original copy to enjoy.

My biggest issue with amazon is, mostly no pictures. With ebay you could at least try to spot the easy fake GBA games.

Thank goth. They've been selling fake games for 15 - 20 years now.

@Mountain_Man Given than eBay is still a thing and thriving I'm not sure you're right.

@Nico07 Absolutely. I've found buying on eBay to be best anyway as they tend to have a fairly robust process to resolve issues if you're sold a fake.

Well fancy that, it was all a big mistake. I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will still find something to speculate about this.

That's quite a strange thing to happen "in error"

Well there we go. Turns out Amazon do, in fact, still have credibility as an online marketplace. Still, ‘in error’ reads more like ‘hasty backtrack’.

Sounds like a back paddle to me.

@SuperToe You can only sell if you journey far and wide to get permission from the most obscure Nintendo character of all...

Carry on folks, Amazon is fine with you selling repros and claiming they are authentic.

@LN3000 It was no error, they got loads of negative feedback and reversed it

Loljk guys! Don't hate us!

Reading between the lines, I would not be surprised if Nintendo were trying to limit the sales of second hand games. Anyone buying a Switch now will have a vast array of used games to choose from, impacting on games sales.

I've always said that the Switch bubble is looking thin and the Switch could become a victim of its own success. To many second hand games on the market and two many indi games ideal for a handheld device and not enough big NEW open world games.

I finished the new Zelda, it was ok if somewhat frustrating at times. Not worth keeping as it has little replay value, but an idea Christmas gift for someone looking on eBay.

The advantage of physical over, over priced eshop.

Amazon is a company that offers consumers rock bottom prices by abusing labor, dodging taxes, lobbying against the interests of its own employees and host cities, monopolostic business practices, and eroding the value of what creative and productive people produce. They also destroy communities by destroying small businesses. Shop local y’all. Save your souls! Signed, manager of an independent bookstore and lifelong Nintendo fanboy.

How do you delist all of these games and send an email to sellers stating the fact, in error? You don’t. More like you realised the error of your ways and did a 180...

@Averagewriter yes and they can use the stick or carrot approach.

The Stick. the equate to piracy as you say.

The Carrot. Make downloading more attractive.

@betterbygames I feel your pain, my friend. How amazing would it be to pursue your passion like that and open up your own legendary games shop? I’m lucky enough to live near this amazing place:

http://videogamesnewyork.com

@nofriendo Amazon isn't cheap. 10 years ago maybe they were, but if you compare, they're often more expensive than speciality competitors, and nearly always more expensive than their brick and mortar competitors. And many marketplace sellers are simply gougers. Sometimes Amazon itself is as well. You just pay for convenience. Unfortunately since the combination of WalMart and Amazon have created the illusion of low prices for so long they've forced brick and mortar into an unsustainable model of one one big store every hour or so of travel, so that in many areas your choices are pay more, buy Amazon and HOPE you get your package in 2 days (but if they don't bother, they give themselves 5 days to fix it...), Or travel over an hour round trip to shop somewhere else. .. And that's if you only shop on weekends during off peak hours... If you try traveling agaist the commute on a weekday you're going to be traveling 2 or more hours round trip to buy that toaster oven. So Amazon is becoming the only practical store in many places. Other than Walmart and Ali.... Both just as evil if not worse, but, looking more and more appealing compared to Amazon's "Watch for rising prices" policy.

Because if there's one thing America wanted, it's spending more time on the road, hidden cost increases, and a retail model that resembles the phone carrier model with 3 bad choices to pick from.

@NEStalgia yes exactly, amazon hasn’t been cheap (at least for videogames) for years now. Probably 3-5 years ago I used to buy a lot of my games there but these days they are more expensive than most other online retailers...

@Mince funny question. Yes I am aware, but this conversation is about the Switch.

@Mince no it hasn't caused Switch failures, but there are consequences. Like people stealing from shops; a lot of the loss is off set by the shop, by charging honest folk a small percentage extra.
Game prices could be lower if the second hand market didn't exist.

Games in general are poor value for what they are, especially if they are downloaded. The second hand market is a way of recouping some of gamers outlay from a physical copy. Nintendo would make as much profit from a game if they sold their game downloads 50% less and did not release physical copies.