Nintendo Thwarts Scalpers With Animal Crossing amiibo Card Restock

Won’t this just lead the scalpers to ordering the most popular cards from Nintendo and then, you know, scalping harder?

On demand manufacturing so preorders can't run out on something that would otherwise get scalped to death? That's incredibly consumer friendly, I applaud Nintendo's decision here.

@gaga64 it's on demand. Meaning there's no limit to how many preorders can be placed, so there's no risk of scalpers keeping everyone else from purchasing them.

I have a couple of unopened packs from the New Leaf days, but I'm more than happy to just get whatever villagers come my way.

Personally I have never understood why you would intentionally invite villagers you have had before in previous games. The fun for me is in seeing which new ones turn up. Whenever a villager tells me they are thinking of leaving I let them go and then am excited to see who will move in next.

Fun fact: there was someone selling hundreds of packs of series 2 to 4 of these things on UK eBay for 2.10-2.40 a pop, end of last year.

They should write a code update too that allows the Amiibo to act as a card and invite that villager instead of only use is a pic on Harve's island. Further, allow Amiibo to be storage vessels for your island as fail safe if your Switch brakes/stolen or you get the "brown the screen of death" I have read about online.

I have about 80 cards from series 1. It would be great if these restocks came to the West. I'd love to complete it for my collection but I don't wanna pay these absurd prices.

I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. A year ago Amazon had them on sale for like $4 a pack. I was like "I'll do it later" .....bahhhhh lol

It would love if Nintendo did a pre order scheme with more of their limited editions. Its always frustrating to get that stuff.

Psssst. You don't even need the cards if you have a Samsung phone.

@DJP-
Can you explain a bit more, please????

I personally thought a fun idea would be for Nintendo to make a social media-like app for the Nookphone so that you could connect with all the characters and even invite some over to your island to live there. It’d be a great way to get some of the characters that you want and familiarize yourself with the almost 400 villagers roster.

@CowCatcher Not for the 50 that were in the camper vans or the Sanrio set, only the 4 main series.

Really hope they re-release those camper van sets, I didn't get any because I didn't realise they had some villagers that weren't in the regular set!

This is good. Know what would be even better? Just putting them in store shelves for a while.

Don't get me wrong though, this is a huge step up. They never should have made the cards work with this game if they had no intention of re-releasing them. They haven't been on store shelves in a LONG time. At least a couple of years.

They should port Animal Crossing amiibo Festival to Switch and see if people are willing to spend $60 to get 2 amiibo - which won't visit the campsite - and 3 cards who will.

Though unlock "survival island" in the Switch version from the start. I've owned the game for years, played it twice, and that minigame is still locked. But I think it was a free download in New Leaf.

The above is sarcasm, all of ACaF should be a free download for ACNH, there's nothing to it.

We still need loads here, we still haven’t even got albums for the series 3 and series 4 cards yet 😔

@k8sMum if you've got a phone with an nfc reader writer, there are apps (and empty cards at ali express), which let you write amibo data onto a an empty card which you can use

@muscpt You already can invite villagers with amiibo cards. You unlock it later.

I bought bundles of these cards when I was going through BOTW. They would grant me hundreds of steaks and apples everyday. I’m guessing I have close to 100. Don’t know who they are or what series, but I think I paid $25 for them on the Bay in 2017 or 2018.

@k8sMum Probably referring to how you can use some phones to edit NFC chips and make your own amiibo.

Please put "Nintendo of Japan" in the title. It has been known for a long time that NOJ is going to restock the Amiibo cards, so when someone brings this up as news, people want to think that another region has made the same decision. If you'd put NOJ in the title it would dispel that quickly.

@TheLightSpirit I think it's harsh to call those selling the cards scalpers. They collected the cards in the past and we're now at a peak time where they've jumped up in price. It's people buying Switches and Ring Fit Adventure and immediately placing them for sale on eBay that are the scalpers!!

I don't think I'm gonna buy into the cards because I don't mind whatever villagers I get. But I'm happy to see anything that hits scalpers where it hurts.

If Europe gets a restock I hope we get better packs here this time. 3 cards are a joke once you have most of the special ones.

@kupocake Yeah I also remember those being sold here in the US for dollars. If I would have only known that my family would go into this game as hard as we have, I would have bought them!

Not holding my breath for NoA to do anything like this. They’ve stopped giving a damn about North American fans and consumers a long time ago. As for scalpers, I hope the karma bus hits them hard... then backs up.

@Kevin_13 it’s not harsh at all. What should we call them? Opportunistic scum? There are dirt bags buying up all available stock wherever they can find it and scalping. There’s a rule I live by whenever I’m at a crossroads in my decision making: when in doubt, don’t be a dick. Far too many people lack this rule in their lives.

@TheLightSpirit It's Nintendo as well as the buyers that are at fault when it comes to the outrageous prices. If Nintendo had confirmed the cards would be re-released sooner, buyers would have waited. If the buyers didn't panic and accepted waiting, the sellers wouldn't succeed. I've been collecting Nintendo merchandise for twenty years and collected every one of these cards when they were originally released. The spike did tempt me but I'm holding on to all mine to sell as a collection in the future... well my girlfriend hopes 😂

@Tsusasi Until Nintendo announced they were re-releasing them, the cards were a thing of the past when it came to purchasing them. Unless a product means something to someone, who doesn't sell merchandise when it has a huge increase in value? I understand the sellers who buy stuff here and now, and then sell it on are out of order, but the ones who hold on to things as antiques have every right to take advantage. People's anger should be taken out on themself for not collecting them sooner and/or Nintendo for not re-releasing them when the game launched. Not the scalpers. Nintendo Life did warn fans before launch.

Still need amiibo cards! Not paying 50+$ like it's listed for on Amazon and other websites.. hoping the U.S. does a restock!!

@Kevin_13 exactly. I hoarded tons of animal crossing cards form japan because I was getting them buy the pack for pennies and I just loved animal crossing that much. The fact that I made 880 bucks selling doubles was just mere coincidence.

@Yorumi letting people pick and choose defeats the purpose in making a full set. blind packs are the only way to efficiently make sure all the cards are evenly distributed, even tho you might have to spend more to get the character you like. keep in mind the amiibo cards originally had limited functionality and that was a secondary bonus. The main draw was collecting all of the cards. If you think of them as just new horizon invite fodder then you’re missing the point.

@Tsusasi dude these cards didn’t really sell well In Japan or the states. They were going for pennies at toys r us’s and local shops clearance sales in japan for a long time. It’s not really an issue of scalping because you could barely give away a lot of those cards a few years ago, it’s just the amiibo functionality in new horizons creating a supply and demand that only collectors could supply. And they took advantage. I can’t even be mad at that

@Yorumi Nintendo is a business. A business priorities how to make the most money whilst keeping customers commited. Yes, I agree it sucks but it's life.

@Ooccoo_Jr I do exactly the same! If only I could make them leave faster....

@Yorumi see still missing the point. All cards are produced equally with exception of The foil cards, and all regular cards were distributed equally among packs. It’s not a Pokémon txt type of situation where there’s uncommon and common, they were all distributed equally. Blind packing them is the most fair way to distribute all cards. Letting you pick and choose would just mean them producing cards in an unequal manner. Other than just releasing the whole set for purchase, but that also defeats the purpose of collectible cards. And this goes for literally any type of collectible cards.

People are likely just gonna scalp those as well. As long as they control the supply, the price will remain inflated

@Yorumi like I said you pretty much have missed the point in card collecting entirely. All they are doing is re releasing an old product. Just because the cards are being used or wanted to play new horizons rather than to actually collect is not Nintendo’s problem and that wasn’t the reason they released those cards in the first place. If you wanted to pick and choose they would just release an amiibo figure line and you already know most of those won’t go into consumers hands retail.

Anyways each set is created upon a set number and wrapped, then they box them. Just because the pre order isn’t finite, doesn’t mean they are produced any differently and all buyers have a equal chance to get the card they want. There’s no rarities just larger demand for some characters.

@Jayvir if you can order as many cards as you want pre sale then that should Eliminate scalping in the short term . If the pre orders were limited then yea scalpers could buy them all up.

@Yorumi come on don’t get technical. The only reason people want these cards is to invite animals to thier islands. They don’t care About collecting the cards, and this is why the prices for them have skyrocketed.Don’t act like you didn’t know. Nobody wanted these cards like that while they were on the market.

Your argument makes no sense really as you’re trying to make it seem like Nintendo Is ripping people off by selling blind packs when there are no rarities within the cards and pre selling them to order. The point of blind packs is to make sure all of thier cards in a set get sold and not just the ones “people need” if that was the case they could make an amiibo figure line and be done with it, but scalpers would eat that up.

Wish they did the same with the Xenoblade Collector's set, bunch of clowns.

@Yorumi they are releasing them in blind packs to make sure that 1) all cards in a set get sold 2) purchasing of cards are fair and equal for everyone
Your argument only makes sense if there was a rarity and some cards were more uncommon/rare than others but that’s not the case.

So like I said, you’ve missed the point of the cards entirely and are basically saying they should have created an amiibo figure series instead. Because that’s what you’re really asking for.

the collector in me is fighting back, I still love pokemon cards though

@Yosher
Yep, yep. Got 'em to do. Thanks for info though! Wish the actual physical Amiibo would seem to work to invite given Amiibo Figure to your island...we have Kappn and he is always labeled as busy less you are taking picture with him at Harve's place.

@muscpt Sadly the ones with figures, including Kapp'n, are special characters, and you can't invite those outside of Photopia. This goes for any character with a shiny/holo card as well.

I bought Amiibo Festival back when I thought "It's Nintendo, it can't be THAT bad." I have a good stock of cards now including Ankha and Lolly, so I'm good for now.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/799639847/animal-crossing-amiibo-card-fully? Can buy specific cards for £2 a pop from here! Appreciate might be a bit late for people to see this.

@Chlocean That game is my most shameful guilty pleasure. I don't care how trash everyone else says it is, I like Amiibo Festival. It was kind of embarrassing when one of my friends burst into my house and caught me playing it. He was like, "What the hell is that and what is wrong with you?!"

Lol. Nice. I recently gotten New Leaf and would like to get some of these. 😁

@Yosher Thanks for update on shiny cards, good to know.

@TheFox I still play it every once in a while, too. I just wish it did more to convince me it's worth 60 dollars, and that there were more incentive to go in all different directions, rather than straight to the 4 stamps.