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My "theory" on why Amazon sold the SNES Mini on Treasure Trucks

D

"D"

I'm extremely insecure with how much f2p mobile games are encroaching on Nintendo
Its just a thought really, but maybe this was their weird way of combating the scalpers? Now, I didn't order one on Amazon so those that did please clarify but I'm thinking they didn't really enforce a hard limit on them? So if they DIDN'T...then that means that whoever got their orders in could have ordered as much as they want.

So I guess to help fight scalping, maybe they held off on shipping out those orders and opted to use the Treasure Trucks to give people a "fighting chance" to get them...after all you'll have to go to where ever the truck is and pick it up, so that maybe eliminated some of the more "lazy" individuals or even people that aren't in the near area. I'm not sure if they imposed a hard limit on these too, but I DO know that when I got mine from the Treasure Truck, I ordered it around 11-12 right when they sent me the text message that its available..... and I didn't go pick it up until 30 mins before they were shutting it down....and they still had QUITE a few left (I'd say about 10-12) and this was in Houston, Texas. So unless I'm wrong, they must've had a purchase limit.

I know it's still jacked up that Amazon hoed the people that ordered theirs online, especially the legit buyers that actually wanted one to use and keep..but maybe that's why they did what they did.

Anyways if anyone can clarify any of the points I brought up then feel free to do so. Also if this has been discussed to death then mods do what you gotta do
 
J

Joffy

Neo Member
It is just a pure advertisement, the sale of SNES Minis is just a drop in the ocean for Amazon.
 
M

Mendrox

Member
No they just had a charge ordered for that truck. Everyone else just got fucked. Amazon doesnt care about scalpers they still get their money.
 
M

Marcel

Member
There's nothing to indicate that customer orders were actually held back because of the Treasure Truck. The inventory for the TT was probably decided and set aside months beforehand and Amazon doesn't care if it creates a logistical issue because they have your pre-order dollar. Promoting the TT is more important than you.

Don't pre-order Nintendo products from Amazon. I don't know how many times this needs to be said before people actually get it.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
I imagine they did them through the Treasure Trucks to promote the service, which just rolled out in a bunch of new cities. What better way to get people onboard with the concept, than to start it with the most sought-after retail product of the year?
 
T

tokkun

Member
Amazon has no financial incentive to combat scalpers.
They do have a financial incentive to promote their own service.

Which of these things do you think is more likely to motivate Jeff Bezos?
 
C

CryptiK

Member
I think people complaining about it have 0 idea how retail works. This is no different than a store reserving stock for different areas.
 
G

Gai Murakumo

Member
If they were actually fighting scalping they would have a system in place that makes it so it is limit 1 per customer or if they try to use different accounts to buy a product it detects the IP and makes it so only 1 product can be bought by that IP for a period of time.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
They did the same thing with the NES (including the wonky pre-order messaging and phrasing). They chose a highly desireable item to get the most PR for the Truck program. It was pure marketing. The stock they used would already have been allocated for that so it's vanishingly unlikely your pre-order was "stolen" although ultimately it's a semantic difference.
 
D

"D"

I'm extremely insecure with how much f2p mobile games are encroaching on Nintendo
CryptiK said:
I think people complaining about it have 0 idea how retail works. This is no different than a store reserving stock for different areas.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I'm not one of the people that complained about the Treasure Truck "conspiracy", as I got my SNES from them with no hassle..but rather this thought I had was a random epiphany that I thought I'd share to see what people thought
 
I

inner-G

Banned
Stinkles said:
TThey chose a highly desireable item to get the most PR for the Truck program. It was pure marketing.
Click to expand...

^ This

They weren't looking out for anyone but their brand

CryptiK said:
I think people complaining about it have 0 idea how retail works. This is no different than a store reserving stock for different areas.
Click to expand...
Except Amazon is a website and series of warehouses, not a retail chain with different locations to manage.

They took these items and sold them via their Treasure Trucks after they had already sold preorders on them.

A retail store doesn't take preorders on something then send all their stock to a different location before fulfilling the orders.
 
R

rrs

Member
Gai Murakumo said:
If they were actually fighting scalping they would have a system in place that makes it so it is limit 1 per customer or if they try to use different accounts to buy a product it detects the IP and makes it so only 1 product can be bought by that IP for a period of time.
Click to expand...
IP limits are bad for a lot of reasons, and wouldn't stop the problem anyways when said people can order off home, local hotspots, and phone internet
 
D

Dark_3nergy

Member
Amazon took in too many pre-orders. It's having a hard time fulfilling these orders as well.

I bought a weather radio from them, and had it sent to SouthWest Florida prior to Irma's impact on the region. Should I be upset and spit out conspiracy theories as to why that radio arrives 3 weeks late? No, I understood the risks.

SNES classic is in the same boat. Those who thought it was a guarantee are the ones disappointed. There is never a guarantee with pre-orders done digitally.

I did pre-order the SNES classic online BTW, Target and Wal Mart. I also took steps to make sure I had it by getting the item in person, in case those pre-orders failed.
 
B

Bruce Springsteen

Member
Aren’t Nintendo going to keep producing this well until next year? I don’t understand why there is a big rush to get it it is not going to be out of stock permanently
 
T

Tanston

Member
CryptiK said:
I think people complaining about it have 0 idea how retail works. This is no different than a store reserving stock for different areas.
Click to expand...

Hitting the nail right on the head.

Amazon is going to allocate X units to warehouse A for online orders X units to warehouse B for online orders X units to treasure truck. The truck is probably treated as just another distribution center to allocate units to. No different then gamestop allocating X units to store 23 and X units to store 46 and X units to online warehouse for web orders.
 
M

Mbrill82

Member
Nope, Amazon doesn't concern itself with scalpers, no big companies do.

Scalpers only seem like a huge deal to hobbyists like us, they likely have very little influence on the market. I see the same thing in the action figure collecting community I'm a part of. Yes, scalpers suck, I just don't think the big companies care or do anything to combat it.
 
B

bmcphail2008

Member
[QUOTE="D";251791868]Its just a thought really, but maybe this was their weird way of combating the scalpers? Now, I didn't order one on Amazon so those that did please clarify but I'm thinking they didn't really enforce a hard limit on them? So if they DIDN'T...then that means that whoever got their orders in could have ordered as much as they want.

So I guess to help fight scalping, maybe they held off on shipping out those orders and opted to use the Treasure Trucks to give people a "fighting chance" to get them...after all you'll have to go to where ever the truck is and pick it up, so that maybe eliminated some of the more "lazy" individuals or even people that aren't in the near area. I'm not sure if they imposed a hard limit on these too, but I DO know that when I got mine from the Treasure Truck, I ordered it around 11-12 right when they sent me the text message that its available..... and I didn't go pick it up until 30 mins before they were shutting it down....and they still had QUITE a few left (I'd say about 10-12) and this was in Houston, Texas. So unless I'm wrong, they must've had a purchase limit.

I know it's still jacked up that Amazon hoed the people that ordered theirs online, especially the legit buyers that actually wanted one to use and keep..but maybe that's why they did what they did.

Anyways if anyone can clarify any of the points I brought up then feel free to do so. Also if this has been discussed to death then mods do what you gotta do[/QUOTE]

I can state for a fact that when I picked up my unit from the Treasure Truck at The Grove in Los Angeles, most people I saw walking back to the parking garage had two or had their spouses or significant others with them and each had one. I also saw one guy that had four of them. In short, even if your theory has some merit, it sure didn't stop potential scalpers or people that were just downright greedy from grabbing multiples. It also didn't stop people from going to Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us to grab additional units. If anything it just made it easier for scalpers to lock in units while they were in line elsewhere.
 
Luckydog

Luckydog

Member
Dark_3nergy said:
Amazon took in too many pre-orders. It's having a hard time fulfilling these orders as well.

I bought a weather radio from them, and had it sent to SouthWest Florida prior to Irma's impact on the region. Should I be upset and spit out conspiracy theories as to why that radio arrives 3 weeks late? No, I understood the risks.

SNES classic is in the same boat. Those who thought it was a guarantee are the ones disappointed. There is never a guarantee with pre-orders done digitally.

I did pre-order the SNES classic online BTW, Target and Wal Mart. I also took steps to make sure I had it by getting the item in person, in case those pre-orders failed.
Click to expand...

How does that even fly? If they fulfilled half or even a quarter of the online orders, maybe they just took too many. But have they fulfilled ANY of the online pre-orders?
 
M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Scalpers are going to get fucked on this no matter what. This GameStop in the middle of nowhere had 20 today.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
It was a way to give more publicity to Amazon Prime, since Treasure Trucks are an exclusive perk. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
Fox Mulder

Fox Mulder

Member
It was to promote their stupid trucks that only exist in a few cities. They don't care about scalpers and SNES classics are nothing to them.
 
J

jacobeid

Banned
Bruce Springsteen said:
Aren’t Nintendo going to keep producing this well until next year? I don’t understand why there is a big rush to get it it is not going to be out of stock permanently
Click to expand...

At this point nobody trusts Nintendo when it comes to stock. Gamestop's restock yesterday is a good sign though.
 
D

Dark_3nergy

Member
Luckydog said:
How does that even fly? If they fulfilled half or even a quarter of the online orders, maybe they just took too many. But have they fulfilled ANY of the online pre-orders?
Click to expand...

I have been following the SNES Pre-order Shitshow Discussion since the thread was created pretty closely.

According to SNES Classic Amazon Pre-order gaf, they've yet to receive their units. Some of the posters in the thread have been going back and forth with Amazon CS for awhile now with no resolution -- no solid shipment date insight.

If we look at NeOak's OP

NeOak's Original Post said:
US SNES ver retailers that have done preorders
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0721GGGS9/?tag=neogaf0e-20 (ninja early morning)
Click to expand...

These people were up around 3~4AM EST to order the unit. Which is when the link went live.

I was one of the people apart of this batch;

US SNES ver retailers that have done preorders AND THEN FUCKING CANCELLED THEM
Walmart (Up for ~40 mins, July 21 2017 from ~8:30PM to 9:10PM EDT/UTC-4) https://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Nin...ition/55791858 CANCELLED ALL JULY 26 2017
Click to expand...

Online ordering is a freaking mess.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
What if it's because Nintendo told them "Don't sell these to your online customers, or else we will stop producing them and nobody will be able to get them in future"? It's just a thought really, but maybe this was their weird way of doing business? Nintendo has long shown that they are scared of this "internet" thing, as shown with their handling of online communication. What if this also stretches to online purchases? Identity/credit card theft is a big issue, and perhaps Nintendo just doesn't like it when their customers are exposed to such risks.

So I guess to help fight credit card theft, maybe Amazon was made to hold off on shipping out those orders and opted to use the Treasure Trucks to give people a "safe environment" to get them...after all you'll have to go to where ever the truck is and pay in person, so that maybe eliminated some of the "online gangsters". I'm not sure if they imposed hard identity checks on these, but I DO know that when I got mine from the Treasure Truck, I had to show my ID card in addition to my credit card.

I know it's still jacked up that Amazon hoed the people that ordered theirs online, especially the legit buyers that actually wanted one to use and keep. But maybe it's all down to Nintendo.

Anyways if anyone can clarify any of the points I brought up then feel free to do so. It's obviously just a theory.


No, Amazon simply used the majority of its stock, if not all, to promote their trucks. The trucks bring in publicity for the Amazon brand, and is thus used for hot items in particular.
 
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