EpochError
Neo Member
Yup. It's a jerk move, I don't care about these "b-b-but his self-interest" justifications, especially when its framed as coldly as "fuck them, they're idiots. They deserve to be gouged."
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Dude buys around 45 copies of the LE Hyrule Historia just to sell on Craigslist
- Thread starter Xzeon
- Start date
Yup. It's a jerk move, I don't care about these "b-b-but his self-interest" justifications, especially when its framed as coldly as "fuck them, they're idiots. They deserve to be gouged."
GreatMightySymp
Member
Maybe this was where the copy I ordered from Amazon went to. >.>
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I love all the "fuck you got mine" type posts in this thread.
More or less the same as ticket scalping from what I can see.
More or less the same as ticket scalping from what I can see.
fvng
Member
Amazon didn't set a limit per customer, blame Amazon.
Everyone had a fair shot in ordering the item. Some of the people complaining didnt even bother placing an order.
Amazon is canceling orders? They fucked up and deserve blame.
I forgot to place an order for this item. That's my fault, not anyone else's.
If you have a problem with items appreciating in value, then sell your favorite limited edition game for its list price instead if whatever the current after market value is. This item would have a high resale value regardless because of the 4000 production limit.
LyleLanley
Banned
Fucking scalpers. I don't know why I'm surprised so many in this thread are saying that he's doing nothing wrong or that you'd do the same thing.
R
Retro_
Unconfirmed Member
Seems like whoever produced this product is more at fault than the guy taking advantage of the system to me
Instead of creating a false sense of value for their product with an extremely limited print run, why don't they instead just produce enough units to meet demand?
because there's nothing special about this guy or what he's doing. This happens literally EVERY SINGLE TIME some kind of collector's book is announced to have a limited print run.
I mean just look at how many sealed copies of Xenoblade are for sale on Ebay and Amazon for double the MSRP.
This is just a byproduct of that kind of production run. Blame publishers for not recognizing the demand and producing more units to meet it.
Instead of creating a false sense of value for their product with an extremely limited print run, why don't they instead just produce enough units to meet demand?
because there's nothing special about this guy or what he's doing. This happens literally EVERY SINGLE TIME some kind of collector's book is announced to have a limited print run.
I mean just look at how many sealed copies of Xenoblade are for sale on Ebay and Amazon for double the MSRP.
This is just a byproduct of that kind of production run. Blame publishers for not recognizing the demand and producing more units to meet it.
Well, yeah, he's buying a limited product in bulk with plans of reselling individually for a higher price. That's what stores do.
That's the other great part: if there really are tens of thousands of Zelda fans burnt by scalpers, all Nintendo has to do is authorize a second edition and they can all be happy.
Yeah wait till Class of Heroes 2 physical copies start circulating. Hell its still going on with Earthbound, and honestly that isnt actually rare...just highly sought after.
Not really.
In this scenario, there's a big mob outside the stadium gates, punching and kicking each other for limited tickets that have a rare hologram on them.
Then the camera pans over a little bit and there are ten other ticket windows with short, orderly lines, selling stacks of better-looking tickets for much cheaper, which will get people into front-row seats for the exact same event.
doctorcdcs
Member
Looks similar to the playCanada /Ni No Kuni WE situation, only difference being that if amazon was the retailer that sold that many copies to him, they're the ones at fault for not setting a limit, especially knowing beforehand how many were going to be published, as opposed to Namco, which only made WE's depending on how many orders were placed by customers during its initial offering; playCanada made an order for 200+ and so namco made 200+ for them.
Ugh, not a fan of the gamecollecting subforum on reddit either.
Ugh, not a fan of the gamecollecting subforum on reddit either.
encephalon
Member
It wasn't so long ago that there was a huge thread about scalping where someone claimed they felt good about helping out a family by selling them a Wii at an inflated price. Bless his heart.
Why should Amazon give a shit? It guarantees they sell through their allotment, and their job is to sell books.
For that matter, at this point re NnK, you're literally arguing for FEWER PEOPLE TO EVENTUALLY GET COPIES solely because it'll make the scalpers suffer too.
fvng
Member
/thread
yes, good thing he drained all the inventory so i would be forced to spend even more money.
what a saint.
also everyone is ignoring that, it sold out in half a day, and that a bunch of peoples orders where cancelled due to not having enough copies.
Portugeezer
Member
Cunt.
derExperte
Member
If you do something on this scale in Germany (buy a huge amount of any good for the purpose of profit) you get the status of a business and have to pay taxes. Which a lot of those hoarders don't realize so if it's the same in the US it could be tax fraud.
DR2K
Banned
Would have been drained regardless hence the term, "Limited Edition".
i dont think Murrica has anything like that.
fvng
Member
You'd be paying a premium in the after market regardless because they were made in limited quantities. It also doesn't change the fact that anyone who is presently complaining about this didn't bother to order the item.
And 45 copies is not draining their inventory.... It's literally about 1.25%
This is the part where the affected parties should bitch at Amazon for having a system that isn't giving accurate inventory counts.
DidntKnowJack
Member
And how about the people who did order it...shit...pre-ordered it months ahead of time only to have their orders cancelled because demand couldn't be met? Assholes like this, and you know there are more than one, prevent people from buying these books.
abstract alien
Member
I don't see anything wrong here.
DR2K
Banned
First come, first serve. They should have limited it to 1 per customer, but apparantly they didn't. I'm sure if there's enough demand there will be a second print.
R
Retro_
Unconfirmed Member
Publisher's fault for not meeting demand.
or perhaps mission accomplished. That could be precisely what they were after with a limited print run. Produce 4000 units. Sell 4000 units at full price.
yes, but its people who bought 1 copy so they could keep it and enjoy it VS a single guy buying a huge chunk of product just to turn around and immediately sell it for double the amount and boast that all the copies are gone.
id rather someone that actually wanted it have it at a fair price.
half the time shit like this becomes 'super rare' because people buy them in massive amounts 3 seconds after it comes out just to scalp em, just look at the concert ticket industry.
Keyser Soze
Member
Admitting he has that many is likely making the product feel less rare, and thus he likely will get a lower approx amount per unit sold.
fvng
Member
Why not mass produce everything, am I right? Lets make everything non-collectable Walmart bargain bin tier products.
It doesn't change the fact that there is a limited finite number of these out in the wild.
youngwerther
Banned
Someone using their surplus of money to immorally make more money?
Is that how that works?
Is that how that works?
doctorcdcs
Member
1.) Amazon should give a shit because they ended up cancelling orders other people made as a result of going over their allotment.. BECAUSE THEY MIGHT HAVE GIVEN 40+ COPIES OUT OF A 4000 RUN TO ONE ORDER. A 4000 run that they weren't the only retailer for. In the end, I was just making a theoretical assumption if amazon was indeed the retailer that sold it to the scalper.
2.) How in the world did your brain come up with that? Ni No Kuni WE was sold to Playcanada during the Ninostarter promo. That promo had no limits because they wanted to see how many they had to MAKE. No one lost out on a WE because of that. Their order ironically contributed to unlocking more of the extras in the WE as a result.
I was just saying there is a difference between HH LE and Ni No Kuni because with the book, there was a set limit from the very beginning by Dark Horse, whereas with Ni No Kuni, there wasn't one because Namco were only going to make a certain number of WE's based on the number of orders they received.
That's actually a big percentage of the complete inventory of a product for one person to have.
abstract alien
Member
He took a risk here. It's not like the money was guaranteed to come back to him in a profit. Ask most of the people who bought the Wii U in bulk.
It was a smart, legal investment if you ask me.
It was a smart, legal investment if you ask me.
Guy's a slimeball. Amazon really needs to enforce some kind of caps for LE products especially when the numbers are this low. Mass orders like this is probably why most LEs sell out so fast.
I don't think that's what they set out to do with Limited Editions. Not Dark Horse, not anyone who produces limited edition items. This is people playing the market. I hope this guy gets burned and no one buys, but lets face it, Zelda is just so huge so inevitably those copies will move and he'll get his wads of cash.
I don't think companies should stop making limited editions, but I DO think retailers need to start setting up order limits based on physical address (to easy to get around with email) to stop this kind of shit.
I don't think that's what they set out to do with Limited Editions. Not Dark Horse, not anyone who produces limited edition items. This is people playing the market. I hope this guy gets burned and no one buys, but lets face it, Zelda is just so huge so inevitably those copies will move and he'll get his wads of cash.
I don't think companies should stop making limited editions, but I DO think retailers need to start setting up order limits based on physical address (to easy to get around with email) to stop this kind of shit.
R
Retro_
Unconfirmed Member
You're right there's no middle ground
Enjoy your 200% markup on a book that released yesterday
what if it was something you actually wanted though? would you still not care?
just cuz stuff is legal doesnt make it right, not all laws are just.
i still think it was a dick move, but others see nothing wrong with it.
it looks like were divided about 50/50 over this.
the 'fuck over everyone for money' mentality is stronger than i thought.
I think it depends on what it is. A "luxury" item doesn't necessarily hold the same weight as a necessity.
For example, if some parent wants to spend twice the MSRP for a new console so their kid will have a shiny new Christmas present from Santa rather than waiting a few months, that doesn't bother me one bit. More power to the person than ran around and wasted their time and energy. If we're talking someone buying up food and supplies or price gouging after some sort of natural disaster that's another context. (not the best examples, but you get the idea).
Angry Fork
Member
This is capitalism, I wish more people were angry about this when it comes to everything else in their daily lives instead of just some gaming shit. The worst thing about it is it goes beyond luxuries and into necessities for people.
An investment only available to those wealthy enough to participate, which ends up screwing over those who aren't.
An investment only available to those wealthy enough to participate, which ends up screwing over those who aren't.
fvng
Member
Welcome to the way markets work.
Nobody would want this if it was mass produced.
Limited Quantities + High Demand drives up prices. The after market price for this would be high regardless of this Craigslist guy due to the limited production of this book.
Even if they had enforced a one per customer limit, it would STILL command 400% markup in the after market.
Why is this being lost on people?
_illmatic_
Member
I'm dumb enough to pay more than that for a stack of papers for school.
Randolph Freelander
Member
Take issue with the people only printing 4000 copies, not with one dude acquiring 45 of them.
twothunder
Member
Ugh. and I just got an E-mail telling me my order is delayed again till April.
With no steady date given. I fear the worst.
With no steady date given. I fear the worst.
Oops, I added some stuff to the post above. I think it's a totally different situation.
I wonder how much money medical companies make on medicines, cancer drugs, etc.