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Limited Editions should have order limits

Geneijin

Member
Yes, this was inspired by yesterday's recently released Fire Emblem Fates: Special Edition. Some people who ordered from Amazon or Best Buy got shipping delay notifications. They didn't get release day delivery, but they were largely fortunate enough to still have their orders I would say. Because yes, I'm about to complain about a particular problem, but this isn't really about the scalping, the flipping, the reselling - whatever you want to call it - although, it is part of the problem. I can understand how some flippers get a dozen or so copies from placing several orders at different places/retailers. What I can't tolerate is something like this:

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Fire-Em...ollectors-Nintendo-3DS-USA-RARE-/262295394925

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http://www.ebay.com/sch/friendlily/m.html?item=262295394925&rt=nc&LH_Auction=1
This is a BRAND NEW Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition for Nintendo 3DS! 100% authentic USA version. Includes the following:
Fire Emblem Fates Game: All Three Versions - Birthright, Conquest, Revelation on a Single Cartridge
80 Page Art Book with Previously Unreleased Sketches, Concept Drawings, and More
Beautifully Illustrated Carrying Pouch For Your Nintendo 3DSXL System
Once again this is brand new and never been opened. This game is on the way from Amazon.com and will be shipped out quickly once it arrives.

I couldn't believe what I just saw tonight. It's ridiculous this seller has sold 89 copies of this special edition with only 63% of his inventory sold. I don't care about the ethics of flipping and whatnot. It's the fact someone was able to procure so many that I have to wonder why some sort of reasonable limit was not enacted in the first place to restrict this purchasing behavior or why it isn't more common practice to do so instead of a game by game basis. I remember the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Limited Edition fiasco where it was practically lottery to the first set number of people who purchased first in a queue because I was helping him increase his chances of getting one and got it for him. That has its own set of problems that doesn't solve the existence of flippers, but at least nobody got to steal 100 copies from 100 potential other customers.

/me rant over
 

Socivol

Member
Yeah it is ridiculous. I sold mine because I needed the money for my wedding but I only got one. I'm really sad I had to sell it too :(
 

The Argus

Member
For the Xbox One and PS4 launch I remember there being a strict one per customer limit. Of course you could always have your girl/guy/family/friend do it as well and ship to you.

Poachers ruin everything. My favorite band's reunion went from general seating $70 to $200 5 minutes after the official sale beugin on Ticketmaster. I guess because they buy so much they get shorter queues. Ugh.
 

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
My favorite band's reunion went from general seating $70 to $200 5 minutes after the official sale beugin on Ticketmaster. I guess because they buy so much they get shorter queues. Ugh.
I entered into the ticket pre-sale lottery for Colorado and NYC, and was at my computer the minute tickets went on sale for both sets of shows, and came away with zero tickets. I'm still pretty bummed about it.
 

Het_Nkik

Member
Hell, Amazon won't let me buy more than 3 packs of Animal Crossing amiibo cards, something you intrinsically need more than 3 of to collect. I find it weird that they wouldn't have had an order limit on Fire Emblem Fates SE.
 

Hylian7

Member
I don't understand why a lot of these things don't have order limits. It makes absolutely zero sense. There was when that guy preordered the hundreds of Rosalina amiibo just so one else could have them, and shit like this.

On the flip side, Nintendo really needs to produce more of these kinds of things instead of creating an artificial shortage that only benefits the scalpers in the long run. I wasn't picking up Fates immediately, but it's kind of frustrating that I can never pick up this version of the game since they won't be selling anymore.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
I always kind of wished that companies would make limited editions/collectors editions actually limited but increase the overall quality of the content that comes with them. As it stands you usually end up with some cheap toy and some stuff that probably isent worth the same price as the roll of toilet paper you have next to your throne.

Most companies just use LEs as a marketing tool though so I don't really ever expect that quality to be present, although from a lot of stuff I have seen Japan seems much more interested in making collectors editions worthwhile.
 

KDR_11k

Member
To be fair most limited editions aren't limited enough to warrant a purchasing limit. Plenty of games see their limited/day one editions hit bargain bins a year later.
 

The Argus

Member
I entered into the ticket pre-sale lottery for Colorado and NYC, and was at my computer the minute tickets went on sale for both sets of shows, and came away with zero tickets. I'm still pretty bummed about it.

I guess we're talking about the same band :)

Three of my friends and I tried for evey NYC show and we all struck out. We only did the lottery for the Friday and Saturday shows, also got nothing. We're seeing it regardless, now it's just a pain in the ass and a constant fear that whatever tickets I do buy are counterfeits. Happened to one of us before their last Halloween Show in NYC. Security let him in anyway but only after scaring him to death.
 

Zaventem

Member
To be fair most limited editions aren't limited enough to warrant a purchasing limit. Plenty of games see their limited/day one editions hit bargain bins a year later.

This is a common occurrence with nintendo though, and people are sick of it.
 

Geneijin

Member
I highly doubt retailers care as long as they get paid, but I know that feel.
Yah, you're probably right. Maybe I should blame the market for creating the demand, but I can't because I understand. I've paid my share of years old PS2 games for $50. But when this happens and prevents some of my friends from having a chance at getting one to such a ludicrous extent, I'm just sad at the situation.
 
Yah, you're probably right. Maybe I should blame the market for creating the demand, but I can't because I understand. I've paid my share of years old PS2 games for $50. But when this happens and prevents some of my friends from having a chance at getting one to such a ludicrous extent, I'm just sad at the situation.

I mean, it's not like you're missing out on the experience of the game itself. I understand, though - I've definitely bought my fair share of games from scalpers. It sucks, but there's not much that can be done about it unless retailers step up their game.
 

Caayn

Member
I agree with you. But I reached the part where I no longer care about limited editions, collectors editions, etc. I don't want to invest time to order one only to find out that I grabbed too late and most of them are now on ebay for a ridiculous flipping price.

I refuse to buy limited editions and such on Ebay because I don't want to support scalpers. They're the scum that the world can do without just fine.
 
I don't think there should necessarily be preorder limits, but that some kind of rationing could be applied so you are only guaranteed one or two copies.

You can't expect shops not to sell their stock, but they could take orders until their supply is exhausted, then start eating into the orders of those who have ordered 3+ copies. That should allow a fair distribution.
 

Geneijin

Member
To be fair most limited editions aren't limited enough to warrant a purchasing limit. Plenty of games see their limited/day one editions hit bargain bins a year later.
I somewhat agree, but why shouldn't it be limited to begin with? I don't see the harm in imposing say a 3 copy limit of the same title. It's not the same thing, but Best Buy has a limit on how many copies of the same title you can buy each year with a GCU discount. If you don't have those limits, you have a situation where resellers can and will blatantly use their GCU discounts limitlessly, and it'll undercut the retailer's profits. What if this eBay seller bought all his inventory with his 20% Prime membership discount for example? That's a whole lot of money lost on each copy Amazon won't see back. This doesn't have to be just about limited goods but goods in general.
 

SalvaPot

Member
The truth is Limited Editions lose a lot of their perceived value when it becomes easy to collect them. Sure, reseller culture is very real, but the scarcity makes it reach the news, gives the game more exposition and assure the publisher they will sell all of their units.


If you ship to few, you might earn backlash, but hey, you made a full secure profit.

You ship to many, and your limited editions stay on the shelf for days for everyone to see, in shame.

A quick example: Atlus used to be stingy with their Limited Editions, so what do they do? They get bigger prints and way more focus, sometimes even promoting them as THE edition to get. Fastforward to Shin Megami Tensei IV and Persona Q. SMT IV had lots of copies available long enough for people to buy them when the FE promo was announced, but justified as this was the way to get the game other than Digital. Persona Q, on the other hand, has been on sale constantly since release and you can still find copies in the wild, even Target right now has them on clearance. For a collectors edition that is the worst.

My solution? We live on a Digital Era, do a first Limited Run and call it that, the First Run. Let people go crazy about them the usual way. Once that is sold out, announce a Second Run with a different box, but this time in a pre-order basis and setup a webpage where you can receive the order for people who actually care.
 
This is one point where I wish they made more, because that shit has been sold out literally the week the Direct announced it.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have it go out so much that shit like the Dark Souls 2 Collector's Edition with Figure happens, a $120 premium "limited edition" bundle ends up selling for $20 bucks like a year later because they weren't selling enough.
 

-shadow-

Member
I just hope that Europe will be getting a LE with all three games on it and that there's a decent pressing. I remember when Awakening came out that I had to wait a month after launch because Nintendo had ubdershipped the game by a ridiculous margin ;_;
 

Geneijin

Member
The truth is Limited Editions lose a lot of their perceived value when it becomes easy to collect them. Sure, reseller culture is very real, but the scarcity makes it reach the news, gives the game more exposition and assure the publisher they will sell all of their units.


If you ship to few, you might earn backlash, but hey, you made a full secure profit.

You ship to many, and your limited editions stay on the shelf for days for everyone to see, in shame.

A quick example: Atlus used to be stingy with their Limited Editions, so what do they do? They get bigger prints and way more focus, sometimes even promoting them as THE edition to get. Fastforward to Shin Megami Tensei IV and Persona Q. SMT IV had lots of copies available long enough for people to buy them when the FE promo was announced, but justified as this was the way to get the game other than Digital. Persona Q, on the other hand, has been on sale constantly since release and you can still find copies in the wild, even Target right now has them on clearance. For a collectors edition that is the worst.

My solution? We live on a Digital Era, do a first Limited Run and call it that, the First Run. Let people go crazy about them the usual way. Once that is sold out, announce a Second Run with a different box, but this time in a pre-order basis and setup a webpage where you can receive the order for people who actually care.
I actually agree with a lot of what you've said. I understand the limited appeal is what attracts buyer interest. If I was NIS or Nintendo, I would rather understock than overproduce for tighter margins. I'm even content with the idea of limited print runs being limited. But this doesn't have to include one individual reseller in this specific case owning almost 1% of the supply and making an exorbitant amount of profit.
 

Skux

Member
If they put a limit on orders, people will still find ways around them. They'll make dummy accounts. They'll use proxies. Or get their friends to buy it for them.
 
that's just pathetic on all sides. the people buying up tons of stock just to resell at ridiculous prices, and the people enabling them by paying ridiculous prices for the merch.
 

El-Suave

Member
There are order limits on some LE's on Amazon Germany. One per person/account usually, so it'd probably just be flipping a switch for Amazon.com to implement that.
 
I think in this particular case the special edition should not have been limited at all, they should just reprint them to satisfy demand.

Because in this case, the limited edition is basically a bargain bundle, one gets all three games for their retail price, plus some bonus stuff on top. Very different from the regular situation where one pays extra to get extra stuff on top of the retail prices game.
 

Geneijin

Member
If they put a limit on orders, people will still find ways around them. They'll make dummy accounts. They'll use proxies. Or get their friends to buy it for them.
My problem with that is it's like saying why bother in the first place. i'm not ignoring the fact resellers will find ways to circumvent restrictions or holds. They'll always try to find ways. But why should purchasing 100 copies be so easy with Amazon's own 1-Click Order button?
 
I don't see the problem here. This is just capitalism. If you wanted the game then you could have just pre-ordered those 141 copies for yourself first.

/s
 

Greddleok

Member
The person reselling them is smart. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Blame the idiots who are spending their money on a massively over priced version rather than the ebayer who is making some cash from it.
 
Nintendo is the only company suffering from this problem. From amiibos to games, they never meet the demand and scalpers know that so they are willing to drop some big dough because they know they'll reclaim it all back and then some.

What should be done is that Nintendo fixes this problem by meeting the fucking demand.
 

specdot

Member
Even if they do have order limits, resellers will find a way. It's been plaguing the sneaker world for years now, where sellers craft a bot that will put items in their cart on release date shafting out legitimate buyers.
 

redcrayon

Member
There is something quite amusing about the (perfectly true) description of 'rare!' in those eBay listings of a hundred copies of something.

$150 a go though? I really like FE but couldn't see myself paying that much just for the special edition.

The person reselling them is smart. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Blame the idiots who are spending their money on a massively over priced version rather than the ebayer who is making some cash from it.
Sure, it's an easy way to make money, supply and demand and all that. But you can hardly blame people getting annoyed with scalpers for making it near impossible to find an item at a fair price unless they camped out websites and ordered the single copy they wanted on the day of release.

I have no intention of giving money to a scalper, but that doesn't mean I think the complete lack of empathy the seller has for the people who the special editions were actually made for is totally ok. It's like when I used to see popular kids toys being bought up and resold at three times the price at Christmas- an easy exploit of supply/demand but a touch heartless.

But yes, I can't believe a hundred copies will actually sell at that price.
 
Even if they do have order limits, resellers will find a way. It's been plaguing the sneaker world for years now, where sellers craft a bot that will put items in their cart on release date shafting out legitimate buyers.

Having order limits will at least, hopefully, limited the amount of resellers.
 
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