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[Somnid]

They might desire it but they will stop making an effort towards obtaining it once they feel they have no chance at ever doing so. This is what I'm referring too.

True but the perception also causes people with more money to try.

 

[7DollarHagane]

I think it would be cool if Club Nintendo platinum members had first dibs on some of these limited items or something. It would be a good incentive to reach platinum status, and their most hardcore fans aren't punished for being away from a computer for an hour as every single GC adapter/amiibo/limited edition release sells out.

Then you ship a bunch to stores like normal, and let the casuals and scalpers fight over them.

Alternatively, ship more fucking product when the demand greatly exceeds the supply. This is becoming way too common with Nintendo lately.

There is no good solution.

If they ship enough to meet demand of the resellers and the legitimate buyers, the resellers will just return all of the ones they buy when they don't sell and stores will be overloaded with them.

The only solution is on the part of the consumer -

QUIT REWARDING THESE LAZY MOTHERFUCKERS FOR DOING NOTHING BUT INCONVENIENCING YOU.

STOP BUYING LIMITED ITEMS FROM RESELLERS.

STOP.
STOP.
STOP.
STOP.

 

[OnADock]

Scalpers buy as many of a product as possible; this both increases the profit they make and decreases the supply. So even if you have a higher supply than demand, scalping can still make it hard for demand to be fulfilled.

That would require a scalper to have enough money to purchase extreme numbers of units. We're talking millions of dollars worth. Anyone with that kind of money has better investments to make then cornering the market on Amiibos.

And besides, if any product were selling that much, a competent company would simply produce more units since the scalpers are essentially just increasing the demand for the company's product.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

To answer OP's question: As long as there is a high demand for these products that are under-produced by Nintendo.

It seems to be getting more and more insane with each new Limited Edition product released. As in... it is taking less and less time for something to sell out. Which means it's probably going to get worse, not better. I mean, I have a job, responsibilities, family, friends, other things to do. I can't be literally glued to my screen 24/7 in hopes to get one of these preorders in.

 

[Mit-]

Until they successfully convince everyone to only buy digital and stop making physical retail products altogether.

 

[7DollarHagane]

Quantity purchase limits can help. Maybe 2-3 per customer, or 1 per customer if really limited. Make it per-address in order to block people making several accounts if you really have to.

I was able to get the Pikachu 3DS only because the lady at the Toys-R-Us was doing 1 per customer because she knew about the people buying them all up at once at other stores in the area. So it helps.

As someone who works at a retailer at a corporate level that deals directly with "quantity limit" type issues this is much, much more difficult to enforce than people think.

These resellers do this professionally, they are using proxy IPs, friends, neighbors, family members addresses to ship to, getting relatives and hiring people to buy more for them, changing their credit card numbers constantly, doing EVERYTHING they can to buy out as much stock as possible.

It is unrealistic to expect retailers to be able to invest in training, infrastructure, and staffing just to limit quantities to resellers 100%. You can make it inconvenient for them while not spending all you profits from the merchandise on preventing resellers but that's the best you can hope for.

 

[GustyGardens]

Scalping, unfortunately, doesn't just affect Nintendo and its fans. It's a plague that has been around for every. Nintendo can't stop it completely, but they can help prevent it from happening to their products.

They need to utilize their online store. They should be offering limited edition 3DS consoles with a 1 per household limit. They can also do something similar with amiibo, by offering the hard to find ones on their site, after their initial store run.

It amazes me that the online Nintendo Store isn't over-flowing with Nintendo goods, like of the t-shirts that Miyamoto wears.

 

[Toxi]

That would require a scalper to have enough money to purchase extreme numbers of units. We're talking millions of dollars worth. Anyone with that kind of money has better investments to make then cornering the market on Amiibos.

And besides, if any product were selling that much, a competent company would simply produce more units since the scalpers are essentially just increasing the demand for the company's product.

Not really extreme. Just buy all the ones at your local store. It's what toy scalpers do and it works. Also works well if there are other scalpers out there, since it makes your own purchases more valuable.

 

[Tawney Bomb]

Until people stop buying from resellers or demand is met, it'll continue, it's that way with just about every hobby out there. Nintendo things that have been limited editions have always been fairly limited, though it seems like they might be producing less to save money. While retailers are partially to blame, it's impossible to put a tiny dent in scalping sadly, Nike is still trying.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Ashen just put up a new video about his Ambassadoe New 3DS.
First minute mentions scalpers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyYgfgJPYOg

 

[7DollarHagane]

Scalping, unfortunately, doesn't just affect Nintendo and its fans. It's a plague that has been around for every. Nintendo can't stop it completely, but they can help prevent it from happening to their products.

They need to utilize their online store. They should be offering limited edition 3DS consoles with a 1 per household limit. They can also do something similar with amiibo, by offering the hard to find ones on their site, after their initial store run.

It amazes me that the online Nintendo Store isn't over-flowing with Nintendo goods, like of the t-shirts that Miyamoto wears.

As an example of the kinds of problems you run into when enforcing this - how do you develop a system that can tell that all of these shipping addresses are the same and USPS/FedEx/UPS will all ship them to the same person-

Joe Jackass
123 Front Street
Reseller, WA 12345

and

Jimmy Jackbutt
123 Front Street #6
Reseller, WA 12345

and

James Jackanape
-123 Front St
Reseller, WA 12345

and

Jill Jerkoff
12n3 Frnt Stret
Reseller, WA 12345

and

Joshua Junkmouth
345 Not a Road Street Ignore This
123 Front St
Reseller, WA 12345

And also allow to ship items to people who live on similar sounding roads, within apartment buildings, and just have odd addresses or misspellings/typos in general?

Because this is the kind of shit you deal with when you try to limit resellers.

 

[fates]

As someone who works at a retailer at a corporate level that deals directly with "quantity limit" type issues this is much, much more difficult to enforce than people think.

These resellers do this professionally, they are using proxy IPs, friends, neighbors, family members addresses to ship to, getting relatives and hiring people to buy more for them, changing their credit card numbers constantly, doing EVERYTHING they can to buy out as much stock as possible.

It is unrealistic to expect retailers to be able to invest in training, infrastructure, and staffing just to limit quantities to resellers 100%. You can make it inconvenient for them while not spending all you profits from the merchandise on preventing resellers but that's the best you can hope for.

Oh I understand that, but I'd wager the number of scalpers who can manage these efforts is smaller than the number of them who just walk up and by loads of product.

 

[7DollarHagane]

Oh I understand that, but I'd wager the number of scalpers who can manage these efforts is smaller than the number of them who just walk up and by loads of product.

Well i can't identify myself for obvious reasons but we only really run into these issues online. In stores its easier to enforce - you have to rely on the occasional clueless employee or make a bunch of trips, wasting gas and requiring more work.

They would rather just have it shipped to them. Or drop ship where they buy the item and ship it directly to their buyer. I bet most of the 3DSs listed on Ebay right now will be shipped directly from amazon/gamestop/best buy/walmart or wherever.

It's the lamest shit ever - these ebay buyers are basically paying these resellers to put the order in, change the ship-to address to the ebay buyer, and thats IT.

 

[zigg]

As an example of the kinds of problems you run into when enforcing this - how do you develop a system that can tell that all of these shipping addresses are the same and USPS/FedEx/UPS will all ship them to the same person

Actually, there are delivery address normalization services that can do just that, at least for many cases.

 

[Peagles]

Actually, there are delivery address normalization services that can do just that, at least for many cases.

There must be something like this because I've had plenty of orders to my US forwarding address cancelled automatically through the years. Wish they put as much effort into cancelling scalpers' orders.

 

[jetsetmario]

I can't believe that even Mario Party 10 is falling prey to this. The amiibo bundle of the game went up on Newegg earlier tonight and sold out in less than a half hour.

 

[ClayKavalier]

As an example of the kinds of problems you run into when enforcing this - how do you develop a system that can tell that all of these shipping addresses are the same and USPS/FedEx/UPS will all ship them to the same person-

And also allow to ship items to people who live on similar sounding roads, within apartment buildings, and just have odd addresses or misspellings/typos in general?

Because this is the kind of shit you deal with when you try to limit resellers.

I think the idea is that if they took preorder for limited editions in advance, it'd be easier for people who really want one to get one at MSRP and it wouldn't be as worth scalpers time to scalp them.

 

[TSM]

Fixing the "limited edition" stuff should be relatively easy. Add a button to their usual advertising emails announcing the limited edition and add a link to "enter the lottery" to receive a chance to order the item. Then Nintendo randomly selects x amount of people to receive a chance to purchase the item directly from them. This would put everyone on even footing.

 

[RedSwirl]

What happens when shit like this throws off the relationship between how much physical product Nintendo sells and how many customers actually use those products? Could scalpers realistically throw off Nintendo's estimates of the New 3DS's install base compared to how many systems it sold?

 

[Moze]

I ordered 15 of the MM N3DS's to sell at my shop. I didn't think it'd sell out, but hey.

 

[QisTopTier]

I ordered 15 of the MM N3DS's to sell at my shop. I didn't think it'd sell out, but hey.

Sell them all for 400 bucks

Spoiler

I'd buy one for 200 plus shipping from you

 

[alf717]

Yep.

The only other thing would be people getting together to outpace the scalpers and buy up stock with the intent of selling/trading them for cost. That's what I'm going to do with my extra GS MM3DLE/.

*Raises hand*

I'll buy it.

They should announce these things way in advance which would allow pre-orders to gauge demand. Give the consumer a strict order window and then make enough to meet demand. This way if you didn't buy it you don't get one.

 

[Dr. Black Jack]

you got an extra one? isn't it one per customer?

I ordered a web-in-store from GameStop since I thought Best Buy wasn't getting any, then they did the following night so I ordered there. I don't want to go through the hassle of canceling my GS order and possibly have it go to a scalper.

+1 for not giving scalpers any money. I could ask $1 million for a pack of gum, but it's only worth that if someone pays it.