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Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

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Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#61

Post by zizee »

kbenson wrote: post #15
e40 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with our society that some people can be so morally bankrupt and bereft of good sense. This type of behavior is literally all around us. I recently listened to a podcast about this exact phenomenon. It featured a couple that had a special rug that drove cats crazy. They sold it on amazon for ~$35. A bunch of people bought them up and sold them on ebay for a lot more, using the drop-ship method (the resel…

Episode 724: Cat Scam[1] 1: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/09/14/493810206/episo...

As a side note, that episode left me wondering why the original seller didn't open their own eBay store, listing the product at their desired price. I would have thought it would have effectively undercut the resellers and gain a large portion of the sales on eBay.

Another note, Planet Money is pretty much my favourite "always on"* podcast. An podcast about economics might sound dull to some, but what a lot (maybe not on HN) people don't realise is "economics" is a really a study of human behaviour at the macro level, and a large part of human behaviour at the micro level.

* serial was hugely addictive, but it only has short seasons, and each episode had what seemed like a huge wait between them.

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#62

Post by Donzo »

eridius wrote: post #31
DanielleMolloy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also this year's Fire Emblem Limited Edition (really frustrating, the box is excellent – they are now sold for at least 2x the original price) and probably any 3DS special edition. But consumers with too much money are also helping this "economy" with their purchase decisions. That eBay NES Classic in the parent comment was just sold for $610, more than 10x the retail price, and there are many other offerings. Just t…

It's worth pointing out that "sold" doesn't actually mean the buyer has any intention of paying. It seems fairly common in this scenario for people to put fake bids on products like this for whatever reason. And the winner in that particular action has a 0% positive feedback rating, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

When I was in college, I resold high demand systems around the holidays. Some examples of this include the slim PS2, the Nintendo DS, and the XBox 360.

I can tell you from this experience that people pay. The bids are not joke bids. They are people who are willing to pay market rate for high demand items because they want them now. God bless them. Furthermore, you can require payment before purchase.

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#63

Post by ctdonath »

eridius wrote: post #22
childifchaos wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this "morally bankrupt"? It's just smart. Every business on earth would do this in there sector if they had the chance. What's wrong with a smart and clever individual buying this to resell at 8x? It's not hurting anyone, it's just a stupid retro console. What's wrong with society? People are struggling and getting screwed over by governments and big business, they badly need income and here is a small opportu…

> It's not hurting anyone, it's just a stupid retro console. It's hurting the people who are forced to pay $600 for a $60 item because they need one (e.g. a must-have gift for someone). It's hurting the people who wanted to buy one for $60 but cannot afford to buy one for $600. So yeah, it's hurting basically everybody who had any interest in buying the product.

A thing is worth what another is willing to pay for it.

Nobody needs it to survive. Nobody must give it to someone else. Those who find it worth $600 have the opportunity to buy one, rather than not getting one because they sold out too fast. And there's nothing stopping Nintendo from making more until everyone willing to buy it at $60 (if only to turn around and resell it for 10x) gets one.

I'm tempted to call this a "0th world problem". It's a game. You'll live without it, or at least until you can buy one for list price. Heck, wait a little longer and you can get one for $10.

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#64

Post by ctdonath »

eridius wrote: post #46
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very nearly the definition of luxury goods, given changes to elasticity with income, with it being explicitly so for veblen goods.

You can't just take any product, mark it up 10x, and call it a luxury good. People would laugh at you and buy the regular one. A luxury good has to have some reason to justify its luxury status. In this particular case, the $60 NES Classic is already a luxury good. Marking it up 10x doesn't make it more of a luxury good, it just either means people who actually want to use the damn thing can't afford to, or must pay…

Sometimes "luxury" is being the first to have something. Some find it worth $540 to have one of the first.

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#66

Post by dawnerd »

IgorPartola wrote: post #25

Sounds like Nintendo, along with a bunch of other companies, need to take a page out of USSR's book. The way it worked there is that you put your name on the list to buy, say, a car. And when the car is actually manufactured, you get to buy it. Big product launches like this could really benefit from a system like that. I know some places already do this: x.ai comes to mind. They even had a thing where you could move…

could have just done pre orders like apple and slip the shipping date as the list gets longer. It's not like companies don't have a solution. It's just Nintendo being Nintendo.

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#67

Post by MrFoof »

IgorPartola wrote: post #25

Sounds like Nintendo, along with a bunch of other companies, need to take a page out of USSR's book. The way it worked there is that you put your name on the list to buy, say, a car. And when the car is actually manufactured, you get to buy it. Big product launches like this could really benefit from a system like that. I know some places already do this: x.ai comes to mind. They even had a thing where you could move…

This actually does happen with some car manufacturers. The one I'm most familiar with (having experience with the process) is Porsche with their GT cars and "collector grade vehicles".

Want the next 911 GT3 RS? The best way to guarantee you get one is to give a dealer a deposit (usually just $5000) for "the next GT3 RS" at least 3 years before the vehicle is officially announced. You do have to wait for that dealer to get an allocation (so often you'll place a deposit with multiple dealers who sell a lot of 911s), but when they pop you get yours assuming you were early enough in line. A few long-term repeat customers may get bumped ahead of you in line, but at the end of the day you'll get your car.

There was a lot of anger at the availability of the Cayman GT4, but despite never being a prior Porsche owner I had the opportunity to pass on it twice (for a much harder to get Boxster Spyder) because I knew how the process went, and had deposits for non-existant cars with multiple dealers years before they were announced.

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#69

Post by metaphor »

enneff wrote: post #40
eridius wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not hurting anyone, it's just a stupid retro console. It's hurting the people who are forced to pay $600 for a $60 item because they need one (e.g. a must-have gift for someone). It's hurting the people who wanted to buy one for $60 but cannot afford to buy one for $600. So yeah, it's hurting basically everybody who had any interest in buying the product.

> It's hurting the people who are forced to pay $600 for a $60 item because they need one (e.g. a must-have gift for someone). LOL at the privilege of this being a real problem for someone. If we were talking about price gouging on food, medicine, or housing then I might agree with you. But luxury gifts? Come on, man. > It's hurting the people who wanted to buy one for $60 but cannot afford to buy one for $600. LOL a…

> LOL at the idea that they can't just wait for them to manufacture more of them. I mean, the games have been out for nearly 30 years now, right?

Assuming more are eventually manufactured, which many hope to be the case...in this instance.

On a related personal note roughly 5 years ago, HP released a limited edition of their 15c RPN scientific calculator[1], which promptly sold out and found their way on eBay listing for $100s more. Despite popular demand, HP never manufactured more. I was lucky enough to acquire two units direct from HP at original cost and actively use one--along with a 35s--on a daily basis; the second is a spare that I refuse to part with.

The moral bankruptcy manifests in a willingness to acknowledge that this behavior is unacceptable were the product "food, medicine, or housing" or any commodity that is generally classified as a necessity. In my eyes, the principle of the matter cannot discriminate.

[1] http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/1...

Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute

#70

Post by mrfusion »

It seems silly to me to allocate a product by the vageries of refresh rates and server responsiveness.

It seems like Amazon could come up with many other ideas for allocating a limited product. There's no rule that says it has to be based on the millisecond ordered.

For example how about a game of chance (or skill?) to let people compete for the product? It would feel a lot more fulfilling than an error page. And it would give them good brand interaction.

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