Why doesn't Nintendo just raise their prices to where supply equals demand? They're leaving So much money on the table for scalpers. Or why not first release an expensive limited edition while they scale up production?
Hindsight is 20/20.
Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
71–80 of 254 posts
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
How did you get these systems ?
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes for a good story. I mean, how many would they have made? 2,000? They know they can do a second run before Christmas. By then they would know if they should make 20,000 or 200,000...
Traditionally, toy companies will have a "tent pole" item they hype up and sell out of before Christmas (originally Cabbage Patch Kids but later on Elmo, Wii, etc.) This forces parents to less desirable accessory products for Christmas. Mysteriously after Christmas the tent pole item is in stock. Eric Clark's book "The Real Toy Story" goes into the origin of this and other trends [1]. Nobody is really wild about the…
I'm not getting how a shortage helps the companies? (Do I have to buy your book to find out?..)
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#74I wonder if these things are timed for release once a target audience hits a certain age? What is that age? It was about 8 years between 1st gen consoles (Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision) and 2nd gen (Nintendo). The retro-rerelease of 1st gen was about 8 years ago. I am 45 and am nostalgic about 1st gen. I was in high school for 2nd gen; no nostalgia, uninterested. So do these retro-rerelease target those in their…
What was the "Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision" retro-release? Seems like a newish phenomenon due to falling cost of production. Objectively, (if you put a complete novice kid in front of a console), NES and SNES's good/great games are the best.
madengr is right, the Atari ones have been available since 2004. They've put out a new version of it every other year or so. This year is their 7th version of the Atari Flashback. https://www.amazon.com/Atari-Flashback-7-Classic-Game-Consol...
There's ones for Intellivision (https://www.amazon.com/IntelliVision-AtGames-Flashback-Class... ) and Colecovision ( https://www.amazon.com/ColecoVision-AtGames-Flashback-Classi... ) too, but those have only been available for the last few years.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#75Clearly thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of gamers were sitting on the product page hammering the F5 key and some random selection thereof got their wish. I highly doubt that. My guess is that third party resellers used bots to purchase them all. Why wouldn't tc come to the same conclusion? Edit. yep here's one on eBay for $500+: http://m.ebay.com/itm/New-Nintendo-NES-Classic-Edition-Conso...
Makes for a good story. I mean, how many would they have made? 2,000? They know they can do a second run before Christmas. By then they would know if they should make 20,000 or 200,000...
> I mean, how many would they have made? 2,000?
I'm imagining at least an order of magnitude more ballpark-judging by $60 price point and tooling costs for enclosure molds alone.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#76Clearly thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of gamers were sitting on the product page hammering the F5 key and some random selection thereof got their wish. I highly doubt that. My guess is that third party resellers used bots to purchase them all. Why wouldn't tc come to the same conclusion? Edit. yep here's one on eBay for $500+: http://m.ebay.com/itm/New-Nintendo-NES-Classic-Edition-Conso...
Nintendo has had a history of unexplainable supply shortages for in-demand items. (case in point: Amiibo)
Don't forget the Pokemon Go Plus which is still out of stock. https://smile.amazon.com/Nintendo-Bluetooth-Bracelet-Not-Mac...
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#77Funny thing, they are in stock in the local electronics store in my small hometown in Slovenia :)
Go buy a batch and get on eBay.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
How did you get these systems ?
I recall my friends doing this for the Wii back in the day. They put in reservations at GameStop and checked daily at various stores. I'd imagine it's the same way. You just have to get lucky sometimes.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#79Amazon should do popular items like this using a lottery system to hurt the advantage bots, scripts, and people with lower latency have. - You can enter the item lottery for a longer period (e.g. 60 minutes). - Lottery winners are picked at random, not based on entry time. - Max one entry per household (remove entries with duplicate mailing addresses, duplicate credit cards, and duplicate email addresses). - Once som…
MBA Interview pro-tip: Amazon should make NES a Prime-only item.
Wow very smart! How do businesses not think of these things?
I even got an impression from their nes classic page like they were saying "meh, we are not really sure if we sell this why do you want it"
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#80All of these outages could be prevented by opening sales randomly in time windows and in small waves. Or with preordering. The same applies to sales with price reductions, etc. All these companies shoot themselves in the foot with stunts like that. Why not make it more expensive if there is such a demand, anyway?
> Why not make it more expensive if there is such a demand
Is demand really high enough to support a higher price? Nintendo is infamous for putting out a short supply.
I don't understand why Amazon can't just take preorders for the next batch.