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
#2I grok capitalism and even like it. But there are times where it is difficult to like it. In this case, people rushed to buy this product for the sole purpose of reselling it for 8x. What's wrong with our society that some people can be so morally bankrupt and bereft of good sense.
In the end, I think these scalpers won't sell for 8x because anintendo will just pump out more product. Still, it is sad to see this happen.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#3Clearly 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...
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#4I grok capitalism and even like it. But there are times where it is difficult to like it. In this case, people rushed to buy this product for the sole purpose of reselling it for 8x. What's wrong with our society that some people can be so morally bankrupt and bereft of good sense. In the end, I think these scalpers won't sell for 8x because anintendo will just pump out more product. Still, it is sad to see this happ…
> bereft of good sense
Investing money in something that is nigh-guaranteed to have excellent returns is very good sense for anyone with the time and effort to spend on reselling the product.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#5Clearly 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)
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#6I grok capitalism and even like it. But there are times where it is difficult to like it. In this case, people rushed to buy this product for the sole purpose of reselling it for 8x. What's wrong with our society that some people can be so morally bankrupt and bereft of good sense. In the end, I think these scalpers won't sell for 8x because anintendo will just pump out more product. Still, it is sad to see this happ…
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 reseller ordered it using their amazon account with the buyers shipping address).
When people realized they were being ripped off, they returned it to the original seller, who had to handle the claims due to requirements by amazon. They lost 10's of thousands of $$. The creator called some of the people doing this and they laughed him off, telling him they were doing nothing wrong.
It was on planet money's podcast, I think. I can try and find it if you're curious.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#7All 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?
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#8I grok capitalism and even like it. But there are times where it is difficult to like it. In this case, people rushed to buy this product for the sole purpose of reselling it for 8x. What's wrong with our society that some people can be so morally bankrupt and bereft of good sense. In the end, I think these scalpers won't sell for 8x because anintendo will just pump out more product. Still, it is sad to see this happ…
> bereft of good sense Investing money in something that is nigh-guaranteed to have excellent returns is very good sense for anyone with the time and effort to spend on reselling the product.
And, let's be sincere here, this is not some essential item, like food or shelter.
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#9I grok capitalism and even like it. But there are times where it is difficult to like it. In this case, people rushed to buy this product for the sole purpose of reselling it for 8x. What's wrong with our society that some people can be so morally bankrupt and bereft of good sense. In the end, I think these scalpers won't sell for 8x because anintendo will just pump out more product. Still, it is sad to see this happ…
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…
The problem isn't the arbitrage (which is a core component of capitalism and profit [1]) these people are utilizing, its Amazon's draconian policy towards sellers.
[1] Hat tip to patio11: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087930
> They're likely using one of the world's oldest business models: "Buy things for $1, sell them for $2."
Re: Amazon sells out of the NES Classic Edition in less than a minute
#10Only half of my Nintendo holiday arbitrage attempts have been successful.
There will be limited availability for a short time, then a flood of product.