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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

#14

I 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…

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 opportunity to get a piece of that pie.

Ultimately someone that wants the product who is happy to pay the price that it is sold for, because they deem it worth that price, ends up with the product in there life. And someone else manages to profit to, to gain some much needed income so they can purchase something they want in there life.

Hardly morally bankrupt. There is no change in the outcome here. There are still the same amount of people with these consoles, enjoying them as before. Nobody is hurt.

In fact you could argue that someone doing this is a net gain, because two people gain instead of one. Someone made a profit that wouldn't otherwise and someone got the console they wanted (and obviously didn't care about the price)

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

#15
post #6

I 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…

Episode 724: Cat Scam[1]

1: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/09/14/493810206/episo...

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

#16

I 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…

I really don't see why Nintendo didn't produce a bit more on launch - I mean, they're not some kickstarter newbie - don't they have some skills in demand-forecasting?

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

#17

Clearly 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)

Ha .. not unexplained. I am part of a few "deals" websites. People inexplicably want to collect all of them! They have predictions on what Amibos will sell out, so people can buy 'em sooner rather than later. Lots of crazy stuff. I thought it was to make a profit but it seems there are genuine collectors out there.

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

#18
post #11

This kind of stuff is par for the course with Nintendo hardware from what I can tell. Is it deliberate? If so, does perceived scarcity drive more sales, or are they just sick of warehousing unsold products?

Well, they did just get free advertising in the form of this TechCrunch article. Wouldn't be surprised if other news outlets pick on up on the story as well, with the spin of "the hot new Christmas toy".

From that perspective, having short supply on release day seems like a decent plan. Once they get the publicity, I bet the supply increases to match demand within the following month.

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

#19
post #16

I 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…

I really don't see why Nintendo didn't produce a bit more on launch - I mean, they're not some kickstarter newbie - don't they have some skills in demand-forecasting?

When you hear about how the latest Nintendo is sold out everywhere, it makes you want one more.

They have slow production on purpose. If you could walk into any store and get one, it wouldn't be nearly as big a deal.

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

#20

Clearly 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)

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 take a look at the completed listings and the prices that were paid.

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