What's up with pre-orders these days?

[TDIRunner]

This is par for the course when it comes to Nintendo, though. I mean, of course "scalpers be scalpin" and all that, but Nintendo always and I mean *always* underestimates demand which leads them to produce small quantities of ___________ item.

Anyone that's been collecting amiibo, or tries to get any Special Edition 3DS or games (not an exhaustive list)...knows what I'm talking about.

I don't think the people that pay the scalpers on eBay are stupid. If they want something, and they can't walk into a retail store and buy it at retail price, what are they supposed to do? Wait and hope that the scalpers lower the price? They might...they might not. Case in point, the Majora's Mask Limited Edition is still selling comfortably in the $75-$100 range. That was released almost 2 years ago, and I've never once seen it in stock at any retail store here in the Baltimore, MD area (I know because I want it).

As much as I hate scalpers, I can't help but feel like Nintendo creates an ecosystem for them to thrive and after all this time it almost seems like they do it on purpose.

That's different, that's an item that is no longer for sale in stores, an item that you know won't be for sale in stores. You have to pay the price. But when you know there would be another production and you buy at a higher price, sorry but that isn't a smart move (stupid).

I haven't checked as of this morning, but I know that yesterday, Gamestop still had pre-orders available for the new pro controller for the Switch for $80 (or whatever Nintendo is charging).  Yet, you could still find sold listings on eBay on the same day for well over $100.  That's the type of purchase that I would label as stupid.

[Taketheword]

I don't think the people that pay the scalpers on eBay are stupid. If they want something, and they can't walk into a retail store and buy it at retail price, what are they supposed to do?

I disagree.  They are stupid.  These are not necessities.  No one has to own video games.  

People can spend their money however this wish.  If they have more money than brains, then by all means pay the scalpers whatever they want, but I will still look at it as a stupid purchase.  If a millionaire spent $200 on an NES Mini, I would still refer to that as a stupid purchase.  No offense to anyone here who may have done that, but that's just how I look at the situation.

Agree with you on this

I agree also.

[monjici]

I don't think the people that pay the scalpers on eBay are stupid. If they want something, and they can't walk into a retail store and buy it at retail price, what are they supposed to do?

I disagree.  They are stupid.  These are not necessities.  No one has to own video games.  

People can spend their money however this wish.  If they have more money than brains, then by all means pay the scalpers whatever they want, but I will still look at it as a stupid purchase.  If a millionaire spent $200 on an NES Mini, I would still refer to that as a stupid purchase.  No offense to anyone here who may have done that, but that's just how I look at the situation.

Agree with you on this

I agree also.

I don't agree

The basic of economy is offer and demand. If the offer is low and demand is high, then price is high. It doesn't make people stupid, just unlucky in this case.
Extend that to any other type of purchase, food, cars, etc. Aspargus cost 8$ a small pack currently, I'm not stupid if I buy them, it just ends up that I like them enough to pay that price. I could just wait until summer for the offer to be higher, thus reduced price.

If we start calling out people stupid because they buy stuff they pay too much for them, then we are all stupid because we by old cart whose ROMs are free on the net.
This excludes TDIRunner, he's running all on everdrives

[TDIRunner]

I don't think the people that pay the scalpers on eBay are stupid. If they want something, and they can't walk into a retail store and buy it at retail price, what are they supposed to do?

I disagree.  They are stupid.  These are not necessities.  No one has to own video games.  

People can spend their money however this wish.  If they have more money than brains, then by all means pay the scalpers whatever they want, but I will still look at it as a stupid purchase.  If a millionaire spent $200 on an NES Mini, I would still refer to that as a stupid purchase.  No offense to anyone here who may have done that, but that's just how I look at the situation.

Agree with you on this

I agree also.

I don't agree

The basic of economy is offer and demand. If the offer is low and demand is high, then price is high. It doesn't make people stupid, just unlucky in this case.
Extend that to any other type of purchase, food, cars, etc. Aspargus cost 8$ a small pack currently, I'm not stupid if I buy them, it just ends up that I like them enough to pay that price. I could just wait until summer for the offer to be higher, thus reduced price.

If we start calling out people stupid because they buy stuff they pay too much for them, then we are all stupid because we by old cart whose ROMs are free on the net.
This excludes TDIRunner, he's running all on everdrives

You are talking about something completely different.  We are talking about things that are expensive NOW, but we know with 100% 99.99% certainty that they will be cheaper in the near future.  If you spent $8 on asparagus today KNOWING that it would be $0.10 tomorrow, I would call that stupid.  If someone decides to pay $50 for a copy of Contra (or insert whatever the current going rate is), I personally wouldn't say that's stupid because there is nothing that should lead any of us to believe that game will be cheaper any time soon.  If anything, we have good reason to believe that price might climb more within the next few years.  I personally wouldn't spend that much money on it because it's not worth that much to me, but I could at least understand why someone would.  

[TDIRunner]

I'll put it another way.

I can think of only two reasons why someone would spend $200 on an NES Mini:

• They honestly don't know much about the video game market and they don't realize how easy they will be to get in the near future.  This is somewhat understandable considering the number of casual gamers who probably wanted one on an impulse for nostalgic reasons.  But these types of impulse buys are usually regretted later, and therefore, not very well thought out.
• They MUST HAVE IT NOW, no matter the cost.  However, short of a dying child's last wish, I refuse to believe that anyone needed an NES Mini urgently enough to justify that kind of money.

[monjici]

I'll put it another way.

I can think of only two reasons why someone would spend $200 on an NES Mini:

• They honestly don't know much about the video game market and they don't realize how easy they will be to get in the near future.  This is somewhat understandable considering the number of casual gamers who probably wanted one on an impulse for nostalgic reasons.  But these types of impulse buys are usually regretted later, and therefore, not very well thought out.
• They MUST HAVE IT NOW, no matter the cost.  However, short of a dying child's last wish, I refuse to believe that anyone needed an NES Mini urgently enough to justify that kind of money.

I think we can all agree to that
Where would you draw the line though... if the retail price is 70$, would paying 100$ to have it right now be justifiable?

We can extend that to the Switch coming soon, I'll wait until they bundle it with a game and shed off the price a bit (hopefully).

[TDIRunner]

Where would you draw the line though... if the retail price is 70$, would paying 100$ to have it right now be justifiable?

We can extend that to the Switch coming soon, I'll wait until they bundle it with a game and shed off the price a bit (hopefully).

Good question.  As a matter of principle, I refused to pay even 1 cent over retail price for my NES Mini (I already have one if you didn't see my pickup post last week).  Before these were even released, I made it clear that I would only buy one if I could get it at retail price without waiting in line or camping out in front of a store. 

But at what point would I consider another person to be making a stupid purchase?  I guess anything over $10 mark up just seems silly to me.  Again, this is considering that in this situation, we know that they will be easier to find eventually. 

[Taketheword]

Where would you draw the line though... if the retail price is 70$, would paying 100$ to have it right now be justifiable?

We can extend that to the Switch coming soon, I'll wait until they bundle it with a game and shed off the price a bit (hopefully).

Good question.  As a matter of principle, I refused to pay even 1 cent over retail price for my NES Mini (I already have one if you didn't see my pickup post last week).  Before these were even released, I made it clear that I would only buy one if I could get it at retail price without waiting in line or camping out in front of a store.  

But at what point would I consider another person to be making a stupid purchase?  I guess anything over $10 mark up just seems silly to me.  Again, this is considering that in this situation, we know that they will be easier to find eventually.  

To elaborate on this point, if we look at this in more economical terms, the point where it becomes a stupid purchase is when the cost of the added markup exceeds the value of acquiring it now/easily. If someone spends an extra $10 on the console to avoid waiting for 2 hours in a line to receive one, it is arguably not a stupid purchase. If someone spends even $20 over retail to avoid spending hours over the next month trying to acquire one for retail, it is arguably not a stupid purchase.

Even in these specific situations, although the purchase may be justifiable from a cost perspective, I still believe it is stupid to support scalpers by paying ANY markup.

And just to diffuse any arguments of "supply/demand", this is not an argument of the fact that the scalpers are simply utilizing capitalism, nor is it an argument of the demand of the item. This is an argument of the morality of the scalpers, and it is an argument of the impatience of buyers -- which reaches stupidity (not to mention the ignorance that is involved in supporting scalpers).

[wiggy]

This is par for the course when it comes to Nintendo, though. I mean, of course "scalpers be scalpin" and all that, but Nintendo always and I mean *always* underestimates demand which leads them to produce small quantities of ___________ item.

Anyone that's been collecting amiibo, or tries to get any Special Edition 3DS or games (not an exhaustive list)...knows what I'm talking about.

I don't think the people that pay the scalpers on eBay are stupid. If they want something, and they can't walk into a retail store and buy it at retail price, what are they supposed to do? Wait and hope that the scalpers lower the price? They might...they might not. Case in point, the Majora's Mask Limited Edition is still selling comfortably in the $75-$100 range. That was released almost 2 years ago, and I've never once seen it in stock at any retail store here in the Baltimore, MD area (I know because I want it).

As much as I hate scalpers, I can't help but feel like Nintendo creates an ecosystem for them to thrive and after all this time it almost seems like they do it on purpose.

That's different, that's an item that is no longer for sale in stores, an item that you know won't be for sale in stores. You have to pay the price. But when you know there would be another production and you buy at a higher price, sorry but that isn't a smart move (stupid).

I haven't checked as of this morning, but I know that yesterday, Gamestop still had pre-orders available for the new pro controller for the Switch for $80 (or whatever Nintendo is charging).  Yet, you could still find sold listings on eBay on the same day for well over $100.  That's the type of purchase that I would label as stupid.

But they keep selling out in minutes.  It's not like they go up and stay there.  Hell, I'm still trying to hunt one down for launch day so I can make display stands for them.

[TDIRunner]

But they keep selling out in minutes.  It's not like they go up and stay there.  Hell, I'm still trying to hunt one down for launch day so I can make display stands for them.

I'm just going by what I heard.  I never actually looked yesterday, so I could be wrong, but it was my understanding that they were up for quite a while on GS website yesterday. 

Best of luck in getting one.  I don't plan to get a Switch right away, but whenever I eventually get one, I definitely want a Pro controller to go with it. 

[Taketheword]

This is par for the course when it comes to Nintendo, though. I mean, of course "scalpers be scalpin" and all that, but Nintendo always and I mean *always* underestimates demand which leads them to produce small quantities of ___________ item.

Anyone that's been collecting amiibo, or tries to get any Special Edition 3DS or games (not an exhaustive list)...knows what I'm talking about.

I don't think the people that pay the scalpers on eBay are stupid. If they want something, and they can't walk into a retail store and buy it at retail price, what are they supposed to do? Wait and hope that the scalpers lower the price? They might...they might not. Case in point, the Majora's Mask Limited Edition is still selling comfortably in the $75-$100 range. That was released almost 2 years ago, and I've never once seen it in stock at any retail store here in the Baltimore, MD area (I know because I want it).

As much as I hate scalpers, I can't help but feel like Nintendo creates an ecosystem for them to thrive and after all this time it almost seems like they do it on purpose.

That's different, that's an item that is no longer for sale in stores, an item that you know won't be for sale in stores. You have to pay the price. But when you know there would be another production and you buy at a higher price, sorry but that isn't a smart move (stupid).

I haven't checked as of this morning, but I know that yesterday, Gamestop still had pre-orders available for the new pro controller for the Switch for $80 (or whatever Nintendo is charging).  Yet, you could still find sold listings on eBay on the same day for well over $100.  That's the type of purchase that I would label as stupid.

But they keep selling out in minutes.  It's not like they go up and stay there.  Hell, I'm still trying to hunt one down for launch day so I can make display stands for them.

It is my understanding that they will be restocked on the day of release. I could be wrong, but I believe that is the case. Because it is not in any way a limited item, I believe they'll be treated the same as the Switch itself -- restocked for release despite being sold out of pre-sales.

[xwaprez]

But they keep selling out in minutes.  It's not like they go up and stay there.  Hell, I'm still trying to hunt one down for launch day so I can make display stands for them.

I'd be willing to send you mine if you can't get your hands on one on or around launch day.

[wiggy]

But they keep selling out in minutes.  It's not like they go up and stay there.  Hell, I'm still trying to hunt one down for launch day so I can make display stands for them.

I'm just going by what I heard.  I never actually looked yesterday, so I could be wrong, but it was my understanding that they were up for quite a while on GS website yesterday. 

Best of luck in getting one.  I don't plan to get a Switch right away, but whenever I eventually get one, I definitely want a Pro controller to go with it. 

They actually went back up a could of hours ago and I snagged one. Woot!!!

[xwaprez]

They actually went back up a could of hours ago and I snagged one. Woot!!!

Awesome! Glad to hear it.

[SegaNomadman]

As a matter of principle, I refused to pay even 1 cent over retail price for my NES Mini (I already have one if you didn't see my pickup post last week).  Before these were even released, I made it clear that I would only buy one if I could get it at retail price without waiting in line or camping out in front of a store. 

I'm this way for anything. I refuse to pay above retail unless it's something that is no longer produced.