Ongoing experiment to reduce NES Classic prices and discourage scalping.

[Futurdreamz]

AKA: I'm declaring psychological warfare on scalpers.

Recently I had theorized that many people would be like me and would be so pissed at scalpers they will walk away from what they want out of spite, and therefore the supply of exorbitantly priced NES Classics is far outstripping the demand. There may have been demand during Christmas, but now that the present rush is over the demand has dropped

Control: On the first week of January I have checked Kijiji (like Craigslist, but a tad more classy) for all ads listing the NES Classic - eight that were posted November 11 or just after. I found 70, all with prices ranging $200-300, majority $240 or less.

Procedure: I replied to every add with an offer for a $50 Toys r us card and a $50 Walmart card (Christmas money from family members unable to locate a NES Classic). Six responded with variations on the word "no," to which i reply noting the number of ads available and my suspicion that they are not moving. No response.

Follow up: On the second week I checked Kijiji and found only 35 ads. Prices generally unchanged, but more $200 ads.

Procedure: I replied to all ads, with the offer of a $50 Toys r us gift card and $60 cash (I had used the Walmart card). Only one reply with "No." I did not follow up.

Procedure: On January 20th I posted a fake ad listing a new in box NES Classic for $180, with a note that i will not accept trades or offers. I received only one response, with an offer for $100 which I politely declined.

Follow Up: Today I checked and athe number of ads have dropped to 30, and prices on newer ads have dropped to $160-170, with a singular $150 ad.

Hypothesis: It appears that there are not as many buyers for overpriced NES Classics as the scalpers expected, and I have been making progress in bringing awareness to that fact.

I am currently re-posting my ad at $160, and I made an offer fro $120 on all ads $200 and up. I will announce any further progress. My goal is to bring the going price to $140, and successfully make an offer for $120. Please note that all units are in Canadian pesos, and the NES Classic retails for $80 here.

 

[Mikemk]

Canadian pesos? Doesn't Canada use Canadian dollars?

 

[Futurdreamz]

At this point they're pesos.

That being said, within 5 minutes I have received an offer for $100. I declined. it appears $100 is the maximum that most people are willing to offer. I suspect that the natural selling price will be about $120-140, but any lower and the scalpers will figure it's not worth the effort.

 

[Deleted-379826]

Canadian pesos? Doesn't Canada use Canadian dollars?

Yup dollars.

 

[Futurdreamz]

Yup dollars.

But only worth 0.75 US Dollars, when a year or two ago we had parity.

 

[DinohScene]

Fuck scalpers.

Luckily I've been able to obtain one, got to wait till March till it comes ;/

 

[FAST6191]

I have no problem with scalpers. I am not sure minor annoyances that come regardless of what you sell and where it going to do much what you might deem benefit though.

 

[Futurdreamz]

I have no problem with scalpers. I am not sure minor annoyances that come regardless of what you sell and where it going to do much what you might deem benefit though.

Oh really?
Lets say there something you want, such as the super rare Nvidia GTX 1090. You are okay with the price, and have budgeted for it. Now imagine that when you go to the store, you walk in just as this neckbeard lardwhale buys the last three. When he sees your crestfallen face, he taunts you and all four of his chins jiggle with his laughing; saying that he has no intention of even taking it out of the box, but would gladly sell one for you for four times the original price (and with no warranty). You don't know the next time you will be able to buy one, and every time you almost get lucky there's the fedora wearing neckbeard in front of the line sweeping up the last few boxes with his fatass batwing arms. And this continues for several months.

Go through that then tell me again if you have no problems with scalpers.

 

[Futurdreamz]

Update:
Currently my ad at $160 is the lowest, except for one at $150. One of the posters I made an offer to mentioned he saw a $130 ad, but it seems to have been deleted by the time I saw it so I cannot verify that claim. I have not received any more offers.

 

[ym2612]

here in europe the situation is the same. i almost gave up hope to ever get a mini nes. some shops even said they got direct info from nintendo that there will be no more units produced/shipped. like a limited edition, what is available now IS IT. no new units... since i will not pay twice/triple the SRP to some "non-gamer" crook i was despaired.

until i started to call a local brick and mortar store (with many branches around the country) and asking directly about availability, thereby completly ignoring what their webshop reported about stock. and lo and behold i got my mini nes after some calls at the SRP. it looks like those stores dont even put them on their webshop anymore or only 2-3 units a time (which get sniped from robots in seconds). at the same chain-store but different branch i even got a second mini nes the next day (because i feared i could brick my first unit).

what i am trying to say is: forget teh internet webshops, call your local brick and mortar electronic chain-stores with many branches and maybe it will also work out for you as it did for me.

 

[FAST6191]

Oh really?
Lets say there something you want, such as the super rare Nvidia GTX 1090. You are okay with the price, and have budgeted for it. Now imagine that when you go to the store, you walk in just as this neckbeard lardwhale buys the last three. When he sees your crestfallen face, he taunts you and all four of his chins jiggle with his laughing; saying that he has no intention of even taking it out of the box, but would gladly sell one for you for four times the original price (and with no warranty). You don't know the next time you will be able to buy one, and every time you almost get lucky there's the fedora wearing neckbeard in front of the line sweeping up the last few boxes with his fatass batwing arms. And this continues for several months.

Go through that then tell me again if you have no problems with scalpers.

I tend to want things which do a function. In your example there will always be another graphics card around the corner. In this case there are a million other ways to play NES games, and most of those are probably better than the NES classic.

Once again I find myself repeating the old business adage of something is worth what someone else is willing to pay. If the original manufacturer/retailer for whatever reason went lower than the market would bear I can't fault someone for taking advantage of that.

 

[Mikemk]

Forgive me if this doesn't fit, but I feel this xkcd comic is a perfect reply to @FAST6191

 

[FAST6191]

It is not wrong. I just fail to see why people get so upset in these sorts of situations. Granted this I can see a sliver of practical application for vs the amiibo stuff but it is only a sliver.

 

[yuyuyup]

you can't defeat capitalism

 

[Futurdreamz]

you can't defeat capitalism

Technically you can. It's called price fixing. I'm working to defeat the price fixing by refusing to play along.

There are still new ads coming up for $160-170. Seems we may have to wait a little before sellers are comfortable dropping to $140. The one ad for $150 is still listed, so I'm guessing it hasn't sold yet.

 

[DeoNaught]

Oh really?
Lets say there something you want, such as the super rare Nvidia GTX 1090. You are okay with the price, and have budgeted for it. Now imagine that when you go to the store, you walk in just as this neckbeard lardwhale buys the last three. When he sees your crestfallen face, he taunts you and all four of his chins jiggle with his laughing; saying that he has no intention of even taking it out of the box, but would gladly sell one for you for four times the original price (and with no warranty). You don't know the next time you will be able to buy one, and every time you almost get lucky there's the fedora wearing neckbeard in front of the line sweeping up the last few boxes with his fatass batwing arms. And this continues for several months.

Go through that then tell me again if you have no problems with scalpers.

sounds like a personal expirence?

 

[VashTS]

soon these will be $20 on clearance. unless nintendo keeps the supply like the way it currently is, but i highly doubt it because even at $20 this is extreme profit margin.

I'm guessing here but i think these things cost about $3-4 to manufacture, IN TOTAL. including the labor and all that jazz but not including R&D, as we all know that can be costly.

in other words - i think nintendo will make a few million of these to sell and they will be everywhere within the next year.

 

[Futurdreamz]

In what universe does it cost $5 to make these things? You can't simply apply Apple's profit margins to any price to calculate the part cost.

 

[Jayro]

What if China flooded the market with clones?

 

[Futurdreamz]

What if China flooded the market with clones?

If they could they would have done so already. It uses an off-the-shelf mobile CPU, and the only thing proprietary is the controller connectors.