Amiibo Fever!

There is no doubt that Nintendo's new Amiibo figures are a hit this holiday season.  Look at the displays at your nearest retailer and you are likely to find many empty slots with only the most well known characters in stock.

I was lucky to have been able to purchase the complete first wave at retail value, except for Marth (which I had to buy at twice the cost).

Seeing how some figures were going to be rare and possibly discontinued after their initial shipment, I quickly pre-ordered all the available figures for waves two and three.  This required ordering through various sites (Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Gamestop) since some were retailer exclusives and some had already been sold out on Amazon.  Luckily, I was able to order all of them except Rosalina and Lucario, which are exclusive to Target and Toys R' Us, respectively.  However, I did find a site that allowed me to pre-order the Japanese versions of those two.

With the rarity of many of these figures, the usual scalpers have appeared online selling them for two to five times the cost.  Debates are flaring up on message boards around the internet on whether this is an ethical practice or not, and of course, capitalism becomes the rallying cry for those that do this or the curse for those unable to find a reasonably priced figure for their collection.  But is this really capitalism at its finest?


The rush on Amiibo and the scalpers' prices are a direct effect of Nintendo not being able to meet the demands of the consumers.  It also does not help that they have been completely silent on the supply of the Amiibo.  We knew that some Amiibo would be limited but exactly how limited are they?  One shipment only?  If Nintendo would just release a statement clarifying the current state of some of the figures, it would ease the panic of those that are trying to buy them as gifts or to complete their collection.

Without an official statement from Nintendo, the rumors are starting to spread and no one knows if they will turn out to be true or not.  Those who want to collect the full set of Amiibo, like myself, do not want to take a chance at missing out on them now, only to have to buy them later at higher prices, so we take to the stores, websites, and message boards looking to see where we can find the ones we need.

Scalping is a nasty business and I feel that it is unethical to buy up a store's whole stock of a certain figure just to charge an outrageous price to make a bit of profit.  But it is a reality and a part of the free market.  Just as the scalpers are free to choose what to charge for that rare figure, consumers are free to choose how much they pay.  If there are plenty of people willing to shell out $50 for that hard to find Marth figure, then the scalpers will continue to sell them at that price or increase it.

What I saw while looking for a Marth Amiibo confirms this.  At first, they were just a few dollars over the retail value ($13).  As people began to realize that they were hard to find, the price started to go up more and when I saw that the average price was closer to $30, I decided that it wasn't worth it for that much and I would wait to see if I could find one cheaper.  I eventually found one for $24 so I snatched it up.  At this time, they are going for $40+ on Amazon.

If you plan to make a quick buck by scalping, it may seem like a low risk, high return investment but there are several things to think about.  For instance, if Nintendo hears the demands of it's fans and decides to produce more waves of figures, your stock would lose all of it's profitability, instantly.  Also, if you have a legitimate storefront on Amazon or a seller account on Ebay, you should worry about your reputation.  Buying from scalpers usually leaves a bitter taste in the consumer's mouth and they are likely to give you a low score or negative review that may hinder your business in the future.

If you are a consumer worried about the increasing prices and are tempted to buy that figure you need now, be wary.  The prices usually even themselves out over time.  As scalpers realize that no one is buying at their price, they will eventually lower it a little.  They are also facing competition from other scalpers.  One may be selling for $40 and another wants to sell his quicker so he lists his for $35 on so on.  Of course there is risk in this as well.  It is impossible to predict what will happen to the prices.  They may continue to go up or they may drop tremendously.

This reminds me of when Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth Limited Edition was released.  Idea Factory International announced that there would only be 1,000 units available worldwide and they would go on sale at midnight PST on release day.  Many people stayed up late to snatch one up and when they finally went on sale, they were sold out in minutes.  Almost immediately after selling out, listings were popping up from third party sellers at anywhere from $500 to $1,000!  This of course upset many fans and collectors that just wanted a copy for themselves and they took to social media to voice their complaints.

The release of HDN Re;Birth suffered from many problems.  People claimed to encounter glitches while checking out, some claimed to have bought more than one copy (which shouldn't have happened), and IFI claimed that international shipping was available but it turned out that it wasn't.  IFI is a new company and this was their first major physical game release so problems were to be expected.  I do commend them for taking to Facebook and other social media sites to apologize to their fans and to give an update on what happened.  They made it clear that there would be no more available since the LE contained a strap from Japan that had very limited supply.

This did little to comfort those that were unable to snatch up a copy, but at least it showed that the company cared and would learn from their mistakes to ensure the next LE release would be smoother.  Currently, the LE is going for $339.99 on Amazon, which is much more than the $60 it was originally, but much better than the $500 to $1,000.00 many scalpers were asking for at the beginning.

So, while scalpers profiting from the low supply of Amiibo is a part of the free market system, it is not indicative of the free market as a whole.  This is just a small part of capitalism.

This basically boils down to a company that can not keep up with the demand of consumers.  Whether this is due to production not being able to keep up or them deciding only to produce a certain amount, we do not know.  Since this company has exclusive rights to this product, no one else can produce more.  This leads to scalpers grabbing up as many as possible and flipping them for a profit and consumers rushing out to get as many as they can as quick as possible before they are gone for good.

To those with an anti-capitalism mindset, it is easy to point their finger and say "see, this is why capitalism is bad!"  And while, I personally would never participate in scalping, I can see why so many do.  It is just very annoying as a collector to have to deal with this type of behavior.

This is actually a really simple issue for Nintendo to solve.  They could produce more Amiibo or do like Idea Factory International did, and come out with an official statement on the supply and future plans of the hard to find Amiibo, it would at least let us know whether to buy that figure we need now at $40 or wait a month or two and get it at Walmart for $13.  It would also help consumer confidence in future Nintendo releases.