Scalping on eBay has always been a reality. You see it with anything that is likely going to be in demand or of a limited quantity. It is, however, a pretty awful thing to do. The scalper buys low and sells high, which yes, is a cornerstone of capitalism, but when it’s something that is going to be so hard to come by (if the NES classic is anything to judge by) it’s a pretty awful thing to do. Well, eBay seems to think so too as they have pulled all adverts for SNES Mini Classics.
Scalpers Targeted by eBay!
Before carrying on, I should point out that scalping isn’t without its risks. The more savvy scalper will attempt to predict what will be a title that might not receive a high amount of production but will see a lot of demand. They don’t always guess right and it cheers me up no end when I hear about such instances.
The decision for eBay to remove these adverts, as reported by Eurogamer, should, therefore, be applauded. If nothing else, for every scalper it stops, 1 more person who really wants this will be able to get it at an honest retail price.
With an anticipated RRP at £80, as you can see below, some people are hoping to get lucky here and get 3 times that. The sad thing is, some people will pay it.
We did report a little over a week ago that Amazon and Game had stopped taking pre-orders for the SNES Mini Classic, less than a week after starting.
Is the demand really going to be so high?
Despite promises from Nintendo that it will not be the same as the NES classic, or even the Switch production, not many are anticipating getting their SNES on release day.
To avoid excessive scalping eBay has removed all listings. It has also promised to not accept any items listed as 30 days before the official release. This doesn’t necessarily remove the scalpers, but it at least only gives them a limited time to work in.
Hopefully, come release day, Nintendo will have thousands ready to roll so that the scalpers find themselves out-of-pocket. I am somewhat sceptical. I genuinely don’t think Nintendo has learnt the mistakes from the NES Classic and Switch.
