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Retail Store Scalping Wii Consoles on eBay
C0rinthian writes "ArsTechnica reports that the games retailer Slackers has been keeping their stock of the Nintendo Wii off their store shelves, and is instead selling the system on eBay for $400-500. (A $150-$250 markup)" This follows their look at the other side of the coin: why some retailers insist on Wii Bundles.
Nintendo doesn't want them to, but they have to be very careful about cutting off shipments or Nintendo could get busted for price fixing.
Ummm, price fixing is setting an artificially high price. If anything, Nintendo is dumping (selling below cost to gain market share).
In this case, the MSRP is much lower than market price. So why not charge the market price? That's capitalism.
Honestly if they're only making just below $4 I can't blame them for requiring bundles. In the article it says they're losing money if a customer uses a credit card but even if they don't you have to wonder how they can keep the doors open.
I kind of feel a little bit bad for small games stores right now even if I'm just a consumer with no real vested interest in making the prices higher.
In a capatilist society it should be possible to buy any item, no matter how rare, with rarer items being more expensive. Should we blame retailers for doing what economic theory expects them to do? When supply is low and demand is high price should rise until supply = demand.
2. Why doesn't the stores sell it for more than MSRP? The "S" does stand for "Suggested"
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
The story here is that the Wii is worth so much money to some people. For that kind of money one could get a Playstation. But I have no idea how the world works. I still can't understand why some parent would spend $100+ to have their kids see some girl pretend to sing. At some pooint it seems that you tell the kids 'no', the market dries up, and the scalpers go away. But in reality there are enough compulsive people who will pay anything to be part of the in crowd so these scalpers will always have customers.
In the free world we have the right to make choices, and as well as a basic education is offered, then I say let the adults make the choices(although it has been clear that when cash is too easy to get, the system tends to break down, and more responsible people end up picking up the pieces for the less responsible).
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
That is exactly what the AC was saying...
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
I think much more frequent is the case where store employees are buying wiis before they ever reach the floor and selling them either on ebay or other places. I know of at least one person who does this. They buy them for their discounted value and then sell it for a $100 msrp markup. I really don't know why Games...errr...said company doesn't put a stop to it. They are losing a lot of money by letting them go at employee discount. I'm sure these places have rules to try to stop this, but they obviously aren't enforced or the people who have the ability to cover turn the other cheek are part of it (ie store managers don't stop it, and for whatever reason the regional/corporate isn't looking close enough at the numbers).
Huh? You can go to any Best Buy or WalMart and buy a Wii that's not in a bundle. Or at least you could until they ran out of stock for the Christmas rush, but I'm sure if you stand around on the day they get their resupply that they'll sell you one in the regular retail box, which is nothing but the the console, one Wiimote, and Wii Sports, just fine.
Gamestop seem to be notorious for its bundling policies, but then again I think Gamestop is one notch up from a guy selling electronics and Persian rugs out of the back of a van.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
My guess is that the going eBay price has just drastically dropped because right now chances slim that it's going to make it to your doorstep by Xmas morning.
It's not dumping. It's well known that Nintendo makes a profit on every Wii sold at the MSRP.
Raw capitalism yes-- but not friendly capitalism. Raw capitalism will maximize profits but might cost nintendo a lot of good will.
For example- Sony pissed me off in 2001 and I have not bought another product from them since. So their short term gain resulted in probably $20,000 to $30,000 in lost sales.
Nintendo has been managing their market for a looooong time.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
The ability to set a *minimum price* has nothing to do with this particular case, as the retailers are selling at above MSRP. At no point was the manufacturer allowed to set the maximum price for the product, so if Nintendo stopped shipping to the retailers that do so they'd have a price fixing suit on their hands.
What's up? Is their a particular component that is hard to come by or has a real low yield? To date, Nintendo's sold 12 million Wii's. That's a pretty strong demand for consoles. I'm not saying it's neverhappened, but I've never heard of a console selling over 10 million in its first year. Heck, the XBOX 360 has been out for two years and the Wii surpassed it in half hte time. If I'm right about the history of console sales, then the question I'd ask is: "What reason would Nintendo have to think they needed say.. double the amount of Wii consoles available?"
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
"I have to buy a console and games? Boo hoo!"
Wow. Way to miss the point. Okay, here's a metaphor to help you comprehend the idea: Let's say you want to purchase an HD-DVD player. They sell for $200, but demand is high, so you cannot find them. Suddenly, you find one but it's $400 and comes with Gigli, Eps. 1-3, TMNT 3, King Kong, White Noise, and Deuce Bigalow.
Boo hoo.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I walked into a local independent game shop the other day, just as they unboxed 6 new Wii consoles that had arrived that day. I asked "Do you have any Wiis in stock?" and an employee stepped in front of the stack of Wiis and said "Nnnnnnooooo.... th..these aren't for sale. I mean they are, but we sell them online. No one wants to pay the $450 we are asking in the store." Frickin' jerkwads.
Personally, I'm waiting for the Christmas rush to pass so I can get the console without a forced bundle.
Yes, you and about a million others!
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
No, write down is the correct term.
If you thought you had $billion worth of widgets in the warehouse, but now you don't expect to sell as many, or expect them to sell at a lower price, then in your end of year accounts you'll write down the value of this asset.
Now you might try to sell the widgets at a marked down (ie. lower) price and thus just take a small loss (a small write down). But you might also just not be able to sell them at all in which case they'll end up in a landfill somewhere.
Rich.
libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
Maybe in the USA but in Europe, there are plenty of Wii's to go around in France and Germany.
...
:P.
So yes, there is the issue of supply and demand - but in Europe Nintendo have got it significantly wrong.
Lemme see, the US retail price is $249, the European retail price Euro 249 (including sales tax), abour Euro 209, excluding sales tax. In todays yen, that would mean a Wii sells for just over 28,000 yen in the US, while that same Wii sells for just over 34.000 yen in Europe. Silly Nintendo, making sure all demand is met in the highest paying market, they have it significantly wrong indeed
If the price is "too" high, then don't buy the product. A 'toy' should have an infinite price-elasticity ... you are NOT entitled to be amuzed.