SNES Classic Pre-Orders Open, Immediately Close

[bloodroses]

Went to a Gamestop and got some convoluted story about how the region I'm in pooled their preorders and a couple locations basically sold them all out. I have no faith in any of these retailers anymore. Someone is getting the "sweet hook ups" (is that what the kids are saying these days?), either legitimately or illegitimately, and it isn't me.

Yeah, it must be nice to work for Gamestop. I bet the employees kept all the inventory themselves... lol

 

[10tacle]

Went to a Gamestop and got some convoluted story about how the region I'm in pooled their preorders and a couple locations basically sold them all out. I have no faith in any of these retailers anymore.

No, what it is is people writing scriptbots for the pre-order screen like g-unit said yesterday. This is how they operate on sites like NewEgg as well when getting notified that a hot selling GPU is back in stock. All so they can turn around and sell them for a profit. They are flippers. Modern day pirates!

Regarding GS employees, I know a guy who used to work at GS. While they can have access to "cut in line" so to speak on pre-orders, they are not allowed to sell their purchase for ninety days which rules out flipping for profit. Also, they do not get an employee discount on pre-orders. This was years ago so maybe Gamestop changed their rules on that, but that's the way it was at one time.

 

[g-unit1111]

Went to a Gamestop and got some convoluted story about how the region I'm in pooled their preorders and a couple locations basically sold them all out. I have no faith in any of these retailers anymore.

No, what it is is people writing scriptbots for the pre-order screen like g-unit said yesterday. This is how they operate on sites like NewEgg as well when getting notified that a hot selling GPU is back in stock. All so they can turn around and sell them for a profit. They are flippers. Modern day pirates!

Yup exactly - they buy 'em as soon as the retailers get them in stock and turn around and sell them for obscene prices on eBay and other 3rd party sellers. Works kind of the same way for concert tickets. And it drives people crazy.

 

[c4v3man]

If Nintendo is going to continue to produce hardware in insufficient quantities, the least they can do is partner exclusively with eBay for the first several months, and sell them all at auction. I'd rather Nintendo make the profits directly rather than some scalper... Then again, you might as well just setup a Pi with emulators at this point, or use an old modded Xbox (original).

For the life of me I can't understand why Nintendo continues to do this... Why even bother if you aren't going to produce them in sufficient quantities? Why not actually label them as collectibles, and sell them at $200+ MSRP? Why not offer pre-orders through the Nintendo Switch first or something, to reward current customers and prevent bots? Short of putting a picture of Mario giving you the middle finger on the front of the box, it's hard to imagine worse marketing than what they're doing...

 

[bloodroses]

Went to a Gamestop and got some convoluted story about how the region I'm in pooled their preorders and a couple locations basically sold them all out. I have no faith in any of these retailers anymore.

No, what it is is people writing scriptbots for the pre-order screen like g-unit said yesterday. This is how they operate on sites like NewEgg as well when getting notified that a hot selling GPU is back in stock. All so they can turn around and sell them for a profit. They are flippers. Modern day pirates!

Yup exactly - they buy 'em as soon as the retailers get them in stock and turn around and sell them for obscene prices on eBay and other 3rd party sellers. Works kind of the same way for concert tickets. And it drives people crazy.

Concert tickets sites like ticket master have methods implemented into their sites now to prevent scriptbots. It was a serious problem until then as many people just quit buying tickets at that point. Retail/online chains don't do this still; and thus why you cant get a SNES classic, a RX 470/480/570/580, and 1060 6gb's are hard to find.

That's the frustrating part; the lack of companies not spending the short amount to time to implement what is already there. Why should they care though, they got their money; even at the cost of customer satisfaction. People need to start speaking with their wallets, else this won't change.

 

[bloodroses]

Check this garbage out, ebay already has preorders on the SNES classic, already starting at $230

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-Classic-Edition-Preorder-/222621981255?hash=item33d54dda47:g😛7IAAOSwmDxZnQsL

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-Classic-Edition-Preorder-Confirmed-/182729624408?hash=item2a8b88cb58:g:-mAAAOSwqMFZnMS4

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-Classic-Mini-Edition-CONFIRMED-PRE-ORDER-/192286519851?hash=item2cc52b722b:g:T5kAAOSwH35Znaea

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-Classic-Edition-Mini-Pre-Order-Confirmed-/232460536582?hash=item361fba4b06:g:lmoAAOSwRJ1Znauf

There are a ton more links than just these.

The easiest thing these retail companies could do is look up who the people are on ebay selling these pre-orders and cancel their stock; with ebay's help. We know this won't happen of course though since only profit is important...

 

[10tacle]

I've been complaining to NewEgg for years about it. I've been a customer of theirs since the early '00s - right after they got started - who has spent tens of thousands over the years there between personal and business needs. They never respond. Often I have better luck at my local Micro Center getting something in stock with a notification email alert.

Not trying to go off topic here being an SNES thread, but I just posted yesterday here getting an alert of a Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming being back in stock for $430. I could have snapped one up. They are selling for $500+ on Amazon and eBay (secret: right now they are in stock on NewEgg for $450). Check out the scalpers on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XGigabyte+GTX+1070+G1+Gaming+.TRS0&_nkw=Gigabyte+GTX+1070+G1+Gaming+&_sacat=0

 

[Retrogame]

As an interesting aside, if you look on eBay for classic game consoles they can run over $100. The game cartridges tend to run around $10 to $20 for common titles, and very expensive for well loved titles. So since the market for such things is in that price range, it's no surprise at all that people are willing to pay $250 for an official emulator box from Nintendo, even if Nintendo itself isn't willing to CHARGE that much.

As for getting them to work, you can go on a local classifieds site like eBay's Kijiji and you can find folks that are selling (or giving away) fully functional but large/heavy CRT televisions every day. You just need to clear a space in your games room etc. and get a friend to help you move one back to your house.