Scalpers Making It Tough To Find Nintendo Wii At Wal-Mart
By William on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 3:15 PM PST In Nintendo
Ever wonder why Wal-Mart never has any Wiis? The above image may be part of the problem. I really think Wal-Mart needs to put a limit on how many Nintendo Wii units can be purchased by one person to keep their customers happy. Personally, I would never purchase a scalped product on Ebay. I think it’s a very dirty way to do business and unfair to the common consumer. The above image is from an Ebay auction for Nintendo Wii units sold by ValueVista.com. $350 for a $250 item isn’t much of a value in my opinion. From the receipt, you can see that this one individual purchased 18 Nintendo Wiis. This may be legal, but should we really be supporting this unethical practice? Should Wal-Mart be supporting this as well? I plan to send a letter to Wal-Mart and inquire about their policies on bulk purchases such as this that are preventing real consumers from getting what they want for a fair price.
What these scalpers are doing may be legal in some areas, but I definitely urge you to avoid purchasing game systems above retail price. Engaging in this sort of activity is not fair to the rest of us.
What can I say… if the demand wasn’t there, scalpers would never be able to sell Wiis above-cost on Ebay. As it is, once various fees, shipping, and time spent are factored in, I can’t see them making a huge profit (as, say, with the PS3 in the weeks immediately after release).
Ah well, still waiting to find a Wii… and not even considering buying one off Ebay.
Yes it should be obvious to people that it’s not a good idea to buy off scalpers. It’s sad to think that people are either so stupid or desperate that they will go to any length to purchase something like that. Either that or they must way too much disposable income in which case , if they don’t mind throwing away money, they can toss some my direction.
Alex,
I agree that without the demand, the scalpers wouldn’t be there, but the retailers should have some degree of responsibility here. If someone walks in and tries to purchase 18 systems, it’s fairly obvious they are up to something shady.
I think $100 dollars per unit is a heck of a profit actually. They charge shipping and handling on top of their advertised price too..and also more than S&H actually costs.
I’m definitely glad you aren’t considering one on Ebay. I have stated that it’s perfectly legal to sell one above cost, but it’s not exactly ethical.
LIFE AINT FAIR…..GET OVER IT!!!!!
IF LIFE WAS FAIR THEN I WOULD HAVE GOT MY WII FOR FREE, INSTEAD OF PAYING $250 FOR IT!!!
If everyone stops buying of eBay, these scalpers are screwed. SO DONT BUY FROM THEM.
What, exactly, is unethical about buying for resale? If Nintendo or Wal-Mart agreed with you, the retail price wouldn’t be $100 below the equilibrium price.
Brad, … first off scalping is illegal in most areas.. legal in some, but still highly unethical. It is not moral in my opinion to hoard a bunch of systems you purchased at retail cost to simply resell at a huge upmark to consumers who may be desperate for the system one way or another. I see that as taking advantage of someone.
I am not sure what Nintendo’s stance on the matter is, but I do know that Sony and Microsoft have been taking legal action against some Ebay scalpers. You also have to look at the fact that most of these scalpers are operating outside of the law when it comes to paying taxes or offering legal consumer protections. I really think one day, this scalping business with each new console release needs to be stopped.
Many stores, especially discount stores, have a “no resellers” policy.
Wal-mart, for better or worse, is not one of them. I think there should be a purchase limit on any popular item, but Wal-mart usually can’t be bothered to do that. What do they care whether they sell their Wii allotment to 30 people, or 2 people?
So avoid Wal-mart and find your Wii somewhere else. Camp out at a Best Buy or Circuit City, get the wiitracker.com RSS feed, wait till the demand goes down…. or pay a scalper. It sucks, and there’s definitely the possibility you’ll get screwed, but if you really, really gotta have it, one way or another you’re gonna have to resort to drastic measures.
That’s what I did when I wanted to buy a second Wii to give to my nieces last xmas (having gotten my own launch-day Wii), and I would absolutely do it again. The hundred dollar markup I cheerfully paid was more than worth the 16 hours of subfreezing line-camping I would have had to do in order to even have a chance at getting one, and with minimum wages being what they are, any employed person’s time is worth more than the scalpers’ markup.
It’s something no one should ever have to do 7 months after a hot toy’s release, but if I had a kid’s birthday coming up now and couldn’t get one by a more reasonable means, I’d do the same. If the situation hasn’t changed by xmas ‘07, and there’s someone I know who wants a Wii (and is the sort of person I’d spend that kind of money on in the first place), I’ll absolutely do it again.
I think scalping of all kinds should be illegal, but the situation is what it is, and I’ll do what I have to. At the end of the day we’re talking about a luxury item, not food or shelter.
The “problem” is not as common as you think. In fact, less than 5% of Wii’s are sold on Ebay.
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Stats updated based on suggestions
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85,456 Wii’s were sold in the USA the week ending June 24.
(vgcharts.org)
3,885 Wii’s were Ebayed the same week.
(ebay.com)
FINAL RESULT:
4.5% ebayed rate.
Methodology:
I took the suggestions below and looked at completed listings on Ebay (in US dollars). I estimated that 15 Wii’s per page of 200 did not sell. There were 21 pages (200 each page, not the default 50) of Wii systems for the week ending on June 24th which comes out to 3885 Wii’s sold on Ebay in 7 days.
Yes, I counted used Wii’s as well.
Have not done the same with 360 or PS3 yet.
I finally got a wii after searching the stores in my city for three months. I stood in lines for hours and made many phone calls to most of the stores without any luck. I decided to continue my wii search on line and ended up on a wii tracker web site. Their it was, the flashing in stock sign that stated amazon had the wii in stock for its retail price of $250.00.I highly recommend these wii tracker sites if you are trying to find a wii.
http://www.instockonline.org
http://www.wiitracker.com
It’s The dark side of capitalism
Scalpers have created the hype, by??? Making the Wii Fit unavilable to the average joe. Nintendo has shipped their units, yes, and the stores are getting them yes, but they sell out in MINUTES?? Hmm…. I was considering buying off of Ebay, but refuse to pay a ridiculus amount of dollars, for a toy. I know they are from scalpers, whom should really get a day job….Scalpers are just like politicans, greedy and untrustworthy! Hmm…..maybe Bush has his copy!