Does anyone else think Nintendo is really careless with the demand of amiibo cards and figures?

[UnendingHope]

Even when it was most popular they would only have 4 of some of the new ones available in store on release day. I know this because I slept outside of Target in the 6th grade to get the wave 4 amiibo figures. I think whenever they release new amiibos now they are barely ever in stock, and especially now you can see that the preorder situation with series 5 amiibo cards are awful right now. I think they really don't understand that with animal crossing especially, that there is a huge demand for not only series 5, but the previous series and the welcome amiibo series as well. It's really disappointing to me as someone who was never able to even come close to completing a set as they would sell out so quickly.

 

[miraxe]

I'm inclined to think it's intentional at this point. You don't just have a product going for this long without realizing just how much of a demand there is. I'm wondering if maybe it's also partially because no one wanted the Amiibo cards when they first came out (I bought so many packs for basically free because me and like 5 other people played HHD apparently haha) and that's what's behind the limited supply this time around.

 

[UnendingHope]

I'm inclined to think it's intentional at this point. You don't just have a product going for this long without realizing just how much of a demand there is. I'm wondering if maybe it's also partially because no one wanted the Amiibo cards when they first came out (I bought so many packs for basically free because me and like 5 other people played HHD apparently haha) and that's what's behind the limited supply this time around.

Really? I thought they sold pretty well, at least at first. The very first gamestop i went to was completely sold out bc a dude bought the whole box, so I had to go to another store. But then again it was not as bad as it is now

 

[JKDOS]

At this point, with all the amiibo rereleases the past year, you'd think they'd have enough market data to know how many to make. Plus, any extras could potentially be reused for the next game.

They ought to just release a million extra, and let scalpers burn themselves.

 

[Hylian Spectre]

It does appear to be a recurring problem with Nintendo, and not just with Amiibo cards. Ironically, their bottlenecking of merchandise like this just encourages scalping and other ethically poor (subjective of course) practices. This has been their theme since basically forever though to the point of it being a meme and kinda' expected by most consumers of these products. The Amiibo card scene on merchant spaces like Ebay and a few others when NH came out for example was scandalous.

 

[b100ming]

Scalpers are nuts. Everytime I check the Walmart page it’s sold out.

 

[Moritz]

I kinda get it.
In the past they made more than there was demand for and they ended up selling for dirt cheap.

Now they're making less than there is demand for, and they will sell every single pack of cards instantly with no fear.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I sometimes think Nintendo doesn't care that people get upset over scalpers. I think they like printing things in small numbers sometimes to make things feel exclusive and keep up demand. They don't just do this with amiibo cards. They don't print enough of amiibo figures sometimes. They didn't really print enough copies of the NES Classic or SNES Classic mini consoles when they put those out. They do this with other things too, but those are just the examples that come to mind.

I don't understand completely WHY they do this. I mean, some people are getting so frustrated by lack of amiibo in stores and the scalpers charging too much for the official ones that they make their own fanmade ones or buy fanmade ones from others. It seems like Nintendo is losing potential money here by not making them more easily available. I feel like some other companies would take advantage of this demand better and print lots of copies so THEY get the money from the fanmade amiibo sellers.

Yes, I said fanmade amiibo sellers, not scalpers. Nintendo does make money from the scalpers after all, since the scalpers still bought it at the store. Fanmade amiibo sellers are, in a way, more of a problem because the original company gets zero at all from these sales.

But at the same time I do understand one thing: Nintendo is a Japanese company. Japanese culture really enjoys the concept of "gentei", aka limited edition items. There is SO much of this stuff in Japan, for everything. People in Japan lose their minds over limited stuff, and happily line up for hours just to get things.

 

[UnendingHope]

I sometimes think Nintendo doesn't care that people get upset over scalpers. I think they like printing things in small numbers sometimes to make things feel exclusive and keep up demand. They don't just do this with amiibo cards. They don't print enough of amiibo figures sometimes. They didn't really print enough copies of the NES Classic or SNES Classic mini consoles when they put those out. They do this with other things too, but those are just the examples that come to mind.

I don't understand completely WHY they do this. I mean, some people are getting so frustrated by lack of amiibo in stores and the scalpers charging too much for the official ones that they make their own fanmade ones or buy fanmade ones from others. It seems like Nintendo is losing potential money here by not making them more easily available. I feel like some other companies would take advantage of this demand better and print lots of copies so THEY get the money from the fanmade amiibo sellers.

Yes, I said fanmade amiibo sellers, not scalpers. Nintendo does make money from the scalpers after all, since the scalpers still bought it at the store. Fanmade amiibo sellers are, in a way, more of a problem because the original company gets zero at all from these sales.

But at the same time I do understand one thing: Nintendo is a Japanese company. Japanese culture really enjoys the concept of "gentei", aka limited edition items. There is SO much of this stuff in Japan, for everything. People in Japan lose their minds over limited stuff, and happily line up for hours just to get things.

You raise a good point, I just hope they can one day change these practices to make it more fair for consumers

 

[Fey]

I kinda get it.
In the past they made more than there was demand for and they ended up selling for dirt cheap.

Now they're making less than there is demand for, and they will sell every single pack of cards instantly with no fear.

Can’t there be an in between though? Especially because it’s not like the increase in demand is really recent—it’s been this high for years at this point. Arguably, things shifted once the cards could be used to get villages to move in. Nintendo must recognize what a game-changer that was in terms of the cards appeal.

 

[Regalli]

Resellers are an absolute blight, but Nintendo definitely perennially underproduces Amiibo. Or rather, demand and production appear to be mismatched in their planning - the full Animal Crossing figures were shelfwarmers at my local gaming stores for YEARS, probably in large part because HHD and Amiibo Festival were underperformers and Welcome Amiibo didn’t get a ton of attention as an update. By contrast, I never saw, say, the Shadows of Valentia pack in stores. As I recall the Amiibo didn’t actually do much in that game, but the game itself was popular and the designs were cool so people wanted the figures. Splatoon figures? After the initial rush, I was seeing them on the shelves for ages. Splatoon 2? Myths. The BotW amiibo were floating around for months until suddenly demand increased with the Champion’s Ballad DLC, or something, and that game was really popular with Amiibo that did gave a major in-game benefit. It’s odd and inconsistent, so on some level I get Nintendo being unsure how many to make at times. (Especially given the points DJStarStryker brought up.)

 

[Amilee]

its really frustrating for me
over here (germany) we have a limit of 3 packs per person (amazon) and 5 packs per person in other stores but i think that just not fair for random packs? they also cost A LOT and we only get 3 cards in one pack.
and im sure they wont have any in store on release

 

[Pig-Pen]

Whatever they are doing it's annoying.... but Nintendo LOVES money, so i suspect its a manufacturing issues.... because if they could actually meet the demand it'd be so much more money for them and not scalpers.

 

[UnendingHope]

its really frustrating for me
over here (germany) we have a limit of 3 packs per person (amazon) and 5 packs per person in other stores but i think that just not fair for random packs? they also cost A LOT and we only get 3 cards in one pack.
and im sure they wont have any in store on release

three cards for one pack!?! wow thats really messed up. your best bet is probably to import in bulk, thats what I'm gonna do once I save up some money. The australian cards are the same as european and american cards, just they are produced more. So I'm gonna try to buy a booster box when I get my next paycheck, and probably just trade the extras or something

 

[Fey]

its really frustrating for me
over here (germany) we have a limit of 3 packs per person (amazon) and 5 packs per person in other stores but i think that just not fair for random packs? they also cost A LOT and we only get 3 cards in one pack.
and im sure they wont have any in store on release

I was shocked by the prices on German Amazon—is it really 9,99€ for a pack of 3, or is that just the price it’s showing me from the US?

My parents live in Germany, so I ordered one of the packs to ship to their house. If I bought all three allowed packs, that would be over 30€ with shipping—totally overpriced in comparison to $4.20 for a pack of 6 here in the US!

 

[Amilee]

I was shocked by the prices on German Amazon—is it really 9,99€ for a pack of 3, or is that the price it’s showing me from the US?

My parents live in Germany, so I ordered one of the packs to ship to their house. If I bought all three allowed packs, that would be over 30€ with shipping—totally overpriced in comparison to $4.20 for a pack of 6 here in the US!

yes they are 9,99€ but in other stores they are 4,99€ so thats a little better. but still overpriced for just 3 cards imo

three cards for one pack!?! wow thats really messed up. your best bet is probably to import in bulk, thats what I'm gonna do once I save up some money. The australian cards are the same as european and american cards, just they are produced more. So I'm gonna try to buy a booster box when I get my next paycheck, and probably just trade the extras or something

yea i was thinking about that too. i pre ordered some for release but for the rest ill see if i can get some american or japanese ones.
at this point im almost glad we only have 48 cards to collect haha

 

[Flicky]

I think at this stage, it's intentional. They don't care where the money comes from, as long as they get it. They'll release more down the line, at their own pace, just like they did with the other Amiibo cards.

It's a problem with pretty much all collectibles lately, but I suspect it would stop it people refrained from buying from the scalpers, honestly.

 

[Firesquids]

Nintendo intentionally does this stuff all the time and I hate it.
It seems like they constantly make bad business decisions, they're not making any extra money from scalpers reselling, I just don't get it.

 

[UnendingHope]

Nintendo intentionally does this stuff all the time and I hate it.
It seems like they constantly make bad business decisions, they're not making any extra money from scalpers reselling, I just don't get it.

That's the thing with Nintendo, they can continue to make anti-consumer decisions over and over, but still make bank from it. That's probably why they show no interest in changing. Remember how much everybody was angry over the Switch OLED not being the switch pro? Sold out on day one.

 

[RollingAntony]

I don't have access to all the data they probably have, and they are, after all, the company that has survived 100+ years on the market; so I'm guessing they are better at this thing than I.

On the other hand, I think it's a combination of multiple factors:

*Nintendo is usually a conservative company. The market and shareholders are very finicky, so they usually go low in order to avoid getting burnt.
*The first release of Animal Crossing amiibo bombed pretty hard. Times may change, but they do say thay first impressions stick.
*Specifically for NH, they couldn't anticipate the massive demand, so all restocks are more of an emergency/patch situation that will be always playing catch-up.
*Pandemic means less time, less resources, less everything. Why focus on getting some cards reprinted for 1 big game when there are hundreds of other things out there?
*The scalper situation has always been bad, but it has been worsening each year- you can see the impact on trading card games, new consoles, etc. And that's something a bit hard to manage/control.

Overall, they could probably do some things better but I don't think we have enough info to know exactly how could they improve. I would kill for them to have a direct presence here on Mexico, so prices and stock could be handled better, but every bit of public data seems to suggest we are not an important market so I guess it makes sense.