Scalpers Ruin Yet Another Nintendo Collectible: The NES Classic Edition

You may have heard of the newly released NES Classic Edition, a mini Nintendo Entertainment System that emulates 30 of some of the best games to ever be released on the console. You may also have heard about the NES Classic Edition selling out virtually everywhere in a matter of minutes like it was Turbo Man from Jingle All The Way.

If you didn’t get your hands on a NES Classic, there are two big reasons why. The first reason is the fact that there were no pre-orders available, so if you didn’t line up outside the store on Friday morning you probably missed out. The second reason is obvious, there just wasn’t enough stock. Nintendo has been doing this the last few years, most recently when the Amiibo craze was at its peak. Specific Amiibo figurines were more rare than others and were flying off the shelves, which leads to one of the biggest problems in game collecting: Scalpers.

If you go to your local classifieds website such as Kijiji or Craigslist you’ll see these little $60 consoles being sold for over 4 times their value. Here is just a few examples below:

Now I know what you’re thinking, nobody is dumb enough to cough up all that money just to play a few retro games, right? Wrong. Just a quick Ebay search and you will find NES Classic Editions being added to auction every minute, and the sad part of all this is people are actually bidding top dollar for these consoles. Here are just a few examples of the crazy amounts people are willing to spend:

If you are truly looking to get your hands on one of these, do yourself a favor and just wait it out. Nintendo of America has already confirmed on their Official Twitter page that more stock is on its way throughout the holiday season. Don’t be surprised to see more of these as soon as Black Friday.