Last week, we warned readers not to get too excited in assuming that the Nintendo Switch's successful launch implied long-term success for the new platform. That said, the system remains nearly impossible to find at North American retailers nearly two weeks after its debut, which has led to a significant markup in price among third-party resellers.
A quick search of 90 completed eBay Switch sales over the past couple of days finds a median selling price of $440 for the Switch, a 47 percent markup over the $300 MSRP. The absolute lowest recent selling price for the system was $359, while one lucky seller managed to get $810 for his system just yesterday morning.
The markup remains high if The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is included with the system. The system/game bundles resell for a median price of $525 on eBay (46 percent above an MSRP of $360), even though the game itself isn't hard to find at all on retail shelves. A Switch with the harder-to-find, extra-packed limited edition Breath of the Wild, on the other hand, resells for a median of $624 (56 percent above the $400 MSRP).
The story is broadly similar on Amazon, where the lowest price for a new Switch among 164 third-party sellers is $489.99, as of this writing. One greedy reseller on the site is asking $822 for the system, despite the presence of many lower-priced options.
When resale price inflation like this happens around a new console launch, it's always hard to tell whether outsized demand or limited supply is primarily driving things. The NES Classic Edition saw its own ridiculous 200 percent eBay markups after launch, after all, but that's largely because Nintendo only shipped a reported 200,000 units to the US in the system's first month (that number eventually grew to just 1.5 million units worldwide by early February).
Nintendo has faced its fair share of underproduction conspiracy theories in the past, though Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime strenuously denied that the company ever intentionally held back Wii supplies to increase the appearance of demand.
For the Switch, one report suggests Nintendo sold 500,000 systems in the US in its first week, amid 1.5 million systems sold worldwide. That's broadly comparable to the one million worldwide units Sony and Microsoft were able to sell through in a single day when the PS4 and Xbox One launched in 2013, suggesting Nintendo hasn't been underproducing the Switch compared to the competition (at least initially). Nintendo had previously projected that it would ship 2 million Switch units to stores worldwide by the end of March.
Of course, it's still too early to tell if the current Switch sales-mania will extend into Wii-style long-term shortages, or if the system will see a Wii U-style initial fervor devolve into lackluster ongoing interest. When we look back in a few months, the answer will very likely end up somewhere in between those two extremes.
14 Reader Comments
Considered getting one myself, but with few titles to pick from and no word on the state of their Virtual Console, I'm holding off.
Thin, but Breath of the Wild is really good, and a lot of the other stuff on the horizon looks good too.
Yet, apparently still doesn't know how to spot the usual eBay "new bidder/0 feedback" nonsense. Take a look at the last 15 or so bids. "One lucky seller" got nothing more than an opportunity to cancel the sale, wait for eBay to refund his final value fee, and the possibility of being scammed and getting exactly $0 for his Switch.
As someone who has made decent money flipping launch systems in past generations, fact is - no one is getting anywhere near that for these systems. They're going for (being generous) $450. After tax, shipping, eBay, and Paypal fees, the only ones getting rich are: eBay, Paypal, UPS, and the gov't.
Last edited by rbraden804 on Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:19 am
Hmm, I'm not seeing the scarcity of just the game. It seems like it's cheaper to buy them separately if you have that option. I take it this is in the similar mentality how iPhones with Flappy Bird preinstalled on it sold for really inflated prices.. even when you deduct how much the iPhone is worth.
i guess i don't understand that outrage.
maybe i'm spoiled by emulators but that nes classic; nifty as it is at that price, just didn't perk one eyebrow for me.
a downloadable VC type system for 60$ that can do NES/SNES at the minimum maybe but something tied to just 30 games (25 of which i don't care about) just doesn't do it for me.
hope you can find it soon though.
edit: and i have no clue why that thing isn't available yet. N just sucks at figuring out JIT stuff or they're contracting out to the worst supplier in the world.
Last edited by sword_9mm on Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:14 am
i guess i don't understand that outrage.
maybe i'm spoiled by emulators but that nes classic; nifty as it is at that price, just didn't perk one eyebrow for me.
a downloadable VC type system for 60$ that can do NES/SNES at the minimum maybe but something tied to just 30 games (25 of which i don't care about) just doesn't do it for me.
hope you can find it soon though.
edit: and i have no clue why that thing isn't available yet. N just sucks at figuring out JIT stuff or they're contracting out to the worst supplier in the world.
Some people like doing things legitimately would be my guess.
Last edited by Toleraen on Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:27 am
Thin, but Breath of the Wild is really good, and a lot of the other stuff on the horizon looks good too.
Very true, but its the same game on Wii U. I picked it up and it's awesome. As much as it may be the killer app for the switch, I at least want a few other good reasons to pick one up, especially if i have to put in effort to find a console at retail prices.
Yet, apparently still doesn't know how to spot the usual eBay "brand new bidder/0 feedback" nonsense. Take a look at the last 15 or so bids.
As someone who has made decent money flipping launch systems in past generations, fact is - no one is getting anywhere near that for these systems. They're going for (being generous) $450. After tax, shipping, eBay, and Paypal fees, the only ones getting rich are: eBay, Paypal, UPS, and the gov't.
$450 sale
- $18 (4% eBay Fees with store, less if Top Rated Seller)
- $13.35 (PayPal fees)
- $10-$15 (Shipping. Looks to be 3.8 pounds)
- $300
- $0-$21 (Sales Tax)
= $82+ revenue
$450 sale
- $36 (8% Amazon Fee)
- $1 (Listing Fee, 0 if Pro Account)
- $1.8 (Closing Fee)
- $10-$15 (Shipping. Looks to be 3.8 pounds)
- $300
- $0-$21 (Sales Tax)
= $78+ revenue
Ars look for the Wii U saw the $350 Deluxe set go for ~$517.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/10/ ... 0-on-ebay/
NES Classics were going for $200-$300. Now they are down to $150.
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