PSA: GameStop doing a second run of Shulk amiibo

In order to combat scalpers and make sure everyone who wants a Shulk gets a Shulk, GameStop is doing a second run for the guy. However they are being made to order so you have to prepay full price at a store and it will be mailed to you in May.

This is probably the only way people will get Shulk's amiibo for a price lower than $70, so even if you have a slight interest, I'd go for it. Never know if he'll have a function in Xenoblade Chronicles X, either.

 

For a minute I thought Shulk somehow meant She-Hulk. ...My bad.

 

Wouldn't it be cool if Nintendo just cut the **** and made enough of these stupid toys so people didn't have to squabble over trying to get all the ones they wanted

 

And the limited edition 3DSs

 

It's not like they can please everyone. The collectors with money in their pockets don't mind at all. If they overproduced these then some collectors would find no point in collecting them in the first place. If the collectors I mentioned earlier are their target audience (and I am not saying they are or aren't based on the fact that I don't know too much on this particular topic, I just hear about it from people all the time) then they are doing their job's right.

I just find it best to say that it is impossible to please everyone and knowing this when looking at situations like these makes things a lot easier to accept. That is unless you just don't care and then get upset about it, which by all means I am not saying is right or wrong. People can do whatever they want.

Just my $0.02

 

Your two cents is a bit.... One sided here. The fact is Nintendo isn't making enough to keep up with supply and demand, to the point even Reggie admits it's a problem. Long term, this is going to hurt the amiibo project Nintendo wants because of such a limited exposure and scalpers are making ten times the profit Nintendo is making off them. If the sample size of the buying community stays small because of a lack of availability, then it won't be seen as a priority in making the games and will eventually lead them to be worth nothing. It's a problem for Nintendo as much as it is a problem for fans, which is why GameStop is aggressively undercutting the after market and even violated the street date so they could enable this plan on the actual street date.

 

I did say I didn't know much about this exact topic.

 

Well I'm with you on the collector's edition stuff, but Amiibo aren't for collectors

 

Which I didn't know, it just seemed like that with the way some people were talking. Thanks for clarifying.

 

what do they even do?

 

Yeah, sure, to further clarify- that's the problem. Amiibo are supposed to be an international initiative to sell "smart figurines" and spread wide so these figures can give rewards, bonuses, dlc and characters across multiple generations of consoles with nice display similar to Skylanders and Disney Infinity. The problem is scalpers are taking advantage of Nintendo nostalgia and buying everything in bulk to the point they're unavailable because Nintendo is doing such small runs. After they buy them, they sell them for about triple the price or more- Shulk was selling for $70. Now the only people who can get them are collectors with such an income on something Nintendo wants to sell for $13, who can't possibly be making anymore than $3 per Amiibo. Now other people are preventing Nintendo's business plan and taking a huge cut of the profit to the point that people associate these things as a large purchase, and they really don't do enough to justify such a purchase.

To put it in perspective, someone hate bought thousands of dollars worth of Rosalina Amiibo and destroyed them because he disliked the character. The character was such a limited run (and a store exclusive at that) that the price jacked up super high because he was a jerk and made this character Nintendo only made enough for to meet demand. So between scalpers and hate buying, no one can get Rosalina for a fair price. There's an article revealing that Sakurai can't even get some of the ones he wants. The only cure is to flood the market. But GameStop broke the street date so the scalpers would get in, set their prices ridiculously high and then revealed on the street date that they're making them to order at an undercut price (go GameStop!).

Nate asked what they did. I'm on my phone so quoting him would be a chore, but there's a wiki article explaining what they do. The short version is that they can do multiple things per game. Shulk earns coins in Xenoblade 3D, unlocks weapons in Hyrule Warriors, and can be a customizable and learning-abled AI opponent. Marth appears as a usable character in S.T.E.A.M, and does the same as Shulk minus the Xenoblade activity. Mario characters do the same in Smash and unlock special boards in Mario Party 10 where you can compete against your collection of characters who learn how you play and use it against you (that actually works by the way, it's freaky).

Really, the point of this thread is to prevent anyone from getting Shulk from scalpers. Hopefully he has some XCX compatibility and unlocks some customization options or even a Monado skin or something neat.