HappySqurriel on 13 December 2012
| Dodece said: This is actually a pretty dismal sign. What we have here are some scalpers that ended up getting caught out in the cold by some disadvantageous return policies. That doesn't mean that many of the more competent scalpers didn't in fact return their machines for full refunds. It is fairly reminiscent of what happened with the launch of the PS3. It means that sales may end up having to be corrected early next month, because sales that were counted. Ended up not being sales at all. With twenty thousand listings. One has to wonder how many sales were scalp sales to begin with. It would seem to be a sizable percentage. The upside is that even with factoring in a high ratio of scalp sales. The platform is still outperforming the PS3 during its launch. It all may end up a little disappointing, but hardly doomed. Anyway it isn't like we were expecting a Wii type of success with the console. Even if it has sold as little as half a million units to end users in North America that is hardly anything to sneer at, and I doubt anyone considers a thirty percent scalp ratio to be plausible. Now ten percent I can probably see that. It is a good question though what do you guys think is the scalp ratio on the console? |
I don't think there are that many scalpers in general, but I do think the combination of strong supply and (relative to the Wii) weaker demand has really undermined sales ...
To put numbers to it, with the Wii there were probably 500,000 people who really wanted a system for Christmas that couldn't find one, of which 50,000 were willing to pay a scalper and the lack of available supply resulted in 10,000 systems being for sale; and those systems sold for a large profit. In contrast with the Wii U there are probably 150,000 people who want the system for Christmas and can't find one, of which 15,000 are willing to pay scalpers, and (with a more available supply of systems) 20,000 systems for sale; and the re-sale prices are depressed.
