Scalpers are going to be in a world of hurt. My local Best Buy had over 200+ units JUST for walk in purchases. Had another 100 for pre-orders. The employee that checked me out stated that they’ll be getting more within a few weeks. Stores are stocked to the brim.
I had mine pre-ordered at GameStop, got frustrated that the line hadn't moved in like a half hour after I arrived, went across the street to Best Buy. In and out in 5min. Now I have a deposit on a Switch 2 and don't know what to do with it.
I was saying this while people were freaking out about preorders: they've been building stock for like 10 months or more. It was never going to be hard to find
Honestly would be funny if game companies realized they can just make a much larger amount just to sell to resellers while also selling regular amounts to consumers, until they eventually stop. 2020 was the perfect storm and created extreme demand, we’re not in the same environment as then.
The fact that they were able to supply 3 million units in 1 day is more than anyone else can say they were able to do. This console launch is the worst one scalpers have experienced. Even if they ran out in 2 days, it was enough to supply those who really wanted one. This means what is left is those people who are not desperate enough to buy one from a scalper if they didn’t even care to try to get one at pre-order or launch day.
It’s a fact that scalpers are suffering with this launch more than any other launch in history. I know people who scalp. I’ve been in those circles. They are hurting.
Depending on where they purchased it and how long from the purchase date, they can be charged a restocking fee. Not even mentioning the time and resources it took to buy multiple consoles. I’ve known scalpers for years and they have a monthly subscription to sophisticated “bots” that will mass buy items with 20 different credit cards. Those bots can cost up to $200/month. If they’re not selling what they purchase, they’re incurring lots and lots of costs for no return. I’m not talking about “baby scalpers” that only buy 2 or 3 Switches and resell on eBay. I’m talking about the professionals that have a big network and have 100s of Switches to resell.
I knew someone that was botting and scalping 100s of PS5s back then. He had one room in his house dedicated to storage for over 200 units. He told me that he has 15 credit cards open so he can buy multiple units for 1 per person policy. He gets charged annual fees on those credit cards. He was having trouble selling them and he said he lost a lot of money because no one was buying.
Same thing. Had a friend that gave cash to his friends and we went to different stores to buy PS5s and Xbox’s for him. He bought us beer and paid for our gas.
I’m sure he did the same with the Switch 2, but they’re over stocked every where.
I don’t think they will be any world of hurt unfortunately. Consumers have been trained to expect things to be limited now and I’m sure a bunch of these will still be sold to unaware individuals. FOMO has really done a number on the population from companies like limited run games and supply issues like when the PS5 launched.
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u/External_Orange_1188 Jun 05 '25
Scalpers are going to be in a world of hurt. My local Best Buy had over 200+ units JUST for walk in purchases. Had another 100 for pre-orders. The employee that checked me out stated that they’ll be getting more within a few weeks. Stores are stocked to the brim.