Holiday Nintendo Wii Prices Kept Low on eBay
If you couldn’t find a Nintendo Wii locally to give as a Christmas present, you probably found it on eBay for a lower price than you expected.
Buyers were getting them for between $300 and $400, which was a pretty good price based on the store price of $250, considering past experience with hot, hard-to-find Christmas gifts.
Apparently, Nintendo actively tried to manage the eBay price of Wiis, according to a report on the video game blog Kotaku on Monday.
Titled “Nintendo torpedoes the Wii grey market,” the Kotaku story details the Wii atmosphere during the holidays and earlier.
Those selling Wiis on eBay thought they would be earning small fortunes.
“Rumors of chip shortages ran rampant, and I personally was certain that the eBay grey market price for the (Wii) would…meet if not surpass the highest numbers seen during the initial late 2006 release window,” Mike Fahey wrote on Kotaku. “Miraculously, that never happened. At the very last moment, in a series of moves that gained them criticism from fans, Nintendo managed to pull together enough supply to curb the often ridiculously inflated eBay demand before it was too late.”
On December 14, Nintendo held a conference call for reporters in which it talked about its plans for handling holiday demand for the Wii. It discussed many different options, including a rain-check system (as well as new stock that would be available at a series of retailers.
This seems to have worked, giving the impression that it wasn’t necessary to pay a large sum of money get a Wii on eBay. As a result, the huge number of Wiis on eBay dropped below $400 by December 17. Then major retailers got fresh shipments of Wiis right before Christmas, the number available on eBay rose dramatically, and prices dropped.
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