Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

NES Classic Edition scalpers benefit from eBay policy that ensures profit

By

Are you having trouble tracking down an NES Classic Edition for the gamer on your holiday shopping list? You’re not alone, and aftermarket prices are currently skyrocketing thanks in part to a new eBay policy that ensures scalpers a massive profit on their hoarded units.

Nintendo Life reports that eBay is now guaranteeing sellers that new-in-box NES Classic Edition units will sell for hundreds of dollars at auction, ensuring that scalpers will be able to exploit Christmas shoppers throughout the upcoming holiday season.

Recommended Videos

Released at retail earlier this month, the NES Classic Edition features a collection of 30 built-in Nintendo Entertainment System games from the ’80s and ’90s, including The Legend of Zelda, Kirby’s Adventure, and Super Mario Bros. 3. While Nintendo frequently reissues its legacy titles digitally via its Virtual Console service, the standalone NES Classic Edition sidesteps the need to buy a Nintendo console in order to enjoy classic games, offering a simple plug-and-play solution for retrogaming enthusiasts.

Related: 
Best new movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, and more

Supply issues became apparent after the device’s launch, however, as many online retailers sold out of their entire allotments of NES Classic Edition units immediately after putting them up for sale. Amazon customers who waited in order to comply with a specific time frame to purchase the NES Classic Edition earlier this month refreshed the site only to find a “sold out” notice within minutes after it went up for sale, and brick-and-mortar retailers likely won’t restock in time for Christmas.

In the meantime, opportunists who snagged an NES Classic Edition at launch can currently enjoy a tidy profit by putting the unit up for sale on eBay. According to Nintendo Life’s report, eBay guaranteed that one specific seller with an NES Classic Edition in stock would receive at least $226 for the item at auction, representing a 383-percent jump over the unit’s suggested retail price of $60.

While reselling high-demand items for profit via eBay isn’t a new phenomenon, the company’s recently instituted price guarantee policy will effectively allow scalpers to hold the NES Classic Edition for ransom throughout the rest of the year. Sellers who auction off an NES Classic Edition over the next few weeks aren’t simply likely to turn a profit — eBay guarantees inflated aftermarket prices by offering sellers a cash-equivalent coupon if their auction doesn’t meet a specified minimum bid.

Given that eBay currently guarantees a final price of at least $226 for a new-in-box NES Classic Edition, the hunt for one of this holiday season’s hottest items just got a lot more expensive.

Danny Cowan
Danny Cowan
Former Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
Topics

Editors’ Recommendations

The best Zelda dungeons, ranked
Link and Zelda under Hyrule Castle in "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom."

There are a lot of metrics I could use to rank the best Zelda games. I could talk about the best Zelda bosses, the worlds, items, and more, but I believe the dungeons are the biggest individual factor in deciding how each game stacks up to the others. These are the meat of every Zelda game. All the combat and puzzle solving happens here, and the excitement of exploring each one is what pushes us to want to explore these worlds. The boss is the icing on the cake, but a good dungeon can be the highlight of the entire game. Looking back at all Zelda games, I have made some tough calls to bring you a list of the best Zelda dungeons, ranked.

#10 Eagle's Tower - Link's Awakening

Read more
We need to start having real conversations about AI in gaming
Copilot Quake II game.

AI has become a dirty word across almost every discipline over the past few years. As big corporations keep pushing this technology forward, a vocal resistance among creatives, critics, and passionate communities has risen up in opposition. While every creative medium is at risk of AI influence now, gamers are particularly sensitive about this technology sucking the creativity and human element from our beloved medium. Even the mere mention of AI being used in game development triggers a massive backlash, but we need to start being more nuanced in how we talk about the ways AI should and should not be used. Because, like it or not, AI is going to become more ubiquitous in gaming. We can't keep talking about AI as though it is a black-and-white thing. It is a tool, and like any tool, there are ways it can be used appropriately.

The question we need to ask ourselves now is, when is it ethical to use and what crosses the line?

Read more
Mecha Break is the closest I’ve felt to piloting a real Gundam outside Japan
Key art for Mecha Break.

In 2015, in a mostly-empty arcade in Fukuoka, I slid into the pilot seat of a Gundam.

I pulled the door down, watching as it seamlessly merged with the rest of the wall and turned into a display of my surroundings. As I pulled the earpiece down, the radio crackled to life as other pilots greeted me through comms.

Read more