Amazon's video game division tweeted yesterday regarding an announcement exclusively for NES fans. The demand for the Classic NES is still high and scalpers are allegedly selling the product thru Amazon's Website.
NES Classic fans: we've got a couple exciting announcements to make in the coming week. Stay tuned for more info soon!
— Amazon Video Games (@amazongames) December 7, 2016
@amazongames The mere fact that you allow scalpers who buy the limited stock and then resell it on your site for hundreds, is sick. — Retro Revelations
Amazon’s announcement has brought up some of the known issues in relation to “scalping.” Scalping has been going on within the trading market for the longest time. Scalping is an attempt to take maximum financial benefit of the scarcity of an item (such as tickets to a sellout show) by hoarding it according to BusinessDictionary. One of the possible scenarios regarding the NES Classic item is that the supply flow is already controlled by the scalpers with the use of automated software program.
VentureBeat did an article regarding this issue, the article was focused on the method scalpers use to purchase multiple copies of the console every time stocks are available by using automated bots to make the purchase for them. The story followed one of the so-called resellers who purchased multiple units of the Classic NES using an automated software program called Tai Ding. Tai Ding was developed by PapaJawnz (Twitter name) who explained how the software works, “
The way it works is pretty simple,” he said a message. “You can either use early links or keyword. If I type the keywords into my bot, it automatically scans the entire Walmart.com for the word and buys the product.” The software was setup is also simple, the consumer will just input the name of the product into the software together with his credit card information and once the product is available like the Classic NES, the software or bot automatically makes the purchase for them.
Consumers should be on full alert regarding this issue, one of the ways to eliminate scalpers is to reduce the flow of demand for a limited stock product. I would also be helpful if websites would limit the purchase per consumer to prevent hoarding of products. If Amazon’s announcement is a solution to this problem, then it would be an exciting news indeed, until the consumers should be mindful in encouraging scalpers.
