eBay is pulling listings of the SNES Classic in what appears to be an effort to prevent scalpers from making money on the site.
The SNES Classic experienced almost immediate stock shortages, with many retailers selling out of the console shortly after pre-orders went live. This was great news for scalpers, with many placing multiple pre-orders of the upcoming console and then placing them on eBay with hugely inflated price tags, with some being sold for as much as $400.
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However, eBay has now stepped up to the plate seemingly to put an end to these scalpers, with almost all SNES Classic listings being pulled from both the UK and US versions of the site. At the time of this writing, only one SNES Classic pre-order can be found on eBay US, while none appear on eBay UK.
Only one listing for the SNES Classic appeared on eBay US.
eBay’s presale listings policy notes that pre-orders can only be listed on the site if the product will be be released within 30 days of the listing being made. The policy reads:
If you want to list presale items, you must meet all of the following criteria:
Guarantee that the item will be available for shipping within 30 days from the purchase date. Be sure to clearly state this information in your listing.
Clearly indicate in the listing that the item is a presale item.
The handling time specified in your listing should reflect the time from the end of the listing until the item is shipped to the buyer. Be sure to specify the correct handling time in your listing.
As the SNES Classic is set to launch on September 29, this means that all current listings of the console violate eBay’s policies. It seems likely that eBay will allow scalpers to list pre-orders within that 30-day time period, though by that point Nintendo could well have issued more stock to retailers thus limiting the scalpers’ profits.
This news comes after Amazon stepped in to prevent those attempting to pre-order more than one SNES Classic at a time, with the online retailer cancelling pre-orders from users who had ordered multiple consoles. With Nintendo’s product launches continuing to attract opportunistic people looking to make a quick buck from the company’s inability to meet demand, it looks like retailers and vendors are being forced to step in.
(H/T Eurogamer)
