darkSpyro

Just a PSA:

Please take this with a grain of salt as this sort of inventory information can be unreliable, and some of the major retailers play by different rules than I have to.

However, I have been talking with Activision re: Dark Editions. I ordered a bunch of the WiiU versions for pre-orders for my store, and was sent exactly 0 (all went to the major retailers). I asked if they would still send me some (even though I would get them after the release date) and was told they didn't have any more to send me, and wouldn't have any more to send me. With respect to the PS and Xbox versions, I was told "when they are gone, they are gone."

I don't know how many of the dark editions are in circulation with the major retailers or how many are left at Activision's warehouse. However, based on what I have been told, it sounds that there is going to be a limited quantity of Dark Editions introduced into the market.

I know most of you probably already have the game, but if you don't and want the Dark Edition, you should probably get it ASAP.

The Dark Editions were always sold in limited quantities, that's nothing new.
However I'm pretty sure the Dark WiiU & Wii versions will get out of stock faster than the PS & Xbox versions because of the scalpers that will want to resell the Dark Amiibolanders at a high price on Ebay. So yeah, better hurry if you want them.

Yeah this is pretty standard, but thanks for the tip anyways. People have been warned since they first announced it that if you wanted the Dark Edition you need to get on top of that, it wouldn't be around long term. It's really the only thing that should have been in consideration for pre-order.

Just to clarify, this is a lot different than last year. Last year I ordered and received multiple WiiU packs and was able to order Dark Starters for several weeks after launch. This year they gave me 0 WiiU starters and are basically telling me that they are almost out of stock from launch. I dont know how many the major retailers ordered, but it sounds like whatever they ordered is basically all that is left.

You should ask them for the yawn traps they have laying around

Quote: BP

Just to clarify, this is a lot different than last year. Last year I ordered and received multiple WiiU packs and was able to order Dark Starters for several weeks after launch. This year they gave me 0 WiiU starters and are basically telling me that they are almost out of stock from launch. I dont know how many the major retailers ordered, but it sounds like whatever they ordered is basically all that is left.

Good to see you back on these forums. Do they let you order anything from Trap Team? Any chance of yawn traps?

It's still most likely because of the Amiibolanders.
Many people who don't play Skylanders but are Nintendo fans want to get them for their Amiibo collection, even if they are not gonna play the game and will resell the rest of the pack. So there is probably a lot more people and scalpers who preordered the Dark WiiU/Wii than last years, to the point that Acti didn't produce enough and had to cancel some preorders.

Quote: Fireworks

It's still most likely because of the Amiibolanders.
Many people who don't play Skylanders but are Nintendo fans want to get them for their Amiibo collection, even if they are not gonna play the game and will resell the rest of the pack. So there is probably a lot more people and scalpers who preordered the Dark WiiU/Wii than last years, to the point that Acti didn't produce enough and had to cancel some preorders.

I just checked EBay and a total of 3 listings of Dark Bowser Amiibos have sold ($42 for just Dark Bowser and about $50 for combo with the dark clown cruiser). Even if scalpers used Best Buy GCU or went with TRU BOGO 40 to get their dark starter pack for $80 plus tax, they're not making back even 50% of their investment by scalping their Amiibolanders after shipping and EBay fees. It's not like scalpers are raking in the cash with these guys. More importantly, it shows that Amiibo collectors just aren't interested in owning these hybrid characters. Seeing as there's usually thousands of sold listings for your typical Amiibo within 2 days following release, this is a telling tale that Nintendo fans aren't blindly buying anything with the name "Amiibo" in it.

FYI - these are the 2nd and 3rd Donkey Kong Amiibo release and these are the 3rd and 4th Bowser Amiibo release (counting Smash & Super Mario series) in less than a year...a bit overkill if you ask me.

Yes welcome back BP...also agree with the others, I knew the Dark Editions would vanish fast...is why i got the Dark's for my collection and will get the standards starters later on when there price go's down.

At this rate, I probably will not lose on much. If I was to choose the things from the Dark Starter that I wanted, it would be Spitfire, the Hot Streak, and the Kaos trophy. All three of which I may consider buying next year used. Judging from past Dark editions and the eBay market, combined with the outrageous amount of the first two I mentioned, I don't expect much trouble. Right now my chief concerns are on how to obtain regular Spitfire and his vehicle used, so that I could potentially buy the XBOX One version of Superchargers in the future. Plus, I want them for the Wii U version! Why must there be Skymiibos!

I plan to try to order some traps and see what wave they are shipping shortly. I will let you know what I find out. To me, it makes no sense that they would hold the last wave of traps until after Superchargers is out for marketing reasons. My opinion is that they are forcing everyone to buy the previous waves until they are gone because they know collectors will buy the last 3 traps regardless of when they release them.

Just following up: Activision is shipping Wave 2 traps right now.

Wave 2 traps?

Quote: BP

I plan to try to order some traps and see what wave they are shipping shortly. I will let you know what I find out. To me, it makes no sense that they would hold the last wave of traps until after Superchargers is out for marketing reasons. My opinion is that they are forcing everyone to buy the previous waves until they are gone because they know collectors will buy the last 3 traps regardless of when they release them.

Yep, and I bet there's a decent backlog of traps. Not sure why they don't flood the market with light and dark traps, though. And light and dark expansion packs for that matter.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

Yep, and I bet there's a decent backlog of traps. Not sure why they don't flood the market with light and dark traps, though. And light and dark expansion packs for that matter.

Expansion packs, I can't say, other than to guess that they're no longer producing them. As for the traps? They'd have to actually dig through all of their pre-packed, pre-paletted stock in order to pull the individual light/dark/yawn traps and release them on their own. Too much work for too little reward would be my guess. As to why they can't/won't ship other waves of traps that they've already got packed and paletted, ready to go? I can't wrap my head around that one other than to chalk it up to poor business decisions. If they force people to only buy what they want to ship and people aren't buying, they lose out on sales of the later stock that people desperately want to buy and will end up having to dump the stuff off at discount rates to places like $5 Below, Big Lots, Fred's, etc. (sigh) Since Activision was trying so hard to hire a marketing manager toward the end of Trap Team and before the launch of SuperChargers, it's possible that all of this mess is the remainder of the decisions that were made by the previous manager or an interim manager. Here's hoping the mess sorts itself out sooner rather than later.

-Doug

Quote: mastermc54

Quote: Fireworks

It's still most likely because of the Amiibolanders.
Many people who don't play Skylanders but are Nintendo fans want to get them for their Amiibo collection, even if they are not gonna play the game and will resell the rest of the pack. So there is probably a lot more people and scalpers who preordered the Dark WiiU/Wii than last years, to the point that Acti didn't produce enough and had to cancel some preorders.

I just checked EBay and a total of 3 listings of Dark Bowser Amiibos have sold ($42 for just Dark Bowser and about $50 for combo with the dark clown cruiser). Even if scalpers used Best Buy GCU or went with TRU BOGO 40 to get their dark starter pack for $80 plus tax, they're not making back even 50% of their investment by scalping their Amiibolanders after shipping and EBay fees. It's not like scalpers are raking in the cash with these guys. More importantly, it shows that Amiibo collectors just aren't interested in owning these hybrid characters. Seeing as there's usually thousands of sold listings for your typical Amiibo within 2 days following release, this is a telling tale that Nintendo fans aren't blindly buying anything with the name "Amiibo" in it.

FYI - these are the 2nd and 3rd Donkey Kong Amiibo release and these are the 3rd and 4th Bowser Amiibo release (counting Smash & Super Mario series) in less than a year...a bit overkill if you ask me.

Just a couple heads up as a retired resellers...

Most have or are moving onto Amazon, that's a better place to gauge current market value...

There are several parts to the dark set. To get say Bowser, you got him from TRU, 40% off most likely (so 20% off two) so $80 per assuming bought in pairs. The base game itself is worth a good $40, the figure if sold for $30, would put it at $70, then there is the vehicle which is ANOTHER $30 so that's $100, there is the Kaos trophy, that's like $20ish when I glanced earlier today (I have an extra to sell, not scalping, just wanted dark bowser and dark DK and don't need two) so that's $120, then you still have Dark Spitfire and his car which if I remember, people were saying is going for 20ish right now, so that's "potentially" $160 on something you spent $80. Doubling your investment isn't a bad thing...

Right now is a bad time to tell. It's too easy to just go into a store and buy this stuff still. It's also still too far from the Holidays. Wait till a week before Thanxgiving to sell...

You can't assume someone is going to 'partially' resell. They are going to sell the 'whole thing' in pieces. If they don't have a Nintendo system, then they have no reason to keep anything (true scalper), and if they do have a system, there is a good chance they'll keep stuff for themselves including the Amiibo, especially if it isn't fetching for ridiculous amounts...

With all that said, you're an idiot if you are scalping ANYTHING. If people can buy it, it's worthless. Even Amiibos are a HORRIBLE investment, you can typically buy even the hard to find ones for $20, AND once Nintendo gets supply caught up (which I've heard will be this winter and I already see happening) they will be STUCK with those Amiibos...

There is a REASON I retired. I was barely treading water on reselling used 'Landers (buy big lots, break down and resell), and once you factored in the effort and time spent (sacrificing my lunch to run to post office and time spent at home pre-packaging) it is so not worth it.
- Unreall

EDIT - One caveat. All that varies based on 'size of stock'. That post is centered around the less than 10 copies of the game people.

Quote: Unreallystic

Quote: mastermc54

Quote: Fireworks

It's still most likely because of the Amiibolanders.
Many people who don't play Skylanders but are Nintendo fans want to get them for their Amiibo collection, even if they are not gonna play the game and will resell the rest of the pack. So there is probably a lot more people and scalpers who preordered the Dark WiiU/Wii than last years, to the point that Acti didn't produce enough and had to cancel some preorders.

I just checked EBay and a total of 3 listings of Dark Bowser Amiibos have sold ($42 for just Dark Bowser and about $50 for combo with the dark clown cruiser). Even if scalpers used Best Buy GCU or went with TRU BOGO 40 to get their dark starter pack for $80 plus tax, they're not making back even 50% of their investment by scalping their Amiibolanders after shipping and EBay fees. It's not like scalpers are raking in the cash with these guys. More importantly, it shows that Amiibo collectors just aren't interested in owning these hybrid characters. Seeing as there's usually thousands of sold listings for your typical Amiibo within 2 days following release, this is a telling tale that Nintendo fans aren't blindly buying anything with the name "Amiibo" in it.

FYI - these are the 2nd and 3rd Donkey Kong Amiibo release and these are the 3rd and 4th Bowser Amiibo release (counting Smash & Super Mario series) in less than a year...a bit overkill if you ask me.

Just a couple heads up as a retired resellers...

Most have or are moving onto Amazon, that's a better place to gauge current market value...

There are several parts to the dark set. To get say Bowser, you got him from TRU, 40% off most likely (so 20% off two) so $80 per assuming bought in pairs. The base game itself is worth a good $40, the figure if sold for $30, would put it at $70, then there is the vehicle which is ANOTHER $30 so that's $100, there is the Kaos trophy, that's like $20ish when I glanced earlier today (I have an extra to sell, not scalping, just wanted dark bowser and dark DK and don't need two) so that's $120, then you still have Dark Spitfire and his car which if I remember, people were saying is going for 20ish right now, so that's "potentially" $160 on something you spent $80. Doubling your investment isn't a bad thing...

Right now is a bad time to tell. It's too easy to just go into a store and buy this stuff still. It's also still too far from the Holidays. Wait till a week before Thanxgiving to sell...

You can't assume someone is going to 'partially' resell. They are going to sell the 'whole thing' in pieces. If they don't have a Nintendo system, then they have no reason to keep anything (true scalper), and if they do have a system, there is a good chance they'll keep stuff for themselves including the Amiibo, especially if it isn't fetching for ridiculous amounts...

With all that said, you're an idiot if you are scalping ANYTHING. If people can buy it, it's worthless. Even Amiibos are a HORRIBLE investment, you can typically buy even the hard to find ones for $20, AND once Nintendo gets supply caught up (which I've heard will be this winter and I already see happening) they will be STUCK with those Amiibos...

There is a REASON I retired. I was barely treading water on reselling used 'Landers (buy big lots, break down and resell), and once you factored in the effort and time spent (sacrificing my lunch to run to post office and time spent at home pre-packaging) it is so not worth it.
- Unreall

EDIT - One caveat. All that varies based on 'size of stock'. That post is centered around the less than 10 copies of the game people.

Well, now the rare ones are about $20. Before, they were generally over 50. I once saw the cheapest Little Mac on amazon was $117, but the cheapest listing currently on eBay was ~$55 buy it now. So, maybe Amazon isn't the best place for pricing.

Quote: darkchylde28

Quote: TakeYourLemons

Yep, and I bet there's a decent backlog of traps. Not sure why they don't flood the market with light and dark traps, though. And light and dark expansion packs for that matter.

Expansion packs, I can't say, other than to guess that they're no longer producing them. As for the traps? They'd have to actually dig through all of their pre-packed, pre-paletted stock in order to pull the individual light/dark/yawn traps and release them on their own. Too much work for too little reward would be my guess. As to why they can't/won't ship other waves of traps that they've already got packed and paletted, ready to go? I can't wrap my head around that one other than to chalk it up to poor business decisions. If they force people to only buy what they want to ship and people aren't buying, they lose out on sales of the later stock that people desperately want to buy and will end up having to dump the stuff off at discount rates to places like $5 Below, Big Lots, Fred's, etc. (sigh) Since Activision was trying so hard to hire a marketing manager toward the end of Trap Team and before the launch of SuperChargers, it's possible that all of this mess is the remainder of the decisions that were made by the previous manager or an interim manager. Here's hoping the mess sorts itself out sooner rather than later.

-Doug

I forget it's all one sku. Oh well. Mocking collectors, both in game and out. Yeah!

Quote: mega spyro

Well, now the rare ones are about $20. Before, they were generally over 50. I once saw the cheapest Little Mac on amazon was $117, but the cheapest listing currently on eBay was ~$55 buy it now. So, maybe Amazon isn't the best place for pricing.

Correct, they were LISTED at that price.

Doesn't mean they SOLD at that price. Doesn't mean it was a consistent sell either. There were times where Ghost Roaster sold for up to $75, then the next week he'd sell for $40. I've seen Employee Flocked Prism Break sold for as little as $100 and as much as $350. The higher the price, the longer you have to wait and hope someone buys it off you (and the icnreased chance of the value dipping - see Ghost Roaster, or Dino Rang, he used to be $22-$25, then the restock happened out the blue).

I'm not trying to pretend as though you can't make money, but its luck or insider knowledge. Either yo uget lucky and get a real good come up (finding a metallic Wrecking Ball or Red Camo) or you know via sources that "they won't make any more of these".

Prime example. DI1.0. TRU Power Disc Series 1. MI Car disc. One pack was $5, they often had sales of two for $5 or BoGo for $1 (so 2 for $6). After they sold out initially, the price went up to - on th low $10, on the high $20. I came into TRU one evening after work and found a whole peg full of them @ 2 for $5. I close to cleaned them out (I don't think clearing inventory is fair to others TBH, and I'm a firm believer in karma), hopped on eBay, posted half of them as 'Buy Now' for a range of $10 to $17. Used some to add to my 'full sets' for resale (that wasn't being a reseller, that was the stupid blind packs giving me so many extra copies...), but the rest where just thrown up, maybe like 20 of them. Went to sleep, by the morning I was a couple shy of sold out. Went to TRU to see if they had anymore...nope (found out later that someone came behind me and cleared them out). Looked online and saw the price had dropped to $5...all the TRU's had restocked so the market was flooded.

I was just lucky...I made about $100-$150 over night. Once. Not sustainable. Best I sustained, when I went hard at it, I sold about $50 worth of 'Landers a day, but the profits were 'meh'. The only time I made money was if I had a 'come up' piece like Blue Bash.
- Unreall

It's not Skylanders, but Amiibo Gold Mario went through similar. Initially, he was selling for well over $100. Then, the price dropped down to the $30's. Now, I think it hovers at $50+.

Quote: GamerDrone

It's not Skylanders, but Amiibo Gold Mario went through similar. Initially, he was selling for well over $100. Then, the price dropped down to the $30's. Now, I think it hovers at $50+.

It's standard cycle
"Collector Item come out in small numbers" i.e. not Dark Set - that's rare in longevity, not initial copies...
"Resellers buy it and price it super high hoping people having a hard time getting it will Buy It"
"Ultimately its only resellers who are interested, maybe a couple whales buy some, enough to fool other resellers into thinking its worth something"
"Market realizes no one actually CARES about the rarity"
*Price nose dives*
Collectors see it at an affordable price and finally start buying, bringing the price back up.

What irritates ME? It's the SAME issue as Skylanders actually. In this day and age there isn't a *bleep* reason for a 'chase' variant. It is NOT a ton of work to make the variant appear that way in-game, especially for a chrome or gold mario. What's worse for Mario is that Metal Mario IS A THING, so they have a metal mario Amiibo, that's really just...mario. That is a crop of crap. Just like if I get my hands on a 'Red' Camo, than dag nabbit when I put him on the portal, he should show up as an opaque red in game. I would actually consider trying ot hunt down some of the missing chase variants I don't have if Crystal Hot Dog was crystal in game.
- Unreall

The majority of skylanders are mass produced and will never be worth more than what you paid. It's not like baseball cards from 50+ years ago. People used to just throw them out not knowing they would be worth money. I would never consider skylanders as an investment option.