Were you one of the hopeful consumers that tried to pre-order an Analogue Pocket back in August of 2020? Only to find that within moments that the handheld was, somehow, already sold out? Well, you definitely weren’t alone in being a victim to scalpers and bots the day that those pre-orders opened. Fans were outraged that the small number of units were snatched away by resellers, meaning anyone with a legitimate interest in simply being able to play classic Game Boy games on this nifty looking new device were going to be at the unscrupulous mercy of scalpers and their exorbitant prices. People weren’t pleased, to say the least, at the latest in a very irritating trend of consumers being victimized by predatory resellers.
Enter Analogue this week with the surprise and incredibly welcome announcement that it will be fighting back against these scalpers:
Announcement – 2021: Pocket, Bots, Scalpers, Limited Quantities vs Limited Editions and Customer Supporthttps://t.co/lb5FsMRUjU
— Analogue (@analogue) February 22, 2021
The following has been parsed from the full statement, which you can read by clicking the link in the above tweet:
Lastly, in an effort to meet unprecedented demand we have taken careful action to address bots, scalpers, and shipping calculator issues.
The current global state of affairs has resulted in consequences that have affected the worldwide supply chain and this has temporarily slowed our ability to keep many of our products in stock (Super Nt, Mega Sg) and reduced production capacity for Pocket. We are aware that many users are frustrated that Pocket pre-orders sold out quickly and both Super Nt and Mega Sg are currently unavailable.
- Bot protection
Analogue will be implementing robust bot protection on the Analogue Store. This should significantly protect against bots during product launches on the Analogue Store and make sure real users can purchase Analogue products. All orders placed using bots will be cancelled and their inventory will be allocated to real users.
- Scalpers
While a product is in Pre-order, Analogue will be monitoring resale websites like eBay to report scalpers reselling Pre-orders (resales of Analogue products that the seller does not have in their possession). This is against eBay’s policies and we will be reporting these listings to eBay directly. All pre-orders found to be listed for resale will be cancelled.
These words will likely be music to many an ear. They also raise the question, if Analogue can protect consumers, why aren’t companies like Nintendo and The Pokémon Company stepping up to the plate to do the same? After all, if the demand is there, the product will sell out whether it’s scalpers or true fans doing the purchasing. One would think that these companies would prefer customers to be happy and not spending two to three times the MSRP, particularly when that money never comes within sniffing distance of their coffers.
Food for thought, but regardless, we here at Nintendojo applaud Analogue and hope other companies follow suit. Quickly.
Source: Analogue Twitter Page
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