The terrible wallet scourge of the Amiibo.

[SuperBiasedMan]

  On 11/27/2014 at 5:37 AM, Merus said:

I'd be disappointed if the 'training' aspect of the amiibo AI was just level-gated.

 

It's disgraceful that this is the case. #LevelGate

[SecretAsianMan]

  On 11/22/2014 at 9:05 PM, tegan said:

 

So this thing sold for $2,500 on ebay.  Yeah.

[Griddlelol]

I need an amiibo. I just don't know which one I need. 

 

Edit: FUCK! Why is the Villager amiibo £25, while Donkey Kong is £10?! 

[Twig]

Because Marth, Wii Fit Trainer, and Villager were all low production, allegedly. At the very least, they're sold out everywhere and people are selling them back for higher prices. I GOT MINE THOUGH! U: U: U:

[Bjorn]

The villager is...special.

  Reveal hidden contents

[Sno]

The Amiibo situation is kind of a mess right now.

Hey, i guess it's good news for Nintendo, they sure seem to be selling well, but trying to collect the stupid things has been kind of a nightmare.

[Twig]

Can't find little Mac anywhere ))))))):

[Dewar]

The Wii was perpetually out of stock for more than a year after they released it. They love this.

[Griddlelol]

The title to this thread is kinda ironic. Amiibos would be a wallet scourge, if they existed in any shop. Bloody things are impossible to find, and I refuse to buy them off scalpers for triple the price.

Goddamnit Nintendo make more! People are going to buy them.

[Roderick]

I'm absolutely surprised at how popular these things are considering the price. I held a few in my hands (no villager ofc, otherwise would have bought regardless of cost), but at 15 europànians a pop, no way. They're not even that great quality - well, Fox was pretty neat, but Samus is an ugly bit of plastic.

[Dewar]

There's been plenty of the common ones in game stores around here, but the limited edition shelves are empty.

[Sno]

  On 12/18/2014 at 11:13 PM, Roderick said:

I'm absolutely surprised at how popular these things are considering the price. I held a few in my hands (no villager ofc, otherwise would have bought regardless of cost), but at 15 europànians a pop, no way. They're not even that great quality - well, Fox was pretty neat, but Samus is an ugly bit of plastic.

Well, i'm not sure what the exchange rate works out as, but 15 euros is probably dramatically more expensive than the 13 bucks or so they're selling for in Canada land, so that's kind of crazy right there.

Relative to their equivalently priced competition in Skylanders figures and Disney Infinity figures though, they are significantly nicer. (Those Skylanders figures, especially, are real shitty.)

[Roderick]

Holy cow, 13 Canadian dollars translates to 9,1 euros. We have over 1.5 times markup. That's nuts.

[Tanukitsune]

The only toy store in my town doesn't have Amiibos, but has Disney Infinity and Skylander ones.

 

I probably can't afford too many until Xmas is over, but I'm worried I might not get any of the ones I want, I just can't seem to find a Kirby one. 

[SuperBiasedMan]

  On 12/19/2014 at 7:38 AM, Roderick said:

Holy cow, 13 Canadian dollars translates to 9,1 euros. We have over 1.5 times markup. That's nuts.

 

Isn't that not far off the usual rate we roughly get on regional pricing? 1.5 times seems appropriate to me... unfortunately. :/

[Twig]

Amiibos are also 13 USD, which means they're even cheaper here, I think, than in Canada? Get fucked, rest of the world! Wonder how much they are in Japan.

[Thrik]

Different tax systems, greater buying power (i.e. people earn relative to what things cost), etc?

[Twig]

Mmmaybe? But AFAIK Game Stuff has always been more expensive in the UK than in the US? And even more expensive in Australia? I've never done much research, I just know people complain a lot.

[Dewar]

VAT is part of the price of the item right, not a tax tacked on at the register like sales tax is in the US? If so, that's a 20% mark-up right there.

 

Edit: Is there even any additional tax tacked on at the register at all in the EU? If not, it might be worth it to mention that various states have sales taxes around 10% here, meaning we're technically paying $14.50 ish for an Amiibo in Washington.

[Thrik]

The complaining is almost always unwarranted. There's the big EU/US tax difference Dewar mentions, but also people earn totally different money depending on the country they live in. Heck, I could go from the middle of England to London and get an immediate £20k raise — but everything else would cost more too. Comparing the same item in different regions and expecting parity is pretty daft.

[Twig]

Do the prices of Amiibos change from the middle of England to London? They don't change in America. You could move from the poorest region to the richest region and they'd be the same price. I assume it'd be the same there. So even though there's a difference in income, it's not as though the price of luxury goods is necessarily similarly adjusted. I'm not sure I agree with you on this. Not that I'm saying I think the prices should be exactly the same across all regions of the world, but your reasoning doesn't sit well.

[Thrik]

I was only really throwing in the London example to try to illustrate how incomes and spending power varies. To use another example, if I were to work in the US I'd be earning far less after conversion to GBP compared to what I'd earn over here. Essentially, it doesn't really matter what the price of something is in some other country.

To answer your question though, I would imagine that games and such specifically are equivalently priced across the UK, but an awful lot of things aren't — with day-to-day groceries, clothes, and such being an obvious example.

[SuperBiasedMan]

That is the reasoning behind regional pricing and if you do purely take the average it makes sense but as has been pointed out that doesn't actually work on the individual level.

Take me for example, I'm just on welfare and occasional freelance money but that's work for people with the cheaper currency that is dollars and it's notoriously underpaid so in total I'm not making minimum wage, let alone the national average.

[Professor Video Games]

I kinda wanted the Luigi Amiibo mainly because his pose amuses me but man that giant plastic support under him is so ugly. I'm torn.

[Twig]

  On 12/19/2014 at 8:58 PM, Thrik said:

I was only really throwing in the London example to try to illustrate how incomes and spending power varies. To use another example, if I were to work in the US I'd be earning far less after conversion to GBP compared to what I'd earn over here. Essentially, it doesn't really matter what the price of something is in some other country.

To answer your question though, I would imagine that games and such specifically are equivalently priced across the UK, but an awful lot of things aren't — with day-to-day groceries, clothes, and such being an obvious example.

Yeah food, rent, etc. is definitely incredibly varied from region to region, but it seems like the purely luxury goods never really change, aside from clearance sales, or just general sales, or whatever. In my experience, anyway.