In one of the most unsurprising outcomes of theNintendo Switch 2pre-order kickoff, eBay is now full of listings for an overpriced Switch 2, with the posters aiming to make a quick dollar off of upcharging the high-demand and now hard-to-buy console. The practice is often referred to as “scalping,” where one person will obtain one or more of a hot-ticket item, and then charge way more than the MSRP rate of the item. Reddit users aimed to take downeBay listings for scalped Switch 2 pre-ordersearlier this month, but now that pre-orders are available, the scalpers are out in full force.
Spotted byKotaku,there are over 30 listings oneBayfor a Nintendo Switch 2 now, and the prices are high, ranging from the standard $450 all the way up to $1000 and more. Some of the listings appear to be real, and some of them appear to be fake to catch scalpers and bots. What might be more concerning is that the console is not readily available right now, so a lot of the postings are asking for an exorbitant amount of money and are just promising to send the console to the buyer after it releases in June.
Nintendo Fans Are Combating Scalpers With Fake Listings
There Are A Lot of Fakes And A Lot of Real Ones
As seen in a Reddit post by userMrJava-, fans started battling the scalpers over two weeks ago. Several users have claimed to have reported several and even dozens of scalped Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. Now that the pre-orders have gone live,some users are taking it even further by posting fake Switch 2 listings in hopes of catching scalperswho are attempting to buy more consoles on eBay and then flipping them for an even larger profit.
Thepre-order launch was an absolute disaster, withwebsites crashing, payment methods not being recognized, and even some retailers canceling orders, so fans are desperate.The pre-orders were initially delayedso that Nintendo could assess the impact of global tariffs and the changing market conditions, which led to the prices of accessories being increased, and prices could get even higher as time goes on.
Our Take: Scalping Isn’t New, But It’s Still Terrible
Big Console And PC Hardware Releases Are Particularly Rough
Scalping has taken off sincea lot, if not most, sales of consoles, games, and even PC hardware like graphics cards, are completed digitally, which makes buying in bulk easier. Scalping has always existed, but a major increase in thenotorious practice seemed to be with the 2020 release of the PS5and Xbox Series X/S consoles and the Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics cards, which were mostly online due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While everyone has their own personal moral compass for what is right and wrong, most people seem to agree that scalping high-demand items to make a profit is unethical. Fans have made efforts to attempt to stop scalping, or at least tone it down.Nintendo has a strategy to combat scalperswhen the pre-orders through Nintendo begin on May 8, so hopefully, fans that missed out will have a fair chance to get aNintendo Switch 2at a fair price then.
