Released back in September 2020, Nintendo released Super Mario 3D All-Stars with the intention of pulling it come 1 April. The idea is that, because it’s Mario’s 35th anniversary, the company wanted to make the collection special. Now that we’re in April, the game has indeed been pulled, even from the digital store.
But this has turned out to be an opportunity for scalpers to earn an obscene amount of money by reselling physical copies. TheGamer reports that scalpers have begun putting up Super Mario 3D All-Stars on eBay with ridiculous prices. One example has its starting bid at GBP1000 (~RM5738), later reduced to GBP900 (~RM5165) “so you can make a saving”. And it has an auto-win price of GBP1900 (~RM10903).
While this is probably the most egregious example, it’s definitely not the only one. There are other copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars ranging from GBP100 (~RM574) all the way to GBP1500 (~RM8608). Buried beneath these are the more normally priced second-hand copies, selling for GBP40-50 (~RM230-287).
This is pretty much the expected outcome you can expect with most limited run things that aren’t even that inherently special. Vice cites an anonymous developer who said that this is Nintendo’s way of manufacturing FOMO to get sales. Which isn’t that outlandish, considering the company frequently partakes in artificial scarcity.
(Source: TheGamer, Polygon, Vice. Image: Nintendo / YouTube)
