Black-marketing of Wii’s on eBay

The scarcity of Wii’s in the market in this festive season has now led to increase in black-marketing of the gaming console.

Nintendo manufactured Wii has been in large demand this season with the sales touching record heights. According to estimates, Wii sold 981,000 copies in November and 519,000 copies in October.

Wii is again in the news, but this time for illegitimate sales by a retail chain based in Illinois and Missouri in the United States.

Game stores called Slackers are taking undue benefit of Nintendo Wii scarcity by selling the product online on eBay at extremely high prices. Initially they started selling it for $499.99 but when buyers did not show any interest in such high priced product, the price was reduced by $100 to $399.99. Since then, sales have been on the roll.

It is worth mentioning here that originally Wii is priced at $250.

The stores get regular shipment from the company but they never reached the shop front as they are sold online at eBay and stocks are over well before anyone comes to ask for Wii at the store. According to various sources, the stores at present have almost 20 Wii’s in stock which are expected to be sold soon.

The company has not made any official statement about this unfair way of selling the product but they don’t really seem to be happy about all this. “We don't have to remind retailers of the strength we have right now," said Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime.

"We are simply making an observation and that reinforces our point quite nicely with retailers,” he added.

Recently, many complaints have been filed regarding the hoarding of Wii’s by various stores but this is only the first case in which the retailer has been caught.

Games being the hot favorites in this holiday season, the shortage of Wii have created opportunities for the Nintendo’s competitors to boost their sales.

Microsoft manufactures Xbox 360 and Sony with its PlayStation 3 have been making good money as the customers are out on a shopping spree.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 770,000 units in November which is more than double of 366,000 units in October. Sony also claims that it sold 466,000 PlayStation 3 consoles, compared to 121,000 units in October.

Edited 25.12.2007 1:01 PM; Updated pricing of Nintendo Wii