14 ms·

Amazon will stop sales of used first-party Nintendo products starting November 1

142 points by danso 7y ago

dang 7y ago
We changed the URL from https://reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dprlaw/amazon_will_stop_allowing_the_sale_of_used/ https://reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dprlaw/amazon_will_stop... to an article which adds a bit more background.
wgerard 7y ago
> This decision seems to imply that either Nintendo or Amazon would rather limit all used sales of Nintendo products than build a more focused list of scrutinized software and products. Seems like probably both, no? > Users on the used-Nintendo forum thread have postulated that counterfeit retro Nintendo cartridges have been an open secret among Amazon sellers for some time. I'm guessing Nintendo isn't too happy about this (in general they seem very concerned about their brand) and Amazon is likely happy to stem some of the negative backlash about counterfeit goods on their platform. I'm not surprised to see that Apple products are likely to fall under this umbrella - another company very concerned about their brand.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Apple has been hard-restricted for a year. The FTC is investigating the Apple-Amazon deal for antitrust concerns.
- wlesieutre 7y ago
  I wonder if Apple's special deal is related to this lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13343682/fake-apple-chargers-amazon-lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13343682/fake-apple-char... (note: they sued the 3rd party sellers, not Amazon)
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    Nope. Plenty of brands have sued sellers, but few get that kind of treatment. Otterbox, Skullcandy, Standard Process, Popsocket, ecobee, The Noco Company, Prevagen, Rainbow Light have all sued Amazon sellers.
hprotagonist 7y ago
How is this going to play out, legally? First-sale doctrine has been rather firmly upheld by the courts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_Sons,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_So....
- wgerard 7y ago
  I mean, just because it's legal to resell nintendo products doesn't mean Amazon is required to offer a marketplace for them. First-sale just means that the sellers don't need permission from nintendo to sell the items everywhere.
  - autoexec 7y ago
    When it gets to the point where you can only sell your items in one or two places where no one ever goes to buy things you've effectively broken the right of first-sale. We're not at that point yet, but Amazon's reach is unparalleled and we could easily end up in a situation where private companies, whose influence in our daily lives can dwarf that of our governments, are allowed to ignore the hard won rights we have leaving us in the same position we were in before we had them.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Amazon is less than 10% of total retail in the US. People have been operating boutique shops forever. It’s even easier on the internet.
- magduf 7y ago
  I don't see what first-sale doctrine has to do with this: Amazon is a private (publicly-held) company and is free to disallow certain products from being sold on its site. First-sale doctrine means you're free to take your used Nintendo cartridges and set up a table on the sidewalk (subject to local laws about street sellers of course) and sell them to passers-by. Amazon doesn't have to provide you a venue for selling them. Personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to sell older Nintendo gear on Amazon anyway. This is exactly what eBay is for. eBay's fees are probably a little lower too.
ikeboy 7y ago
>. Included in this move are DVDs and Apple products, which now require similar approval processes to move forward. This is incorrect. You can get approval in DVDs pretty easily if you have invoices from a distributor. It's effectively impossible to get approval for Apple unless you're one of a dozen or so authorized sellers that spends 8-9 figures with Apple yearly. (The official requirements to get approval for refurbished Apple on Amazon is 2.5 million in invoices over 90 days). It's not clear how the approval process for Nintendo will work, but if this is like most brands, all you'll need is invoices from a distributor. Many brands have this kind of restriction. It's nothing at all like the Apple deal, for which you can't get approval just with invoices, and for which there was a special announcement from Amazon; the Nintendo email isn't special, it's standard (google phrases from it and you'll find many other brands with similar emails from Amazon). E.g. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/marvel-warning/407578 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/marvel-warning/407..., https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/dc-comic-restriction/329913 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/dc-comic-restricti... Also, the email makes no mention of used vs new. All Nintendo are now restricted regardless of condition. Also, this is seller-specific. Many sellers can still sell; most likely Amazon targeted this towards the sellers their algo determined were more suspicious for whatever reason. See e.g. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07VGRJDFY/ref=olp_f_used?ie=UTF8&f_usedAcceptable=true&f_usedGood=true&f_used=true&f_usedLikeNew=true&f_usedVeryGood=true https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07VGRJDFY/ref=olp_f...
- rwmurrayVT 7y ago
  I didn't find it "easy" to get approved for DVDs. I had over 20k a month in used media sales for over 12 months and still got rejected. The worst part is that you can buy the media, ask for approval, and then get stuck with the inventory. On top of that what you buy from a distributor will never make you any money. It's all in the used items so you hope to make it up by selling DVDs you buy for a dollar at library sales, etc.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    It used to be harder requiring 10k in purchases, now it's just 10 units. You need from a legit distributor, not a store or a liquidator.
ilamont 7y ago
There is a problem with pirated Nintendo games showing up in the unpoliced Amazon third party seller marketplace. I don't know how big the problem is, but it's there (as I can personally attest, and as the article describes). Unlike the source cited the article, the bootleg I purchased for my son didn't "play fine."
- dylz 7y ago
  It isn't just pirated games/getting fake carts, I've ordered things like a "genuine" GBA, GBC, and gotten fully counterfeit hardware instead of a used old device. Nearly a 100% counterfeit rate on certain lines of product (one example is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W39bZDu6zA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W39bZDu6zA)
  - behringer 7y ago
    And out of region stuff. I ordered a 3ds game brand new, I wanted to try to get a club code so I ordered one that looked like it would be new old stock, ended up getting a 3ds game intended for sale in Saudi Arabia. Returned it and just bought it locally instead. Amazon is pretty much a wasteland for collectors. Ebay is far better and more reliable overall.
    - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
      > Returned it and just bought it locally instead. Amazon is pretty much a wasteland for collectors. Ebay is far better and more reliable overall. And also, somehow, much lower-priced for the most part. For out-of-print but popular and relatively recent toys and books, I've often found things for half the price or less on eBay than what Amazon is pushing. Now that Buy It Now is common and I don't have to mess with the auction system, it's my first choice for stuff like that.
    - throwaway2048 7y ago
      At least with Ebay, its easy to figure out who you are buying from, with Amazon it can be nearly impossible.
- 7y ago
cptaj 7y ago
Alternate title: Amazon destroys the livelihood of thousands of merchants without process or appeal.
- 14 7y ago
  I see this time and time again here on HN. If your livelihood is dependent on another persons platform you are in a very dangerous position. At any moment the terms of use could be changed or they could decide they want to sell the same business you are selling and you are out of luck. In this instance this is a crappy deal and I don't like it and people will buy from other markets.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    That's what happens when Amazon has a monopoly. Many customers will only look on Amazon and won't buy anywhere else.
    - briffle 7y ago
      Back in 2003, people were saying the same thing about walmart. This article talks about how the demand for 'lower prices' almost drove a pickle company out of business: https://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know https://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know
      - ikeboy 7y ago
        Yes, Amazon is doing a lot of the same things that Walmart did back in the day.
    - theklub 7y ago
      But if they don't sell what you want you'll buy it somewhere else... Ebay is still a thing.
      - ikeboy 7y ago
        Sure, but simply raising prices doesn't have that same effect.
naringas 7y ago
alternatively headline: Amazon takes drastic measures to stop sale of counterfeit Nintendo products
cik 7y ago
This is the sort of chilling effect that increased corporatization of society can have - but doesn't necessarily have to. Forbidding the sale of legal items, is a form of increased censorship, one society seems to be okay with.
- root_axis 7y ago
  This type of rhetoric is very frustrating to me. It seems the word censorship has lost all meaning.
  - eropple 7y ago
    It is a tactic. This conflation allows easier confusion of corporate interests and societal ones. And by rendering it so meaningless, it makes identifying and protesting against actual censorship harder and recognizing "we're mad they won't platform our garbage" also harder. At the moment it is still intentional and usually malicious. The danger comes when it is inculcated and we lose the real understanding entirely.
- sushid 7y ago
  It’s not. People are getting tired of scam “used” aka broken or incorrect products.
ct0 7y ago
What about amazon warehouse?
- CamelCaseName 7y ago
  Warehouse Deals is just returned / damaged products. If someone returns a replica game cart to Amazon, it will likely end up being resold as authentic. Unfortunately there's no real control here, but it's the same as any physical store. Cashiers are not counterfeiting specialists and scammers are crafty. Some will even shrink wrap and return an empty case. Ideally you would be able to track issues with the sale of returned products back to a single "customer", but not before several people are forced to return fake/nonexistent products.
themagician 7y ago
Amazon needs to do this for everything. The quality control problem with Amazon is out of control.
jedberg 7y ago
The sentiment here seems to be fairly negative, which is surprising, because Amazon is doing exactly what we've been asking them to do for ages -- policing their marketplace against counterfeit products. They're starting with the easiest things to police, but at least they are making an effort. It really sucks for the legit third party sellers, so hopefully they make the approval process easy for them so they can continue to sell their legit hardware.
- lacker 7y ago
  It seems like a small number of people care about counterfeit products per se. A larger number of people desire cheap products, stay silent during the debate about counterfeits, and get upset if a particular thing they like buying is no longer available.
- busterarm 7y ago
  I bought a 2DSXL on AMZN a couple of years ago and it was DOA. On closer inspection, it was clear that somebody had meticulously repacked the unit to appear brand new and it got to me. That couldn't have come directly from Nintendo like that. I shipped it back no problem and bought my replacement directly from the Nintendo store. With this decision I'd be much more comfortable just replacing my purchase via AMZN.
  - jakobegger 7y ago
    They probably just shipped it to another customer after you returned it...
  - godzillabrennus 7y ago
    Bought a switch on Amazon when they launched. Someone sent me an Australian version. I lived in California. Sent it back and bought one at Best Buy.
- andreareina 7y ago
  As I understand it a big part of the problem is that stocks are commingled so that when counterfeits are discovered there's no way to trace the product to the seller it actually came from. Instead of fixing that they put the onus on the seller, and with no notice at that. EDIT: I was a bit hasty. [1] and [2] confirm the commingling and state that you won't necessarily receive your own goods back if you ask to have them returned, I took that to be because they couldn't track them, rather than because they wouldn't. If they do in fact know the provenance of even the commingled products, shipping the actual seller's product lets seller reputation actually mean something, so I stand by my argument that they could do better than shift the responsibility onto legitimate sellers to get permission from Nintendo et al. [1] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/fba-commingled-products/140997/4 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/fba-commingled-pro... [2] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?language=en-US https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?...
syspec 7y ago
Actual headline is: Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval
jordangoldstein 7y ago
What I don't understand is why would Nintendo/Amazon care if people sold things Nintendo were no longer manufacturing? It doesn't seem logical to prevent counterfeiting by preventing all items from being sold on the platform. I'm talking about out of print products only. So much for the "everything store"...
- ikeboy 7y ago
  It takes effort to segregate products like that, and Amazon doesn't want to put in that effort. For most brands the approval decision is across the entire brand, not individual items. On a handful of items they do have item specific approvals but those are more expensive for Amazon to enforce.
  - jordangoldstein 7y ago
    How hard is it to request a list from Nintendo on what products they are currently manufacturing? They can create a policy were they only gate products those companies are currently selling. We are talking about millions of dollars for this brand only. If this continues to happen across the platform it can amount to billions of dollars of lost sales. Also Amazon would much rather take a cut from a third party seller (regardless if that seller makes money or not) versus sell it themselves.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
fullstop 7y ago
I misread the headline and thought that they were no longer selling first-party nintendo products and that it was a horrible decision. No, this is a superb decision and I wish that they would do it with other products.
Cyder 7y ago
Ebay baby... I'm coming home...
secabeen 7y ago
Amazon did this for canon equipment some time back. I used to sell my older cameras and lenses on Amazon as used items; I'm not allowed to any more. It's too bad, but it just pushed me back to eBay, which has been perfectly fine, for the limited number of sales I've done.
r00fus 7y ago
I've noticed I can't buy many Kirkland brand products on Amazon either.
maerF0x0 7y ago
IMO this is ok. Ebay has long been a better platform for these kinds of transactions.
jchw 7y ago
Can the headline be fixed? It’s currently stating Amazon will stop the sale of Nintendo products. Absolutely not at all what the actual headline is saying. > Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval
the_watcher 7y ago
It seems like this is pretty obviously what Nintendo would prefer, and can probably put it in their terms of service. It would shock me if this weren't being driven by Nintendo, much more so than Amazon.
- chaostheory 7y ago
  This makes sense. Another issue with counterfeits is that many consumers are unable to recognize them. Instead they'll think it's just a defective product and waste Nintendo customer service's time.
RenRav 7y ago
Ebay is still great for used goods, most rare and lucky finds seem to come from random listings made by normal people. Amazon never seemed friendly for small first time sellers.
diogenescynic 7y ago
Why is the headline changed from "third-party" to "first-party"? It fundamentally changes the story...
drewrem11 7y ago
Amazon now says the email sent to the third-party dealers was in error https://www.pcmag.com/news/371708/amazon-dealers-need-approval-to-sell-used-nintendo-games https://www.pcmag.com/news/371708/amazon-dealers-need-approv...
tanilama 7y ago
Nice. One step towards the right direction.
ikeboy 7y ago
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943772/amazon-marketplace-nintendo-deal-used-retro-games-consoles-counterfeit https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943772/amazon-marketpla... Turns out it was all a mistake.

142 points by danso 7y ago

dang 7y ago

We changed the URL from https://reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dprlaw/amazon_will_stop_allowing_the_sale_of_used/ https://reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dprlaw/amazon_will_stop... to an article which adds a bit more background.

wgerard 7y ago

> This decision seems to imply that either Nintendo or Amazon would rather limit all used sales of Nintendo products than build a more focused list of scrutinized software and products. Seems like probably both, no? > Users on the used-Nintendo forum thread have postulated that counterfeit retro Nintendo cartridges have been an open secret among Amazon sellers for some time. I'm guessing Nintendo isn't too happy about this (in general they seem very concerned about their brand) and Amazon is likely happy to stem some of the negative backlash about counterfeit goods on their platform. I'm not surprised to see that Apple products are likely to fall under this umbrella - another company very concerned about their brand.

ikeboy 7y ago
Apple has been hard-restricted for a year. The FTC is investigating the Apple-Amazon deal for antitrust concerns.
wlesieutre 7y ago
I wonder if Apple's special deal is related to this lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13343682/fake-apple-chargers-amazon-lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13343682/fake-apple-char... (note: they sued the 3rd party sellers, not Amazon)
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Nope. Plenty of brands have sued sellers, but few get that kind of treatment. Otterbox, Skullcandy, Standard Process, Popsocket, ecobee, The Noco Company, Prevagen, Rainbow Light have all sued Amazon sellers.

hprotagonist 7y ago

How is this going to play out, legally? First-sale doctrine has been rather firmly upheld by the courts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_Sons,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsaeng_v._John_Wiley_%26_So....

wgerard 7y ago
I mean, just because it's legal to resell nintendo products doesn't mean Amazon is required to offer a marketplace for them. First-sale just means that the sellers don't need permission from nintendo to sell the items everywhere.
- autoexec 7y ago
  When it gets to the point where you can only sell your items in one or two places where no one ever goes to buy things you've effectively broken the right of first-sale. We're not at that point yet, but Amazon's reach is unparalleled and we could easily end up in a situation where private companies, whose influence in our daily lives can dwarf that of our governments, are allowed to ignore the hard won rights we have leaving us in the same position we were in before we had them.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Amazon is less than 10% of total retail in the US. People have been operating boutique shops forever. It’s even easier on the internet.
magduf 7y ago
I don't see what first-sale doctrine has to do with this: Amazon is a private (publicly-held) company and is free to disallow certain products from being sold on its site. First-sale doctrine means you're free to take your used Nintendo cartridges and set up a table on the sidewalk (subject to local laws about street sellers of course) and sell them to passers-by. Amazon doesn't have to provide you a venue for selling them. Personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to sell older Nintendo gear on Amazon anyway. This is exactly what eBay is for. eBay's fees are probably a little lower too.

ikeboy 7y ago

>. Included in this move are DVDs and Apple products, which now require similar approval processes to move forward. This is incorrect. You can get approval in DVDs pretty easily if you have invoices from a distributor. It's effectively impossible to get approval for Apple unless you're one of a dozen or so authorized sellers that spends 8-9 figures with Apple yearly. (The official requirements to get approval for refurbished Apple on Amazon is 2.5 million in invoices over 90 days). It's not clear how the approval process for Nintendo will work, but if this is like most brands, all you'll need is invoices from a distributor. Many brands have this kind of restriction. It's nothing at all like the Apple deal, for which you can't get approval just with invoices, and for which there was a special announcement from Amazon; the Nintendo email isn't special, it's standard (google phrases from it and you'll find many other brands with similar emails from Amazon). E.g. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/marvel-warning/407578 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/marvel-warning/407..., https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/dc-comic-restriction/329913 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/dc-comic-restricti... Also, the email makes no mention of used vs new. All Nintendo are now restricted regardless of condition. Also, this is seller-specific. Many sellers can still sell; most likely Amazon targeted this towards the sellers their algo determined were more suspicious for whatever reason. See e.g. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07VGRJDFY/ref=olp_f_used?ie=UTF8&f_usedAcceptable=true&f_usedGood=true&f_used=true&f_usedLikeNew=true&f_usedVeryGood=true https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07VGRJDFY/ref=olp_f...

rwmurrayVT 7y ago
I didn't find it "easy" to get approved for DVDs. I had over 20k a month in used media sales for over 12 months and still got rejected. The worst part is that you can buy the media, ask for approval, and then get stuck with the inventory. On top of that what you buy from a distributor will never make you any money. It's all in the used items so you hope to make it up by selling DVDs you buy for a dollar at library sales, etc.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  It used to be harder requiring 10k in purchases, now it's just 10 units. You need from a legit distributor, not a store or a liquidator.

ilamont 7y ago

There is a problem with pirated Nintendo games showing up in the unpoliced Amazon third party seller marketplace. I don't know how big the problem is, but it's there (as I can personally attest, and as the article describes). Unlike the source cited the article, the bootleg I purchased for my son didn't "play fine."

dylz 7y ago
It isn't just pirated games/getting fake carts, I've ordered things like a "genuine" GBA, GBC, and gotten fully counterfeit hardware instead of a used old device. Nearly a 100% counterfeit rate on certain lines of product (one example is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W39bZDu6zA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W39bZDu6zA)
- behringer 7y ago
  And out of region stuff. I ordered a 3ds game brand new, I wanted to try to get a club code so I ordered one that looked like it would be new old stock, ended up getting a 3ds game intended for sale in Saudi Arabia. Returned it and just bought it locally instead. Amazon is pretty much a wasteland for collectors. Ebay is far better and more reliable overall.
  - PhasmaFelis 7y ago
    > Returned it and just bought it locally instead. Amazon is pretty much a wasteland for collectors. Ebay is far better and more reliable overall. And also, somehow, much lower-priced for the most part. For out-of-print but popular and relatively recent toys and books, I've often found things for half the price or less on eBay than what Amazon is pushing. Now that Buy It Now is common and I don't have to mess with the auction system, it's my first choice for stuff like that.
  - throwaway2048 7y ago
    At least with Ebay, its easy to figure out who you are buying from, with Amazon it can be nearly impossible.
7y ago

cptaj 7y ago

Alternate title: Amazon destroys the livelihood of thousands of merchants without process or appeal.

14 7y ago
I see this time and time again here on HN. If your livelihood is dependent on another persons platform you are in a very dangerous position. At any moment the terms of use could be changed or they could decide they want to sell the same business you are selling and you are out of luck. In this instance this is a crappy deal and I don't like it and people will buy from other markets.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  That's what happens when Amazon has a monopoly. Many customers will only look on Amazon and won't buy anywhere else.
  - briffle 7y ago
    Back in 2003, people were saying the same thing about walmart. This article talks about how the demand for 'lower prices' almost drove a pickle company out of business: https://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know https://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      Yes, Amazon is doing a lot of the same things that Walmart did back in the day.
  - theklub 7y ago
    But if they don't sell what you want you'll buy it somewhere else... Ebay is still a thing.
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      Sure, but simply raising prices doesn't have that same effect.

naringas 7y ago

alternatively headline: Amazon takes drastic measures to stop sale of counterfeit Nintendo products

cik 7y ago

This is the sort of chilling effect that increased corporatization of society can have - but doesn't necessarily have to. Forbidding the sale of legal items, is a form of increased censorship, one society seems to be okay with.

root_axis 7y ago
This type of rhetoric is very frustrating to me. It seems the word censorship has lost all meaning.
- eropple 7y ago
  It is a tactic. This conflation allows easier confusion of corporate interests and societal ones. And by rendering it so meaningless, it makes identifying and protesting against actual censorship harder and recognizing "we're mad they won't platform our garbage" also harder. At the moment it is still intentional and usually malicious. The danger comes when it is inculcated and we lose the real understanding entirely.
sushid 7y ago
It’s not. People are getting tired of scam “used” aka broken or incorrect products.

ct0 7y ago

What about amazon warehouse?

CamelCaseName 7y ago
Warehouse Deals is just returned / damaged products. If someone returns a replica game cart to Amazon, it will likely end up being resold as authentic. Unfortunately there's no real control here, but it's the same as any physical store. Cashiers are not counterfeiting specialists and scammers are crafty. Some will even shrink wrap and return an empty case. Ideally you would be able to track issues with the sale of returned products back to a single "customer", but not before several people are forced to return fake/nonexistent products.

themagician 7y ago

Amazon needs to do this for everything. The quality control problem with Amazon is out of control.

jedberg 7y ago

The sentiment here seems to be fairly negative, which is surprising, because Amazon is doing exactly what we've been asking them to do for ages -- policing their marketplace against counterfeit products. They're starting with the easiest things to police, but at least they are making an effort. It really sucks for the legit third party sellers, so hopefully they make the approval process easy for them so they can continue to sell their legit hardware.

lacker 7y ago
It seems like a small number of people care about counterfeit products per se. A larger number of people desire cheap products, stay silent during the debate about counterfeits, and get upset if a particular thing they like buying is no longer available.
busterarm 7y ago
I bought a 2DSXL on AMZN a couple of years ago and it was DOA. On closer inspection, it was clear that somebody had meticulously repacked the unit to appear brand new and it got to me. That couldn't have come directly from Nintendo like that. I shipped it back no problem and bought my replacement directly from the Nintendo store. With this decision I'd be much more comfortable just replacing my purchase via AMZN.
- jakobegger 7y ago
  They probably just shipped it to another customer after you returned it...
- godzillabrennus 7y ago
  Bought a switch on Amazon when they launched. Someone sent me an Australian version. I lived in California. Sent it back and bought one at Best Buy.
andreareina 7y ago
As I understand it a big part of the problem is that stocks are commingled so that when counterfeits are discovered there's no way to trace the product to the seller it actually came from. Instead of fixing that they put the onus on the seller, and with no notice at that. EDIT: I was a bit hasty. [1] and [2] confirm the commingling and state that you won't necessarily receive your own goods back if you ask to have them returned, I took that to be because they couldn't track them, rather than because they wouldn't. If they do in fact know the provenance of even the commingled products, shipping the actual seller's product lets seller reputation actually mean something, so I stand by my argument that they could do better than shift the responsibility onto legitimate sellers to get permission from Nintendo et al. [1] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/fba-commingled-products/140997/4 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/fba-commingled-pro... [2] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?language=en-US https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?...

syspec 7y ago

Actual headline is: Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval

jordangoldstein 7y ago

What I don't understand is why would Nintendo/Amazon care if people sold things Nintendo were no longer manufacturing? It doesn't seem logical to prevent counterfeiting by preventing all items from being sold on the platform. I'm talking about out of print products only. So much for the "everything store"...

ikeboy 7y ago
It takes effort to segregate products like that, and Amazon doesn't want to put in that effort. For most brands the approval decision is across the entire brand, not individual items. On a handful of items they do have item specific approvals but those are more expensive for Amazon to enforce.
- jordangoldstein 7y ago
  How hard is it to request a list from Nintendo on what products they are currently manufacturing? They can create a policy were they only gate products those companies are currently selling. We are talking about millions of dollars for this brand only. If this continues to happen across the platform it can amount to billions of dollars of lost sales. Also Amazon would much rather take a cut from a third party seller (regardless if that seller makes money or not) versus sell it themselves.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

fullstop 7y ago

I misread the headline and thought that they were no longer selling first-party nintendo products and that it was a horrible decision. No, this is a superb decision and I wish that they would do it with other products.

Cyder 7y ago

Ebay baby... I'm coming home...

secabeen 7y ago

Amazon did this for canon equipment some time back. I used to sell my older cameras and lenses on Amazon as used items; I'm not allowed to any more. It's too bad, but it just pushed me back to eBay, which has been perfectly fine, for the limited number of sales I've done.

r00fus 7y ago

I've noticed I can't buy many Kirkland brand products on Amazon either.

maerF0x0 7y ago

IMO this is ok. Ebay has long been a better platform for these kinds of transactions.

jchw 7y ago

Can the headline be fixed? It’s currently stating Amazon will stop the sale of Nintendo products. Absolutely not at all what the actual headline is saying. > Amazon: No more third-party sales of “Nintendo products” without approval

the_watcher 7y ago

It seems like this is pretty obviously what Nintendo would prefer, and can probably put it in their terms of service. It would shock me if this weren't being driven by Nintendo, much more so than Amazon.

chaostheory 7y ago
This makes sense. Another issue with counterfeits is that many consumers are unable to recognize them. Instead they'll think it's just a defective product and waste Nintendo customer service's time.

RenRav 7y ago

Ebay is still great for used goods, most rare and lucky finds seem to come from random listings made by normal people. Amazon never seemed friendly for small first time sellers.

diogenescynic 7y ago

Why is the headline changed from "third-party" to "first-party"? It fundamentally changes the story...

drewrem11 7y ago

Amazon now says the email sent to the third-party dealers was in error https://www.pcmag.com/news/371708/amazon-dealers-need-approval-to-sell-used-nintendo-games https://www.pcmag.com/news/371708/amazon-dealers-need-approv...

tanilama 7y ago

Nice. One step towards the right direction.

ikeboy 7y ago

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943772/amazon-marketplace-nintendo-deal-used-retro-games-consoles-counterfeit https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943772/amazon-marketpla... Turns out it was all a mistake.