Nintendo Wii price gouging
 

Anyone else seen stores hiking the prices on these things up because of a shortage of them? Store in the uk selling them for £330 ($675) and thats just with wii sports..the basic package. Their regular price over here with wii sports is £180 ($368).

I havent really looked at the prices lately.

I was one of the fools who stayed out overnight to get one when they came out. I ended up selling it on ebay for $600+ :goodjob:

Supply and demand. People are stupid this time of year and will stupidly pay absurd prices for things.

never seen it....$249 bucks with wii sports here in the states. Maybe you should contact someone about it they can get in a lot of trouble doing that.

The worst some gay places will do here is say you can buy a wii if you buy it with 5 games an extra controller and all this other crap and pay a bundle price

I have been on the fence about getting a Wii. It does look hella fun but there aren't a lot of games out for it that I like. Other than guitar hero and Zelda I don't know of any games that are worth my hard earned cash.

don't get a wii. get a 360

Fucking Christmas time baby.....time for price gouging.

Yeh, thats the way that I went. Though wii's pretty fun... Might end up getting one down the line

had a wii on launch and stuck it up day after on ebay and quadrupled my money


its coming to christmas again so independant shops will hike the prices up as the parents promised young timmy a wii last christmas but couldnt because of high demand, now same happens again

technically, technically! it is not them being stupid. Those consumers who buy them at an elevated price simply have a higher WTP (willingness to pay), their preferences don't change at all. This is illustrated by studying any downward sloping demand curve, nomatter where the price is, those people who have that exact WTP or higher will buy it. If the price is $300, yet consumer A has a WTP of $400, he can still buy at $300 and we call that extra $100 he saves consumer surplus.

No, it is stupid. If not only for the fact that there WTP goes up at christmas because its fucking christmas. Any other time of the year they wouldnt stand for such a high premium. Retailers know this and of course its smart on there part to gouge the customer, but its stupid for the consumer to say "ok" and buy it anyway.


This argument is of course moot when you bring ebay into it though, since ebay is a bid system. Then you can have 1 system go for 1000, and another go for 200 within minutes of eachother. Thats individual choice.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3...entley/wii.jpg

While you are probably correct in assuming many comsumer's WTP (and overall demand curve) shifts outward towards this time of year, my point is that, regardless of that effect, there would still be many units sold at an increased price simply because there were always consumers, who, at that higher price, would have gladly still purchased one. In the picture, this is represented by the green area, well actually, the distance from the vertical axis, to any point along the demand curve above the intersect. Those people have had NO preference change, yet have always been willing to purchase at higher prices than then current market. We assume people are rational, and generally, they are. Thus, the stupidity of these people should not be based on their purchasing of said wii.

See. Now i know you're an idiot.

I direct your attention to examples. Black Friday, the middle east, any Walmart.

Good job taking that statement COMPLETELY out of context, you'd be a good politician...

In their consumer choice, obviously, thats what the whole paragraph was about right? The whole basis of economic thought is that consumers make rational choices based on the information they are supplied with.

I just checked walmart.com. $439.00 - $677.38 us (BUNDLE)

It went up almost $200 over night.

Coleman is right get a 360.

Mark my words the only console standing after this war is going to be Microsoft.

PS3 = Sega Saturn

Wii = Iddybittytittycommittee

360 = Pwnage