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Nintendo’s NES Classic retro console isn’t just hard to find, it’s hard to buy once you do find it.
Unless you’re willing to plunk down four or more times the suggested price for the console via eBay, buying one of these tiny bits of nostalgia can be irksome at best.
Last week, Urban Outfitters tried its hand at getting people to follow multiple social accounts for the heads up of when the device was going on sale.
The result was an almost immediate sell-out (perhaps to just a few people) and a very angry social media mob bashing the retailer for its ham-handed handling.
Perhaps with that in mind, ThinkGeek is trying another method to sell off its own stock of the consoles.
The retailer is requiring people to add the item to their wishlist on the site (which also requires creating a free account). The team at ThinkGeek then randomly selects names off the list to give folks a chance to buy the thing for $60.
“Here's the deal: more of you want NES Classics than we have to sell,” according to the explanation of the process found on the ThinkGeek site. “We want to do right by you, so we're going to make this as fair as we can. “
The first drawing occurred today at 10 a.m. with a second one happening tomorrow at the same time. A ThinkGeek rep said the drawings would happen daily through Friday. They were looking into how many in total they would be selling.
We’ll update this story when they let us know.
Nintendo has said that it continues to ship the tiny, all-in-one console to retailers, though they rarely seem to last in stores. Instead, a lot of the consoles seem to be showing up on eBay, where they fetch a price usually above $200. On launch day, the NES Classic was selling once every 18 seconds on eBay.
The quick sellouts of online stores have left many Nintendo fans irritated and calling into question Nintendo’s handling of the sale of the device. Nintendo has said that it will have more of the console in stock “through the holiday shopping season and into the new year,” though it hasn’t offered any more specific details.
While U.S. fans of the console continue to hunt for an opportunity to buy the sold out NES Classic, stock is not as barren in some other countries. One store in Malaysia, for instance, took to Facebook to post a picture of the more than 100 consoles it received.
