Over a year after Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ release, the world was treated to the announcement of an Animal Crossing and Build-A-Bear collaboration. Tom Nook and Isabelle Build-A-Bears went on sale shortly after the announcement with stock selling out at an incredible pace. After only a few hours of being live, all versions had sold out. This trend of highly sought-after goods, particularly items related to gaming, selling out had pretty much been the norm throughout 2020 and seems to have continued into 2021.
In truth, this problem does not have a single major fault. It is the domino effect of multiple factors, a fact that does not change the disheartening nature for many fans. Right now, Build-A-Bear does have the Animal Crossing Build-A Bears marked as coming back soon on its website, with a new addition to the collection expected to release by summer. This may provide some hope for fans that want to get hands-on with the items, but it is a band-aid on a problem that needs stitches.
Scalpers
Two major contributors to many people’s favorites collectibles and items being sold out are the global COVID-19 pandemic and scalpers. While scalpers have been a mainstay since the internet was created, their effects have been exacerbated in the past year. With how the market landscape has changed, the negative effects of scalpers feel ever-growing while only a select few fans get the merch that they want. Hot items like the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, GPUs, and even Pokemon trading cards have been the focus of scalpers, and recently Build-A-Bear’s Animal Crossing collaboration appears to have been added to the list.
The ethics of scalping can be debated so long as the world keeps turning, but it is how this problem has grown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that is of concern. Before the pandemic, aftermarket price gouges on things like new console releases and certain figures were already present. New consoles have had similar problems at launch for years and the effects of high demand can be seen almost every time that a new iPhone is released, or a popular series gets a line of action figures. The change has come from the programs and tactics of scalpers at a time when demand is high, but overall, supply is exceptionally low.
Many retailers have instituted purchase limits for the in-demand items that they stock. This is generally meant to ensure that people can get what they want and prevent scalpers from being able to buy 36 of something, only to turn around and sell 35 of them for a markup. And while brick and mortar stores like Target are acting, many scalpers use bots and programs to work past these limits online. The programs move faster than any single human could and have led to scalpers getting a bad rep, something that many people feel they deserve.
While scalpers seem to be the long-term problem, the more acute factor continues to be the COVID-19 pandemic. Entire industries had to close for a while to protect people and keep the most vulnerable safe and healthy. It is going to take some time before any company can keep their stock at levels consumers were used to in 2019. As the world continues to move forward and get back on its feet, customers will likely start to find it easier to get things like Build-A-Bears, Xbox Series X/S consoles, and Pokemon cards, but until then, it is not unreasonable to assume that the vast majority will not. Things like GPU production are already expected to take a couple of years to recover, and that could be said of anything right now, it seems.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Switch.