The limited-edition, Walmart-exclusive golden Amiibo was only officially announced yesterday, but those looking to get them via online pre-orders are already out of luck. Merely a day after the retailer was confirmed to be the exclusive seller of the mysterious Gold Amiibo, the online stock for pre-orders has sold out – and all within 15 minutes of appearing on the online store.
The amiibo was priced at $12.96 USD (saving a few precious pennies off of the regular $12.99 online price), and were completely sold out just minutes after being added to the online product lineup. Walmart even refreshed its online stock later in the night, but the reinforcements were all soon claimed as well. Unsurprisingly, the Gold Mario amiibo pre-orders are fetching a hefty price on eBay, usually around five times the retail price of the product itself.
The supply and demand difficulties have certainly driven prices up, and Nintendo is apparently making efforts to appease the hardcore collectors. More amiibo runs are an exciting prospect, but if they all face such a limited and high-demand release, collectors may grow frustrated with the difficulties in acquiring the valuable collectibles.
We'd predicted that the Gold Mario would be a Walmart exclusive after an image was leaked from the retailer, but the Silver Mario that accompanied it is still a mystery. It's currently unknown if it will be exclusive to one retailer, or if it even actually exists. One would expect it would be released around the same time as Gold Mario, but what retailer wants to be the 'silver' to another's 'gold'?
Walmart hasn't commented on if they will be restocking their online supply at all, but it's likely the rest of the amiibo will be saved for their physical release. Walmart will be stocking its shelves with Gold Mario on March 20th, alongside the release of Mario Party 10. They are, however, expected to fly off the shelves almost as soon as they're put on them, so this is one figure fans won't want to be late to the party for.
Did you grab a Gold Mario amiibo online? Will you try and grab it in Walmart?
Source: Polygon