Recently, Nintendo's latest addition to the Switch family of consoles, the Nintendo Switch OLED, opened up its pre-orders for fans. Fans would be able to order the console from their retailer of choice, whether it be from Nintendo directly, or stores like Best Buy or GameStop. With the demand for the Switch console still high four years after release, the Switch OLED has become the latest target of online console scalpers.
The Nintendo Switch OLED was first revealed a few weeks ago, with many key features of retained for the new model. There were also a few improvements made from the previous model, including a new OLED screen, 64 GB of Storage, and a new Ethernet port that is built-in on the dock.
Scalping gaming consoles is a widespread problem among the gaming community, where it has caused many difficulties in obtaining many different gaming products. While the Switch OLED hasn't even been released yet, many pre-orders at different retailers for this new console have sold out quickly. At the same time, several different listings for pre-orders of the Switch OLED have appeared on eBay, with scalpers marking up the prices to double of the standard the console is being sold at.
Scalping is still a persistent problem within many gaming communities, regardless of company. A few months ago, PS5 consoles were being resold at Walmart by scalpers for marked up prices. Fans are either forced to wait until a very small and specific time window in order to get a chance to order the latest product, or part with hundreds of extra dollars in order to get what they want. It's not helped when the demand for a product is already high and they're struggling with other fans to obtain a popular product and supply is limited.
With the Switch OLED being so hard to obtain now, some fans have been run ragged from this reoccurring issue. Other Nintendo fans were lucky enough to grab a pre-order of the Switch OLED before it sold out, ready for the console's release. More cynical gamers have given up and are looking towards Valve's new handheld gaming device, the Steam Deck. Some have noted that this new addition could be the shot in the arm for Valve to compete with Nintendo in the portable gaming market.
The Nintendo Switch OLED console will be released on October 8th.
Source: NintendoSoup