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I love shopping for new video games. Often I’ll wait and save up money and go on big trips to shop for games because the Gamestop and Best Buys in my town shut down. So I usually have to go to the walled mart if I want to pick up something. But I have to go to the town over to buy something used. I’ll somewhat often go over, buy a big stack of super cheap used games and add them to my big shelf of games or make a haul post. But while browsing this morning in bed I came across a bit of a weird shopping tale.
A man goes in to buy the latest Mario Party game Jamboree, brand new. Still in the shrink wrap even. They open up the game excited to see the game peering back at them but instead they have a new surprise looking back at them. A little plastic googly eye and some plastic wrapped around the cartridge clips. Weird, he must of thought. He bought this brand new, how could this have gotten in there and on store shelves? He of course was able to contact Nintendo and get a replacement no problem. But our friend here isn’t the only victim to these googly eyed escapades.
For the past year now, Americans all over the US have been encountering tiny peepers in their own new games peering back. Just what the heck is going on? Since Nintendo is replacing them this isn’t some marketing stunt. It’s not like our friend found Wonka’s Golden Ticket and he’s on his way to becoming the new Nintendo President. People are unsure and it’s led to some speculation. But Nimzy has an idea of what it must be, being the most evil being to ever evil I think I have an idea what’s going on.
I think one of two things are happening. I think people are buying games, removing the film, taking the cards, and replacing them with the eyes and plastic. The plastic weighs down the box to pass weight checks and the eye passes the rattle test for returns. Think about it, if you were to return a game empty, the clerk might shake it to ensure there is something inside still. If they hear the little eye rattle they might just assume it’s a game and approve the return. Then return it to the shelf without a second thought. The resealing is likely being done by either a resealer machine, some secondhand shops have these machine and the shrink wrap job can be a bit sloppy. But to the average person you might not notice the difference. We live in an age where someone can buy anything online and if these games are going for near full price online then someone doing this could easily offset the cost in just a few weeks. If not a resealer, these plastic sleeves can be sealed with just a little heat from even a lighter.
I don’t think that’s what’s happening though. If it was there would be a lot more reports from specific stores and towns experiencing this problem. I doubt that the person trying to make a secondhand business from this would be doing it at the same store every time or even the same set of stores every time. Eventually a walled mart would catch on that one specific person or persons have a high return rate and specifically Switch games. So while you could probably get away with this once or twice per store, it’d be way to risky for an individual to do this long term. But as reports have been saying, this is happening everywhere.
It’s also possible some of the reports of the googlied games may be false. It’s a pretty funny store, ripe for karma farming. So I think any of the ones missing the plastic strips might be faked or possibly from a separate or more localized group of returns thieves. Even so this is a pretty big problem with lots of different stories of people getting googlied.
I think this is happening somewhere on the supply line. This would be the easiest way for the potential thief to do this large scale with little worry of being caught. Since these are being discovered all over there is little chance that this is being done by hundred of people across the US. Unless it was some sort of ring. Even then there would be several concentrated pockets and returns sometimes require IDs to prevent this situation. But if it’s happening in the supply chain, somewhere near the top of the distribution network it’s much easier for this to be handled by one evil entrepreneur. It is possible that multiple people are doing this. But I think the most likely scenario is one or two people are replacers and they send them to a guy to reseal and the resealer/reseller gives them a cut. Alternatively, if this is happening high up in the distribution network it’s more likely that the individual is using the company’s resealer.
If this is a team though, one could steal a game or two every so often along with the tiny case. As someone who has worked in retail, it’s common for the numbers to fluctuate in a shipment. No one is going to care if sometimes the shipment is a couple short, just for the next shipment to be a couple heavier. As a former manager I can tell you that these things are insured. So if someone is stealing them it’s easy for Nintendo or the distributor to not care because they get their money back anyway. This is purely speculation on my part though. I’m just saying, if I did this large scale this is where I’d be doing it. I’m sure whoever is doing it will either be caught or quit if the heat gets to high. This isn’t exactly good publicity for Nintendo when they just announced that the Switch 2s games will be even more expensive.
Thanks for reading, for more weird Nintendo news you’re already in the right place. You can also see video versions of these posts here. But check out the blog you’re already reading, not everything gets to be a video and sometimes the blog posts stuff early. Thanks again, bye!
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