A lesson in patience – Reselling the Pikachu Nintendo 3DS XL back in 2013

Introduction

So it seems those Star Wars BB-8 toys are being restocked and the odds of me making 2X or 3X on them is about the same odds of me winning a prize in that stupid SPG contest.   People have been asking me what I plan on doing with the…well, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post for that.  In the meantime, I’ll tell you a story of a reselling deal from back in 2013.

Nintendo 3DS XL Pikachu edition

So back in March of 2013, Nintendo used to produce these limited edition Nintendo 3DS XL machines.  There was a Zelda one and maybe another one, and then this one came out.  It immediately hit Slickdeals (read thread here) and it retailed for $160.  I knew I’d make money on this so I bought as many as I could.  I bought 2 from Toys R Us, 2 from Best Buy, 2 from Walmart, and maybe 2 from Target.  I had 8 in total when the dust cleared.

Reselling immediately

People immediately flipped them on eBay and CL for $225 or so.  I however knew that 1) Pikachu has a higher mass audience appeal than Zelda and b) this was a limited edition so no more units produced and c) come Christmas time, parents will get desperate.  My friends came over and laughed at my stockpile, but I knew I’d get the last laugh.  So I held these suckers for 8 months until November!

After Thanksgiving…

After Thanksgiving, I posted them on eBay for I think $389.95.  A local guy emailed me and wanted to meet in person and he’d pay cash.  We agreed to meet at Bahama Breeze although I haven’t eatten at one in over a decade (I hear the drinks are good though):

When he showed up, he looked like the stereotypical ‘gamer’ (I’ll let you imagine that yourself.)  We walked into the lobby and I pulled one of the units out (I had brought all 8 at his request.)  He looked at one intently, scanning the box inch by inch.  He said that the unit had an imperfection here and there.   He then looked at all 8 of them and what do you know, all 8 had imperfections (either one corner wasn’t perfect or the box wrinkled in one spot or whatever.)

Eventually, he wanted to buy 2 of them.  He then tried to trade me stuff for them instead.  He took me out to his car and showed me an Xbox One, a Halo helmet, and other misc crap.  I told him NO THANKS and the price was X.  He tried to talk me down further and I told him again, “Look, if you don’t buy these for $390, someone else on eBay will buy them.”  He reluctantly bought one (I may have only charged him $350 since that was my net after Ebay and PP fees.)

I then sold the other 7 on eBay at my price of $389.95.  I probably made about ~$200 each by waiting until Christmas.  Should I have raised my price?  I’m not sure.  Since the last ones sold by 12/17, you sorta don’t want to go past 12/20 since USPS may not deliver it in time by Christmas.

Conclusion

This is a fine example of when it comes to reselling, timing matters a lot!  Sometimes you’ll have to buy out-of-season items and wait for the right season to sell.