Reselling the Sphero Star Wars Episode VII BB-8 Droid

On Thursday at around 10PM PST, a reselling opportunity hit the Internet Slickdeals by storm.  I know I’ve told you guys that I’m getting out of reselling, but this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.  And I realize now that it doesn’t even matter how much I will make, but rather, the ‘high’ I got on the hunt was all worth it… I think.  Anyway, it started when one of my unicorn hunters (I don’t want to name him, but he knows who he is; in case a Russian billionaire tries to recruit him to play for his team) alerted a group of us resellers of this deal on Slickdeals (thread here).  At first, we weren’t sure what to make of it except that it was just a cute little toy.  However, we knew we were on to something when Amazon sold out, Disney sold out, and Thinkgeek sold out.   The game was on at this point!

First stop – Bed Bath Beyond.  Let me tell you that when you sign up for BBB’s email list, they will keep on sending you 20% off coupons in email.  And the good thing about those coupons is that they are saved to your account (and I actually had 2 saved up with different expiration dates.)  I was able to order 1 using the 20% off code, went through Discover Deals for 5% off [x2 next year] and used a BBB gift card that I bought for 10% off on Ebay a couple of weeks ago.   With 1 order in, I went to buy a 2nd one, and this time, they fixed their system to not let me use the 20% off coupon.  That’s fine.  I still went through DD and used my GCs.

Second stop – Brookstone.  I could have bought the $50 Brookstone Groupon for $25, but I was scared it wouldn’t send in time.  Another person in the group went this route and the Brookstone coupon was emailed immediately.  Anyway, I bought 2 from Brookstone going through DD for 15% cb [x2 next year] using my ATT More for 3X TYP.   The odd thing is that it lasted on Brookstone for a loooooong time.  So long that we were all worried they wouldn’t ship and we’d get OOS emails tomorrow morning.

Third stop – Marbles Brain Store.  Someone in the group found this store before anyone on SD posted about it.  You know you’re surrounded with the right people when they are 1 step ahead of the SD community.  Anyway, I bought 2 here through SBC for 5% off.  Used my ATT More here as well.

Fourth Stop – Sphero themself.  Got 2; no portal, but I am hoping for ATT 3X.

Fifth Stop – Best Buy.  I stopped here since it was midnight PST now and the page at the time said ‘coming soon.’  I actually waited 30 minutes to see if they would become available at midnight, but they didn’t.

Then on Friday morning when I woke up, I got some great news that my Brookstone order had shipped.  I was able to buy 2 from Best Buy at around 7AM.  I got an order pickup email from Bed Bath & Beyond.  I called my local Barnes & Nobles and they were able to hold 2 for me.  Another person in the group gave me some 15% off coupon codes that worked.  I tried to sign up for their online membership to get an additional 10% off, but the store couldn’t look me up since the membership was too new (I’ll probably go back to see if I can get a price adjustment later.)  I had stopped by a Kroger before going in so I coudl buy a $500 BN GC to get fuel rewards, and when I used it, the old lady at BN said, “Wow, I’ve never seen a $500 gift card…”  Oh boy.

I then called up Radio Shack who said their store didn’t get any in; I didn’t bother to call anymore Radio Shacks after that.  Amazon let people preorder one for the next round of shipments, so I did that.  I preordered 2 from Thinkgeek through BeFrugal for 8% cb.  I stopped in my local BBB on the way home, and they said all 12 had been reserved online by the time they opened.  Dough!

So where did I net out of all this?  Probably a dozen+ of these toys.  What do I plan on doing with them?  Well, I think there are 2 options – sell them now for about $200 on Ebay/Amazon or gamble and wait it out until after Thanksgiving in hopes they are still hard to find by then [and sell for 2X to 3X.]   I don’t think word of mouth has gotten around that much since I was able to reserve them first thing at my BN stores.  I think as the day went on, that’s when people heard about them and the resellers went Lilly Pulitzer.

I actually think the best option is to sell on eBay for international shipments since international customers will pay the premium to get their kids one of these.  Was this all worth my time?   Probably not as much as a regular MS-run would have, but a) I did most of this in my pajamas and b) it was funner than buying and unloading VGC’s.   I’m not sure how I’ll unload these yet, but I’ll keep you guys posted.  Heck, I may even keep one since they do look very cute!