UPDATE:Â Gamestop began taking in-store pre-orders at 3pm Eastern Time and almost immediately had their website and internal sale system crash due to the ridiculously high demand. Customers are reporting lines in stores and no sales are able to get through. There is no official word on when sales will begin on the website, but currently you can only access it via mobile devices.
Various sites such as Target and Best Buy have opened some of their pre-orders for Amiibo Wave 4, but fans are having a difficult time securing their figures. Some of the more rare ones, such as Robin, Lucina, and the Target exclusive Jigglypuff have sold out within minutes of first going live. Supposedly Jigglypuff was sold out after only 7 minutes of being available, making it nearly impossible for fans to get one of the sure-to-be rare figures.
Amiibo have been highly sought after by collectors and scalpers alike. While many sites have updated their policies to combat scalpers, by limiting sales to one or two per person for example, it seems like demand is still far outreaching the supply. Previous waves saw similar results, though not quite as fast as Wave 4 seems to be going. The excuse at that time was the Pacific shipping strike, which caused shipment from Japan and China to be significantly delayed. That strike is over though, leaving many to hope that Amiibo Wave 4 wouldn’t have the same supply issues in the US as before. This hope seems all but gone with today’s pre-orders.
For those that still want to secure their Wave 4 Amiibo figures, there are a few options. Importing is always available, but shipping costs will be extreme. The best option at the moment is to head in-store to Gamestop, where you can also secure the Gamestop exclusive Ness figure. Beyond that fans will have to look toward the in-store launch on May 29th.
Published: Apr 2, 2015 12:51 pm