Reply
Fri 17 Nov, 2006 04:15 pm
What the heck is going on - people camping for days to spend over $500 for a toy! Or buy them on ebay for tens of thousands of dollars. Shooting each other and fighting over places in line. Here are just a couple of incidents:
Police said a gunman robbed a teenager of his new game system in the parking lot of a mall near Allentown, Pa. The 17-year-old victim told police said he was in the back seat of a car at the Lehigh Valley Mall when he was robbed Friday.
A Webster, Mass., man is expected to recover after being shot while waiting for a chance to buy a new PlayStation 3 outside a Wal-Mart in Putnam, Conn.
Have you or would you wait in line over night or risk getting shot to buy something? Shy - in a couple of months after Christmas the stores will be flooded with them - I'd give my kid a coupon saying he can get it after Christmas. Is this Jingle All the Way to the extreme?
Materialism with an extra twist.
Proving personal worth through possessions--or perhaps just getting working capital for a drug deal or the bulk of Christmas shopping.
For many people, their physical lives are just a means for sustaining themselves for their video game existences. To them, moving up to a new more advanced console is like an ascension from one drab world to a new utopia.
I dont know..........
spend 500.00 , to make 3,000?
I might hop in line for that..
I remember when people went just as nuts to get their greedy little hands on the xbox 360 from Microsoft. What really amazes me is that I just happened to see an xbox 360 for sell in my local penny saver ad for $500.00+ dollers only 6 months after it came out in stores. I don't get it.
People are flipping out because they're selling on ebay for over $3K.
The Webster guy who was shot was stupid. The line was robbed by two guys with guns, and he refused to give up any cash.
Cabbage Patch dolls. I was going to mention that...I remember hearing as a kid people were getting into fights in stores over them.
I really don't understand this kind of marketing. This toy would be hot at $1,000 each and they would sell as many as they can make at that price.
They don't really need to create an artifical frenzy.
And haven't these robbers ever heard of credit cards? Do they really expect every person in that line to be holding $500?
The whole thing is just beyond stupid.
boomerang wrote:I really don't understand this kind of marketing. This toy would be hot at $1,000 each and they would sell as many as they can make at that price.
They're only hot for $1K+ before Xmas. If a company like Sony hiked up prices just to gouge consumers, how would that look? After the holidays they wouldn't sell one of them.
Well...I'm off to the mall. Heard there's a line outside Circuit City.
Gun? Check.
It certainly is stupid!
Lucky for me, my child is more humble and wants a soccer ball for christmas.
I disagree, Slappy.
From last week's Newsweek:
Quote:There is a price to pay for being the first to implement new technologies: it's costly (even at the PS3's high price, Sony sells the units at a considerable loss) and it takes time to get it right
They are willing to sell the game at a loss in order to get it on the market so it wouldn't be price gouging. The price of new technology drops rapidly - why shouldn't this game be introduced at a higher price and later adjusted?
It's all marketing I tell ya.
You're right, it's marketing, and they release them before Xmas to build hype and get media exposure. My point is it wouldn't be good for their image to price gouge.
Microsoft sells Xbox at a loss too. Even though it's not really a "loss" since they make their revenue from games and accessories. However, they're priced at the point where profits are maximized...the more systems sold, the more games/accessories. So selling them at $1,000 doesn't make sense. Not because I say so, but because the bean counters at Sony & Microsoft do.
all consoles lose money, the company makes up for it on the software end
the ps3 is losing about $200 - $300 a console
i don't believe the shortages are a ruse, the console has had many production problems and to be honest i was surprised that they made the deadline at all
even with the xbox 360 problems at launch they had consoles in stores for people to try out a month before, not so with the ps3
Phoenix32890 wrote: Do you remember the name of those dolls that came with birth certificates? People were running all over each other attempting to get a hold of one. I don't think anyone was killed, though, although there may have been some trampling.
Popular culture has been such that almost every year, people MUST have one toy or another. Shows you the state of our culture! 
[/b]
Cabbage Patch dolls - I still remember when they first came out. My mom was working at a store and saw all the insane people lined up outside early in the morning. I remember her telling what kind of crazy people would do that? Until the doors opened and who should be in the front running in among all the crazies - but my grandmother (her mom).
(and anyone reading my thread on elderly and hospitals should know this is the grandmother).
djjd62 wrote:
i don't believe the shortages are a ruse, the console has had many production problems and to be honest i was surprised that they made the deadline at all
even with the xbox 360 problems at launch they had consoles in stores for people to try out a month before, not so with the ps3
Which makes it even harder for me to swallow spending that kind of money on something that will be "new and improved" in 6 months when all the bugs have been worked out.
Good thing I bought a Wii
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace