I know we've all been looking forward to the Animal Crossing plushies becoming available. Speculation was rife about what characters they would include, what the range would look like. Isabelle and Tom Nook were released on the 6th of April to mixed reactions from fans. Naturally, your girl here needed an Isabelle so I set an alarm to remind me to check out the drop.
Buying Isabelle however was more complicated than I would have first thought. Animal Crossing merch flies off digital and IRL shelves faster than people can stock them (just look at the Sanrio Amiibo cards launch) so this launch was always going to be popular. Unfortunately, that means that scalpers are going to be stalking the website, buying up as many plushies as they can and selling them on for £££. Fuck those guys.
In an attempt to deter scalpers, BaB set up a waiting room half an hour before the launch of the plushies which would then place you in a random spot in line. Even if you joined one second after the waiting room was set up, you could end up waaaaay back in the queue and no one was guaranteed to be able to purchase a plushie, even if you had been waiting for as long as you could.
Personally I joined the waiting room straight away, and then had an hour and a half in a queue to wait before I was given access to the site. When your place in line came up you were given 10 minutes to complete your purchase.
It's really sad that we've had to resort to these measures to stop scalpers taking the piss. All I wanted to do was get one plushie and although I was lucky enough to grab one, I know there will be other fans who couldn't because of the randomised system. It's especially crappy when you consider that Animal Crossing has such a diverse fan base, and I'm sure there were some frustrated parents there trying to snag one for their child.
Unfortunately, scalpers have to ruin the party for everyone. And they have the audacity to moan about the fact they're being demonised? I'm all for entrepreneurship but this is taking it too far. I'm hoping that scalpers being so active is a symptom of lockdown, and when this is all over it will die down to a dull roar in the background. A lass can hope, after all.
For now though I'm glad retailers are finding some ways to fight back. As tedious as it may make getting hold of sought after items. After all they have to do something as the UK government is curiously silent on any legislation that may help the situation. This is the same government that didn't want to feed hungry kids tho so I'm not overly surprised. Fuck the Tories.
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