TMX – Tickle me Elmo
September 19th, 2006 by Kenric
Yesterday morning, Good Morning America featured the new “Tickle Me Elmo” or TMX (video) and USA Today had an article on it. My friend Rex who had pre-ordered a bunch of these sent me an IM to check them out on Ebay. A quick check showed that these were going for $100+ on Ebay already. I think the high was $140 at around noon PST.
Nice thing about being on the west coast is that we are 3 hours behind New York, so by the time New York had sold out of them, stores in Arizona were just opening. During my lunch hour I headed to Toys “R” Us and met a man at the Elmo display with 12 of them in his shopping cart already. The man was on his bluetooth earpiece talking to someone at home who was online watching the Ebay bids and giving a play by play of current bids. He was asking the person online if the Spanish speaking Elmos were worth getting. There were about 15 left so I filled up my cart and proceeded to check out. Of course with the man ahead of me buying 12 and me buying 15 it aroused the suspicion of the store manager. In the meantime some customers were also asking if they had any left and they did. As I was paying, two more customers with multiple Elmos lined up behind me.
I called a few of my friends and they went to Toys “R” Us also. My friend had 10 in his cart and the manager said that he could only buy 3. I guess the stores finally decided to limit them. On Amazon.com, I was suprised to see them jack their price from $39.99 to $99.99. When I checked it again around 5pm PST, they were all sold out.
I think it will take a few weeks for kids to start asking their parents for them. The parents won’t be able to find them and will have to go to Ebay. I saw one for $1,000 Buy it now. It seems ridiculous, but come December 15th I bet someone will pay that much if none are available elsewhere.
Update: As I type this at 11pm Pacific, the highest legitimate sold Elmo on Ebay is for $310! That is just incredible. I just put 4 of them up for auction earlier tonight. They are 1 day auctions so I’ll update the results tomorrow.
Posted in Making Money Online | 5 Comments »
Stumble it!
Too bad Elmo doesn’t come with a prada bag. You’d really clean house then!
By Clifford on Sep 20, 2006
Oh man, snatching little Elmo’s fluffy exterior from the loving arms of a 7yo who just wants a hug from his favorite idol… hope you can sleep tonight.
J/K! Its crazy how emotions can justify such a price premium. I am really trying to understand how to dollarize emotionas from customers. This is an excellent example.
By RealOG on Sep 20, 2006
I will gladly offer to sell any of these to my blog readers at a decent price. ;)
By monarchcrest on Sep 20, 2006
$100 instead of $300? Not after telling me I laugh more than Elmo….At least I don’t fall down and thrash around on the floor (for the most part).
By prlinkbiz on Sep 20, 2006