Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many indoors due to worldwide lockdown and quarantine orders, butAnimal Crossing: New Horizonscame just in time, allowing fans to live out a virtual escape, building their own deserted-island community, befriending animal villagers, and more. Since then, the game has remained one of the best selling Nintendo Switch titles and continues to top sales charts, brining fans both new and old back to the world ofAnimal Crossing.
Since the game’s initial release, it has brought fans loads of new content, and just last week,Nintendo collaborated with Targetto reprint theAnimal CrossingSanrio Collaboration amiibo cards which were first introduced along with theAnimal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiiboupdate back in 2016. However, these cards have proven to be almost impossible for many fans to get their hands on, with scalpers now selling them at insanely high prices.
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Fans scrambled last Friday morning to try and secure theAnimal CrossingSanrio Collaboration Packfor pickup from their local Target stores. Unfortunately, Target’s website seemed to experience issues with such a high volume of fans trying to secure the new amiibo cards, leaving many empty handed. To add insult to injury, it seems that many who did get their hands on the cards have now hiked up the price astronomically, selling them on third-party reselling sites like eBay for upwards of nearly 12 times their original price per pack.
At the moment, it seems scalpers are selling the packs ofAnimal Crossingamiibo cardsfor anywhere from $35 to $70 USD, with reports that some have even tried to sell the packs for around $100. It seems that Target initially had good intentions with this collaboration, hoping to prevent scalping and bots by making it so the cards could only be ordered online for pickup from stores and limited to 2 packs per customer. However, it looks like that information was not relayed well to some Target stores, as on the morning of March 26, many fans reported that the employees at their local Target began to put the packs of cards on store shelves or sell customers as many as they wanted.
This situation has left many fans empty-handed, although rumors of a restock sometime in April have surfaced in theAnimal Crossingcommunity. Scalping has become an increasingly prevalent issue as of late, especially in the realm of video games, making itimpossible for fans to purchase next-gen consoles,graphics cards, and more.
Since the debacle, kind-hearted fans have conducted giveaways and created their own more affordable versions of the cards on websites like Etsy, to allow everyone to join in on the fun. Each card in theSanrio Collaboration Packcontains 6 amiibo with Sanrio-inspired villagers and items. Fans can scan the cards intoAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsto invite the villagers to their island as well as obtain the special items.
