What is the incentive for the company to under-produce these toys? They don't see more than retail price for them. I'm glad my kids will be happy with a bike or basketball hoop for Christmas and not some creepy laughing toy.

/Remembered when the radio guys were throwing elmos into woodchippers.
//Probably should have thrown the parents that made a fuss over them into it instead.

I have little sympathy for parents who push and shove to buy their television-infected progeny everything they farking shriek for.

SCUBA_Archer

Free advertising from articles just like this one. When the "shortage" is finally over, the market for the product is huge.

Sounds like an investment opportunity. Hope everyone got in on Apple when they were under $60 a share.

I'd like to invest in stupidity. I tell you, it's a growth market.

I think the world would be a better place if everyone, at some point in their life, got stranded on an island for a week and had to come up with their own food and water. When they got back, maybe they'd say "well, I can't get a Tickle Me Elmo, but hey, at least I'm not cold, dehydrated and staving! Life is pretty good!"

I bought 3 spanish versions and have already made double the price back on ebay. Wish I could find some more..

SPANISH versions?
Oh for god's sake.
Do these things come with green cards??

I'm glad I don't have kids.

farking assholes.

I bought one and I let my dog piss on it.

Given that...
-in Northern Uganda, there are kids being abducted from their homes in the night and forced to work as child soldiers (either commit atrocities or be shot in front of all the other kids)
-in Ethiopia, kids are starving to death due to drought (again)
-all over the world, kids are being raped repeatedly by their stepdads, coaches, priests etc.
...I think 'outraged' and 'incensed' are excessively strong emotions to have over a mass-produced doll. These people need to get some perspective. Buy your kid some books or a puzzle or something. They'll be bored of Elmo after a week anyway.

You're a Mean Drunk R2D2: I'd like to invest in stupidity.

It's called shorting.

"Are you the guy who sold my kid a head of lettuce with a dress attached?"

/kids today . . . sheesh.

That thing is so funny, friend has one, if you are ever feeling down, that is the perfect thing. Can't wait till I can find one.

Damn the marketing smart guys!

Think of your life as a piece of string. At one end is your birth, and at the other end your death. Now, wad that string up into a little ball. That's how Tickle Me Elmo shortages can "leap" around within your own lifetime.

Dammit...I wish they had released them closer to Christmas. I haven't had as good a Christmas Eve as the year I was at the mall and saw two soccer moms fighting over the last Tickle Me Elmo.

I'm so glad my kid is seven.

I remember last year I was outside the entrance of a Best Buy having a cigarette. tHe 2 teenagers standing near me mistakened me for someone camping out for an Xbox 360(shipment #2). Heh.

God I hate 'parents'

/parent

Are the dolls full of $1.50 gasoline?
Or maybe crack?

I'm probably wrong here but I don't think the kids really give a rat's ass. They may be a little broken up about not getting it for their birthday but they'll find something else to do to keep preoccupied. They have their imaginations and that's better for them anyhow.

Notabunny: I really don't give a loaded diaper about the arguments, MY 3yo WANTS ONE. NOW! And there's no way I'm going to get 5 min sleep till I drag one home.

My credit is fine, I have extra cash laying about and I'm bribable. Gimme a call. Please.

Here's a wild idea. Introduce your three year old to the wonderful, life-changing concept of "no".

And yes, they'll throw tantrums and whine. At which point you introduce the second concept of "act like an idiot and I'll put you in your room without any toys at all until you learn to act like a human being".


Christ, it's called "parenting".

Uh, actually, I work at a major retailer here in Albuquerque, and we had about 20 of these set on an endcap. They weren't selling so well until 2 women in their mid-20s came in and pretty much bought the endcap out. It was reset, and wasn't selling that well, until, lo and behold, 4h later, the SAME TWO CUSTOMERS come back and buy the endcap out and ask for more from the back. My boss gave them one box (out of the entire pallet we had) and told them we were out. "We're not selling the entire pallet of those to one goddamn customer, that's just not happening"

Damn eBay profiteers.

My local Target sold about twenty of these things to a single person; apparently the concept of limiting quantities never occurred to them.

Frankly, I hope she gets screwed trying to resell the things. Anybody who'll pay scalper's prices for a preschool doll that's $40 retail to begin with deserves whatever they get.

SCUBA_Archer
What is the incentive for the company to under-produce these toys?

They aren't under-producing them; eBay resellers are over-buying them.

Basic economics is fine, but you realize that these wanna-be eBay entrepreneurs will buy as many as the store has, at whatever price they cost if they think they can make $30 resale profit on each one.

Where's the outrage?
Oh, right. Right here.

I hope this doesn't happen in Michigan... our Canadian governor my throw a fit! If the price goes up it's GOUGING!!!

GOUGING, I say!

oh, wait... it's not gas... I suppose it's not an issue.

/two more months of socialism...

Actually, it's a type of profiteering. The stock guys never put the dolls on the sales floor. Instead, they sell them- by the crate- to friends who flip them on eBay at a marked-up price when the holiday crush is on.

I've seen it many times. Before eBay, they used the classified ads. Every Xmas these slimeballs come out of the woodwork and prey on peoples' love for their kids. It's disgusting. One year, I witnessed a 40-year-old man buy up ALL the Furbies, and then turn around and attempt to sell them to desperate parents for $200 each.

Sadly, some bought them for that price, as the man had bought them all.

This is ethically wrong. Anybody who fails so badly at ethics that they'd do this sort of thing deserves to be cockpunched by Lou Ferrigno.

As for Michigan-- Dude, Dick DeVos is the kind of guy who would buy up all the dolls and sell them to middle-class working people for $200 each. He's an asshat. I'll look forward to sending him and his billionaire biatch wife packing this November.

Holly_Wight: Actually, it's a type of profiteering. The stock guys never put the dolls on the sales floor. Instead, they sell them- by the crate- to friends who flip them on eBay at a marked-up price when the holiday crush is on.

I've seen it many times. Before eBay, they used the classified ads. Every Xmas these slimeballs come out of the woodwork and prey on peoples' love for their kids. It's disgusting. One year, I witnessed a 40-year-old man buy up ALL the Furbies, and then turn around and attempt to sell them to desperate parents for $200 each.

Sadly, some bought them for that price, as the man had bought them all.

This is ethically wrong. Anybody who fails so badly at ethics that they'd do this sort of thing deserves to be cockpunched by Lou Ferrigno.


And anyone who can't tell their child they can't have a certain toy RIGHT NOW, and instead choose to fork over $200 for a $30 item, deserve to lose their money.

Economic Darwinism. It's what capitalism is based on. If the toy sells for $200, that's the price it should be sold at. If some people can't afford it, tough shiat; it's a goddamn toy, not something you need.

is it just me or are those things a little perverted?

blazemongr . how can someone get screwed when they have a 90 day return policy and a reserve price on ebay, which doesn't matter cause the darn things are still going for $90+.

I've done this, the past week and I've more then doubled up. One of the local walmarts had their price set well below 39.99 and we had all the other spots price match that walmart.

Everyone wants a free market and all that jazz, well, here it is, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Future subby:

Oil prices rise sharply due to widespread shortages of Tickle-Me-Elmos (69)

What's the last step of manufacturing a Tickle Me Elmo?

They give him two test tickles.

I remember the Cabbage Patch Craze of '84. My parents were on a waiting list at Toys R Us to buy me and my sister each one of those dolls. While we were on the list, there was a store in a Livonia, MI mall that was selling nothing but CPK at $60 each. My parents gave a family friend $120 and told him to take us and get us each one. There was a HUGE line and they let 20 people in at a time.

Worked out pretty well because by the time our turn came on the waiting list, all they had were Preemies...so my sister and I each had a "regular" doll and a Preemie. :)

I still have my 12 from the 1980s, and two of them are twins.

$$$$ = Love

When I bought an investment property, was I 'depriving' somebody else of a house? Possibly, but I wasn't villified for it.
When I sold that house 3 years later and made almost $100,000 on it, was I ripping off the new owner? Certainly not, it was a fair price for the market at the time.

Yet we see these stories all the time, when it's somebody other than the corporations making the dollars. We see it about toys, concert tickets, sporting event tickets and more. Any time there is more demand than supply, prices will rise, that is the first thing they teach you in economics.

These people are taking a risk, that supplies may increase, and they will be stuck with excess stock of these items. What the supplier should do to discourage this is to lower the price, and increase supply, that will leave the 'profiteers' out in the cold.

But they won't do that, as it will remove the whole orgy of desperate consumerism they have so carefully crafted. They can't have it both ways, and whinging about it won't do anything.

/just enjoys watching stupid parents completely in thrall to toddlers
//I thought elmo was being sacked anyway?
///scientology sucks
////But mommmmmmyyyyyy, IIII waaaaant it noooooowwww!!! *stamps foot*