I'm a Nintendo Gamer, and I buy a lot of Nintendo products. One of those products are little pieces of joy called amiibos. For those who don't know, Amiibos are basically Nintendo's semi-answer to games like Skylanders or Disney Infinity. I say "Semi-Answer" because these little figures don't work with a specific game and nothing else. Instead, when you tap these figurines on your Wii U gamepad (Or on your New 3DS' Touchscreen if you have a New 3DS) You can unlock secret content in certain games, whether it'd be costumes for your Mii's to use in Mario Kart 8 or virtual fighters you can train in Super Smash Bros.

Despite my dislike for games like Skylanders and DI, I have a very large fondness for Nintendo's take on toy gaming. Perhaps it's more on the fact that, amiibos aren't required to unlock stages in Smash Bros. or extra tracks in Mario Kart 8. The stuff amiibos unlock are very minuscule things in the games they function with, and the fact I can use them in more than one single game is icing on the cake. Plus, let's face it; It's nice to have little figures of Nintendo characters sitting on a shelf while you play.

But, myself, as well as other collectors, have been dealing with an issue since these little things came into the market. That problem is scalping.

With items like this, it's inevitable that certain figures will be hard to find. However, the current problem is the people wanting to sell them back to us, making them almost rare be default. Whenever a new batch of amiibo come out, certain people buy the figures in bulk and sell them again on sites like Ebay and Amazon, often 3 times the normal retail price, which is 13 bucks a figure. Unfortunately, especially with wave 4 amiibos on the horizon in the US, 40-60 dollars per amiibo is becoming the norm, even for more recognized characters like Wario and Charizard.

It goes without saying that, in needs to stop. It needs to stop soon.

By purchasing amiibos from these basement-dwelling neckbeards on the internet, it's simply encouragement for them to do this over and over again. I understand why collectors would bite the bullet and purchase amiibos at way higher prices than normal. They're incredibly charming and enticing, and fun to use. They're a good edition to your Wii U and 3DS titles. However, in my case, I'd much rather just remain hopeful that Nintendo will restock the figures and save my money. Purchasing these figures for 40-60 dollars is nothing short of ludicrous, and I refuse to support such a practice, especially when there's still the matter of purchasing the games that work with them to begin with. They too run for 40-60 bucks a pop, and buying a figure that really won't do much to enhance the experience for the same price just isn't worth it.

In conclusion, yes, I like amiibos. In fact, I own twelve of them, because I enjoy their charm and the little things they add to compliment certain games. However, the scalping issue that's been going on since the beginning has only accentuated, making collecting the toys a tough hobby for arbitrary reasons. Though, I think if we just keep our money in our pockets, the issue will eventually simmer down a bit, and hopefully restocks will occur in the near future. I think a lot of us would like this hobby to be less strenuous, and to do that, we need to just wait it out and be patient. It's a hope, but I think it's much better than giving some weirdo on the internet 85 bucks for a Little Mac amiibo that works nowhere outside of the game his figure is tailored to.

I'm not kidding about the 85 bucks thing, by the way. That's literally when he runs for.