The Secondhand Amiibo Market May Be Crashing

by Doc – Owner, Founder, Doing a Fusion Dance With His Economics Degree and Amiibo Expertise

If you’re not familiar with how secondhand amiibo economics works, read this article.

The Market

There’s three tiers in the hierarchy of secondhand amiibo: Never-Reprinted, Nintendo Switch Title, and amiibo card.

The Never-Reprinted can be from just about any series – Qbby, Super Mario, 35th Anniversary Zelda, you name it. So long as it’s never been printed again beyond its first official release, or is basically as rare as something that’s never been reprinted, it’s a Never-Reprinted. These are usually worth ~$80 in-box, and pretty close to that when loose.

The Nintendo Switch Title tier may have also not been reprinted, but they were usually released in larger quantities at first to supplement a Nintendo Switch title, and perhaps a few amiibo from specific lines received reprints here and there. The Smash Ultimate amiibo by and large fall into this category: when Ultimate released, most of the Smash 4 line got reprinted, and a few have been reprinted again for other games, like Bowser and Bowser Jr. at the release of Bowser’s Fury. These amiibo have gone for $30-$40 loose, and $50-$60 in-box for the last several years.

And then you have the amiibo cards, which were almost all released for 3DS titles. Mario Sports and Animal Crossing are the only two big names here. These cards go for a few bucks tops, because there wasn’t much demand for them in the first place.

The Crash

The other day, I decided to be irresponsible with my money and looked for good deals on amiibo. I was browsing eBay when I saw this:

I never did get a Super Mario series Daisy amiibo, and it had free shipping – I’d be a fool to not pick one up while I could, considering it was being sold at MSRP for some reason. So now Daisy is coming in the mail.

But then I saw this:

That’s pretty odd as well – Pac-Man never got an amiibo reprint as best as I can remember, and no google search indicated that he ever did. But I’ve already got Pac-Man (picked him up for $7 at a pawn shop in the middle of Oklahoma a few years ago), so I let it go.

And then I saw these two:

You might not think much of seeing a loose amiibo go for $30 – after all, amiibo prices tend to stabilize at around $30 a few weeks after print runs have sold out. But there’s a problem.

Bayonetta P1 hasn’t been reprinted in over four years, and she’s one of the rarest in the Smash line. If my memory serves, she historically sold for up to $60 loose the last time I checked. She’s a Never-Reprinted (or at least, hasn’t been reprinted since Ultimate’s launch). I’m seeing a similar situation with Bayonetta P2, who went from $100 to around $60 at the moment.

This is happening all over eBay, and on international sites like AliExpress too. I’ve found Mii Fighters (who are very Never-Reprinted, even being passed over for a reprint at Ultimate’s launch) going for $45 when they sold for $80 a year ago. I’ve seen a Duck Hunt, formerly priced at $35 when I checked three months ago, now selling for $15 + free shipping. Just now, there’s a Pikachu amiibo on eBay going for $12. These are all Buy It Now, meaning that’s the price the sellers think they’ll get. Just search “loose amiibo” on eBay and see what’s available to you.

Fellas, if this is temporary, then get on it now. If this is permanent, then collecting is about to get way easier.