Lurking below the whirlwind that is Barbiemania, eBay scalpers have spotted an opportunity to make some quick money. The movie’s associated merchandise, which includes everything from a limited edition Xbox Series S to sneakers and watches, hasn’t gone unnoticed by resellers, who are flooding the popular marketplace with rare items at inflated prices.
One suddenly popular item is a limited edition, bright pink, Barbie-branded cup that is exclusive to movie theatre Cinemark. There was a scramble to purchase the pink beverage holder when it launched on Cinemark’s website last week for $19.99, with a deluge of successful buyers quickly listing their purchase on eBay for up to $85—a 325% increase on the original sale price. Cinemark’s Barbie-themed blanket and popcorn tin were also in huge demand, both of which are selling for inflated prices on eBay and Japanese marketplace Mercari.
Some frustrated fans told me that Cinemark didn’t put limits on how many items could be bought at once, which meant some people might have bought several in one purchase to sell on later. One buyer I spoke with, Amanda, said that “Cinemark made a huge mistake with this rollout,” with another fan account telling me that “the website seemed to let you add whatever was available in the cart, who knows how many people purchased in bulk.”
Demand for these particular items has been huge. Two other Barbie fans I spoke with said they had called several stores, another explained that they were refreshing Cinemark’s website three hours before the merch dropped. I asked Cinemark about letting customers buy more than one product at a time and if more stock is on the way, but the movie theatre didn’t respond by the time of publishing.
The Barbie cup, blanket and popcorn tin are still available on Cinemark’s website, but they’re not shipping until October. The only place to get these items right now seems to be resale websites. A bundle of all three (with an additional cup), for example, is being listed on Mercari for $500 right now, a 585% increase on the combined original sale price. The hype for these three items, and how scalpers have quickly capitalized on it, reminds me of the Playstation 5 shortage in 2020 and 2021 that saw the console selling for more than double its retail price.
There was a cat and mouse game between retailers and scalpers, who were using bots and other technology, to bulk order consoles. That level of sophistication doesn’t appear to be employed here, with scalpers possibly able to order several items at once. The other difference is that the PlayStation 5 was a $499 gaming machine made scarce by global chip shortages, these are $20 trinkets. Why have these three items become the must-have piece of merchandise against all others?
READ: PlayStation 5 Scalpers Aren’t Happy With Their Public Image
Every buyer I spoke with gave me a different answer, ranging from the blanket being practical to cups being popular and long lasting – all of which is of course boosted by the official Barbie branding. Jian Yang, a long-time Barbie fan and the owner of one of the world’s biggest collections of Barbie dolls, provided the simplest answer. “Instagrammers are saying it’s very tasteful (and cheap) compared to the other licensed stuff.”
That other licensed stuff represents an onslaught of merchandise. There are official Barbie scooters, watches, bags, clothes, the aforementioned Xbox and more. People with old Barbie products sitting around are also getting in on the action. Someone had the foresight to hold onto their 2003, original Xbox, copy of Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (Metacritic score: 52) in its original plastic packaging. It is currently listed on eBay for $220. Another eBay seller, Dianne, told me that she has been trading “cheap as chips” Barbie merchandise for a while, but she is seeing increased sales and interest. “Barbie is just so popular. I think the film may have brought attention to kids that haven’t been interested before, I am getting a lot of new customers,” Dianne said.
Everyone seems to be feeding off of the hype machine. StockX shared some data with me which shows that the marketplace has seen more sales of Barbie products in July than any other month in company history. Also, the number of Barbie product listings on StockX has increased more than 100% year-over-year. (July 2023 vs. July 2022). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most popular Barbie-themed item on StockX are the Crocs Classic Mega Crush Clogs, which are selling for $185, $100 over their retail price.
Will the hype last? Yang says that the competition for Barbie merch will continue for the time being. “If you listen to Mattel, they’re obviously trying to do a franchise model. It’s going to be like Transformers one, two, three, four & five. Barbie is not going to be a one off movie… so it’s going to be trend, but I don’t know how long it will last.”
Read the full article here
