My boss today was telling me how he had ordered a Switch off Amazon from a third party seller for $100 and it's now had it's arrival date change 4 times even though it shows shipped. I didn't have the heart to tell him he's fallen victim to the current Amazon marketplace scam that's going around.

I haven't heard of this - do you have any more info and/or details?

Marketplace scammers are listing popular items for extremely cheap prices and then selling hundreds/thousands of them quickly. They then mark them as shipped with a tracking number and usually use a country outside the US so they get extended time for the item to arrive and then they get paid from amazon and then bail without actually shipping anything. The buyer can't issue a complaint until the full shipment window is passed.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshe.../#4b7976463ea6

Due to the way that Amazon promotes MarketPlace sales, the second they go out of stock the lowest price version of the product from marketplace shows up as the primary place to purchase it from. What people tend to do is create a new account and say they have the Switch or other in demand product on sale for $50 - $100 cheaper than it is anywhere else, and hell it's "In Stock!"

They generally have very few if any reputation or reviews, and you can see the scammers later on because they'll end up with 9 - 20 reviews all at 1 star.

Amazon is working to get rid of these scams but unfortunately they've been jumping up primarily with Switch and related products.

Ah. Guess I haven't run into it since I rarely buy from Amazon Marketplace sellers, and when I do, I make sure they have over 95% out of a lot of reviews, and never anything out of China. Assholes.

One element of the scam is that they'll hijack dormant seller accounts, so even if you make sure it's someone out of the U.S. with a high rating, that's not necessarily enough. Need to make sure they have recent reviews as well.

Or, well, only place an order when it's fulfilled by Amazon.

I've mentioned it before - I thought got a good deal on rechargeable batteries and never got it, a response from the seller, or a tracking number. I got my money back in a week or so. The new sellers have generic names like, "Michael Richardson," and no feedback.

Expanding beyond the NPD reports, Nintendo boasted tonight that they've sold over 906,000 Switch units in the U.S. in March. Between the U.S. and Japan, that's right at 1.5 million, with recent European numbers not having come in quite yet.

Weirdly, Breath of the Wild is so popular that it sold 925K copies in the U.S. last month -- an attach rate of over 100%, which has to be some kind of first. (The Wii U version sold 460K in the U.S. in March.)

Kramer is scamming us? What has this world become!!??

I'm starting to see instances where families are buying or trying to buy multiple Switch consoles, and surprisingly none are for re-resale. Nintendo definitely hit onto something with the tablet format, now if only they'd stop tying downloads to individual units.

Also, I have to applaud just how quickly you can turn on the system from sleep and resume playing a game. Best implementation yet.

It really shocks me every time. Its sleep to game time is instantaneous.

Isn't that true of all handhelds though?

While definitely valid, it's still seems more impressive in this situation, especially while docked. Even if it is just a basic Power -> Lock Screen -> Game/App sequence.

Something like this is right up the Switch's alley. Hope the reviews are good.

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Nintendo really screwed themselves by not coming up with some sort of trophy/achievement system. I'm not obsessed with them but I enjoy unlocking trophies and if a game comes out multiplatform I'm going to pick it up on PS4 over the Switch because of it. There are tons of people who buy and play games they otherwise wouldn't just because of them so they're losing money on something that can't be that difficult to implement.

Makes me glad I got over those things by the end of the 360 era, so the portability of the Switch easily wins out over the Xbox/PS4 for platform games like this.

I've been playing Shovel Knight on the Switch. Yes, I'm super late to this game, but man, it's fun. This game is perfect for the platform, too. Achievements would be nice, for sure, but generally, it's not a deal-breaker for me anymore, either.

I feel like the Switch is setup in a way that would let them patch that in if they felt like it. Much like Google Play and Steam.

Yeah, I think some sort of trophy/achievement system is inevitable.

Isn't the lack of a d-pad kinda big, though, for a game like that? I dunno, I just don't see what it has over, say, a Vita with crossbuy (besides the extra hardware, but then it's probably better just on the go anyway). I still think Sony is kicking themselves for not doing a Vita 2 in this manner, since everyone is excited about the portability of the switch and not the motion controls/controllers that really are what make it unique... Of course, it's still early.

Finally got around to sending in my faulty left joycon. Even though I have a classic controller, it's going to stink not being able to really go portable for a bit. Tempted to buy another set of joycons but then it always reminds me that I'll have no way to charge them because of stupid bundling decisions.

Man, I can't remember the last time I cared about achievements. I don't mind them, but do not factor them into my decision making at all about buying a game for one platform over another.

I've never cared about achievements/trophies either. If I complete them whatever but I'm usually not trying to unless there's some bonus for doing them.

DS crushed the PSP despite having a silly hook, being vastly underpowered, and IMO comparable games. 3DS crushed the Vita with maybe a better library but with Vita giving out free games. Maybe handheld just isn't their game.

Can you elaborate on why you couldn't charge them? I haven't been keeping up on the ins and outs. But yeah, Nintendo is really fast about getting those Joycons back.

The Vita had a pretty solid shot at a second life, but Sony shot themselves in the foot by making memory discouragingly expensive for it. While the price of Nintendos Controllers are absurd, at least it isn't quite as obvious of a price gouge as $120 for 64gb of storage.

Not exactly sure what he means but the grip which comes with the Switch doesn't have a charging port on it. You have to buy one separately which is exaclty the same, just with the ability to charge. Out of the box you can only charge the Joycons when they're connected to the console. They don't have their own charging ports either.