Sellers at eBay have listed Simpsons pins at the centre of a major promotional campaign for the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper. In a major embarrassment to the publisher, pins are listed, including photographs, which have not been released for sale to Herald Sun readers yet.
Over the counter at a newsagency the pins sell for $2.00. At eBay they are listed at $4.00 plus postage. The seller lists that they have two of each of the sixteen characters plus another eBay item of the full set of sixteen. It’s odd that they have been able to list this when stocks are embargoed by the publisher.
Given that each pin costs $2.00 and the required newspaper purchase another $1.00, the sell price of $4.00 does not make sense.
With kids across Melbourne angry that they cannot get the pins they want because their newsagent has sold out, I would expect comment from Herald Sun publisher, the Herald and Weekly Times, to comment on how their promotional products can be on eBay already and what they intend to do about it.
On the face of it, the particular auction you linked to above sounds like dubious practice, but on the auction page – albeit in a very small font – in the main description section the seller has actually written the disclaimer of “Note: Pin will be available when released by newsagent.”
Another one, a different seller, has the ambiguous phrase “In good (new) condition AS COLLECTED.”
I guess this all this means for certain is that the sellers are going to be at their local first thing everyday.
I didn’t go through every single listing though