Post-E3 swag shopping on Ebay

by Ken Weeks { May 15th 2006 at 2:35PM }

If you thought selling your E3 swag haul on Ebay was going to pay for your bus ticket back home or, fancifully, your $600 PS3, consider the frustrating law of supply and demand. Currently a luggage bag worth of junk is going for around around $50-$70. Smaller lots are fetching far less, while single PS3 lanyards -- the pennies of the E3 swag economy -- are going for a mere $.99. (Sony distributed these things with the zeal of Hare Krishnas doling out flowers on doomsday -- their apparent substitute for an accessible PR operation). Adopting a Marxist perpsective, making the gullible fanboy proletariat pay for swag is a cruel capitalistic joke anyway. If, like me, you believe free crap should remain free, stick around. Joystiq will unload it's treasure trove of cheaply-produced, Chinese-made chotchkeys to our loyal readers in due time.

Tags: e32006, ebay, swag

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

sev4 pri1 @ May 15th 2006 2:42PM

hook a brother up. I'll let you touch my PGR3/Zero hours face plates.

32_footsteps @ May 15th 2006 2:50PM

This is probably because most of the swag was so cheap this year. We at Netjak are having a hell of a time coming up with items for our annual Swag of the Show piece.

I mean, Nintendo couldn't even be bothered to give out decent swag for people waiting to see the Wii. Just a lousy nylon bag and a stupid pin. Even a halfway-decent t-shirt would have gone for at least $30.

I'm really fearing next year's swag list... I have the nagging suspicion that alot of companies are going to give out cheap nylon bags that break and/or kill your shoulders after any amount of use.

Joe from Cincy @ May 15th 2006 2:52PM

I think the fanboys should boycot. Anyone buying a PS3 is simply supporting Sony's hidden agenda to win the media battle with blu-ray. Sony didn't make it an option because they want to get as many blu-ray players out there as possible.

It's been happening since the beginning... betamax, that digital audio format from back in the day (I forget what it was called), UMD, XCP, ...now blu-ray.

And now all the gamers that just want to play games need to shell out all this extra money just to support Sony's greedy cause.

I never thought I'd say that... but why can't Sony be as consumer-consious as Microsoft?

32_footsteps @ May 15th 2006 3:04PM

You know, if I ate nothing but ramen for each meal for about 6 months, I could easily afford a Playstation 3 at launch.

I'd also have to convince my wife to go for that, though, and I think she likes non-ramen foods a bit too much to go through with that.

soco @ May 15th 2006 3:08PM

the bags of crap we got at the 360 launch party were going for like 120+ euro a piece, but they included one of the PGR faceplates.

Reeve @ May 15th 2006 3:10PM

#2 - As a collector on the eBay buying end of things, I too found the swag to be unimpressive this year. Aside from some neat little items (like the Pac-Man capsule toys), there's not many interesting pieces of swag as far as this year's auctions go.

J B Cougar @ May 15th 2006 3:11PM

The PS3: Shut up and sell a kidney already

MSU_CokeBoi @ May 15th 2006 3:15PM

Please...NO MORE MICROECONOMICS!!!...i've had enough of graphs this semester

mr. reason @ May 15th 2006 3:17PM

ooooo. pick me! pick me!
come on......... you know you want to....
dont make me sing you a song.....
....
the hills are alive... with the sound of music.....
must have now

Maximus @ May 15th 2006 3:20PM

Please give me some sweet e3 crap. that would be awsome and i would hbe eternally grateful.

BPM? @ May 15th 2006 3:21PM

Last year, I won a bag of E� swag from a store who had people go there.
Some of the things in the bag included Japanese Souther Island Pok�mon TCG cards, a can of Mr. Coffee frozen coffee (with a Viewtiful Joe label on it), a foldable frisbee, a music CD, a game demo, a screen cleaner, a t-shirt, some mags, and a bag to keep it all in. Nice stuff.

Maybe next year will have better swag, when PS3 and Wii are actually out, and Sony and Nintendo, respectively, will try to sell their systems as much as possible.

Ed Canale @ May 15th 2006 3:43PM

To #4:

"You know, if I ate nothing but ramen for each meal for about 6 months, I could easily afford a Playstation 3 at launch.

I'd also have to convince my wife to go for that, though, and I think she likes non-ramen foods a bit too much to go through with that."

Yea, and your heart would explode in your chest just from the ingesting that garbage. You ever seen the salt content in that stuff? 750% - 1000%!

pandlcg @ May 15th 2006 3:47PM

although your graph could have a shift in the demand line because of increased interest in swag due to E3 hype, the supply line should also shift due to the sudden supply shock of said E3 swag.

Any Econ majors out there know if i'm thinking about this right? It's been a couple of years

Ian Bowden @ May 15th 2006 3:59PM

pandlcg, you are correct. But you don't need a major to figure that. A basic state complusery education GCSE in business would teach that.

David @ May 15th 2006 4:02PM

Of course the most important swag question of them all: did you snag a copy of "The Show Maybe?"

http://www.blog.konami.jp/gs/img/the_report/img_v225_dammy.gif

thatbox @ May 15th 2006 4:11PM

There were some very nice Sonic shirts, and I guess I won't be selling my DS for a Lite after all - now it's signed by Iwata!

cyrix_0 @ May 15th 2006 4:26PM

Nice move Joystiq ;) I guess Sony does have influence...nice tac

cyrix_0 @ May 15th 2006 4:26PM

Nice move Joystiq ;) I guess Sony does have influence...nice tac

UGN @ May 15th 2006 5:52PM

O la la. What a surprise to see this stuff up on ebay. I wouldn't mind a new keychain for my keys.

FrenchPoodle @ May 15th 2006 6:25PM

Free E3 stuff? I just got My Joystiq t-shirt today!!! LOVE IT! I'm wearing it tomorrow haha

icelight @ May 15th 2006 6:56PM

To 13 and 14: Indeed, although it might not be as obvious for those raised outside the Commonwealth (we did secede long before the rise of standardized tests, after all.) I'd say that a very big shift in supply to the right would be needed, as the whole point of the post is that prices are going down. Of course, if 6 and 11 are right, the year-on-year graph would have demand shifting left, if most of the stuff is crap.

dsub @ May 15th 2006 8:07PM

after looking at eBay, most of that stuff is crap I can already get...at least all the shirts and hats and stuff. A good friend of mine works at EB and he's given me everything from Half Life 2 polo shirts to XBOX 360 bracelets. I've gotten numerous faceplates, key chains and t-shirts for basically every big name title there is. I wear my RE4 shirt all the time. Now the stuff that actually says E3 on it is kinda cool, but the only reason I'd want that stuff is if I actually went, as a souvenir of sorts.