Anytime there is a special holiday or limited-time event at the Disney Parks, you can bet your Mickey ears that Guests will be offered some unique and more limited merchandise. We have seen this at Walt Disney World, with Guests going crazy for cups, mugs, and bags as the Resort continues celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Unfortunately, this sometimes means that certain Guests will start to hoard this special merchandise in order to resell it later for a higher price, sometimes making insane profits.
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Lately, we have seen this issue pop up at both the Walt Disney World Resort as well as Disneyland Resort. We have seen Disney take an active stance against resellers when it comes to their merchandise. Whenever Disney drops a new line of merchandise or a limited-time product, we tend to see some Guests leave with as many pieces of merchandise that they can carry.
They then go to sell those products online for a heavy markup. It is against the rules at Disney, especially to use an Annual Pass discount to save money, to only then resell it for higher, and if caught can end in a ban from Walt Disney World property for life. Buying merchandise from Disney directly ties a product to the memory you may have from that day, which can end up becoming priceless. One thing about a lot of merchandise at Disney is that it can go fast, and it is extremely coveted.
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Disney has done what they can to try and curb resellers by putting a limit on items that they can buy as only two per person, but some bring their kids or friends with them while purchasing items, and are then able to drive up their count. The most recent debacle in the reseller market at Disney was the Figment popcorn buckets at EPCOT for the Festival of the Arts. Guests were lining up 7 hours in advance to collect their buckets and later that day, we found multiple on eBay selling for over $200.00.
It seems like this issue carries over into the intentional Disney Parks as well, with one Twitter user sharing multiple Guests heading limited merchandise at the Tokyo Disney Resort.
See the tweet below from @bump_sugar_
20th Anniversary Or-kun resale has started. Only people who are full of baskets (translated)
#tdr_now
20周年オルくん再販始まりました
カゴいっぱいに詰めてる人ばかりです😥💦 pic.twitter.com/HISSwAbIr7— さとおは7/2幕張 (@bump_sugar_) June 8, 2022
In response to this, Twitter users replied with their take on the situation. @sally_shiki said:
Why don’t you make this one by one? At least up to three. Some people may line up at the cash register many times, but isn’t it strange that the basket is full and there is no limit at one cash register? I feel sick. (translated)
こういうのってどうして、1人1個にしないのですか?せめて、3個までとか。何度もレジに並ぶ人もいるかもしれないけど、カゴいっぱいで、一回のレジで制限なしとかおかしくない?気分悪い。
— さりー@ (@sally_shiki) June 8, 2022
Some guests don’t think about other guests (translated)
他のゲストのこと考えないゲストもいるもんだ
— 淳 (@4bJd0BHnqRl2nF1) June 8, 2022
@stream_love said:
This kind of thing is disappointing. I’m in Tohoku, so I can hardly go, so it’s sad that I didn’t have it when I went there for the first time in years (translated)
こういうのは、ガッカリします。
自分は東北なので、ほとんど行けない為何年かぶりに行った時に無いのは悲しいです😭— ひろろろろろ (@stream_love) June 8, 2022
While Disney usually has a policy on how many items Guests are allowed to buy, Guests have ways around this, as we can see above. Typically, Guests will bring their kids as every Guest can make a purchase, even from the same party, and as long as the size or skew is different, the product counts as a “new” one.
Hopefully, the merchandise lasts for those Guests wanting to purchase it for themselves.
Have you encountered resellers at Disney?