Mattel's mistake worth up to $3,500: if you have this 'Wicked' doll, you can resell it after the “printing glitch”
Human error is alive and well, as well those looking to make a buck off it. Mattel’s ‘Wicked’ mistake, while costly for the company, profitable for others.
One of the things collectors look for in an item that should increase its value is uniqueness. This can come from a limited supply compared to demand of the object in question, as well due to some mistake when it was manufactured.
That is the case with an oversight before Mattel’s ‘Wicked’ fashion doll collection were shipped to retailers to take advantage of the upcoming release of the movie by the same name. The packaging for the fashion dolls accidentally had the internet address for a porn website printed on them instead of the official WickedMovie.com which takes you to the film’s landing page.
Mattel’s mistake worth up to $3,500: if you have this ‘Wicked’ doll, you can resell it after the “printing glitch”
Major retailers and the toy company started pulling the ‘Wicked’ fashion dolls with the erroneously printed packaging once they became aware of the mistake. However, before they could get all of them, some had already been purchased by unwitting customers while others rushed to get their hands on what they hope will be a moneymaker of the resale market.
Some resellers on sites like eBay are charging modestly higher prices for the ‘Wicked’ fashion dolls which were retailing for between $20 and $40 depending on the character and outfit. However, others were charging in the thousands, albeit some for a complete collection of the various characters, indicating in the description that they have the error and listing them as “rare.”
“The big winners in the short term are resellers, as this snafu sparked a flipper frenzy this weekend,” notes James Zahn, editor in chief of The Toy Book speaking to CNBC. The other beneficiary, at least in web traffic, was the porn webpage which saw a 12-year surge in visits.
The cost to Mattel is still up in the air. Jaime Katz, an analyst at Morningstar, said that “the impact depends on the resolution.” Some of the options tossed about are repackaging the toys or supplying stickers to cover up the misprint.
“Like any business, mistakes can and do happen in the toy business. This was likely an innocent oversight that made it through the normal processes,” said Zahn.
He also said that it is unlikely that most consumers will ever read the fine print on a package and is just designed to be thrown in the trash. Zahn thinks the odds “are pretty slim” that a child would read the back of the box and visit the erroneous website listed.
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