Jeremy8000
Well-known member
Are you kidding me? They had them for sale again and sold out again? Google is a joke.
A large part of the problem is failure on Google's part to place and enforce order quantity limitations. Given the speed with which the first run sold through, and the large number of those original sales being flipped for immense profit, Google should - knowing they would be offering another limited supply - have restricted orders of bumpers to no more than 1 bumper plus 1 additional bumper per Nexus 4 device that that account-holder has ordered through Google Play (this isn't perfect, but it allows for some accommodation to those, such as myself, who purchased theirs elsewhere (e.g., from a carrier)).
As it stands, someone could (and likely many did) order a quantity of, say, 50 units, purely for profiteering. Given there's no cause for Google to be concerned at this point over being 'stuck' with unsold inventory, allowing this has no upside for Google. A single person is thereby depriving 50 legitimate end-users of the bumper at true availability and retail price, further causing frustration, and extenuating the demand even further, helping those resellers to extort even higher prices.
Unless Google chooses to do something as above or to better anticipate demand (they could easily have set an initial order for bumpers to cover several times their initial supply of devices, knowing they would sell them in time), we can expect the next lot to largely be similarly hijacked by eBayers, and the same for future device sets as well.