Per reporter: Shu Dongni Per editor: Wei Guanhong
On February 4, the Beijing Winter Olympics officially opened, and the mascot ice pier became the new top stream. In less than a day, the official flagship stores online and offline were snatched up, and the magic music of "I only want an ice pier, who can give me an ice pier" was popular in the circle of friends.
A "pier" is difficult to find, and the hot demand has also given the "scalper" an opportunity to take advantage of it. The 198 yuan ice pier plush toy was fried to 2,000 yuan, a premium of nearly 10 times; the original price of 58 yuan ice pier keychain sold for 500 yuan in the "scalper" circle of friends... But the "scalpers" also paid a price: On February 8, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau reported that three people had been punished for selling ice piers at high prices.
What are the formal channels for purchasing ice piers? How can I be sure I'm getting the right thing? Can I buy the supply of the circle of friends channel? Yiwu also produces ice piers? The reporter of the "Daily Economic News" personally experienced the ice pier rush war and conducted a detailed investigation.
Where can I buy "ice piers" in stock?
"Who has olympic ice piers / a series of resources / win-win cooperation!" Recycle heavily. Confidential cooperation. On February 5, Zhang Chuang (pseudonym) wrote in the circle of friends. As a senior "scalper", Zhang Chuang always has the resources of various performance tickets, and the ice pier is his latest business.
In the next few days, Zhang Chuang posted pictures of different styles of ice pier products in the circle of friends every day. On February 8, in the circle of friends he released, the keychain of 58 yuan shouted for 500 yuan. The premium is nearly 10 times, and the people who buy it are still endless, because in the hot market, there is basically no way to buy it elsewhere.
The reporter searched for "ice pier" on a number of e-commerce platforms, except for the official flagship store of Tmall Olympic, other e-commerce platforms did not have ice pier mascots for sale. In the official flagship store, a variety of ice pier goods show that they are sold out of the shelves, and the goods pre-sold on time are almost seconds.
Some pre-sale items of the Olympic official flagship store Image source: Screenshot of the website
On second-hand transactions, the results of the search for "ice piers" are blank interfaces, and the turn shows that "the search results may involve content that does not comply with relevant laws, regulations and policies, and are not displayed." At eleven o'clock in the morning of February 10, the reporter searched for the word "squat" on the idle fish platform, and there would also be ice pier related goods, but they were immediately blocked, showing that the goods were removed from the shelves.
There are many ice piers circulating between the networks to obtain treasure books, such as through the Unicom APP points mall / KFC, Pizza Hut packages / iQIYI APP member benefits, etc., but still face a "pier" is difficult to find. Suddenly, the demand for "ice piers" is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more "scalpers" in the circle of friends.
On February 6, Yin Yi (pseudonym) began to publish the relevant circle of friends, "I buy the ice pier, come to me, buy a queue for 6 hours." He even changed his WeChat name directly to "Ice Pier".
According to the reporter's observation, the current circle of friends of the "scalper" is mainly divided into two kinds, from the product price point of view, to the Olympic official flagship store ice pier 60mm keychain as an example, the official price is 58 yuan / one, some cattle ice pier keychain price of 500 yuan / one, close to 10 times premium; some scalpers are on the basis of the official price of the slight increase.
According to the quotation of Zhao Yi (pseudonym), the 60mm keychain is 68 yuan / piece, the 10cm hand is 128 yuan / piece, and the 20cm plush toy is 258 yuan / piece, which is not much different from the official price. Why is Zhao Yi's price relatively cheap? He said it was because of direct cooperation with the factory. At first, Zhao Yi was not willing to disclose the location of the factory, under several questions, Zhao Yi said that the factory was in Yiwu, "Our boss has gossip, just have the factory that knows, are formal, certificates and so on, we sell cheap for the amount." ”
On February 10, the franchised retail store Beijing Wangfujing Gongmei Building store still lined up Long Line Image source: Photo courtesy of the interviewee
On February 10, the ice pier has been the "top stream" for a week, and the Wangfujing Gongmei Building in Beijing is still lined up for nearly 200 meters, and it is still difficult to buy the ice pier offline. However, the "scalper" still means "inquiry with the map" and "spot", and it seems that the ice pier in their hands is not in short supply.
"All genuine, ordered from offline franchise stores"
Where did the "scalper" goods come from?
According to the circle of friends released by Zhang Chuang, the nearly 10 times premium ice pier may mainly come from high-priced recycling. "Recycling the full series of ice piers of China Unicom/Bank of China/Anta/Yili, you can pay attention to the various official platforms of the Sponsors of the Winter Olympics, there are various benefits such as lottery, and you can contact me to recycle and help you cash in when you draw/buy." There are resources that can also contact me to cooperate, absolute confidentiality. ”
Yin Yi also said that the "scalper" generally has several ways to get the genuine product, one is to recycle others at a high price, the other is to queue up to buy or snap up online, and the third is to order from licensed commodity retailers and retail stores, "The third kind of goods can be more powerful, whether it is from a licensed offline store, or a franchiser, it means that he has channels (relationships) to get goods from dealers." ”