Baldur’s Gate 3 Publisher Condemns Scalpers As Collector’s Edition Hits $3,000

Scalpers are just capitalism working efficiently. As such, they’re absolute scumbags who ruin fun things, proven yet again with the release of Larian’s physical “Collector’s Edition” of Baldur’s Gate 3. The enormo-box, sold out by official means, is now being listed for prices over $3,000.

This was brought to stark attention by Larian’s publishing director Michael Douse, who tweeted (exxed?) to express his disgust at the listings he was finding online.

“Hate scalpers, man,” he wrote on X. “I understand how commodity works, but this CE isn’t a commodity it’s designed to make someone happy not rich.”

Hate scalpers, man. I understand how commodity works, but this CE isn’t a commodity it’s designed to make someone happy, not rich. If you’re buying it to trade, all you’re doing is making someone sad. pic.twitter.com/vtH2CX3OhQ

— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 12, 2024

Well, you know, it is a commodity, no matter how emotionally attached to it he might be, but he’s not wrong in his conclusion. “If you’re buying this to trade, all you’re doing is making someone sad.” Getting lots of money, too, but yeah.

The Collector’s Edition was originally made available to buy during the game’s early access in December 2022, and given its colossal original price of $270, took a few months to sell out. It was when the game was officially released in August 2023 that it became a lot harder to get hold of, and was almost immediately hitting a thousand bucks on eBay

Given it’s been impossible to buy a new version for a long time, it’s perhaps not a surprise that those wishing to own the box of books, stickers, a fantastic 25cm figurine, and most importantly, a cloth map would have to turn to resellers. And, since the value of an item is based on how much a person is willing to pay, a year on it’s now seeing prices from $1,000 to $3,000 on eBay

Scalp the scalpers

This is obviously not as clear-cut as, “Boo scalpers bad,” as much as it absolutely sucks that such people prevent an enthusiastic fan being able to buy an item they want to own and keep at the intended price. It’s a situation that’s created by the artificial scarcity of the object in the first place, where a company deliberately doesn’t make as much of something as there are people who want to buy it, then price that thing at far more than it costs to make (because, that’s how commerce works) to reduce the number of people who’ll find it within their means.

If it were mass produced, it presumably wouldn’t be a “Collector’s” version (whatever that actually means—“I’ve collected all one of this Baldur’s Gate 3 boxed version!”), but then it would be available for everyone who wants it at the recommended price. And scalpers wouldn’t have a market to exploit.

And…what’s lost? People’s peculiar pride at owning a thing someone else wants but hasn’t got? Well that sucks. Larian can make the scalpers go away by having more of the Collector’s Edition produced. But scalpers should just fuck off for spoiling everything in the name of a quick, tasteless buck.

So I hate everything about this.

You can still buy the Deluxe Edition of the game, that doesn’t feature the awesome mindflayer statue, but has a paper map, poster, stickers, 3-CD soundtrack and even a physical disc that installs the game, along with a bunch of in-game frippery. It’s $80.