Chris Hardwick Drives Pokemon Go Plus Wristband to $1,025 on eBay
That amounts to 148,050 in-game Pokécoins.
One of the biggest complaints about the phenomenon that is Pokémon Go — besides the lack of server support and constant app crashes — is that the game sucks up battery life seemingly faster than streaming video 24/7.
Game creators Niantic anticipated this and made a $35 wearable band called Pokémon Go Plus, which vibrates when Pokémon are nearby so users don’t have to keep their screens on all day. But, they couldn’t anticipate just how popular the game would be and the preorder bands almost instantly sold out from traditional retailers such as Amazon and Gamestop.
Naturally, the bands are going for a steep price on eBay right now, but one buyer went a little extreme and purchased one band for a whopping $1,025 after a one day bid that ended at 2:55 EST Wednesday. To put that in perspective, that’s a 2,828 percent price increase.
Do you know how much you can do with $1,025 of in-game purchases? That’s 148,050 Pokécoins. You can buy 2,950 lucky eggs, which give you double EX for 30 minutes. You could buy 987 egg incubators, 1,736 Lure Modules, or 2,950 incense. Hell, buy two extra burner phones and a really nice portable battery pack so it’s not an issue in the first place.
But instead, this person shelled out $1,025 so their wrist could vibrate when a Pokémon is nearby, which your phone already does if the app is turned on.
Apparently, Chris Hardwick, host of @ Midnight and The Talking Dead, was one of the bidders and forced the high price.
Pretty much all of the Pokémon Go Plus wristbands selling online are too high considering the $35 starting price. Most come in at a rate between $100 and $300 on eBay, depending on if you try to get it through an auction or the “buy it now” feature.
No one needs the wristband in order to play, just a working smartphone with GPS and an internet connection. Niantic actually made a smartphone app for its previous augmented reality mobile game, Ingress, however, no such app exists yet for Pokémon Go on Apple Watch or Android Wear.
