Fans of the award-winning Australian children’s TV show Bluey have been left devastated after a special collaboration between the animated program and Bunnings Warehouse has resulted in massive price gouging on eBay.
Since its debut in 2018, Bluey has quickly become one of the most iconic creative exports ever produced by Australia. The show’s humour, stunning animation, and sincere charm have won it Logies, AACTAs, ARIAs, and even an Emmy, as well as the hearts of fans globally.
One of Bluey’s major successes is its world-class writing, which manages to appeal to both the children the ABC Kids program is designed for, and the adults who are watching it beside them. (It also appeals massively to depressed 20-somethings, IYKYK).
And because it’s distinctly an Australian show, it features plenty of Aussie culture including cricket, backyard BBQ’s, the State Of Origin, and an episode with a warehouse store called Hammerbarn, that looks an awful lot like Bunnings Warehouse.
So much so, that in early February, Bluey and Bunnings did a collaboration which saw the iconic warehouse store rebrand to “Hammerbarn” for a limited time.
As part of the collaboration, Bunnings stores across Australia and New Zealand sold a limited run of Bluey themed products, such as pet toys, Hammerbarn apparel, and a fan favourite: Bluey inspired garden gnomes.
Designed to look like the gnomes that feature in the show, the limited edition product sold for $19 a piece, with four different variations to collect.
However, as we learnt in 2020 from the dreaded toilet paper saga, Australians can be vicious panic buyers and scalpers.
And when it comes to merchandise for a children’s show, any game is fair game.
Almost immediately, the stock of the Bluey products in Bunnings stores nation-wide began to fly off shelves.
Days into the special promotion, all stock of the Bluey gnomes was completely sold out, as confirmed by Bunnings.
Where did those gnomes end up you ask?
Well if you guessed the garden of a family that all love Bluey… you’d be wrong.
Scalpers on eBay have begun auctioning off the highly sought after gnomes, increasing the price from the original $19 all the way to almost $900 for the full set according to one eBay sale.
If you peep on eBay yourself, you’ll see that it’s not just one person trying to make a buck off the limited merch.
Scalpers and resellers are selling the products, individually and as collections, for hundreds more dollars than they originally cost.
For a country that’s pretty peeved at Coles and Woolworths for allegedly price gouging, you’d think we wouldn’t go and do it to each other, hey?
And you just know that the people who are doing these rorted resales aren’t even true fans of the show.
Because if they were they would remember from literally the first episode (Magic Xylophone for you hardcore fans) the importance of sharing.
Or, dare I cite Season Two Episode 30 (Library) where Muffin (Bluey’s cousin) learns that nobody is special enough to have rules apply to them?
Yeah that’s right, I’ll throw the Bluey Bible down on these scalpers if I have to.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to finish a bidding war for a $200 gnome that I’m currently in against a parent of three. Wish me luck!
