[l1k]

The point here is likely to pull the rug out from under scalpers' feet.

With the Raspberry Pi 5 out in two weeks, all the held-back inventory of older models will be dumped, prices will plummet, availability will become a non-issue.

In that sense it's a wise move.

[alangibson]

Mouser sold about 3000 Pi 4s in the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping a few scalpers are about to get seriously burned.

Interestingly Digikey has over 2000 left. I wonder if they are limiting quantities.

[michaeltimo]

Finding older models were also almost impossible in the past two years. It's unlikely that Raspberry Pi 5 will solve the issue. But even so, it's not a wise move because what is the point of bringing a new model when they can't make it available to normal people?

[fanf2]

The Raspberry Pi 5 will only be for sale to individuals until the end of this year (no industrial customers competing for inventory like the older models)

[extraduder_ire]

Plus, they're only launching the 4/8gb models to start. So there'll be another wave of cheaper ones a little later. Really hoping they still hit the $35 price point on the 1gb model.

[meragrin_]

> they can't make it available to normal people

I guess you haven't been looking recently? I can go to a local store and pick one up. It looks easy to pick up one online too.

https://rpilocator.com/

[giancarlostoro]

I think I've seen Pi Kits at my local target. The issue with those is, they're for niche things I might not care about and now I got tech waste on my hands, but also might not be the exact model I want.

Note I'm not disagreeing, just saying in some cases, the ones in-store are kits.

[mlyle]

I wouldn't expect Target to carry bare Raspberry Pi-- how many people walk into a Target wanting a Pi with no accessories?

[eldaisfish]

I have and it is still a pain. Many websites still have limits on how many you can buy. The situation has improved but it is far from what your comment implies.

[mindcrime]

Many websites still have limits on how many you can buy.

For a hobbyist / individual, is that really a big deal? I mean, how many do you need at one time?

Anyway, the claim all along has been that supplies would be "back to normal" by the end of this year, and so far things seem to be tracking that way. If you look at rpilocator.com now, the entire first two pages are full of green lines, which is a DRASTIC improvement compared to just 6 months ago. And some of the major distributors are getting in shipments of 5,000, 6,000 at a time of some models and having them in stock for weeks on end. So one can clearly see that the situation is improving rapidly.

That said, I will make no claim one way or the other with regards to the question of whether or not shipping a Pi 5 is a "good idea" or not.

[dixie_land]

On a similar note, I'm genuinely curious as to why Pi chose the "authorized reseller" model instead of selling them directly.

[djbusby]

B2C, small quantity sales are not fun. B2B selling pallets full.

[rewmie]

I'd be surprised if reselling through authorized sellers isn't much simpler and problem-free than selling them directly.

I also expect that using resellers ensures better odds of protecting the brand/project goodwill. Resellers deal with problems like "I paid a ton of cash for a board and it arrived late and/or broken". Support alone is a nightmare, and I recall that raspberry Pi struggled with PR when they started out. I vaguely recall Liz Upton being behind some ill-advised episodes that didn't improved Raspberry Pi's image and would get anyone other PR person sacked.

[extraduder_ire]

They do also sell them directly, though not in large quantities. They even have a retail store somewhere in the UK.

[KaiserPro]

Because world wide sales is really hard.

Having trusted local resellers is a much more scalable way to sell to local markets.

[AmIDev]

If scalpers are able to sell a product at higher price, doesn't that mean the company priced the product too low?

[extraduder_ire]

I think scalping is more of a supply issue, raising the official price of the product would only require more cash when scalpers are doing their buying.

[sanity31415]

Raspberry should raise the price until scalping isn't profitable. Keeping the price low is just handing money to scalpers that should be going towards future product development, until they can meet the demand.