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Will Hatchimals Go On Sale After Christmas? Waiting To Buy Could Save You Big Bucks

by Becky Bracken

Alright moms and dads, we're less than a week out from Christmas and this year's Hatchimals craze has gotten otherwise totally rational adults all in a tizzy trying to track one down for some lucky kid. Auction sites are selling off the last few remaining Hatchimals on the market for several times their retail price. Will Hatchimals go on sale after Christmas? Based on holiday toy fads of the past, it's a pretty good bet you'll be able to score a much better deal after Christmas.

Consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow told CNN that it's the competition and craze that's driving up the price, which is sure to dissipate after the holidays are over. “It’s a craze fueled by competitiveness — parental competition," Yarrow told CNN. "It’s not about the product, it’s about winning and obsessiveness. If you must have one, buy it now. Prices will only get higher and then they’ll crash right after Christmas.”

Currently, retailers like Amazon have Hatchimals to sell, but they're priced well over the $60 retail cost. Some are for sale for as much as $200.

The company behind Hatchimals, Spin Master, has been ramping up production to try and keep up with demand, according to a TIME interview with Spin Master CEO Anton Rabie. An increase in production and inventory will help drive down the price. Rabie told TIME:

We increased production by hundreds of thousands of units right, I would say, in the middle of October. There’s lots of product hitting the stores, and more will keep arriving. The thing is, there’s just such a huge gap between the demand and the supply.

But a look at some of the toy fads of the past, like 2009's Zhu Zhu Pets, shows that things should get more reasonable after the holidays. “Once production ramped up after Christmas, all the prices plummeted,” e-commerce expert Jordan Malik told CNN about the Zhu Zhu Pets.

With production ramping up and the holidays almost here, chances are the market for Hatchimals will soon outstrip demand for those little toys that hatch out of their eggs. In the meantime, if your kids have their heart set on a Hatchimal of their own, Spin Master has created interactive Hatchimals games on their site for yhem to play with until they can get their hands on the real thing. According to the New York Times, a new round of Hatchimals will hit shelves sometime in early 2017.

“We’re telling consumers to just be patient,”James Martin, Spin Master's head of global business, told the New York Times. “The magic is just as magical in January as it is in December. The experience is just as exciting then. In fact, it may be even a little more because you’ll be getting the first batch of 2017.”

And maybe even a little break on the price too.