Physical Copies of Tool’s Fear Inoculum Are Selling for Hundreds of Dollars on eBay

Tool’s new album, Fear Inoculum, isn’t selling like hotcakes — it’s selling like crack. The band sold out pre-orders for the deluxe physical edition of the album weeks before it came out, and yesterday, they put a limited number up for sale on their website, which are — you guessed it — now all gone as well. Little wonder the record is on track to unseat Taylor Swift for the #1 spot on the charts this week.

Naturally, some skeevers are taking advantage of the unbalanced supply/demand ratio by selling physical copies of the album on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Granted, because the package comes with a whole buncha bells and whistles, including a friggin’ 4″ HD screen, it was already on the pricey side, going for $40 – $50, depending on the retailer. But copies for sale on eBay with a “Buy it Now” option (i.e., you don’t have to compete with other bidders) are currently selling for a hundred bucks at minimum, with many sellers asking for figures closer to the $150 range.

Meanwhile, copies for which buyers will have to compete with other bidders appear to be more reasonably priced — as of this writing, there’s one where the bid is just $16 — but those still have days to go before the auctions are over, so it’s safe to assume they will ultimately sell for much more (that particular auction, for example, started late last night, already has twenty bidders, and doesn’t end until Monday).

So that’s a bitch. On the one hand, it’s infuriating that people are preying on fans like this and selling copies of the album for such exorbitant prices. On the other hand, it’s hard to blame hardcore fans who want a copy for being willing to pay those prices. Thank Dio for digital streams so that at least everyone can hear it, even if they can’t pore over every inch of the packaging and lyrics.