(Yicai) July 11 -- Shanghai Disneyland Resort has suspended the in-park store sales of new merchandise from its Duffy and Friends Summer Ocean Party collection after scalpers snapped up many of the goods and marked up prices.

Shanghai Disneyland will halt offline sales of new merch from its Duffy and Friends toyline starting today, the resort announced on its official app yesterday. The remaining stock will be sold on its flagship store on Alibaba Group's Tmall, it added.

The Duffy and Friends Summer Ocean Party collection, including keychains, plush toys, handbags, and clothes, launched on July 8. A keychain costs CNY179 (USD25), while the complete set of seven, featuring all Duffy and Friends characters, is CNY1,253 (USD175).

The new products have been extremely popular despite the high prices, with the online stock selling out immediately upon release, Yicai learned. This led many scalpers to the park shops, later hiking the price of the complete set of keychains to more than CNY1,700.

Disney's move to halt in-park store sales "is to maintain order in the resort, especially amid high temperatures, reducing customer discomfort or disputes caused by long queues," a senior insider from the trendy toy industry told Yicai.

Despite suspending offline sales, it is difficult for Disney to fully eliminate scalping because consumers passionate about its products may still turn to scalpers when no other options are available, the insider pointed out.

"The production cost of these goods is not high, but their emotional value to consumers creates room for premium pricing, giving scalpers opportunities to mark up prices," Shen Jun, a senior retail industry analyst, said to Yicai.

Scalpers' inflated prices also harm the brand, which needs to manage the supply chain better to avoid future shortages, Shen noted.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev