PS5 And Xbox Series X Scalpers Are Charging A Big Premium

Ironically, if MS or Sony had stated the initial console price were $600 or $700, gamers would have thrown a fit. Resellers selling for $1000+? Okay, I'll buy it!

If either were serious about scalpers, they'd have enough supply and sell direct only with a limit of 1 per household (no PO boxes). Retailers don't care, as long as they sell. Some guy buys 10 or 10 guys buy 1, it's the same to them.

If Sony can barely manage communicating how and when consoles will go on sale it seems unlikely that they will ever be able to do much about scalping. I also don't see much incentive for them or retailers to do anything either as long as these fancy new consoles (with next to no games) continue to sell out instantaneously. Part of me wishes that gamers were more demanding with these companies and the type of support and purchase experience they provide. There is incessant complaining on the internet yet we still seem to have no qualms about handing over thousands of dollars to these companies.

I had the Xbox Series X ordered from Walmart, for store pickup. I waited almost 24 hourus for it to fill, just to have it cancel 1 minute before the 8PM "fill by" time the next night. I was quite upset, went to an online marketplace and got one for $200 over retail -- something I've never done before. It was driven by frustration and defeat. I can't believe that I did it.

Yesterday morning I received an email from the Walmart I ordered the Xbox One X from. Almost a week after the cancellation, they said there was a "system error" that caused the cancellation and that my Xbox will be waiting at the store until the 20th, if I still wanted it. Just goes to show that patience would have served me better.

Since I have a few days though, I am going to see if any of my daughter's college friends have been trying to buy one and just let them get it for cost. If not, I'll let it go back on the floor for someone else to get. I'm just not one to put it online for an overpriced, quick buck.

Besides fanboys, microtransactions, and greedy companies practices, the scalpers are some of the top lowest I dislike about the gaming community. I have the money to buy a sx but there is no sx in sight here in South Florida, and once I don't have money that's when they want to release more stock. These companies find a way to sale us consoles in ways that is more secure for us, I'm tired of waiting for 4 to months just get my hands on any next gen console because of low supply

while scalpers are a problem, the ones that fuels these problems are the people who buy from them. Its a new console generation, yes, we know its exciting, we know many wants to experience what these new consoles can do, and yes we know they are sold out everywhere. But that doesn't mean it will never be in stock. Just wait patiently, no need to rush in to get these new systems, they will restock.

I'm surprised this is even an article. An illegal business making headlines like it should be the normal.

This happens every gen. Its just amplified now because of Covid online only shopping. Going up against the bots is futile unless you also are using a bot or get extremely lucky.

And people prove again and again, they will pay any price for a hot item. The must havers.

This online selling only was a bad move. People were still flocking to stores. Hell that's how I got my PS5, the old fashioned way. A little luck and getting up early day after release to stand at Target.

Tell people not to buy from scalpers. Problem is, they ain't gonna listen.

People are paying $800-1000 because we aren’t even at peak Christmas shopping season. They can add on another $200-400 or more to this price and resell in December, a nice cool profit.

Please do not buy them this way. Do not encourage these people.

In other news...water: still wet.

Of course scalpers charge a markup. That’s kind of the definition of scalping. It’s the fault of people being unwilling to wait a little while for a piece of hardware as though no more will ever be available.

It's shitty, for sure. But if people are paying, they are to blame for enabling them.

This is like paying 2x the price for a scalped concert ticket, except in this case the headliner band won't even be performing at the concert, only a few opening bands.

Scalpers wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t a market for their services. Don’t blame the supply, blame the demand.

But this goes to show what hapless low achievement minimal scale losers scalpers are. I earn a decent living and I laugh at spending hours to acquire and flip a console for a few hundred bucks. My passive investments yield a higher return in a shorter time than that. Spending hours to make a few hundred dollars of profit is a waste of time and opportunity cost for me.

As much as I blame scalper for their typical predatory business practices, I equally blame buyers who are so impatient as to give opportunities for these scalpers.

Seeing those prices on Ebay, I am willing to wait till 2021 to get either a PS5 or Xbox Series X. There's really nothing on either system that I couldn't get on PS4/Xbox One. I know my brother was able to get a PS5 for $550. He had a PS5 preorder but ended up selling it for $700 to someone. I guess if people are willing to pay a premium for a next gen console then so be it.

Lol idiots buying Series S. Those things can't even run some games at 60fps like the bigger brother does.

i just sold my extra series x for £650 made a tidy £200 for doing absolutely nothing. if people are willing to buy for that price then so be it.

Some people have more money than common sense. I hope the scalpers are stuck with excess systems...at this point there's no real incentive for me to buy either system. My current system works just fine and I don't have to migrate my library.

People paying twice the retail price or more for consoles that have very few games that can't be played on something else. They're either stupid, stupidly rich or both. Imagine paying $1200 for a PS5 just to find out its one of the 5% with a defect. LOL. $1200 to have to wait for a replacement.

In Poland you can buy XBOX in every major e-commerce store.

Playstation 5 will debut on Thursday.

During a conversation about graphics card scalpers, I was told that there are also bots people were using to drive up the bids and then not pay so the scalper has to go through the resolution of that process and can't sell the item for a while. Seemed like a good counter attack of sorts.

I doubt people are actually paying. It's a traditional past time to drive those sales sky high and then not pay. I would imagine some dumb people are paying up to $2k but any more is probably a sale that isn't getting paid.

I managed to land a Series X order from Microsoft, having a blast with Dirt 5. They're truly next-generation and an extreme value, at retail (or sale) cost. It baffles me why they don't give priority to established gamer tags with activity/purchases.

I'm also a PC gamer, and had bought a 3090. It used to be night/day difference, but now with native solid-state and 4K resolutions, am very impressed.