Scalpers on eBay have made the PlayStation pre-order situation even worse, with absurd mark-ups and some having multiple consoles to sell.
Sony may have started off PlayStation 5 pre-orders without a warning but what happened next is the most predictable thing ever: scalpers have made a mockery of the whole situation by sell pre-orders on eBay.
Obviously they can’t sell the consoles themselves, because they don’t come out until 12 November (19 November in the UK) so the eBay listings are just for the pre-order details, which in many cases won’t be 100% guarantees of getting a console at launch.
And then there’s the prices. As we write this one of the most expensive listings is for £4,600. And before you think that nobody would be crazy enough to pay that the auction currently has 18 bids with 10 hours to go. (And yet still they’re charging for postage.)
That’s not the only listing at a similar price either, with one auction having just begun with a starting price of £4,000 and a Buy It Now option of £7,000. (And that one’s charging for postage too, as if somehow they’re not making enough profit as it is.)
The average price though seems to be around £700, with the standard PlayStation 5 console having an official RRP of £450 and the Digital Edition going for £360.
All this was unavoidable, but it was made far worse by the fact that Sony started pre-orders yesterday without any warning – and that was compounded by the fact that they’d previously promised to give plenty of warning.
The end result is that most shops ran out of stock within 30 minutes, while many people had no idea pre-orders had even begun.
Microsoft are looking to play things very differently with the Xbox Series X/S, for which pre-orders will start at 8am at the already announced stores below.
That’s not going to stop Xbox pre-orders turning up on eBay as well, but at least people will have had something like a fair chance to get them the normal way.
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