News Scalpers sell PlayStation 5 Pro 30th Anniversary preorders for over $3,000 — eBay postings show a 3X to 6X markup

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I do find it disappointing that the companies making these products don't go to any effort to ensure they don't get scalped. Obviously they're huge companies and money is money, but one would think especially with limited edition products they'd want them to directly end up in the hands of fans.
 
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thestryker said:
I do find it disappointing that the companies making these products don't go to any effort to ensure they don't get scalped. Obviously they're huge companies and money is money, but one would think especially with limited edition products they'd want them to directly end up in the hands of fans.
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And how do you propose companies solve this dilemma? Someone will always think of a way around the rules and exploit them. The problem once again is availability. IIRC, Sony only made 12,300 special edition consoles. With hundreds of millions of people who would love to have one. In that scenario, you have an equal chance of winning the Lottery.

However, on the base model PS5 Pro, it appears Sony made more than enough because they plastered a full page Ad on my PS5 Store Home screen with a QR code. I tested to see if there was a wait and lo and behold, I was able to checkout the item. I didn't buy it, just checking availability.

The following day, same thing they were available for preorder, no waiting. It was Sony who created a FOMO demand for the product with only 12,300 made. That scenario will always get the attention of a scalper to double or triple their investment.

The only solution that will work apart from Sony making enough units to satisfy demand (which they obviously didn't learned from the 20th Anniversary PS4, because they advertised a limited only supply, once AGAIN!) is to not buy from a scalper. Let them sit on their product. Unfortunately, people are too weak to resist a Limited Edition item.
 
Heat_Fan89 said:
And how do you propose companies solve this dilemma? Someone will always think of a way around the rules and exploit them. The problem once again is availability.
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During the last GPU stupidity nvidia switched to selling founder's edition only through brick and mortar with fixed pricing and limited quantity. This obviously doesn't 100% fix everything, but it miminizes impact from mass buying and people who are in it for no other reason than to flip them by making it less convenient. In the case of the consoles for limited editions they could do something along the lines of requiring an account that has been in existence for a specific minimum length of time to be eligible to buy. I'm sure if I put more time into thinking about it I could come up with more, but I'm not going to.

Bottom line is that they could do more than nothing and blaming people who don't care about money and will buy it from scalpers is disingenuous and lets the giant corporations off the hook for no reason.
 
USAFRet said:
Scalpers can only sell at elevated prices if someone else buys.

This is a concept that has been going on since money was invented.
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You beat me to it. Scalping wouldn't work if there wasn't a market for overpriced goods. Some folks have allot of free cash to spend (or don't mind debt).
 
I suspect that most of the buyers at this price point are scalpers selling to themselves to spread the illusion that there are many actual buyers at this price point, hoping that that will persuade some people to buy at just slightly less extortionate prices.
 
USAFRet said:
"Japanese PlayStation fans can now place pre-orders for the 30th Anniversary collection but require a PlayStation Network account with at least 30 hours' worth of play to be eligible."

So I can't buy one as a present for my kid?

Gotcha.

Protections can have a downside.
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Having an account is a mandatory part of pre-ordering in every region (this was already proven to not be a barrier by the PS5 launch).

So in your hypothetical the parents just let the kids have their own PSN account without any access to it themselves? or are you suggesting parents are going to create an account to pre-order a console for their kids?

Sure your hypothetical could happen though I find it extremely unlikely. Either way it's a much better "problem" to have than doing nothing about scalping.
 
thestryker said:
Having an account is a mandatory part of pre-ordering in every region (this was already proven to not be a barrier by the PS5 launch).

So in your hypothetical the parents just let the kids have their own PSN account without any access to it themselves? or are you suggesting parents are going to create an account to pre-order a console for their kids?

Sure your hypothetical could happen though I find it extremely unlikely. Either way it's a much better "problem" to have than doing nothing about scalping.
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I'm just saying, it could arise to an issue.

And in my case, it would be my grandson. And he and I certainly do NOT share PSN accounts.
 
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