posted
A coworker of mine managed to get his hands on quite a few XBox 360s immediately after the system was released. As you'll remember, a combination of short supply and massive interest in the console drove up the prices of the consoles considerably. He sold all of his on EBay for 2-3 times the retail price he'd paid for them.
He's planning on doing the same thing with the PS3. I'm a little skeptical; if feels to me as though people are much less enthusiastic about Sony's new offering than they were about Microsoft's, in large part because of its already inflated price. I don't know what Sony's supplies of the console are going to be like, but I suspect that the console is already priced highly enough that few people are going to be willing to pay much more to get their hands on it if supply is limited, as my coworker asserts that it will be.
I'm curious to know what everybody thinks.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
They're priced high, but Sony's also claiming to be having trouble manufacturing them. This will mean a "shortage," however artificial. Someone who absolutely must have the new Sony console will be willing to pay more for it -- but I don't actually know how many of those people still exist.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
My guess is that yes, if you bought the top notch one, you could make 200-300 extra selling it on Ebay. It might be more factoring in some other things.
The thing to really calculate into this is the Xbox 360. The price will not be reduced this year, but it's been out for a year already, and my guess, won't be short on supply. It's cheaper than the PS3, and will have more games for that system available at Christmas.
Then, factor in the games themselves. Who is going to have the better titles? What type of games are more popular?
So it really comes down to: are the kids, ages 10-17 going to be asking their parents for an Xbox360, or a PS3? And if asked for either or, which one is the parent more likely to buy?
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Of course, PS3 needs some better commercials and marketing, if you ask me. I must admit, if they were going for "so creepy you'll never forget this commercial," job well done.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
While there will almost certainly be PS3s popping up on eBay for a princely sum after launch, eBay has tightened their rules in an apparent effort to prevent some of the more farcical auctions that the 360 launch saw.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I went looking for a prediction market with a similar item on it so I could give you a better estimate, but I couldn't find one. I bet there's one out there, though.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
My guess would be that it will actually be quite a bit worse than it was with the Xbox 360. I think the numbers for the PS3 are less than the numbers were for the Xbox 360. At the same time, despite the high price, I think the demand for the PS3 will be much greater than the demand for the Xbox 360 was. Combine ultra shortage + high demand and you get a super high price on eBay.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I was looking at Ebay last week and pre-order PS3s were selling at insane prices. The highest was $2500, and that was without even a box in-hand to show. Ebay was requiring a photo-copy of the paid pre-order receipt in order to OK the listing.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
The PS3 will sell, at least once, for between $1600 and $2000 online. This I predict.
Heck, in Japan, where the supply is down to 80k for the whole country at launch, they already announced "open pricing" aka auctioning for the highest price.
posted
Pre-Christmas I think the PS3 will sell for a lot on ebay. The same parents who kill each other over tickle me elmos, and paid so much for the X-Box last year will do it again this year.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I'm certainly doing the Ebay thing. Its going to be hell getting my hands on the 3-4 consoles since NOBODY besides EB games is doing pre orders. By the time I found out THEY were still doing them, they were not taking anymore.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I thought it was 400,000 units for North America and 100,000 for Japan, Bok? Have Sony revised their estimates downward again?
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Jeepers. Between that and what my friend at EA's Montreal studio has been passing on to me, I'm starting to wonder how well this console generation is going to treat Sony.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Let me also point out the obvious, here: people who pay $2000 for a PS3 are possessed of more disposable income than wits. The shortage we're dealing with is a) either symptomatic of a serious flaw in Sony's production cycle, which means early purchasers are getting lemons; or b) an artificial shortage designed to drive up desire for the system among those who witness the frenzy.
Either way, buying one this year is incredibly foolish.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Wow, all of my gaming friends have been talking about how bad the PS3 is going to be and how nobody is going to want it. I guess they were wrong.
<--knows less than nothing about console games.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: I thought it was 400,000 units for North America and 100,000 for Japan, Bok? Have Sony revised their estimates downward again?
Here is a joystiq.com post referencing a Japanese paper:
posted
Well, they've already said that when they stated "2 million" by the end of their launch window, that it was "an estimate". Of course, does their launch window include Europe, way out in March '07?
Meanwhile, the Wii will have "approximately 4 million units" between launch and January 1, 2007.
This round will be interesting, at the outset at least.
posted
Bokonon: I am pretty sure their estimate of 2 million is by march and not by january.
Heres an anecdote. Mcdonalds signed a deal with Peanuts to create various international editions of a Snoopy doll to be released on a weekly basis within Mcdonald's happy meal.
For reasons nobody can put a finger down on the sales of those Snoopies errupted. I'm saw it myself. There lines over an hour long to get next weeks snoopy. Old, young, rich, poor were all buying Snoopy. People bought the happy meal, threw away the food, and took the Snoopy home. Snoopy dolls were being sold hundreds of times more then their value. China and the Hong Kong edition Snoopies were the climax of the whole ordeal.
The Snoopy happy meal ended and a few month later they tried to put out another edition of Snoopy. It still did pretty well, but it paled in comparison to the first edition.
Moral of the story: Argue about the specs on the PS3 or how many games it will have upon launch all you want. People will buy something completely useless, at many times its value, purely because so many other people want it. Thats why the PS3 will launch, people will ebay, and I will make several hundred dollars per unit. Ask Tiffanys they exist purely on that principle.
When little Bobby Johnson tells his father, "Jimmy Jones down the street got a ps3, his daddy got him one on ebay!" Bobby's father will go to stores all over the city, and find no ps3's. He will log onto Ebay because to disappoint Bobby is unacceptable. He will purchase my PS3 that I inconvenienced myself to be able to aquire, and he will pay out the nose to compensate me for my trouble.
Keeping up with the Joneses, alive and well in capitalist America.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
BB, no doubt, I don't dispute that. But I think that given the way things are shaping up, it could be a decent scuffle at the start. I won't be surprised if the PS3 wins in the end (5+ years out), but there is an opening here that even if Sony sells every unit it has, it could still be down several million units in installed base to the 360 and the Wii.
quote:Originally posted by twinky: Morality aside, make sure you don't run afoul of Sony.
Well, they may be able to do that with pre-orders but they won't be able to stop people selling them on ebay once the system is released. Once you own it, it's yours to do with as you please.
Posts: 1214 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I kind of hope that Sony is pulling the ultimate promotional stunt, to increase demand through the roof, and that they will actually be producing many more than reported. Right now, lots of people who have no interest in the PS3 are buying several. The perception of scarcity has made them more popular than they ever would have been.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
.. for shameless resellers like myself, but I'd need to see more social study on why artificial launch scarcity is an actionable strategy for the company overall.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I wonder how many people who were not sure if they wanted a PS3 heard about the scarcity, and went to pre-order one because of it. I imagine that the feeling of getting one of the "rare" machines would provide a lot of incentive. It also seems like a justification for the higher prices.
I'm basing this guess primarily on things like the depression era run on banks, and on people's willingness to pay more for an auction item if someone else keeps outbidding them. The desire for scarce resources seems well established in human interactions.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
On the other hand, I wonder how many people who were on the fence about which console to buy will just end up getting an Xbox360 or a Wii instead.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
In Japan, the PS3 released on Saturday. Some retailers were doing auctions on their extremely limited allotment. Some PS3's went for $1000 or more. I'd hate to be a US person wanting to import a Japanese PS3 ($1000 + the typical % increase in cost since it's an import). *shakes his head* I like video games, but I don't like them that much.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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Holy Crap, I never thought to try Toys R Us for PS3 preorders. Only EB games is doing preorders and I found out too late. Those prices are insane.
I'm camping out in my friends VW Bus at BestBuy and making a B-line for Gamestop once that is over and done with. Just need to find out if Gamesstop is doing a midnight release or simply selling them once the UPS guy brings the units in the morning like WOW.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Yeah, that's one creepy ad. I wasn't even sure what the point of it was besides creeping you out. Some of the other PS3 ads are nice though.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
So browsing through EBay, I've notice a handful of people selling multiple systems- most of them just two systems, but I've so far seen up to five of them under the same user.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
If you are rich, fine. I just pray no one is going into thousands of dollars in debt just so their kid can have the newest toy.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
You know, if I really wanted to, I could get 10 of these auctions pulled as being noncompliant with Ebay's rules. One of their rules is if you are selling more than one system, you must show a picture of all systems together in the same picture and post them on all auctions for the systems.
I seem to have a bit of free time today, too. Hmmm... Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:Originally posted by T_Smith: You know, if I really wanted to, I could get 10 of these auctions pulled as being noncompliant with Ebay's rules. One of their rules is if you are selling more than one system, you must show a picture of all systems together in the same picture and post them on all auctions for the systems.
I seem to have a bit of free time today, too. Hmmm...
DO IT!
I camped out at Target and was 2 places in line too far to get a unit, and they were 2-3 units shorter then other Targets.
I am so mad at myself for instead of getting in line and assuring myself of a console I went to class that morning and THEN tried to get in line.
Being responsible can only come back to haunt you!
I've looked at Ebay quite a few times and I think its safe to say a 60g console assures you of at least $2000 per unit.
These 15k 7k and 6k are exceptions not the rule, (though that may very well change) I think they are examples of bidding wars. Possibly the seller jacking up his own bids.
Is it possible once Sony releases more consoles in December that this will happen all over again?
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
BB is right, check that $15,100 PS3 - looks like someone was bidding it up. That or A-Rod really wants his PS3.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Well, it assures you of at least recording a winning bid of $2,000 per unit. How many of these exorbitant winning bids are actually paid remains to be seen.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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