This is why it's hard to get a PS5..

[MeAndHax]

One captcha before the order and we wouldn’t have this mess but the retail stores act as if they couldn’t do anything

 

[MasterJ360]

Im not even blaming the scalpers on this. The idea of having to sell ps5's at launch only to Walmart online was the dumbest idea Sony made. Sure it was to combat covid, but they underestimated the demand for their console to shove it all on 1 retail nationwide.

 

[peteruk]

there is a special place in hell set aside for scalpers

 

[elk1007]

Am I the only one who thinks scalpers are good businessmen?

 

[Kioku]

This here.

If people hate scalpers, then stop giving them business. If scalping was a losing venture, then they would stop doing it (or at least slow down). It's just like people that complain about corporations getting too big on twitter using their iphone, while wearing Nike shoes, waiting in line at Wal-Mart.

Such a stupid take. Truly. I don't give them business, but some desperate shit head definitely will and already has. So many people here on these forums hate scalpers and don't give them business. Has that stopped them? Ha!!

 

[godreborn]

I often wonder if people actually pay these scalping prices. I've had auctions before where the person backed out last second. I can't imagine, especially now with so many people out of work, that people just have thousands of dollars lying around.

 

[tech3475]

I often wonder if people actually pay these scalping prices. I've had auctions before where the person backed out last second. I can't imagine, especially now with so many people out of work, that people just have thousands of dollars lying around.

I’m actually surprised people haven’t tried something like this for reddit gold. Setting up a bunch of fake accounts to screw around scalpers.

 

[godreborn]

you just have to say that you entered the wrong amount to retract a bid on ebay. there's actually like four or five options you can select from to retract a bid and there are no consequences or anything. I saw on ebay a playstation 5 (box only) going for over $800. that either can't be real, people aren't reading the title and or description, or just people fucking around with scalpers. that auction was obviously put up just to trick people into thinking they were bidding on a ps5.

 

[CMDreamer]

If the final customers weren't as naive to buy from scalpers, then they wouldn't have that business model.

But people are so consumer addict that most of the time they don't care about paying more money for whatever they want to own, even if its pure crap.

 

[ccfman2004]

I remember a guy who paid $250 for an Xbox 360 box. He thought he was getting the whole package. When it arrived, surprise surprise. The sad thing is that eBay/PayPay couldn't really do anything as the title clearly said Box. Years ago I sold a broken Garmin Nuvi GPS on eBay. I swapped out the bezel from another unit and it was a different color than factory. This was all spelled out in the pictures and description yet he filed a dispute for item not as described. Needless to say he lost.

When the Wii first came out it was hard to get for many people. I happened to be a train ride away from the Nintendo Store in New York City. So my dad an I would take daily trips to buy Wii units to sell to people who couldn't get them. Bidding started at what I paid for them. I didn't make much of a profit but I did sell enough Wiis to get mine for free and just about broke even after eBay fees and such. The one that sold for the most went to guy in Puerto Rico for about $435. Most of the time they barely went above $300.

Today people want more than double retail cost for these. There are some that want several $10,000s for one. Check out the attached picture.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that as a PS+ member I was invited for first dibs for a PS5 direct from Sony with free launch day shipping. At the specified time I logged in using the unique link in my invite email. Waited on the queue for my turn and ordered. No fuss no muss. Haven't decided if I'm going to open it now or wait until I can hack it.

 

[elk1007]

Why don't you buy up all the PS5's and then sell them to people at retail price?

 

[Jayro]

It is very hard to automatically detect whether an order is legitimate or a bot, especially when there are thousands of requests per minute, both legitimate and bots. You could implement a series of captchas every step of the ordering process but that's not very consumer friendly. And 99.9% of any store's inventory will not have scalpers preying upon it, so it's a lot of work to secure that one item doesn't fall into the wrong hands. And in the end, money is money.

It's easy. If there's more than one purchase to the same address, refuse anything over 1 purchase. Scalpers and their bots don't ship to more than a few addresses, so it would ultimately slow them down to a crawl, at the very least. And limiting 1 per customer every 6 months is a safe and fair bet.

 

[ccfman2004]

Why don't you buy up all the PS5's and then sell them to people at retail price?

I hope you're being sarcastic since Sony had a strict limit of 1 PS5 per household.

It's easy. If there's more than one purchase to the same address, refuse anything over 1 purchase. Scalpers and their bots don't ship to more than a few addresses, so it would ultimately slow them down to a crawl, at the very least. And limiting 1 per customer every 6 months is a safe and fair bet.

I believe NVIDIA was manually checking addresses and canceling anything suspicious.

 

[elk1007]

I hope you're being sarcastic since Sony had a strict limit of 1 PS5 per household.

If a scalper can do this, why can't a whitehat scalper sell them to people at retail?

 

[Jayro]

If a scalper can do this, why can't a whitehat scalper sell them to people at retail?

I'd prefer door-to-door PS5 salesmen from Sony selling PS5's over this current bot-snatching bullshit.

 

[elk1007]

I'd prefer door-to-door PS5 salesmen from Sony selling PS5's over this current bot-snatching bullshit.

Could GBATemp arrange something like this? Probably not officially, but...;P

 

[Jayro]

Could GBATemp arrange something like this? Probably not officially, but...;P

Not unless someone here runs a bot and snags a shitload of PS5s.

 

[ccfman2004]

Not unless someone here runs a bot and snags a shitload of PS5s.

Then you have to hope the delivery driver doesn't replace the box contents with stuff like cat food and cheap kitchen appliances.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/amazon-uk-ps5-theft

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Am I the only one who thinks scalpers are good businessmen?

They find demand and supply it. Its the way all business works since the beginning and it always will. If anything you should applaud their thinking and acumen as this is no different from any other commodity. Whenever there is something that everyone wants and there is a limited supply of the potential for profit exists therefore you'll have people who trade their lives for minimum wage then throw a fit when they can't buy a PS9 to offset the horror of their day to day living and those who scalp instead and generate way more income for far less effort.

You tell me who's the good businessman there? Look at the life decisions at play and use of smarts or lack thereof.

This is great for the companies as it shows how in demand their product is, generates free advertising and increases their prestige in the eyes of consumers so its in their interests too.

Of course you've got the "Muh gaymes!" crowd but then they aren't the most intellectual, are they? Given that most of them are overgrown manchildren in the first place...

Why don't you buy up all the PS5's and then sell them to people at retail price?

Because it far easier to whine online like a big baby and ask someone else (ie surrogate parent, usually da gubbermint) to pick them up, say "its alright" and whisper sweet nothings in their ear to soothe their little tantrum than do anything even remotely productive.

Anyone who wanted one that bad could've found the bot script - they're really easy to do - and "scalaped" one for themselves or even a few and sold them at retail price (to people who would've resold for a profit anyway).

C.R.E.A.M.

 

[FAST6191]

People do have some very odd ideas about how markets work and should work.

On game shops not selling incidentals. I am sure they have very long lists of associated sales with consoles, which without knowing anything other than my observations of launches over the years I shall still bet it all on being "little and less". Bonus the second is if most of these are realised with straight cash rather than trade in then they also are spared that headache, which probably also makes up for the lack of local game sales if the middle income area consoles themselves are being plundered for the more money than sense/meh it is just $1000 crowd.

The console makers don't care as it is not like they are going into storage as increasing price assets. Indeed if the rich people are buying them they will probably get some short time game income, and long term as well (which will happen anyway as people eventually will get them once stock levels rise and it is not like there are any games out now). Plus the whole free marketing bit.
Worst case scenario for Sony is the new Xbox is all that and more and thus they miss out on something there, however first mover and first Christmas only means so much if the public sentiment has shifted/quality is evident.

you just have to say that you entered the wrong amount to retract a bid on ebay. there's actually like four or five options you can select from to retract a bid and there are no consequences or anything. I saw on ebay a playstation 5 (box only) going for over $800. that either can't be real, people aren't reading the title and or description, or just people fucking around with scalpers. that auction was obviously put up just to trick people into thinking they were bidding on a ps5.

That sort of thing has been happening for years
https://www.theregister.com/2005/12/08/xbox_photo_auction/

If the final customers weren't as naive to buy from scalpers, then they wouldn't have that business model.

But people are so consumer addict that most of the time they don't care about paying more money for whatever they want to own, even if its pure crap.

Is it naive to buy from scalpers?
If I am some random business wonk that will happily drop $1000 in a bar/restaurants of a weekend, on clothes to wear a few times or out skiing then the notion of buying the new shiny is nothing outrageous really. If said same has a spoiled brat that wants the shiny shiny then market the second.

It's easy. If there's more than one purchase to the same address, refuse anything over 1 purchase. Scalpers and their bots don't ship to more than a few addresses, so it would ultimately slow them down to a crawl, at the very least. And limiting 1 per customer every 6 months is a safe and fair bet.

Suddenly my little country house is a block of flats (and with the rate of house building around here nobody has a current list of anything), floors 1 through 30 and A through Z on each floor (maybe even some number-letter combo to go further), or indeed if my mate works in a block of flats as a doorman then package intercept for people never addressed to, never paid anything for and will never know (they never paid for anything after all, maybe even just the little old ladies if they do think to check against their database and confirm activity).
Makes it harder but if the incentive is potentially more than 100% return for a month's work (likely not even losing anything if you can still do the new in box, or simply return as new in box, when Sony or whatever magically ramp up production such that demand is met) and some shipping it is not that hard to sort. A lot of effort all to solve a problem that isn't yours and isn't exactly impacting your bottom line.