Though major retailers have been cleaned out of their launch-day stock, and supply is expected to be tightly manipulated through the holiday shopping season, the grey market has seen brisk business for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and unlike past console launches, prices have not been alarmingly out-of-hand.
While there are numerous eBay listings for both consoles with five-figure asking prices, many of these appear to be auctions donating some portion (or all) of the proceeds to charity. It appears most of the consoles that have changed hands so far have done so at reasonable prices not much above their MSRP.
In the week since its launch, from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22, eBay has moved more than 21,000 PlayStation 4s, according to the online retail tracking service TeraPeak, at an average price of $US425.50. It retails for $US399.00
Xbox One’s average sale price on eBay has in fact been less than its $US499 MSRP — $US481.18, according to TeraPeak, though the tracking data it offers only goes to Nov. 21 — the day before the system launched. As such far fewer have sold — 4,467 overall, which are probably claims on a preorder rather than the actual unit. According to the latest data, $US2.7 million worth of Xbox Ones have sold over eBay — again, that’s a pre-launch figure
At any rate, excluding novelty items, charity auctions or rare editions, like the white Xbox One being given to Microsoft employees, the grey market for new consoles looks nothing like it did in 2006, when supply shortages ballooned the PlayStation 3 market wildly — to an average sale price north of $US2,300 the day before its U.S. launch. It quickly collapsed to an average low that, a week before Christmas, still was $US125 more than its infamous $US599 MSRP.
Raging demand for the Wii in its launch year spiked grey market prices for the console to $US707 before its launch, and the 2007 holiday season figured to be more of the same until Nintendo put more systems onto shelves, cooling off the eBay action.
Craigslist is a bit harder to track and subject to anecdotally high instances (and, cops warn, transactions that can end with someone robbed or shot.) Listings in the San Francisco area went as high as $US1200 for a PS4 new-in-the-box, with the price going higher the later in the week the ad was posted. The same was largely true for both consoles in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and other major cities, with some bundles pushing the high end price up to $US1200. Still, both it and the Xbox One can be found for not much more than their retail price.
Back on eBay, there are still plenty of insane five-figure listings for both consoles, hoping to catch someone with more money than brains, or perhaps spooked into thinking all the PS4s and Xbox Ones have been sold out through the end of the year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these aren’t attracting much bid attention so far.
Some are making charitable donations, through eBay itself, to organisations like The Wounded Warrior Project, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and even National Geographic. Others are handling that on their own. “THIS PURCHASE OF THIS ITEM WILL HELP UNFORTUNATE KIDS THAT DONT HAVE TOYS SO WE WILL B USING THIS MONEY FOR THAT ANY QUESTIONS CONTACT ME,” reads one such listing. Seems legit. But then, for some rich guy looking to bag a PS4 and get a tax write-off in the process, he’s probably not going to ask questions.
While it’s intriguing to watch from the sidelines, the grey market is hardly the most economical option for a buyer right now. Major retailers listed both consoles in Black Friday circulars published long ago, and rumours suggest that stock is being held off the sales floor, to be deployed at specific times through a Black Friday shopping extravaganza that has now creeped back into Thanksgiving Day itself at some major chains.
Comments
12 responses to “The Average Price Of A PS4 Sold On Ebay Is $US425. So Far.”
“Ah! I’ll buy it at a high price”.
Last generation got everyone used to placing pre-orders on everything. We don’t see that same volume of fans expecting to buy one at Big W on launch day we used to.
Maybe because we now associate “pre-orders” with Day-1 DLC.
Maybe, but I think it’s more of a case of everyone just being familiar/comfortable with how this all works (Dead Rising 3 is the only one I can think of that has Day One DLC, and that’s just costumes). Everywhere does it now and they all handle it basically the same way. You put your money down and you get your console reserved. No surprises like finding out that because you didn’t pick it up by 10AM on launch day they sold it to someone else or that you only reserved a place in line and they actually sold out five people before you.
In the past I’ve always just sent my mum down to get me a day one console rather than ring around and see if somewhere has a list I can get on. This generation I pre-ordered online and got my XBOX One delivered on launch day. I’d imagine a lot of the people who would have paid crazy amounts on eBay did the same.
Do sales through eBay include the US sales tax?
If you are a business yes, if a personal item sale you will only pay ebay fee and paypal fee
Wouldn’t this be great news for the people of Brazil who have retailers selling the PS4 for like 2 grand? Or is it somehow illegal for them to import it?
Either way here in Aus mines already all paid for and getting delivered to my work on Friday 😀
Fun times ahead.
Yes! The work delivery, a.k.a. “the Perfect Crime” 🙂
sold one for higher than that, the buyer offered the price I was happy to offload it for aus price.
got mine last week for much less anyway 🙂
What is the point? Selling for $425 you are losing money with ebay, paypal fees which is 10%. Also posting it. Some people are buying them for $1000 on ebay AU at least with that your making money from stupid people.
Maybe they set higher shipping prices, some people do that to make stuff look cheaper. Wonder if this took that into account.
Yeah I do that sometimes when I sell something expensive. You make the shipping $400 and the buy it now price $1. Ebay doesn’t take a % on postage.