It’s no secret that the PlayStation 4 is in short supply here in Australia, and it’s no secret that people are quick to exploit those in need. Already, hours after launch in Australia, there are multiple PlayStation 4 auctions on eBay Australia and prices are high.
The going price, it seems, is anything over $700 up to $850.
The issue, most likely, is the fact that most stores will be busy fulfilling pre-orders of the console all the way up to Christmas meaning that desperate people who were too late in pre-ordering are now desperately trying to find a way buy the present their husbands/wives/sons/daughter have been asking for. Cynical? Yes. But this is the market at work. On eBay consoles are only ever worth what people are willing to pay for them.
And if someone wants to pay that amount of money for a PlayStation 4 — who are to stop them?
Thanks Choc!
Comments
30 responses to “It Didn’t Take Long For The PlayStation 4 To Hit eBay”
From what I’ve been told, most stores are sold out on pre-orders up until around the end of January. Even Sony might’ve misjudged exactly how popular it was going to be. I’d still love to see the actual sales figures of the Xbone though and in a week or so get comparisons to the PS4
From someone who works in a games store, a lack of stock from Sony means that Xbox One has sold about 1.5 times what the PS4 will do in it’s first week.
It’s not a great comparison though. The XBOX One has almost certainly outsold the PS4, just because there are way more XBOX One consoles on the shelves. You’ve really got to wait until a few months after you’ve been able to walk into a store and buy either of them.
Agreed not an even playing field when the Xbox had 4 times as much consoles hit Australia.
I haven’t seen any numbers of how many consoles were actually produced by either manufacturer, care to share them?
Just found this:
from here: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/25/xbox-one-vs-ps4-sales-whos-winning-the-console-war.aspx
This would lead me to believe that added with all the other territories (including Australia) the PS4 would be further ahead, maybe not by much but definitely ahead.
So basically Sony sent most of their PS4 stock to the US, and Microsoft more evenly distributed their stock between the different regions of the world.
How do you get that? I’ve never seen it said that the reason xbone didn’t sell more in each territory was because it was sold out, it just that it didn’t sell as much.
I think once Japan gets the PS4 then sales will start to edge ahead for Sony. Either way I’m not overly excited if the PS4 outsells the Xbox One or not, just curious. I only get miffed that I won’t be able to play Ryse as that’s about the only game that really grabbed me from the lineup.
What’s certain though is that a lot of people are excited for this new generation of consoles. Hopefully the games will live up to our expectations
Yea Japan will always push Sony ahead in sales figures as it’s their stronghold and Microsoft has never had much of a presence there.
I forgot about the US launching early. Either way though the point stands, this early on it’s pretty much just a matter of who shipped more to where. If Sony were crazy and decided to only ship 10,000 consoles to Japan on the grounds that they were going to win that region no matter what, that wouldn’t mean the PS4 was a miserable failure in Japan (or that demand for the console was at a record breaking high due to shipments being sold out until 2015).
We’re also dealing exclusively with people who brought consoles pretty much on good faith with the manufacturers. I’m fairly confident the PS4 will outsell the XBOX One pretty much everywhere long term, it seems set to be the PS1 to Microsoft’s N64, but for all we know both consoles could run out of steam after month three letting the Wii U take over.
I’m not feeling anything super special for the PS4, and as much as I’m enjoying Dead Rising 3 the XBOX One loses to the XBOX 360 in a lot of day to day ways. There’s a ton of PS3/XBOX 360 exclusives I’ve got to go back to. It gives me the impression the hype train for this generation is going to struggle to bring in non-early adapters.
I think we’ll get the best feel for it once the XBOX One and PS4 are on the shelves accessible to anyone walking off the street and we get to look at the game sales.
I think you’re right that the PS4 will outsell overall in the long run, it seems to be pretty popular with the hardcorez and xbros, but not really outside of that, wheres PS4 seems to be getting more general recognition.
I’m waiting till mid next year to get my PS4, mainly for MGS, Watch Dogs, InFamous, Destiny, The Division and of course more of the exclusives like the order and Uncharted etc. Not really that psyched on the launch titles so happy to wait until i don’t have to put my name down or wait in line or rob someone at knife point for it.
I left it late and pre ordered my ps4 about a month ago from a jb hifi in Brisbane, and I just spoke with them and they say they will definitely be getting another shipment in between the 20th and Christmas. And this is after the killzone bundle sold out in 2 days
I have had my PS4 since last Thursday (cheers Amazon) and contemplated making some Money and selling it (which I honestly don’t think is the right thing to do) but its so damn beautiful there was no way I could let it go – just stared at the box for like 4 hours at work.
$1049 buy it now price for one in Adelaide. I’d love to have a ps4 but I’m prepared to wait and buy it at a reasonable price. I’d be interested to know if anyone has had the same problems as those overseas
They haven’t just sprung up since the launch, PS4’s have been on ebay for days (at least).
$850 doesn’t sound like that bad a price. Got to say, unless you’re buying them super cheap it doesn’t seem like it’s worth your time scalping them on eBay.
Really? That’s a $300 profit right there. A few months down the track, that’ll buy the seller a PS4 console and three games of their choice. I’d say that’s worth a few minutes of time listing it on eBay.
Yeah but you’ve got to organise your pre-order, pay for express shipping to get the goods ASAP, list it the instant it comes in the door, compete with a lot of other people doing the same thing, risk making nothing out of it*, pay eBay and PayPal fees, pack them for shipping. It’s a lot of bother for $300.
I’m guessing when they formed this plan they had ideas of selling their PS4 for $1,200 without realising nobody buys off the shelf on launch day anymore. The people who paid $2,000 for a PS3 last generation pre-ordered online in 2012.
*$850 also seems to be the high point. If it doesn’t sell at $850 by Monday I’m guessing you’ll be looking at dropping that to at least $700, possibly $600 if too many of the $700 PS4’s are still up.
All fair points.
Scum, subhuman scum.
I think it’s actually in short supply.
/nitpick
Thanks man. Please forgive me. Got home from stupid launch at 2.30am. Qball woke me up at 530. 😐
the funniest listing i seen on ebay for the ps4 was someone stating that “needing to sell this console fast as needing money to go overseas”. like what the hell did u buy it in the first place idiot!
It is an awesome system, but these scum want to sell it for DOUBLE what North America pays for it…
Keep that in mind before you are so stupid to press “Buy it now” and just wait…
It’s cause of these people who are selling them on eBay they are pre-ordered out to begin with.
You have to be really, really desperate to pay over the retail price for a PS4 (or a Xbox One) off ebay…I just checked ebay – lanuch consoles (for both) going on there for average $750, one person is selling the Killzone Bundle for $1,100.
Most normal people will just wait…I’m going to wait for more games and ideally a PS4/Vita Bundle
Just checked ebay, some dbag has one for sale for $5000 buy it now! I mean come on.
So these are the console equivalent of ticket scalpers?
Sooo the way I am seeing this is people are desperate enough to get the PS4 that they are willing to pay almost as much as the PS3 was at launch here? (which was just under 1k wasn’t it?)
If people want it that badly, then more power to them; but I don’t honestly see why it would be so hard to wait a couple months at most to get one in the late ’13/early ’14 shipments……. Then again I am not thinking like a diehard Sony fan, so maybe that’s a stupid way of looking at it. lol
Because sometimes a parent puts it off to the last minute before realising there are no more Turbo Man dolls left on shelves.
If you just want a console that ONLY plays games buy one.
If you want it for video music and photos they dont do it.
1 of my buddies who owns a computer shop has sold his on already as it wasnt up to expectations.
1 brit looking after you aussies