Though it's been over two months since the PlayStation 5 launched in the US, consoles are still being scalped from major retailers all too frequently. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term scalping, it's the practice of buying rare consumer goods in bulk, such as PS5 consoles, and reselling them at much higher price points to turn a profit.
Scalping consumer goods is not a new phenomenon but it's one that causes many normal consumers no shortage of headaches and frustration. Now, according to the latest in a series of reports by data engineer Michael Driscoll on the DEV Community forums, it seems that a total of 10 to 15 percent of all PS5 consoles in the US are owned by scalpers.
Driscoll's latest report solely focuses on looking at and analyzing PS5 sales data in the US, as opposed to previous reports that have looked at things like Nvidia graphics cards and even the Xbox Series X and S consoles. Driscoll's analysis uncovered a handful of amazing data points, perhaps most importantly concluding that around 7 percent of all PS5 sales in the US were resold on websites like eBay and StockX, with an additional 3 to 8 percent being sold on OfferUp and Facebook. To ensure the validity of his study, Driscoll ensured all listings included were actually sold, scanned listings for words that indicate listings are fake, tossed out any data below MSRP, and manually checked accounts he deemed suspicious.
Driscoll scanned for articles every few days in December, ultimately collecting data up until January 16. Overall, he found that just over 157,000 PS5 consoles were sold on marketplaces like eBay and StockX. According to recent data from CGChartz, around 2.067 million PS5 consoles have been sold in the US up to January 16. It's a pretty staggering revelation that PS5 scalpers have likely purchased over a tenth of all PS5 stock in the US since the consoles launch back in November 2020.
What's more is that Driscoll estimates that scalpers have made an overall profit of $43.2 million from reselling PS5 consoles alone. Meanwhile, marketplace websites like eBay and StockX have turned up around $15.9 million in profits according to Driscoll's data. When seeing sales figures like this, it's not difficult to see why these marketplaces don't crack down on scalping practices. The amount of listings for PS5s at incredibly high prices on eBay are abundant, as it proves to be one of the most popular marketplaces to buy scalped PS5s.
The damage that scalping has on the video game industry also extends further than just frustrating consumers looking to snag new consoles. It's become clear that scalpers are hurting software sales, as console sales are virtually eclipsing physical game sales. This is likely because many of the PS5 units sold are just sitting in boxes, as the owners have no interest in actually buying games for them. Seeing as PS5 consoles are still incredibly hard to secure through normal retail means, it's likely that the scalping situation surrounding the PS5 won't let up anytime soon.
