The PlayStation 5 has been tough to get since its launch just over two weeks ago. Obviously the incredibly high demand for the PS5 and inability for manufacturing to keep up due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are factors for the PS5’s scarcity, but the third reason is online resellers on eBay and other resellers.
People are buying PS5s up in massive quantities just to sell them for up to $2,000 on eBay. To make matters worse, some are capitalizing on people’s desperation and selling pictures of the systems instead of the real deal. However, eBay says that it is about to put its foot down on the photograph issues.
Regarding those who are selling photos of PS5s hoping some poor soul will be tricked into buying them, eBay has now released the following statement condemning scammers and vowing to end the issue:
“We condemn these opportunistic sellers who are attempting to mislead other users. We are in the process of removing all listings for photos of PS5s from our marketplace and will be taking appropriate action against the sellers.
For any purchase, but especially highly-priced or in-demand items, buyers should exercise caution and thoroughly read the listing description. Buyers who receive an item which is not as described are entitled to a refund via our eBay Money Back Guarantee, provided they completed the transaction on the eBay platform.”
The PS5 isn’t the only in-demand gaming item being resold and scammed online either, as NVIDIA’s next generation of graphics cards are having resale issues of their own. There are also photos of NVIDIA cards being sold, but as a form of protest instead of scamming. Still, both graphics cards and PlayStation 5s, as well as the new Xbox Series of systems are facing a huge scamming problem.
This statement likely has been motivated by a high number of complaints issued to eBay from users who either have spotted the scams or have been scammed themselves. eBay stands by its Money Back Guarantee in the event that someone is scammed, and vows to remove listings of photos of the PS5. There are still some photo listings available on eBay as of this writing, so it appears eBay has not been able to take them all down yet.
This issue is emblematic of a much-larger problem in that the systems in-place for online retailers to sell hotly anticipated items like PS5s are not built to protect the interests of the everyday consumer. This past week, a reseller group announced that it had secured nearly 3,000 PS5s thanks to how exploitable online retailer systems are.
This problem is not unique to video games, either. Tickets to events like concerts, sporting events like the Super Bowl, and even Comic-Con are scooped up by bots and resold at exorbitantly high prices. The answer to solve the issue of resellers is not clear, though. Many sites have started to try to fight bots with things like introducing a digital queue to wait in or requiring two-factor identification, but implementation of such features is still low and may not be enough to solve the problem. Hopefully in the meantime, Sony will be able to produce more PS5s.
Source: Eurogamer
