It should come as no surprise to anyone at this point, but scalpers are already selling PS5 consoles at an outrageously high price. Despite Sony's and other retailers' best attempts to limit purchases to one per person, many of the limited number of consoles went out to scalpers looking to make a quick buck at the expense of all those around them.
For those that are unfamiliar with the term, scalping is when someone buys up the stock of a product before anyone else can and then tries to sell it at a higher cost in order to turn a profit. Most often this is associated with things like concert tickets, but it happens with major releases like the PS5 as well.
Scalpers will buy as many PS5s as they are able to, whether that means creating multiple accounts in order to get more than one from a single retailer, purchasing one from several different retailers, or a combination of the two. Once they own a majority of the consoles, they can then take advantage of players that didn't manage to get a PS5 and are left with no other option.
The image above shows several PS5s on sale on eBay by independent sellers, some of which are going for the outrageous rate of $1,500 or more. It's vital that players don't buy into this kind of scam, as though they might actually get a PS5 console out of it, it hurts them and Sony while also benefiting scalpers and promoting this type of practice.
Retailers are still going through their PS5 sales as well, so players still have plenty of chances to get ahold of one. At the time of writing, most retailers are planning to release PS5 stock slowly overtime to prevent them from selling out immediately. What's more, Walmart has three more scheduled times for PS5 sales, those being at 3, 6, and 9 PM Eastern time. With so many chances to get a PS5 even still, there's no sense in paying over triple the actual retail price to a scalper in order to get one early.
This was expected, though, as scalpers bought up Xbox Series X supplies as well when that released on the 10th. What makes this instance particularly frustrating is that both Sony and Microsoft have expressed difficulties in keeping up with the high demand for these consoles because of supply chain shortages caused by COVID-19. With that in mind, this isn't just scalping, it's also a form of price gouging during a time when many people are financially unstable already.
The PS5 is available now.
Source: IGN
