A Scalping Website Has Sold Over 100,000 PlayStation 5s At Inflated Prices
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Featured Image Credit: Totte Annerbrick / Charles Slim via Unsplash
If you're one of the millions of games-loving folk out there who've yet to get themselves a PlayStation 5, hey, I can relate. No dice right here, either - and the news that supply shortages of the console could continue into 2023 doesn't fill me with confidence that I'll be checking out PS5 exclusives like Returnal or Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, any time soon.
And this story sure isn't making me feel any better. As reported at GameRant, one single supplier of scalped PlayStation 5 consoles has boasted about selling well over 100,00 units at way above RRP.
The PlayStation 5 is a beaut of a console - if you can get one. Check out our comprehensive review of it, below...
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StockX claims to have sold 138,000 PlayStation 5 consoles - 55,000 digital units, and 83,000 disc-drive models - since the system's launch in November 2020. The site says that the average price for a disc model has been $800, and $741 for the digital one - whereas the dollar-price RRP on these consoles is $499 and $399 respectively.
In pounds rather than dollars, the last sale price on StockX for a (US plug) disc-version PS5 was £567 at the time of writing - over £100 above its RRP of £449 - and the last digital version (again, US plug) was sold for £490, whereas its UK RRP is £349.
GameRant's report notes that if StockX's sales numbers are legit, they account for 1.66% of all PS5 consoles sold in the US - and if they weren't sold at a mark-up, the customer saving would add up to over $40m. In other words: we hate these scalpers. As of April 2021, the PlayStation 5 has sold 7.8 million units, worldwide, and in the UK it's already surpassed the total sales for consoles including the Nintendo Wii U (gone too soon, RIP), Sony PlayStation Vita, and SEGA Dreamcast.
In wholly related PS5 news, 25 new games are currently in the works for the console, so expect to see and hear more about some of those during E3 next month; and a redesigned PS5 could release in 2022, potentially moving the needle on those shortages and finally opening this new system up to a wider audience.
Topics: PlayStation 5
