Scalpers have been scooping up the next generation of consoles like it's the autumn harvest for blocky, chunky, plasticky veggies, and one man has had enough of their antics.
At the moment, the PlayStation 5 is out in the wild in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, as it launched on November 12th. However, the console was already appearing for ridiculous prices months before its debut, with people showing their receipts for the PlayStation 5 as proof that they'd secured a sale. It's no secret that the pre-orders for the console were a shambles, as Sony didn't afford consumers enough warning that the listings would go live. Add dizzying demand to online retailers whose websites weren't built to withstand that amount of traffic, and you get a lot of disgruntlement.
Scalpers knew the struggle that people had endured to try and snag a PlayStation 5. With their bounty in hand (or in cart, more accurately), these consoles then popped up on second-hand sites like Amazon and eBay. Here's a reminder: the disc drive edition of the PlayStation 5 costs $499, and the discless edition costs $399. The new listings were adding hundreds of dollars onto the original price, with one eye-watering listing showing a price of $1,300. This seller had another two PS5s waiting in the wings, ready to be shipped to whoever would shell out such a large amount of cash.
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It's pretty poor behaviour (pun not intended), and it preys on the hype for the next generation of consoles in what has been a rather rough year for most people. Eddi Brocc, a TikTok user, has shared his thoughts on the scalpers, and he's very, very, very unhappy. Before he speaks, there's a short clip of ten PlayStation 5 consoles arranged on a set of steps. Yes. Ten. All of these units belong to the same person, who plans to sell them on to others.
"It's people like this... who want to order up every f*cking thing, and then people who are true gamers, people who really want to play, can't get it," begins Brocc. "And these exact same people want to charge $700, $800, $900, because they have it. Selfish f*cking consumers." He suggests that online retailers adapt to thwart those people's aims, by restricting sales to one console to one customer in online and in-person transactions. "You should be ashamed of yourselves. It ain't f*cking cool to have ten f*cking PlayStation 5s," says Brocc, after berating scalpers for their "uber-consumerism" and "stupid" actions.
It isn't cool, no. It is hoped that players hold out and aren't tempted by these shocking prices for the console, and leave these people with their ten PlayStation 5s standing there like lemons. How would they all fit in their house? Is that why they're stuck standing on the steps outside? Because that would be quite funny, honestly.
Featured Image Credit: SonyTopics: PlayStation 5, Next-Gen, News