UK Scalper Group Claims It's Snagged 3,500 PS5 Consoles

How do you feel about this? Fair game or should they be strung up to a tree? Along with the people supporting them?

Little kids be stuck with an Xbox.

PS5 stock is borderline impossible to find right now, and consoles are selling for over £1,000/$1,500 on eBay – significantly more than Sony’s recommended retail price. Now an interview with Business Insider has shed light on the sordid reseller market, with one British group claiming that its members have purchased 3,500 systems to date.

So, how does it all work? Well, the organisation sells subscriptions to wannabe resellers, and then provides them with access to a variety of different services which help them to source highly sought-after products. That ranges from, yes, bots all the way through to insight and advice. The idea is that, once purchased, those items can then be resold at a profit.

Part of the group’s goal is figuring out what’s in demand; apparently hot tubs were huge at one point during the coronavirus pandemic. Currently, the big tech product is the PS5, and, of course, with resellers scooping up all of the readily available stock, the demand is rising higher – thus lining the scalpers’ pockets further.

Exactly what can be done here remains to be seen. There are bots available to circumvent online wait times, jump queues, and complete transactions quicker than the average person ever could. However, the group claims that many of its members are actually purchasing the consoles manually, meaning they’re doing this professionally like a job. The only way to beat them is to match them.

Unfortunately, that’s unrealistic for the average person who just wants to get a console to enjoy this Christmas. Sony admitted recently that it’s sold every single PS5 it’s manufactured, and it’s unclear when it will be able to meet the demand. Unfortunately, we could be in a situation where PS5 stock is limited deep into 2021.

Shouldn't be strung up, but due to these dipshits I won't be getting a PS5 for a long ass time.

I hope they get stuck with them.

its the free market, supply and demand. What I don't like though is the use of bots, its just cheating the system and I think stores should have captchas in place to prevent it.

Just a dirty move. But hope what Phil Spencer mentioned comes true. Preorder with MS/Sony and get notifications when it's ready. I hope these people get stuck with stock and have to sell cheap.

3,500 faulty first batch units

Yep, 3500 units with hot memory.

As long as the retailers and the console makers allow the practice of scalping, it will continue. It may be best to order from online retailers that use captchas, or just wait several months until the demand dies down. Do gamers really need the PS5 right now?

I have both the ps5 and xbox series x. I have no idea what people are playing on their ps5 console, but its definitely not next gen games. Even their demon souls is a remake of a ps3 game. Sony even remaking a ps4 game in spiderman, released in 2018. Sony is becoming the laughing stock, and any idiot that pays full price for the "remastered" spiderman game needs to be laughed at as well. The graphics update should be free for everyone that paid for the original.

Yes we do. We've been stuck with PS4 for 7 years. We cannot wait any longer.

Why should they get shit for it? we should be blaming the morons who pay double+ for them on Ebay.

Good luck selling them all. You got about two months.

I've hated scalpers since the PS3 launch. They'll get no respect from me. I don't even care that scalpers are being robbed in the UK. Simply a crook getting their comeuppance.

What this does prove is that there needs to be something done to stop bots being used. If the bots can be stopped, the scalpers won't be amassing stock like they're able too now.

Lame. I wanted a walmart version since the 4 year warranty is hella cheap.

its really up to them. same goes with gpu makers to.

While that does suck, I'm just glad they've moved on from scalping toilet paper.

Put them in jail or confiscate the systems. If they can't do that, then let them go and tell every criminal you can find that they have those units and where they are, so they can be stolen. That would be poetic justice considering how they are ripping off hard working people.

The problem is not the scalpers, it's the people enabling them by buying their stuff.

Don’t buy it from them simple as that. Same crap happened with DLC if gamers would stop supporting dumb ass DLC it would be included in the game now they cut crap that’s supposed to be in a game and change you for it. Don’t point the finger Scalper it all gamers fault who support it

Thing is a lot of parents will be under pressure in the run up to Xmas due to the expectation from their kiddos, and so some will pay a seemingly irrational price.

The scalpers know this of course, and it's not just them. CEX (a shop here in the UK) is/was selling the PS5 for nearly double the retail price, and that's for a second hand console.

I get that but as you say these are irrational prices. Parents need to be rational, waiting a little longer for the PS5 won't hurt anyone and buying one for over double the price is certainly not worth it just to have on time for christmas.

Yeah no doubt. I'd certainly never line a scalper's pockets, but then again if I had children I may have a different mindset towards it. Just saying I can understand why some do.

I agree with you there though, much more sensible to wait, save some money and teach your kid the value of patience... or just get them a Switch instead. That seems like the best solution actually. 😎

@mandzilla: No offense but i don't think you have kids, no parent in their right mind would pay double for a console.

I'd say people mostly single in their 20's would be buying most of these.

@i_p_daily: None taken and yeah I don't. Maybe you're right, I'm just going by some of the stuff I've seen on the CEX website and eBay. Most of the review bombs on the PS5 listings are coming from angry parents complaining about the shady pricing.

The demand for next-gen consoles is through the roof right now, and guaranteed it's what a lot of kids are talking about at school with their friends. Likely dropping subtle hints to their parents too. Even if the majority don't pay double, there'll still be some out there who end up doing so due to the pressures of materialism that always come with Xmas.

I bet a lot of these are being bought by rich people. Nobody is gonna tell Will Smith he can't have a PS5.

Oh i'm sure some parents might, but i still think the % on that would be rather low.

My son asked for a Series X the other day, i said no and that was that.

Oh and people who are buying at that price and giving it to others are the ones going to complain. I mean if you spend money on it for yourself, well you can't really complain can you lol.

Say it's both really.

We tend to think of gamers as stuff like this, where we actively discuss this stuff.

But average bum joe or soccer mom on Ebay shopping for Christmas shit won't be any the wiser.

Of course, you will get dickheads knowingly taking the price hike because apparently they lack that the concept of, "patience".

They really do need to find a way to deal with them, this nonsense has gone on for far too long and seems to just be getting worse.

The best time to buy a console is when they go on sale, lots of games to choose from and properly established

Looks like the group has been doxxed.

I'm just in awe how this is even possible. How did scalpers manage to buy up so many PS5s and RTX3000 cards?

There are easy ways to circumvent this.

Yup, my plan as well.

They can all go suck a dick, that's all.

Nice.

I want a ps5 but gave up for the time being scalpers have ruined it for a lot of people.

@uninspiredcup: I usually hate doxing but in this case it is acceptable.

And then 3,500 buyers paying over the odds with no warranty. But, you know, if you've got more money than sense....

I hate both sides equally, well maybe the idiots buying the consoles at triple the price I hate just a tad more. I've said it before, if those morons could just have a little patience and wait a few months scalpers would slowly die off.

This manipulates the market making systems unaffordable to most families, it sucks. I wish they could remote brick those consoles and **** the morons who feed scalpers.

But hey, it's the free market, a few individuals should be free to **** everybody else because freedom and something something Venezuela.

They can keep'em all.

Must be a real pain moving and storing all those TumorStaions...

lol :P

It’s disgusting that people do this to make a money, clearly they have no skills or intelligence to make money honestly. Also it’s these fools that pay scalper prices that encourage people to hoard products and resell them for absurd prices. If nobody bought these products at higher prices then the scalpers would be in the hole thousands of dollars and would learn their lesson quickly not to take advantage of people like this. Even if I didn’t get a preorder there is no way I’d bend over for someone and pay them more money just to be able to have a system, have a little patience and wait for the restock!

@SecretPolice: Love the fact that no one cares about getting an xbox. Must be tough for you.

@ahrequenomori:

Hahaha, a new account for this manure? Typical...

XSX, XSS are sold out everywhere. smh

:P

What we should be talking about is, why are PS5’s selling on eBay for twice the price the Xbox consoles are?

It’s up to retailers to come up with ways to combat scalping. But they don’t seem to care so the scalping will continue. It’s a crappy practice and I wish nothing but the worst on scalpers however there’s nothing you can do. Best to wait till around spring time and hope stock normalizes to the point that there’s plenty of supply and scalpers will have to sell their systems at MSRP.

@goldenelementxl: I think it's of very poor taste to insinuate that PS fans are easier to take advantage of.

@ghost_of_phobos:

Lol, same thing I thought as well.

Everyone knows cows just can't resist a good milking. :P

I don't appreciate you are implying that PS gamers are dumber.😎

I hate scalpers. They have ruined the launch experience of the PS5 for a ton of people. By using bots, they put the average consumer at a large disadvantage. I wish people would not pay more for the consoles, so these people end up with an excess of PS5's that they cannot sell.

@mandzilla: I believe the lesson in patience is the better deal here. I mean here in Canada (Quebec) the PS5 is 725$ taxes included and just for the fun of it I looked it up on eBay and the cheapest I could find was around 1300$ and that was over a week ago.

I'm not a parent yet but if a parent out there thinks it's ok to just essentially throw nearly 600$ (or more) in the trash just to be able to get a PS5 on time for the holidays then I believe said parent commited a massive failure at parenting and at life really. They'd need to get their priorities straight, this looks bad in normal times but it's even far worse because we're in a pandemic.