What are your thoughts on launch day ebay hustles?

Personally, I both see the appeal and I don't. On the one hand, it's never an inherently evil thing to use your money in order to make more money. If you have $1,200 for three PS4s and want to make a $200 profit off that $1,200, by all means do. But I also find that a lot of the people who buy into product launches with this intention look at everyone around them as idiots who they're doing some kind of favor. A co-worker of mine was borderline hysteric when I ran into him earlier today over the fact all three of the systems he was planning to sell will be arriving tomorrow morning but the Killzone bundle he bought for himself won't be arriving until the 19th.

When I told him that it seemed kind of fair that in exchange for re-selling those three launch day systems for $550, $475 and $600 respectively he'd have to wait another five days for his own system, "this is America and there's always a penalty for being stupid and lazy in this country. I'm doing those idiots a favor, they had months to pre-order and didn't." I said that's cool and all, but the fact remains you took three PS4s off the shelves that three people could have bought at retail price.

Again, I see his point in some respects and I don't begrudge him making money with his money (though there is that small tingle in the back of my head that says, "man, why were you so comfortable waiting for inFamous all this time and now you're jealous?") but I can't help but get over how most people I run into on- and off-line who do this feel entitled to having their cake and eating it too. Some folks I know straight up canceled their extra pre-orders only because the market in their area seemed uninterested in going above a $50 profit.

i think blatantly buying up items that people or in most cases true fans/supporters of something want, with the pure intent to turn around and try to rip them off with prices that are completely fueled by greed is just wrong.

the only thing that might be more wrong is the people that give in and buy from resellers time and time again, validating the resellers' existence.

I personnally think it is really shitty. I don't like the person doing it (but I can understand why they would do so) and I don't like people buying those because they're the reason the former do their shady stuff.

I would really like it if people were smart enough to wait for once, and those that bought multiple consoles were stuck with them.

Blame it on the last minute suckers who spend $1200 on a $400 system. If they are that stupid, take advantage of them.

Scalpers are gonna be scalpers. I at least get why people buy tickets from scalpers, because that event is a fixed moment in time, and if you don't get the tickets, it passes you by and that's that.

But scalpers assholes who buy consoles at launch? WHY DOES ANYONE BUY THE CONSOLE FROM THEM. Just wait a few weeks you fucking idiots. There will be more consoles. The launch games are never even all that good. The system will be the fucking same two or three weeks from now.

I would never buy one, but I get why people do it. Got to hand it to them they will make a killing this christmas

I actually was considering doing it at one point , had just enough money, thought it would help with uni living. And if you're the type of person who is impatient enough to go that route, or too lazy to pre order, you pretty much deserve what you get.

Hey, those dudes put down money to own however many consoles, thus can do whatever they want with them. If they want to scalp them off ebay, or shove them into a white Ford F-250 and blow it up with some C4, then it's totally okay.

People who buy up consoles to try and rip people off later are scumbags and that's all there is to it. I had both consoles pre-ordered, and once I figured out which one I wanted, I released the one I didn't. I'm not going to try to profiteer off of it. The pre-order I took up was one someone wanted and now someone who wasn't going to get a luanch-day unit, will get one.

Rationalizing it with capitalism is just disgusting.

Scumbags always have a reason to justify why they're really the hero of their own story and everyone else just isn't as smart as them. Whether it's the idiot doing 100 miles an hour on the freeway and weaving through traffic, or the idiot pushing his way to the front at a concert, or the jerk who cuts in line at Disney World.

Scalpers are scum. People who buy from them are fools. I say catapult them all in to the sun.

It's not like there's a scarcity of these consoles, people who buy from them are the problem. If they're so intent on getting ripped off, I say let them.

Hey, if they can make a profit then go ahead. I did that with the xbox 360 with the intention of actually keeping it but being 19 at the time in college and seeing how much it was going for on eBay, tough choice but sold it for a little over a grand at a Buy it Now price nonetheless. I thought it was insane, but hey, I made a pretty decent profit.

I think when you pay 100 out of work people to stand in line for you like with the ipad launches and buy up all the stock to sell overseas its wrong. I think the Wii launch was when we last saw real system shortages due to scalping. Its up to Sony and microsoft to keep the supply reaching stores to prevent the prices skyrocketing on ebay.

Not always, with the i.e. Xbox One not launching in 87% in europe, they're going to be a lot of scalpers due to scarcity. Some fans absolutely want it on day 1, yet scalpers and hoarders get away with artificial price gouging.

@trafalgarlaw said:

But like, why day 1? Who cares? No system has really had a killer app on day 1 since like, Halo, or Super Mario 64 before that (or debatably the Wii with Wii Sports and Twilight Princess).

All of the launch games this time around scream "Yeah, I could totally wait a few weeks/months to play these", especially when they're mostly available on PC and current gen. With Watch_Dogs delayed, there kinda isn't any big $60 game this fall that I'm all that interested in checking out in the first place.

@billymagnum: These buyers aren't being "ripped off"...they aren't buying some medication they need in order to stay alive. No one is forcing them to do it.

The funny thing is, people don't even know how much of a shortage there is going to be or how hard it will be for Sony or Microsoft to keep the stores stocked.

Right now everyone is just estimating compared to what happened when the 360 and PS3 was released.

Keep in mind, the Wii U never had a shortage of consoles.

Supply and demand. I'm thinking of doing it myself this year.

Scum of the earth...
Right up there with people that pirate and cheat aka "hack." (but hacking implies they have talent so I stick with cheaters)

New gizmo's, having a new thing you can show off to family/friends, being part of the elite group owning a next-gen console while having kaviar on live streams. Like, I know buying at launch is a bad investment but it's so tempting to go out and grab a ps4. It's been a very, veery, looong gen.

Capitalism.

It seems a little scummy to me. It's not just being a middle man like shopping from Walmart or Target. It's being a middle middle man, adding another step after Walmart and Target and another price gouge. Also the margins these re-sellers are operating with move it far past the realm of "this is the same thing that retailers do". Finally, retailers are a business. This is just consumers ripping off other consumers, and I'm not super fond of that.

I don't know whats worse the shitty person who buys stuff to resell at mark up or the sucker who buys something for a $1000 off Ebay because they can't just walk into WalMart and buy one. Both are pretty shameful.

I dunno. It seems the scarcity window is gonna be way smaller this time around than last time. Countries though, maybe? Probably.

It's shitty. It crossed my mind when I debated canceling my preorder, but I would've felt pretty bad about it.

The only person dumber than someone who buys their console on launch day is someone willing to make them look smart by paying even more to buy it from them.

Blame the consumer. People are dumb enough to buy it at high prices. If they did not, then there would not be a market. Also, hey, they dev's could make sure there is MORE then enough available so it does not happen.

I bought two Xbox Day One Editions and a PS4. I planned on keeping the PS4 and sell the two Xbox's. At this point though I really don't know if I want to keep the PS4 and instead keep an Xbox (Someone please convince me to not keep either!).

Go ahead and hate me. You are just jealous you did not think of it first.

Craigslist is full of crazy prices on consoles.

@ajamafalous said:

Exactly. In moments/thoughts like these, people seem to blame the wrong people. Blame the economy, capitalism, politicians who allow capitalism.

I used to be the type that would be like "Man that is fucked up that people do that. It is not fair". I have also been a person to buy something at a higher price, only to see it come back in stock and be insanely lower a few months later. There is no moral high ground. Adapt.

That kind of stuff is always sleazy.

I like how he starts his justification with "this is america". That made me chuckle.

amazon UK recently put its bundles up for general pre orders again not for release day but before christmas and that has been up for a few hours now so there is a valid purchase point for people to still get this console here in time for christmas (note they have the killzone, 2nd controller and camera pack there for the same price as a standard XBO still available, im getting tempted)

I don't know. I wouldn't do it, and I do think it's a little bit scumbag-y and exploitative, but... if you're willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something instead of waiting a few weeks for it to be back on shelves, you're the bigger idiot.

I preordered a PS4 back in June because I was confident I would have a job in November. Now, I still don't have a job and sold my PS4 on ebay. I didn't mark up the price and set the starting price at $400. If people wanted to pay more than that they were free to, it was their choice.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. If people can't be patient and buy the product when it is available, and have no problem paying extra for it, I find them more disgusting than those making a profit. Preorders were available for quite a while, there's no reason you couldn't have taken the initiative and had one good to go for launch.

I was just thinking about this. In most cases people put it up as the list price, and then people bid it up.

Welcome to the world of Supply & Demand. There is nothing wrong with it and if someone wants to pay extra for it they can.

I thought this thread was going to refer to the people who put up auctions of Perfect Dark for the 360 with wording, pictures, and prices that made it sound as though they were bidding on the 360. If I used eBay I bet I could find a bunch of auctions like this for the PS4.

If there weren't idots who threw $800-1000 at a PS4 on Ebay then people wouldn't do it. As long as there is a market for this kind of gross markup of stuff for convenience sake can you really blame someone for trying to make a buck? I don't. Sure, its shitty they are just going to sell them when others who who are waiting in line at the same store will go away empty handed but hey man thats business.

Hell yeah. Its part of the launch craziness. $1500 consoles are hilarious. Sucks that legit people miss out, but its part of the tradition.

0%.

I care exactly 0%.

Those fools need to hit the 3DS market instead. Saw those damn Pikachu 3DS units selling for $300+

And I care less than this guy.

I'm fully in support of it - supply and demand. If someone wants to pay $800 for a PS4 - who am I to tell him no if I have one?

People who buy consoles on lunch to sale at a higher price are scum bags and I hope they get trap in a box with mini cats.

If you're stupid enough to pay significantly above retail value on an item, then you deserve to get ripped off. If you're willing to take on the risk of buying many of these items in order to take advantage of these stupid people, then good luck to you.

well...thats how you see it. that metaphor is a bit far fetched in this situation but regardless it doesnt matter to me if you want or need something, the resellers are taking advantage of that and i think to say they arent ripping people off is either just naive or the mentality of a reseller. even if someone willingly gets ripped off doesnt mean they werent indeed ripped off. i also think in different situations like were people buy up limited edition things only true fans of something would want or people buy up huge amounts of tickets just to resell them, these resellers are pretty much trying to force people into getting ripped off. in fact they are investing in it.

...but im not really here for debates...

wait...THEY'RE DOING IT ON THEIR LUNCH BREAKS?! EVIL BASTARDS!!! lol

Fuck those guys and your co-workers a dick.

If people are stupid enough to pay $1000 for a $500 console, then they deserve to get ripped off. Simple as that.

I hope they get eaten alive.

I think it's too much work to make something like 200 dollars profit out of waiting 10 hours in line. There's a glut of these first day ebay sales, and when you talk to just casual gamers who don't fallow the news, they actually are saying "So when are they dropping the price on PS3?" and then go back to their ipads.

It's all fair play in my book. Supply and demands is how most of the world works. If you don't like it you should have pre-ordered about 5 seconds after they announced the price at E3(I think...) like I did. This happens every console cycle. Unless you are 10 and never went through a console cycle before you should have planned better.