Strats for nabbing a Xbox series X today or a PS5 on Thursday

I hear Walmart is getting the Series X at 12pm today. Does anybody have any cool strats for nabbing one today for people who could not get a preorder? Same for PS5?

I had one in my cart on WalMart and it went out of stock as they were processing my payment.

Out of Stock in less than 3 minutes.

Well, after refreshing Walmart’s page every 4.5 seconds, I was able to add one to cart in the first 20 seconds, but it sold out in less than 30. This is some bullshit.

@robertforster: Covid manufacturing shortages and online bots. Maybe next year...

I just bought one. Maybe. Then I got a text message from my CC company that they were blocking the charge on my credit card cause it looked fraudulent. I was able to get the block lifted, but with the way my luck is going with buying these things...who knows.

@berfunkle: I don’t know how you could have been any faster than me, but I hope the CC hold didn’t mess your order up.

Those bots don’t look that hard to write. Maybe, I’ll do that for the PS5 on Thursday. I can’t think of any other way. My conscience says no, but my heart says yes.

Yup. Tip 1 is use PayPal if possible. I lost my 3070 order because my CC charge had to be approved. In the 30 secs it took to do that, the card was gone.

Kinda seems like retailers should reserve the item for at least 5 mins while it's in your cart.

If I had to guess, since I haven't thought about getting either at launch, Amazon is the biggest so they might be the most likely to get new stock. Gamestop has a deal with MS. Look somewhere most gamers won't think of. Kohls, for some reason, used to sell consoles but not sure if they still do.

Nervous as hell. The CC company lifted the block but Walmart sent me an email asking me to update my CC info.

I have a bad feeling about this...

So far today a handful of stores you wouldnt associate with gaming had either X or S in stock. Adorama, Costco, Lenovo.

So keep an eye out for the other usual suspects: Beach Camera, Frys, Microcenter, Shop Rite, Kohls, maybe even JC Penny & Macys too.

@lilnatureboyx: I will add to that military exchanges if you have access to them. Unfortunately the ones near me said they won't get any stock until black Friday. It looks like MS worked with a handful of retailers on this which probably lends more credence to the idea that their are serious manufacturing shortages.

@digitaldisco: There are obviously serious manufacturing shortages for both boxes. The fact that there was only one round of pre-orders and that some people who pre-ordered are getting delays speaks to that.

I'm not 100% convinced it was covid, though. That may play a part, but it's not like this is a new phenomenon. Wiis were impossible to get for a long time. Even the Wii U had some shortages. PS2 was hard to get for awhile. If I recall the PS4 had some shortages for like 6 months.

It seems like console shortages are more the rule than the exception.

Well the Craigslist scalping has begun in my area. Looks like the going rate for an X is $800-$1000 and the S is a reasonable $380-$500. In what is probably the most disturbing post I have seen, there is someone offering an X at $1000 for pickup today at the local Police station. jeez louise

@digitaldisco: A lot of people on Craigslist do exchanges in the parking lot of the police station on the theory that they're not going to get jacked there. Nobody is going to risk knifing someone over a console if the cops are literally feet away.

Some police stations even offer like specific times when they supervise this stuff.

It's also common for child exchanges if there's a history of spousal abuse. The parking lot of a police station is just considered a safe place to meet a stranger or someone you know who might be dangerous.

@bigsocrates: Ah, that makes sense. I was imagining some shady cop with a trunk full of consoles.

Also if I were to google "Florida" "Murder" "In Front of Police Station" there would be a ton of results lol, maybe a few unsolved

I preordered at my local biggest retailer in the country the day tjey opened the preorders (XSX), it was scheduled to for pick up at 8am, the store opening. During the day I got 4 different emails with the pickup time moving further and further, but still for today, I finally got it on my way to work at 6pm. I work in a covid ward, so I just stashed it in my locker and will set it up after the night shift. Even the clerk said he envies me this machine, I hope everyone gets theirs! My PS5 is scheduled for next year though, that console is in an even higher demand in Europe.

Good luck, everyone!

My wife found a PS5 during the original UK release window from Argos. For my UK peeps, this website was pretty good during that initial window, info was always on point.

https://www.stockinformer.co.uk/checker-ps5-playstation-5-console

From what I’ve seen of Xbox, it seems like I’ll have about a minute to get the PS5 from Walmart, and then there is also Target, so I’m pretty confident.

Amazon Canada appears to have Series S units available to purchase. I’ve got a Series X in the mail currently but it’s super tempting to grab one of these tiny bois.

The Microsoft store has been randomly restocking during their Twitch Xbox Launch stream, but it is still going out of stock when trying to process payment.

I think my next shot will be during black Friday or cyber Monday.

I clicked on the website link today, waited an hour for a confirmation, drove to the store and got my console. It was very easy to get XSX in Poland.

I was able to place a Walmart order at 12 pm ET. Got to "Packaging" for pickup at my local store. 45 minutes later it was canceled. I was pissed.

Thankfully I have a backup amazon order that will be here in a few weeks that I decided not to cancel until I had it in my hands at Walmart.

Woof, I dunno if you've been to a Fry's recently, but I think you'd have a better chance of finding a new console on EBay with a MSRP 'buy it now' than you would at Fry's.

I had their weekly flyer up about an hour ago and the best thing under "Electronic Entertainment" was: Lipton 16.9 fl. oz. Peach Iced Tea - 12 Per Pack for $2.00. Which, if it weren't peach? Would be a great thing to toss in my cart as an impulse buy, along with other goodies in this flyer - a twenty five cent lighter, a jump rope, a VGA cable, CDRs, a blaupunkt head unit, a refurb 32GB iPhone 7, and two different versions of McAffee.

I remember when the PS3 came out there was a tent city of folks waiting in line for them. Fry's is dead retail walking and has been for a while.

That's a shame

Sounds like radioshacks last years

Well, I happened to be awake early enough that I made some coffee, ordered some breakfast and camped the Walmart page for the PS5 digital edition. I managed to get one in my cart at 11:01 CST but errored out attempting to checkout.

The site has kept a PS5 in my cart but when the checkout page does manage to load I get an error message stating the item is out of stock, so...

In any case, its free 2-day delivery carries the caveat that it'll be delivered by the 25th and there was no option for in-store pickup in my city. On a whim I called the local electronics store which also happens to be one of the largest home entertainment and furnishing stores in the United States and they estimated they'd have some more consoles on hand 8 days from now on the 20th.

In other words, if you didn't get a PS5 pre-ordered months ago, I wouldn't be expecting to get one day one from anywhere. And even if you could get one today, I wouldn't necessarily recommend wasting your time bothering with online stores that are sure to be broken as hell at the exact moment they make their stock available.

Don't understand why these sites don't use captchas on any of these orders. Just pitting regular users against bots/scalpers, who then post the console on Ebay for double the price.

Pretty frustrating when I'm getting diluted by ads from Sony.

And lets not even talk about my Amazon order for the Xbox where they said "hey maybe we'll get this to you by 12/31".

Can't believe the lines at midnight are better than this.

@gearhead: they should all just do a lottery. Sign up over a 24 hour period, require a $10 hold on the credit card and do a name/address cross check to prevent people from signing up multiple times and then give people 6 hours to accept if they win the lotto and roll to the next name if people don’t want it (because they won at multiple stores or whatever.)

Simple and fair.

@bigsocrates: That may run afoul of gambling/raffle related laws. And people would lose their mind over "my PS5 is a lootbox!!!!" memes

I personally like the EVGA model the best. Sign up in a queue. First come first serve and you get a six hour window to make the purchase. Although I guess I am curious how botted out that ends up being.

Going against my better judgement (look, Demon Souls and Nioh 2) I'll give the PS5 a go today. Missed the first window because of meetings but will try again in four or so hours. Not optimistic but figure it is worth a try since I probably won't be building my PC until early next year anyway.

@gundato: At least in the United States it would vary from state to state, but even at that point I think that makes this kind of international launch a no-go in that format. But in my state, where alcohol is sold by distributors to individual stores and limited releases - most infamously Buffalo Trace's annual Antique Collection (William Larue Weller, Pappy Van Winkle, et al) - are allocated to those stores in very limited quantities based on sales rep/product buyer relationships and overall sales performance and display prominence.

From there, especially the big box supermarkets at which most of these items - as well as specialty "store pick" bottles - emanate, that exact lottery system of minimal buy-in with an extended accept/decline window is how distribution to the consumer is handled. It can read kind of gross - and as one of those buyers at a smaller shop that often gets left out of those allocations - even feels gross, but it does ensure limited and desirable products only go to stores that will sell them and customers who will buy them...though oftentimes only to cellar or store them for bottle swapping or selling in the off-season on the gray market months later.

If states consider that form of alcohol sale legal I'm sure those same states would accept it for electronics, but again, I'm sure there are certain states that have different laws about that.

I'm actually on the scalping side of things because it either A) strips asshole divorced parent types trying to buy their kids love of more money B) most people just need to get their systems before Dec 25th anyway C) if we just let all the damn systems to be picked up by scammers, they won't be able to sell them at ridiculous prices, and the sooner second and third waves of shipments hit stores, might even have to sell them for under MSRP, which on craigslist without sales tax will save you a decent amount of money, and maybe ruin their lives

@nodima: That sounds like a lot of "they'll probably be cool with it" for something that might very well be a significant chunk of revenue for these stores (black friday gonna be weird this year).

Also, what you just described with the liquor sales kind of IS what "scalpers" do. Buy now and sell/"trade" later.

I've registered my interest with three places ahead of the UK launch next week. Meh.

Been trying all day in Canada to get a digital PS5. I was starting to think I might be out of luck but now I may have accidentally bought 2 from EB Games.

Several places didn't seem to end up putting that version up for sale. If they did, they likely had traffic issues making it nearly impossible to actually get through to check out. Then when you did, turns out they'd been sold out since roughly the minute they went on sale.

EB Games though, their website was so badly messed up that I don't think literally anyone could get an order through for hours. I ended up at the last step of the checkout process, hitting confirm over and over while it kept telling me they couldn't complete the order at this time. Eventually, it actually worked! Digital edition and an extra controller (they force the bundle on you...). I got a confirmation email about 10 minutes later. Then I got a second one with a different order number 5 minutes after that.

The thing is though, their process was so screwed up, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up canceling both of them. I've been hearing Walmart and Best Buy have both been doing that throughout the day.

So here I sit, the proud owner of anywhere from 0 to 2 PS5s.

@vikingrk: Toronto here, was trying all day when I really should have been working. No luck anywhere and even watching Amazon and Bestbuy like a hawk I must have blinked and missed when they were actually for sale.

Not a big deal, I can wait but I would just like to be able to place the order and not have to run around like this. If I can pre-order almost any Apple product with the expectation that I will get it when they get it to me, why can't theses retailers just do that?

I'm not familiar with how Apple handles product launches, since I've never bought one of their products. Don't they only sell through one outlet initially?

I had the same thought though. If you want one and have the money to throw down then you should be able to order one from somewhere. Even if you don't know how long until you get it. That might be better than having to spend a whole day refreshing a dozen or so websites because it's unclear when or if they'll put them up for sale. If these consoles aren't going to be sold in physical stores for a while then the online infrastructures need to be a lot better.

I'd be curious if anyone looks into the resale market this cycle versus the past, definitely seems like it would easier for scalpers to get their hands on a higher percentage of the output is literally all units are sold online. I'm sure you saw if you were checking amazon but resellers had them on there from $1500-$2500.

I've kept watching Amazon and resellers pop up and then disappear, so it looks like some people are willing to pay triple to quadruple the MSRP.

Agreed, I just want to be able to place the order, I'm patient to wait but not to jump through hoops to get one of these.

Just don't buy it from a reseller.

So for a while, there was only one charge on my card, but now a second has shown up. I was hoping this would just take care of itself since they said limit one per household and that any extra would be canceled.

What an asinine system.

A reseller just popped up for a PS5 Digital for 1600 Canadian dollars (its 499 MSRP), so the scalpers made out alright...

Many moons ago, when there was a 360 shortage, I got my from a local furniture / electronics store. (Not a ma and pop store; a fairly large establishment, but was only in a relatively small region in the US) When my dad and I got there, we saw like 40 360s stacked together in a pile, with nobody else seemingly there to get them.

With that in mind, I have been keeping an eye on that same establishment, which said that they would have PS5s available for sale today. Managed to grab this morning. Would link to the store, but looks like they are completely sold out now. They were actually up for sale about 2 hours before I got one, but was still able to buy one.

I would probably recommend people going that route, as it seems like Amazon, Walmart, etc. still sound like a mess.

When we do eventually open the country back up, I might keep an eye on CeX or somewhere and see if they get any in.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth/the checkout page bugs out.

This world of online preorders kind of sucks. I understand there's Covid and all, but I miss waiting in line at midnight. At least then the store staff would let you know if they have enough for you.

Woke to only one shipping confirmation. Maybe a good sign? I still haven't been able to get through to anyone in support at EB Games. The phone number just goes to a repeating message saying to email or use the live help chat. No response so far to my email. Waited in line for a couple of hours for the help chat before it closed suddenly for the night. Then I got an email saying my request (for a live chat) had been updated. No clear idea of what that actually means. I think it means updated to "missed."

I doubt we needed further proof, but EB Games (aka Canadian Gamestop) really kinda sucks? What kind of online retailer doesn't give you the option to cancel an order?

Ah well. Worst case scenario Is I have to find someone locally who wants to buy a PS5. That shouldn't be that hard. Especially since I'll only be looking to sell for exactly what I paid for it.

EDIT: Actually, would offer it up for sale here be against GB's forum rules? I'd rather deal with a duder than go through FB Marketplace.

I would take it off your hands for sure! Toronto here if that helps.

Don't even start. I got that Amazon email, so I went and got a console from another retailer on Monday night/Tuesday morning. Get an email on Wednesday saying "we're preparing to ship" with an estimated delivery date of tomorrow. Since then, radio silence. It's been "packaging" for three days now and no tracking number, no additional emails, nada. Customer service just says "it will ship subject to availability." So I suspect I've been screwed over twice.

The worst/comic/depressing part is it came with a digital codes for three months of Gamepass and AC: Valhalla, and those just came in via email. Since the order technically partially "shipped" when the email codes went out, customer service is claiming that the order can't be cancelled so I'll have to go through the credit card company.

@vikingrk: I would take it off your hands for sure! Toronto here if that helps. (figured I should actually respond to your post)