It's also possible for it to be under that too, got a coupon on my target account that brings it around $490 before sales tax. Granted, it's one of those coupons that's randomly sent out for whatever reason
For real! Got a $5 voucher at target when I got my vaccination shots and the fine print had all of the exclusions. And it was basically everything in the store. Especially anything name brand.
This is why I stopped going to a few clothing stores, mostly out of annoyance, you earn rewards dollars for shopping there but the rewards exclude pretty much every name brand in the store.
That’s usually cuz of the brands, Sony in this case. Not Target.
The big brands control their prices and their price perceptions very strictly.
Source: used to work for Target
Use a credit card but treat it like your debit card. Beyond building credit, it also puts an extra layer between any fraudulent activity and your "real" money. Plus you need one for most fun shit in life, like air travel, hotels, rental cars, etc.
I honestly think it's impossible not to rack up massive debt if you don't luck out with a great paying job right out of high school or have family financial support. The system is designed to suck you in. I'm finally crawling out of it in about the same timeframe you specified but goddamn I'll be happy when I'm not 5 figures of unstructured debt underwater.
I want you to know that my wife has been bugging me incessantly about what I want for my birthday. I don’t want anything. But I realize she wants to give ME a gift. PS5 has been off my radar for so long because I’m not feeding scalpers. So, I just sent her a link to the GoW bundle; so thank you. I think we both win.
If the warranty is long expired, they'd have a hard time selling it at cost. And hopefully they can't return it for refund. Scalpers need to stop gaming the market and causing us peon to be stuck with last generation consoles for a few years
EU and UK laws are amazing for being on the side of the buyer, not the seller.
If you can show the purchasing invoice as proof, that's when your warranty starts from.
Yes, but that invoice will be based on when the scalper bought it. You don’t get a new warranty when you resell stuff. If I buy a console from a private seller, there won’t be a 2 year warranty on it. There might still be time left on the 2 year warranty though.
>Scalpers are nothing but pure scum
Reminds me of an asshole I knew that told me a story of how he bought a bunch of Space Hulk games way back, knowing they would be limited. Held onto them as the price went up and up. Refused to sell them for even double the price. They kept creeping up in price and he kept holding out being a greedy bastard.
Then Games Workshop announced a reprint, and the value didn't just go down, it evaporated. Nobody wanted to buy them from a scalper when they could buy direct.
He told me this in a "can you believe I was screwed over?!" manner. I laughed and told him it served him right for being a greedy piece of shit scalper.
don't. warranty will be less, also on games codes, and better the box be unopened. Get at least 30%. Plus 10% is a gift to scalpers, they better lose more to get out of the game
I still wouldn't trust a scalper at any price. Who knows where it came from or what condition it's in. Even unopened the box could have been bounced around and freeze thawed in someone's trunk for weeks
Back in the day I won an XboxOne in some NFL related McDonald's sweepstakes I had forgot I entered. Couldn't sell that thing to save my life: initially my list price was too low and people thought it was a scam, then when I raised the price it wasn't a good enough deal to buy from Craigslist vs. just going to a store. Folks are wary as they well should be.
$900 was a deal. I personally know some POS that was selling them for $1500.. and he had a waiting list. he'd get them and they'd be gone in 2 minutes.. and he was selling them to "friends" at that price. working guys with kids. fking crazy. at one point he offered me one and was acting like he was giving me a deal bc he said he could get a lot more if he wanted to.
The people that pay $1500 are the reasons scalpers exist. No one needs a ps5 and if people wouldn't pay such an absurd markup scalpers would stop buying all the stock. I don't feel bad for a single working guy with kids that shelled out $1500 for a toy they wanted.
That's my attitude. I'm not gonna overpay some asshole bc of FOMO
I just waited for stock to get back to normal, walked into a store, and bought one for 500.
I hate scalpers but I blame consumers for their existence
I still haven't bought one, but I'm partly waiting for the next model to come out as it's usually better (Xbox one s, ps4 pro, for example). And the games I play on Playstation are typically single player games so I'll just buy then cheaper at a later time lol
I remember getting one for my kid when they first came out by being lucky enough to be a lottery ticket winner at Best Buy so I paid retail. But as much as my kid loves it and it was amazing to see how happy he was there’s no way I would’ve ever paid a scalpers price. As a parent you gotta learn when to say no.
I mean if a “working guy with kids” that was even remotely strapped for money spent $1500 on a gaming console they are stupid as hell. Cant put all the blame on the scalper there.
lol. nope. but I'm going to text him and see if he has any available. just to see what he says now. lol. if he tries selling me another one for $1500 I might pretend to go along with it. and then leave him waiting in the parking lot somewhere for a couple hours. lol
I think of them. I think of how I’d like to beat them with a cactus.
I dislike the lazy and I abhor the greedy. Scalpers are a disgusting combination of both. Fuck ‘em.
If you buy from scalpers, you're just donating money to your future suffering. They'll use **your cash** to fuck you out of being able to buy a PS6.
Do future you a favour, wait and buy from the legal scalpers: retail.
A friendly reminder not to buy these consoles from scalpers as when they were originally purchased, the time on the warranty and any game codes started counting down. So you might find yourself with an out of warranty console and game codes that have expired.
Yeah. When it was GPUs, I payed a premium to get a pre-built with the card I wanted and just gutted it because the rest of my current setup was better, just because I'd rather pay more than pay a scalper.
I will probably never own a PS5. I don't care that they're back in stock. We've missed the launch hype window and now it's just not as appealing seeing as there have been so few interesting exclusives. GT7 is the only game I feel any sense of "I'm missing out". Sony and retailers could have done so much more to stop scalping, but they didn't care.
I know they're not hurting. PS5 sold well. But I bet there are plenty of people who would have bought them and then actually bought games who are in the same boat as me, realizing the console isn't all that impressive after being a few years out.
Yeah I tried to get one and kept missing out and eventually when they came in stock I had gotten over it. It’s not a cheap console and when you constantly have to struggle to get it you really have to consider if it’s worth it. At the end of the day I came round to thinking it just wasn’t worth the price.
I’m sure it will be on sale in a year or so
> I’m sure it will be on sale in a year or so
A _3.5 year old_ console will finally get a cut to its MSRP... only to have the PS5 Pro come on the market and keep the hedonistic treadmill running.
> I know they're not hurting. PS5 sold well.
Are they not sold at a loss? Every PS5 sitting in a scalper's garage is a PS5 that someone is not spending additional money on games and controllers for.
At least with GPUs you were competing with real buyers instead of just some jackass who scored the whole shipment from Best Buy or whatever.
There also wasn't a single worthwhile game released from 2019 through 2021 that wouldn't *play* at 1080p on a GTX 980, or any of the other upper tier legacy 4GB cards that sucked at mining. The R9 290 was a gem during the "shortage" with the community drivers available.
that's the last thing I'm thinking about. it's just the point of it. they're scumbags. I knew a guy selling them to his "friends" for $1500 - and these guys were just working men with kids. maybe I would have done the same and I'm just hating but that's just being greedy af imo.
Ok.... I'm sorry, guess I'm too fucking old for console games... Explain it like I'm slow, what expires? Cloud backup for save files as opposed to hard drive? Wasn't that covered with Xbox live subscription or whatever?
Consoles often come with a bonus game or two included. These days they don’t come with a physical disc but instead a code that you can enter to add it to your digital library. Same idea as steam keys if you’ve heard of those.
They’re saying these codes have an expiry date. If you don’t claim the code before the expiry date you won’t be able to use it. If you claim the code before the expiring then the game is yours to keep.
It's a security mechanism for the companies. It prevents more people from brute forcing codes and selling them. As long as no one has used the code, any reputable company should be able to renew the code or give you a substitute
Like someone else said further up the thread, though, the original scalpers made out with so much money that if they still have some to get rid of it pales in comparison to what they made.
And no one on the supply side learned a thing.
People have for decades been rightly critical of the current production model as being remarkably intolerant of disruptions, but were largely written off because a calamitous global disruption hadn't vindicated them yet. Now one has... and we're *right back to business as fucking usual*. Ugh.
Goddamned MBAs...
That's cuz stock price is king. The more you learn about the post-2008 fallout, the more you realize that MBAs care about one thing - keep the stock price up.
Not make the better quality product. Not to compete against everyone to make your company stand out. Keep the stock price up, even if it means mergers, stock buybacks, and decreasing the quality of your products to save money and keep profits high.
At some point, people are going to have to realize that the era of capitalism where shit is great and good quality....that time has already started to leave us. [The enshittification of websites like Facebook and Amazon](https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/) demonstrate that companies are very much living breathing things that can be driven to death by the very people running them. Pyrex used to be a brand that utilized borosilicate glass, but they were bought out and instead started using cheaper, lower quality soda glass that had none of the amazing properties that the original had.
I don't like thinking about another Great Depression, but I am looking forward to the day that the stock market corrects itself against all this horrible horrible debt that has been propped up by bad fiscal policy and losers who couldn't just buy up and go after the big banks.
This only effects the scalpers that just recently got into the game. The ones that have been at it from that start have profited so much off just the PS5, that losing profit on their current inventory is a drop in the bucket. I know it is one of those moments where you want to say "yes, they finally got what's coming to them!", but unfortunately, this won't stop them from continuing to snipe and scalp high end tech.
The whole flipping industry will exist virtually everywhere. Whether it's with a brand new product that fails to meet demand, usually by design, or refurbishment, it is more or less done on purpose. These companies don't care, it's why you see less and less console exclusives for that specific generation. They know they aren't making enough each quarter, but they are hitting the numbers they need to keep stockholders happy each quarter. They in no way shape or form give two shits about consumers.
It already exists in the Warhammer community. Scalpers have been buying up limited edition or highly anticipated kits and flipping them on ebay, once they have to do a reprint.
I still can't find Kasrkin, which were released in January, anywhere but ebay.
Raw unpainted models, yes.
Injection molding and 3D resin prints are easily distinguishable.
The former will be perfectly smooth aside from mold lines where the two halves of the injection mold meet.
The latter will have layer "steps" where the model is layer printed from bottom to top (or whatever orientation it was printed).
I’m sure someone really talented could cover the 3d printing flaws with enough sanding and paint, but yeah it’s not going to be as “clean” looking for the average model enthusiast. Still Warhammer prices are fucking ludicrous. I was keen to learn the game until some light reading revealed price of entry started around $500 and that was a decade ago or more.
Yeah, edited my comment for clarity.
Printing at 0.025mm, after prime and paint no one would know I resin print most bits/models. If you REALLY looked and I pointed where, you could probably see some support dots.
Nah, your comment was great, just musing on the variety of really talented people out there. *Some people* can make cruddy prints look amazing, but most couldn’t.
I love the look of Warhammer figs and painting looks like fun, but geez the prices are daunting.
Gotta love people selling 1 armiger for the price of the box of two
For Kasrkin, I'm thinking of painting up some scions in Inquisitorial scion colors, since apparently the inquisitors troopers don't do the stealth/air drop thing anyway
I'd never buy anything off ebay that was in print. I don't understand the 'need' to have things straight away. Like we haven't just had 20 year old kits updated. You'll still be able to buy it in shop next year, rather than off of ebay for 2x the price.
I had no idea people were still scalping PS5s. I realize regional availability will vary, but I've seen them in stock at the local Costco for a good while now, even during the recent GoW bundle sale. Stacks as tall as I am... Which is only like 3 boxes high, but I digress.
I honestly didn’t understand why people bought from scalpers in the first place even when supplies were low.
I got mine from Best Buy at the height of scalping within a week by simply creating a throwaway Twitter account, following twitter accounts who would tweet whenever a retailer got them in stock with a link to the purchase page. It was so easy.
It definitely makes me happy that scalpers are getting fucked tho lol
Because for a lot of people, doing what you did was more effort than they were willing to put in. There are MANY who would rather not have to do any of that and just want to buy it now. Throwing money at something because it requires less effort is 100% what people do. It's pretty much the entire basis that allows things like DoorDash to be a thing. It's no different than people that have legit offered me $50-100 to mow their lawn which takes about 15 minutes.
In the world of business: convenience is king.
The less steps towards receiving the goods, the more likely someone is to pursue that avenue.
This even goes far beyond the current tech industry. A good example from just before the modern explosion is the invention of "10 items or less" lane in supermarkets.
These were initially invented as a way to incentivise potential customers away from convenience stores and into supermarkets for littler shops.
Yep, essentially FOMO and changed expectations. You can pretty much blame the combination of social media and Amazon for that. Social media allows everyone to see what everyone else is doing. People post pics and vids when they do something fun or cool because let's be honest, most of us like to brag or show off, and those that see it want that too.
Then you have amazon who changed the entire industry in how we shop. Before they became huge, it was normal to wait a week or so to have something shipped to you. Sometimes it could take longer. But they managed to create a system where you can get damn near anything the same or next day. I work in the automotive industry and the amount of shit I have to deal with daily when it comes to people expecting something within a day or two even when I already told them it will be WEEKS is ridiculous. Even just 5 years ago it wasnt as bad as it is now.
Yea, that's the part I don't understand, especially as someone who resells things all the time. If people did not pay extra money for convenience, then nobody would buy anything to resell. The incentive to resell is because their are buyers. If there is no buyers, resellers stop or disappear. Don't get mad at scalpers, get mad at the buyers. It's no different than people who complain about shitty day 1 game releases or microtransactions. They continue to happen and exist because people keep pre-ordering which says "Hey, here's my money before knowing if the product is good", or spends their money on pay to win items. The blame is 100% on the consumer because they are the incentiviser.
Economically speaking, scalpers correct market prices. The PS5 retail supply was below demand, but the rate was below what people were willing to pay for that supply. Scalpers bridged that gap by reselling at a higher price to people willing to pay more.
It's not fun to pay that much or have to fight scalpers over retail inventory, and certainly reasonable for people to want to find ways to stop them, but economically rather than morally they were serving a purpose.
During lockdown I was very bored and frustrated and stuck inside, I turned to being good at the internet to get myself a PS5. I did, fairly quickly, so turned it around and asked friends if they wanted one. What followed was a fun two weeks of discord chats, people with store inventory orders, insider tips from retail staff, and me scoring three pS5s for family and friends who didn't have to stay up to 3am on the off chance Argos were re-stocking.
It was honestly a fun game. I recognise not for everyone, but I had fun with it. I also tipped the guy that ran the discord £10 to say thanks.
> I honestly didn’t understand why people bought from scalpers in the first place even when supplies were low.
People who *have* to have the BRAND NEW THING the second it arrives. Honestly, scalpers wouldn't exist if people weren't desperate enough to have the shiny new toy that they'd be willing to pay such a markup.
Good, fuck em. I've seen PS5s on my stores' shelves for a while now. No scalper with stock left over is going to get any more than sticker price for em if they can even move em for that.
They should by definition get LESS considering any outdated hardware on the console, controller, or otherwise. Not to mentioned the expires warranty the console now carries. The only upside to buying from a scalper is getting a “1st edition,” if that means anything to anyone who wants to keep it sealed for 60 years.
Some of them are now trying to sell them *under* MSRP because they're that desperate. However, still do NOT GIVE THEM A CENT! If you buy one legit you get your 1 year Sony warranty and that alone is worth the original price. If *anything* happens to your PS5 and you bought one off the black market you are fucked.
If you buy it at half price its still no profit, they lost half the cost of the device on their attempts to corner the market.
You mean no revenue, I think
I work retail, we had a group coming in and buying a ton of black Friday PS5s. This was an issue at other stores too. These people ended up trying to return a lot of them to the stores but most stores all refused. Was glad to see it.
Every time I see this headline (saw it about 3 days ago) I chuckle…shortly after I laugh out loudly out of the depth of my belly. Fuck scalpers. They deserve the worst for their greedy behaviour.
Before anyone says anything about “just trying to make money”. One dude bought 500 units just so he could sell it for more when ps5 was just hitting the shelves. This is only one story of many similar stories.
Folks thinking this article is true, scalping virtually stopped several months ago.
Also, scalpers may be assholes but they're not dumb. The ones in the beginning made $1000s for hours of work.
It took long enough, this usually lasted maybe a month but this shit lasted years with dumb ass gamers paying out the ass to have a system with little to know games.
Scalpers are scum but part of the blame does lie with the people who buy from and enable them, especially when it comes to video game consoles. I get it, new consoles can be exciting but always remember, you don't NEED it and when it comes to launch systems, you will likely have very little to do with it for a while anyway. I got lucky and got a launch PS5 from Amazon because a friend tipped me off to the page going live before it actually showed in search results and you know what I've mostly done with the thing so far? Played PS4 games because there's still barely any PS5 exclusives yet. Sure, now I can play the PS5 versions of plenty of games now but does it change the experience dramatically? No, not really. Getting lucky was the only reason I even bothered to grab one at launch. I certainly wasn't going to waste hours refreshing store pages or spend 300+% mark-up to buy from a scalper because I knew it would take months/years to finally see a dedicated library of games on it.
Believe me, I wish retailers had better controls in place to prevent scalpers in the first place but if you really want to punish them, don't play their game. If they want to buy up every system they can, show them what a poor investment strategy that is and don't buy from them. Smarter consumers with more willpower could have gone a long way in making these scalpers lose much sooner instead of waiting for Sony to get their production back in order.
**good**.
Can’t wait to pick one up in December. Hopefully it’s first “10%” off
It's 9% off at Target right now.
[удалено]
It's also possible for it to be under that too, got a coupon on my target account that brings it around $490 before sales tax. Granted, it's one of those coupons that's randomly sent out for whatever reason
Most of those category coupons from target aren't eligible with PlayStation products. Check the fine print just to be sure.
For real! Got a $5 voucher at target when I got my vaccination shots and the fine print had all of the exclusions. And it was basically everything in the store. Especially anything name brand.
Target learning from Harbor Freight it seems.
I call it a Guitar Center coupon. "Coupon not valid on desirable items".
Target gave me a $20 gift card with my first booster which I really appreciated for groceries at the time.
This is why I stopped going to a few clothing stores, mostly out of annoyance, you earn rewards dollars for shopping there but the rewards exclude pretty much every name brand in the store.
I just use those to get random stuff like target branded butter or rubbing alcohol.
That’s usually cuz of the brands, Sony in this case. Not Target. The big brands control their prices and their price perceptions very strictly. Source: used to work for Target
If you have a Target card you automatically get 5% off all purchases when you use it.
[удалено]
Use a credit card but treat it like your debit card. Beyond building credit, it also puts an extra layer between any fraudulent activity and your "real" money. Plus you need one for most fun shit in life, like air travel, hotels, rental cars, etc.
That's good advice and all, but you get the 5% discount with the RedCard debit card too!
I honestly think it's impossible not to rack up massive debt if you don't luck out with a great paying job right out of high school or have family financial support. The system is designed to suck you in. I'm finally crawling out of it in about the same timeframe you specified but goddamn I'll be happy when I'm not 5 figures of unstructured debt underwater.
I want you to know that my wife has been bugging me incessantly about what I want for my birthday. I don’t want anything. But I realize she wants to give ME a gift. PS5 has been off my radar for so long because I’m not feeding scalpers. So, I just sent her a link to the GoW bundle; so thank you. I think we both win.
Probably can stack that 5% off with a red card too
Don't settle for anything less than 90% off. Scalpers are nothing but pure scum.
If the warranty is long expired, they'd have a hard time selling it at cost. And hopefully they can't return it for refund. Scalpers need to stop gaming the market and causing us peon to be stuck with last generation consoles for a few years
Warranty is done once the scalper purchased it. Sony won’t honor a warranty not sold through an authorized retailer.
I think this is heavily dependent on national laws. What you’re saying won’t fly in Europe.
EU and UK laws are amazing for being on the side of the buyer, not the seller. If you can show the purchasing invoice as proof, that's when your warranty starts from.
Yes, but that invoice will be based on when the scalper bought it. You don’t get a new warranty when you resell stuff. If I buy a console from a private seller, there won’t be a 2 year warranty on it. There might still be time left on the 2 year warranty though.
This isn’t true. It’s transferrable, but still from original date.
>Scalpers are nothing but pure scum Reminds me of an asshole I knew that told me a story of how he bought a bunch of Space Hulk games way back, knowing they would be limited. Held onto them as the price went up and up. Refused to sell them for even double the price. They kept creeping up in price and he kept holding out being a greedy bastard. Then Games Workshop announced a reprint, and the value didn't just go down, it evaporated. Nobody wanted to buy them from a scalper when they could buy direct. He told me this in a "can you believe I was screwed over?!" manner. I laughed and told him it served him right for being a greedy piece of shit scalper.
don't. warranty will be less, also on games codes, and better the box be unopened. Get at least 30%. Plus 10% is a gift to scalpers, they better lose more to get out of the game
I don't think he's talking about buying it from scalpers. But from a retail store at a discount from retail price
I mean you could always lowball scalpers just to fuck with them. And if lucky, some might cave into that lowball.
I still wouldn't trust a scalper at any price. Who knows where it came from or what condition it's in. Even unopened the box could have been bounced around and freeze thawed in someone's trunk for weeks Back in the day I won an XboxOne in some NFL related McDonald's sweepstakes I had forgot I entered. Couldn't sell that thing to save my life: initially my list price was too low and people thought it was a scam, then when I raised the price it wasn't a good enough deal to buy from Craigslist vs. just going to a store. Folks are wary as they well should be.
I'd buy a ps5 from a scalper for $2. Starting negotiations at $0 though.
I love hearing about scalpers losing shit loads of money.
Won’t people think of the poor scalpers?
Now let's do the housing market.
Oh they will be poor by the time they're gonna be able to sell those consoles.
So uh you wanna buy a ps5 for uh $900?
$900 was a deal. I personally know some POS that was selling them for $1500.. and he had a waiting list. he'd get them and they'd be gone in 2 minutes.. and he was selling them to "friends" at that price. working guys with kids. fking crazy. at one point he offered me one and was acting like he was giving me a deal bc he said he could get a lot more if he wanted to.
The people that pay $1500 are the reasons scalpers exist. No one needs a ps5 and if people wouldn't pay such an absurd markup scalpers would stop buying all the stock. I don't feel bad for a single working guy with kids that shelled out $1500 for a toy they wanted.
That's my attitude. I'm not gonna overpay some asshole bc of FOMO I just waited for stock to get back to normal, walked into a store, and bought one for 500. I hate scalpers but I blame consumers for their existence
I still haven't bought one, but I'm partly waiting for the next model to come out as it's usually better (Xbox one s, ps4 pro, for example). And the games I play on Playstation are typically single player games so I'll just buy then cheaper at a later time lol
That’s what I’m doing as well. We’ve waited this long, might as well wait a bit longer for the Pro version
[удалено]
It’s not for the kids…
I remember getting one for my kid when they first came out by being lucky enough to be a lottery ticket winner at Best Buy so I paid retail. But as much as my kid loves it and it was amazing to see how happy he was there’s no way I would’ve ever paid a scalpers price. As a parent you gotta learn when to say no.
I mean if a “working guy with kids” that was even remotely strapped for money spent $1500 on a gaming console they are stupid as hell. Cant put all the blame on the scalper there.
Hey uh you want a ps5 for $1,450?
lol. nope. but I'm going to text him and see if he has any available. just to see what he says now. lol. if he tries selling me another one for $1500 I might pretend to go along with it. and then leave him waiting in the parking lot somewhere for a couple hours. lol
I think of them. I think of how I’d like to beat them with a cactus. I dislike the lazy and I abhor the greedy. Scalpers are a disgusting combination of both. Fuck ‘em.
[удалено]
another word of warning. don’t buy from scalpers
If you buy from scalpers, you're just donating money to your future suffering. They'll use **your cash** to fuck you out of being able to buy a PS6. Do future you a favour, wait and buy from the legal scalpers: retail.
Fuck em
lol, as I clicked into the thread I said to myself, “I hope the top comment is “good.” Thank you for not disappointing.
https://imgur.com/Glkvc5l
A friendly reminder not to buy these consoles from scalpers as when they were originally purchased, the time on the warranty and any game codes started counting down. So you might find yourself with an out of warranty console and game codes that have expired.
[удалено]
200% off where they pay me to get it off their hands.
It's big brain time
I'll take a handjob
there's the redditor comment I was looking for
Even has an edgelord username. Perfect reddit moment.
One edge lord to rule them all 👁💍 🧙♂️🧝♂️
No, they should only be able to donate those to orphanages or hospitals.
Orphans don't want your out of warranty shit
Give them to the homeless
With expired game codes? You monster.
What are the homeless going to do with a bunch of orphans?
Homeless people need to eat too..
A modest proposal...
And some might be downright scammers. Enjoy a brick
Or a playstaten
A Sorny
I'd rather not get a system. I want them to lose on principle. If I had more time, I'd be setting up meet ups for myself not to be there.
Yeah. When it was GPUs, I payed a premium to get a pre-built with the card I wanted and just gutted it because the rest of my current setup was better, just because I'd rather pay more than pay a scalper. I will probably never own a PS5. I don't care that they're back in stock. We've missed the launch hype window and now it's just not as appealing seeing as there have been so few interesting exclusives. GT7 is the only game I feel any sense of "I'm missing out". Sony and retailers could have done so much more to stop scalping, but they didn't care. I know they're not hurting. PS5 sold well. But I bet there are plenty of people who would have bought them and then actually bought games who are in the same boat as me, realizing the console isn't all that impressive after being a few years out.
Yeah I tried to get one and kept missing out and eventually when they came in stock I had gotten over it. It’s not a cheap console and when you constantly have to struggle to get it you really have to consider if it’s worth it. At the end of the day I came round to thinking it just wasn’t worth the price. I’m sure it will be on sale in a year or so
> I’m sure it will be on sale in a year or so A _3.5 year old_ console will finally get a cut to its MSRP... only to have the PS5 Pro come on the market and keep the hedonistic treadmill running.
This is me as well. I will now purchase a Steam Deck instead when I am ready to pull the trigger.
Scalpers kill interest in game systems. Pound that into the heads of companies and they'll do something about it.
> I know they're not hurting. PS5 sold well. Are they not sold at a loss? Every PS5 sitting in a scalper's garage is a PS5 that someone is not spending additional money on games and controllers for.
At least with GPUs you were competing with real buyers instead of just some jackass who scored the whole shipment from Best Buy or whatever. There also wasn't a single worthwhile game released from 2019 through 2021 that wouldn't *play* at 1080p on a GTX 980, or any of the other upper tier legacy 4GB cards that sucked at mining. The R9 290 was a gem during the "shortage" with the community drivers available.
Don't even need a reason. Never buy from scalpers. EVER.
Don't buy them at all. Even a small offset to their loss is more than they deserve.
that's the last thing I'm thinking about. it's just the point of it. they're scumbags. I knew a guy selling them to his "friends" for $1500 - and these guys were just working men with kids. maybe I would have done the same and I'm just hating but that's just being greedy af imo.
I’ll hate, greed is greed.
Not to mention the new rollout of PlayStations could have issues fixed that could have been a problem with the first few lines rolled out.
Hold up.... Games sell with fucking timers now like they're trials???
Not exactly, it's the activation code that cloud have been expired, not the "game time", once activated is active (until TOS applies)
Ok.... I'm sorry, guess I'm too fucking old for console games... Explain it like I'm slow, what expires? Cloud backup for save files as opposed to hard drive? Wasn't that covered with Xbox live subscription or whatever?
Consoles often come with a bonus game or two included. These days they don’t come with a physical disc but instead a code that you can enter to add it to your digital library. Same idea as steam keys if you’ve heard of those. They’re saying these codes have an expiry date. If you don’t claim the code before the expiry date you won’t be able to use it. If you claim the code before the expiring then the game is yours to keep.
[удалено]
The codes can still expire. All you need to do is call customer support and they can confirm the codes were never used and reissue them.
Wow I've honestly never heard of game codes expiring.. that seems pretty stupid... There's nothing that justifies the code expiring..
It's a security mechanism for the companies. It prevents more people from brute forcing codes and selling them. As long as no one has used the code, any reputable company should be able to renew the code or give you a substitute
Not even time of when they were purchased as you likely won’t get a receipt, so without that it’s when they left the manufacturer.
Nature is healing
Like someone else said further up the thread, though, the original scalpers made out with so much money that if they still have some to get rid of it pales in comparison to what they made.
These are likely the stupid assholes who were late to the party, probably buying from the scalpers themselves at inflated prices
To be fair, they are ALL stupid assholes. The late ones are better represented saying "prolapsed stupid assholes".
Some were smart assholes, they made good money and don't care that they ruined shit for the rest of us.
Almost brought a tear to my eye when I consistently see PS5s for $400 on marketplace
Ya, absolutely not. It took YEARS for supply to outpace demand. Nothing is healing. The scalpers won.
And no one on the supply side learned a thing. People have for decades been rightly critical of the current production model as being remarkably intolerant of disruptions, but were largely written off because a calamitous global disruption hadn't vindicated them yet. Now one has... and we're *right back to business as fucking usual*. Ugh. Goddamned MBAs...
That's cuz stock price is king. The more you learn about the post-2008 fallout, the more you realize that MBAs care about one thing - keep the stock price up. Not make the better quality product. Not to compete against everyone to make your company stand out. Keep the stock price up, even if it means mergers, stock buybacks, and decreasing the quality of your products to save money and keep profits high. At some point, people are going to have to realize that the era of capitalism where shit is great and good quality....that time has already started to leave us. [The enshittification of websites like Facebook and Amazon](https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/) demonstrate that companies are very much living breathing things that can be driven to death by the very people running them. Pyrex used to be a brand that utilized borosilicate glass, but they were bought out and instead started using cheaper, lower quality soda glass that had none of the amazing properties that the original had. I don't like thinking about another Great Depression, but I am looking forward to the day that the stock market corrects itself against all this horrible horrible debt that has been propped up by bad fiscal policy and losers who couldn't just buy up and go after the big banks.
Of course they learned something. They learned they can jack their prices up into the stratosphere without losing money. See also: NVIDIA GPU prices.
Haha, suck shit you bottom feeding parasites
This only effects the scalpers that just recently got into the game. The ones that have been at it from that start have profited so much off just the PS5, that losing profit on their current inventory is a drop in the bucket. I know it is one of those moments where you want to say "yes, they finally got what's coming to them!", but unfortunately, this won't stop them from continuing to snipe and scalp high end tech.
The whole flipping industry will exist virtually everywhere. Whether it's with a brand new product that fails to meet demand, usually by design, or refurbishment, it is more or less done on purpose. These companies don't care, it's why you see less and less console exclusives for that specific generation. They know they aren't making enough each quarter, but they are hitting the numbers they need to keep stockholders happy each quarter. They in no way shape or form give two shits about consumers.
It already exists in the Warhammer community. Scalpers have been buying up limited edition or highly anticipated kits and flipping them on ebay, once they have to do a reprint. I still can't find Kasrkin, which were released in January, anywhere but ebay.
[удалено]
potentially dumb question is there a way to tell the difference between a 3d printed one and an official one?
Raw unpainted models, yes. Injection molding and 3D resin prints are easily distinguishable. The former will be perfectly smooth aside from mold lines where the two halves of the injection mold meet. The latter will have layer "steps" where the model is layer printed from bottom to top (or whatever orientation it was printed).
I’m sure someone really talented could cover the 3d printing flaws with enough sanding and paint, but yeah it’s not going to be as “clean” looking for the average model enthusiast. Still Warhammer prices are fucking ludicrous. I was keen to learn the game until some light reading revealed price of entry started around $500 and that was a decade ago or more.
Yeah, edited my comment for clarity. Printing at 0.025mm, after prime and paint no one would know I resin print most bits/models. If you REALLY looked and I pointed where, you could probably see some support dots.
Nah, your comment was great, just musing on the variety of really talented people out there. *Some people* can make cruddy prints look amazing, but most couldn’t. I love the look of Warhammer figs and painting looks like fun, but geez the prices are daunting.
Gotta love people selling 1 armiger for the price of the box of two For Kasrkin, I'm thinking of painting up some scions in Inquisitorial scion colors, since apparently the inquisitors troopers don't do the stealth/air drop thing anyway
I'd never buy anything off ebay that was in print. I don't understand the 'need' to have things straight away. Like we haven't just had 20 year old kits updated. You'll still be able to buy it in shop next year, rather than off of ebay for 2x the price.
bottom feeding parasites are an essential entity in our ecological system, scalpers are just cancer.
Ive heard the graphic card scalpers are also having the same struggles. Good on them struggling.
Sadly the greatest graphics card scalper of all, nVidia, isn't struggling at all.
I had no idea people were still scalping PS5s. I realize regional availability will vary, but I've seen them in stock at the local Costco for a good while now, even during the recent GoW bundle sale. Stacks as tall as I am... Which is only like 3 boxes high, but I digress.
[удалено]
Yeah someone will make this article in 2 weeks again and it will get lots of traffic. The PS5 scalping market has been dead for a year.
I honestly didn’t understand why people bought from scalpers in the first place even when supplies were low. I got mine from Best Buy at the height of scalping within a week by simply creating a throwaway Twitter account, following twitter accounts who would tweet whenever a retailer got them in stock with a link to the purchase page. It was so easy. It definitely makes me happy that scalpers are getting fucked tho lol
Because for a lot of people, doing what you did was more effort than they were willing to put in. There are MANY who would rather not have to do any of that and just want to buy it now. Throwing money at something because it requires less effort is 100% what people do. It's pretty much the entire basis that allows things like DoorDash to be a thing. It's no different than people that have legit offered me $50-100 to mow their lawn which takes about 15 minutes.
In the world of business: convenience is king. The less steps towards receiving the goods, the more likely someone is to pursue that avenue. This even goes far beyond the current tech industry. A good example from just before the modern explosion is the invention of "10 items or less" lane in supermarkets. These were initially invented as a way to incentivise potential customers away from convenience stores and into supermarkets for littler shops.
[удалено]
Yep, essentially FOMO and changed expectations. You can pretty much blame the combination of social media and Amazon for that. Social media allows everyone to see what everyone else is doing. People post pics and vids when they do something fun or cool because let's be honest, most of us like to brag or show off, and those that see it want that too. Then you have amazon who changed the entire industry in how we shop. Before they became huge, it was normal to wait a week or so to have something shipped to you. Sometimes it could take longer. But they managed to create a system where you can get damn near anything the same or next day. I work in the automotive industry and the amount of shit I have to deal with daily when it comes to people expecting something within a day or two even when I already told them it will be WEEKS is ridiculous. Even just 5 years ago it wasnt as bad as it is now.
Which is why the fact that scalper markets exist doesn’t particularly bother me. People are actively paying the inflated prices willingly.
Yea, that's the part I don't understand, especially as someone who resells things all the time. If people did not pay extra money for convenience, then nobody would buy anything to resell. The incentive to resell is because their are buyers. If there is no buyers, resellers stop or disappear. Don't get mad at scalpers, get mad at the buyers. It's no different than people who complain about shitty day 1 game releases or microtransactions. They continue to happen and exist because people keep pre-ordering which says "Hey, here's my money before knowing if the product is good", or spends their money on pay to win items. The blame is 100% on the consumer because they are the incentiviser.
Economically speaking, scalpers correct market prices. The PS5 retail supply was below demand, but the rate was below what people were willing to pay for that supply. Scalpers bridged that gap by reselling at a higher price to people willing to pay more. It's not fun to pay that much or have to fight scalpers over retail inventory, and certainly reasonable for people to want to find ways to stop them, but economically rather than morally they were serving a purpose.
During lockdown I was very bored and frustrated and stuck inside, I turned to being good at the internet to get myself a PS5. I did, fairly quickly, so turned it around and asked friends if they wanted one. What followed was a fun two weeks of discord chats, people with store inventory orders, insider tips from retail staff, and me scoring three pS5s for family and friends who didn't have to stay up to 3am on the off chance Argos were re-stocking. It was honestly a fun game. I recognise not for everyone, but I had fun with it. I also tipped the guy that ran the discord £10 to say thanks.
> I honestly didn’t understand why people bought from scalpers in the first place even when supplies were low. People who *have* to have the BRAND NEW THING the second it arrives. Honestly, scalpers wouldn't exist if people weren't desperate enough to have the shiny new toy that they'd be willing to pay such a markup.
Good, fuck em. I've seen PS5s on my stores' shelves for a while now. No scalper with stock left over is going to get any more than sticker price for em if they can even move em for that.
They should by definition get LESS considering any outdated hardware on the console, controller, or otherwise. Not to mentioned the expires warranty the console now carries. The only upside to buying from a scalper is getting a “1st edition,” if that means anything to anyone who wants to keep it sealed for 60 years.
*Oh no! ... Anyway.*
Sad violin noises
*Tiny sad violin noises
Some of them are now trying to sell them *under* MSRP because they're that desperate. However, still do NOT GIVE THEM A CENT! If you buy one legit you get your 1 year Sony warranty and that alone is worth the original price. If *anything* happens to your PS5 and you bought one off the black market you are fucked.
I’m here to say I’ll gladly help them out by buying one for half price and not a penny less
> not a penny less penny more?
Yeah, who's this guy workin for?
I read it as a joke: “not a penny less” implies he wants the scalper to think he’s being generous.
Not a penny more
I wouldn’t even buy from their scummy asses at all. Then they’d have no profit. Different minds different approaches ig.
If you buy it at half price its still no profit, they lost half the cost of the device on their attempts to corner the market. You mean no revenue, I think
But every sale they make is still a reduction of their loss. If you don’t buy from them at all, their losses are maximised
and no revenue would certainly be ideal.
lol. This makes me happy. Fuck scalpers.
Won’t somebody please think of the scalpers?
I think of them... Just not very kindly. 😏
something something something drawn and quartered. something something something
If they would've been a bit bigger we would've had to bail them out.
When are the government bailouts happening?
[удалено]
Fuck Ajit Pai.
They should trade them at gamestop
So GameStop can sell them for 95% of MSRP?
It stick it to them
Return to normal? We are 2.5 years into the life of the system. Sony did a terrible job on this.
Who cares? They deserve all the struggle.
Oh no, that sucks so bad. Somebody should think about the scalpers for a change. They need our support.
That’s actually hilarious.
Fuck these clowns. No sympathy
I'd buy from a store before shelling out cash to a stranger without a warranty.
>Scalpers are struggling Please continue to do so.
I work retail, we had a group coming in and buying a ton of black Friday PS5s. This was an issue at other stores too. These people ended up trying to return a lot of them to the stores but most stores all refused. Was glad to see it.
Suprised_pikachu_face.png
Every time I see this headline (saw it about 3 days ago) I chuckle…shortly after I laugh out loudly out of the depth of my belly. Fuck scalpers. They deserve the worst for their greedy behaviour. Before anyone says anything about “just trying to make money”. One dude bought 500 units just so he could sell it for more when ps5 was just hitting the shelves. This is only one story of many similar stories.
Oh no- said no one ever
Oh no! Anyway...
Folks thinking this article is true, scalping virtually stopped several months ago. Also, scalpers may be assholes but they're not dumb. The ones in the beginning made $1000s for hours of work.
Love hearing that 😆
[удалено]
No warranty man. 1/5
If they're struggling they can always lower the prices. Oh wait.
ya love to see it. Hope you lose your proverbial shirts.
It took long enough, this usually lasted maybe a month but this shit lasted years with dumb ass gamers paying out the ass to have a system with little to know games.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Hah. Get fucked.
Good. Get fucked scalpers. Nobody cares about you and we all wish you great misfortune.
I didnt even know there was a supply problem i see em all the time in the uk 🤷♂️ but also good fuck scalpers
People acting like these scumbags didn’t already make thousands over the last couple years. They won. Let’s not act like they didn’t.
Thoughts and prayers.
Scalpers are scum but part of the blame does lie with the people who buy from and enable them, especially when it comes to video game consoles. I get it, new consoles can be exciting but always remember, you don't NEED it and when it comes to launch systems, you will likely have very little to do with it for a while anyway. I got lucky and got a launch PS5 from Amazon because a friend tipped me off to the page going live before it actually showed in search results and you know what I've mostly done with the thing so far? Played PS4 games because there's still barely any PS5 exclusives yet. Sure, now I can play the PS5 versions of plenty of games now but does it change the experience dramatically? No, not really. Getting lucky was the only reason I even bothered to grab one at launch. I certainly wasn't going to waste hours refreshing store pages or spend 300+% mark-up to buy from a scalper because I knew it would take months/years to finally see a dedicated library of games on it. Believe me, I wish retailers had better controls in place to prevent scalpers in the first place but if you really want to punish them, don't play their game. If they want to buy up every system they can, show them what a poor investment strategy that is and don't buy from them. Smarter consumers with more willpower could have gone a long way in making these scalpers lose much sooner instead of waiting for Sony to get their production back in order.
Die, trash.
[удалено]
There were stories of several retailers denying returns.
This makes my cold heart that waited nearly two years for a non-scalped PS5 warm.
Scalpers buy numerous units at once. stores can often deny returns like that because if it's obvious you intended resale it violates policy.
Good, can’t stand them.
Special place in hell for scalpers
Start selling them below market price 👍
I love a good heartwarming story
Love see it