PS3s on Ebay: The Aftermath

jedijz

Here's an article from Kotaku detailing the rise and fall of PS3 prices on Ebay. It came to conclude that the most profitable time to sell the PS3s was on Nov. 16 when people were auctioning their preorders and that the prices for PS3s bottomed out on Dec. 21 when people assumed there would be a last minute rush for PS3s.

Here's an informative graph that detailed the average prices PS3s were going for over several weeks:

Does anyone have the figures for the Xbox 360 on Ebay last year for comparison?

ze swift class

Egh, this again?

Kewop Decam

these figures probably factor in all the fake bidders (non-payers) too huh? I doubt anyone paid $2,000+ for a PS3

powerss

I'd love to see the 360's for last year.

ToadTheMushroom

Noone cares.

Noone ever will care.

powerss

Kewop Decam wrote:

these figures probably factor in all the fake bidders (non-payers) too huh? I doubt anyone paid $2,000+ for a PS3

People did. A close friend of mine sold his on Ebay for close to $3,000.

Kewop Decam

powerss wrote:

Kewop Decam wrote:

these figures probably factor in all the fake bidders (non-payers) too huh? I doubt anyone paid $2,000+ for a PS3

People did. A close friend of mine sold his on Ebay for close to $3,000.

was that a pre-order or after launch?

Humans are dumb

jedijz

Kewop Decam wrote:

powerss wrote:

Kewop Decam wrote:

these figures probably factor in all the fake bidders (non-payers) too huh? I doubt anyone paid $2,000+ for a PS3

People did. A close friend of mine sold his on Ebay for close to $3,000.

was that a pre-order or after launch?

Humans are dumb

auctions ending on or before November 16th, meaning preorders, had a 96.5% success rate. In the period after the system was released the figure dropped to 73%

Basticle

ToadTheMushroom wrote:

Noone cares.

Noone ever will care.

....I...I care?

powerss

Kewop Decam wrote:

powerss wrote:

Kewop Decam wrote:

these figures probably factor in all the fake bidders (non-payers) too huh? I doubt anyone paid $2,000+ for a PS3

People did. A close friend of mine sold his on Ebay for close to $3,000.

was that a pre-order or after launch?

Humans are dumb

Just after launch.

And yes, humans ARE dumb.

Eteric

Humans are so dumb that they call their own species dumb!... Or would that qualify as smart?...

PARADOX OMG!

And no one cares! We're all to busy playing our DS, Wiis, and 360s to care. :P

plufim

So... the best time to sell a PS3 was just before anyone had ever had a chance to play one?

Awesome.

Threepio

Or we could also be playing PS3s as well.

I picked one up from work (futureshop.ca) when we dropped 1000 on the site. We'd had a moratorium on buying them up to this point, but when we threw a thousand units the director said "what the hell, go for it".

These units are starting to show up consistently at retail. We've got sizable Purchase Orders cut for the next quarter, and contrary to what you might have read, we are indeed still selling out. We have had some OERs (Obvious Ebay Returns) - units that showed up as returns on the 18th and 19th of December (30 day return policy) from folks who were probably a little to aggressive in their reserves or who had fake bids screw them but these returns have been far and few between.

I'm mostly here for the Bru-ray (I've already got an HD-DVD addon and a Toshiba HD-A2) but I'm interested about the possibilities of Linux (video players ftw) and I've been contemplootin R:FOM. Meh, whatev's. Supply meet demand, ya'll get along now.

Goomba

Basticle wrote:

ToadTheMushroom wrote:

Noone cares.

Noone ever will care.

....I...I care?

You're not Noone are you?

Really, this graph shows some people wanted a PS3 so bad that they spent stupid amounts of money to get it, then everyone got it froms stores instead of ebay.

Or something, I dunno.

FreddyD

plufim wrote:

So... the best time to sell a PS3 was just before anyone had ever had a chance to play one?

Awesome.

That doesn't bode well.

jothki

I'd actually be interested in knowing how well the PS3 is holding up after Christmas. I assume it's too early for that data, though.

Zhou

Sold the one I bought 7 days after release for $2000 locally via classified ad in the paper.

$1200 profit

Drez

Aftermath or afterbirth?

jwalk

I guess this shows people weren't desperate enough or dumb enough to shell out big bucks on ebay.

I bought one on the 29th at Best Buy. It was a return (20GB). I could have bought a 60GB on a few occasions but I turned them down. I probably visited 5-6 store a total of about 20 times before I found the 20GB. I also got 2 games for $39.99 each (including R:FOM).

Kyougu

I'm glad prices ended up bottoming out quickly, since maybe this will mean that come next hardware launch, people will look back, and leave more systems for actual gamers.

BTW, I know a guy who bough 5 systems and had dreams of selling them for massive profit. He ended up selling them at around 600 bucks.

Buddy Lee

A friend of mine sold his on eBay for $2600 the day after it was released. He planned on using the money on Black Friday to buy his family and friends gifts, but he never got his money. Paypal either put a hold on his account or the guy never paid him... I can't remember.

Either way, the situation sucks.

liquidlogan

This is all ironic because from what I gather most people in the US can still walk into a store in a major urban center and get one off the shelves. And for, you know, a still monstrously overpriced cost.

Deusfaux

first ones sold the day after for good profit

the last (otherwise sold on Christmas Eve for a little profit) got me fired :P

As7

Deusfaux wrote:

first ones sold the day after for good profit

the last (otherwise sold on Christmas Eve for a little profit) got me fired :P

?


I saw an unsold ps3 for the first time today at a Fred Meyers. It had, apparently been there for a good 24 hours.

Deusfaux

Arsenic7 wrote:

?

eh, check the employee lounge thread. long story short - i put ad for it outside the store after hours and it resulted in outright termination

Drez

Deusfaux wrote:

first ones sold the day after for good profit

the last (otherwise sold on Christmas Eve for a little profit) got me fired :P

Sorry man. I read that story. That situation sucks. I understand your perspective, but most retail companies - particularly tech-/gaming-oriented ones, have VERY strict policies about putting ANY non-official notices up anywhere on their property.

That means even ones that are beneficial to the store. If a RM/DM walks into an EB, for instance, and one of the sales associates put up a sign that read "WE HAVE NINTENDO DS IN STOCK!" that they either wrote or printed out but wasn't specifically sent to the store to be displayed, usually the associate AND the store and maybe even the manager/assistant manager would all get written up - even if the SM/ASM weren't there. They are very serious about that kind of stuff.

Sales solicitation by way of a non-official flier that can be seen as competition is always grounds for immediate termination.

They handled it shitty, though. Fuck 'em.

matt7718

I camped out for 12 hours to get one, the store advertised they were going to have 12, and the only received 6 from Sony. So we got a rain check, by the time we got the system, the Ebay prices sucked so we sold it for like... 600.

It was definately a learning experience.

Deusfaux

Drez wrote:

They handled it shitty, though. Fuck 'em.

I'm getting someone to buy this one camera we just got in on staff discount for me (heck, maybe my discount would still work)

and i just now invited the girl i loved seeing every other day to a hockey game so its all good.

Dark Moon

So are PS3s still selling out everywhere else? I have a friend who works at a local Futureshop, and apparently they got over 40 last shipment and still haven't sold out (almost a week ago). Even though it's a sub 1-million person city, it seems strange that they would last that long with all the crazy stories of PS3 campouts still circulating around the internet.

fragglefart

Dark Moon wrote:

So are PS3s still selling out everywhere else? I have a friend who works at a local Futureshop, and apparently they got over 40 last shipment and still haven't sold out (almost a week ago). Even though it's a sub 1-million person city, it seems strange that they would last that long with all the crazy stories of PS3 campouts still circulating around the internet.

Didn't you hear? The damned thing costs five hundred and ninety nine U.S. dollars! OLOLOLO!

Wezoin

Drez wrote:

Deusfaux wrote:

first ones sold the day after for good profit

the last (otherwise sold on Christmas Eve for a little profit) got me fired :P

Sorry man. I read that story. That situation sucks. I understand your perspective, but most retail companies - particularly tech-/gaming-oriented ones, have VERY strict policies about putting ANY non-official notices up anywhere on their property.

That means even ones that are beneficial to the store. If a RM/DM walks into an EB, for instance, and one of the sales associates put up a sign that read "WE HAVE NINTENDO DS IN STOCK!" that they either wrote or printed out but wasn't specifically sent to the store to be displayed, usually the associate AND the store and maybe even the manager/assistant manager would all get written up - even if the SM/ASM weren't there. They are very serious about that kind of stuff.

Sales solicitation by way of a non-official flier that can be seen as competition is always grounds for immediate termination.

They handled it shitty, though. Fuck 'em.

Really? The ebgames by me has a poster on the front desk saying "We Dont Have Any Wii's or PS3's so dont even ask", so I figured it musta been pretty loose on those lines.

OneEyedJack

What a hunk o' shit.

Bionic Monkey

What's funny is I just saw three sitting at Target the other day. And that less than a week after seeing one at Wal-Mart. I'm thinking price-drops aren't too far off in the future.

randombattle

It's pretty obvious people were just buying them to resell or whatever. I mean the game sales have been clear enough to prove so. People just aren't that interested in a 600$ console.

I doubt we will see alot of price dropping for the PS3 given how much it costs them anyway. We haven't even really had a PSP price drop yet. :?

LewieP

Bionic Monkey wrote:

What's funny is I just saw three sitting at Target the other day. And that less than a week after seeing one at Wal-Mart. I'm thinking price-drops aren't too far off in the future.

don't be silly

They will at least wait for the second generation of software, and for it to have launched worldwide.

Possible Bundles including games/accessories soon, but nothing else in the way of price drops for at least a year.

FreddyD

LewieP wrote:

Bionic Monkey wrote:

What's funny is I just saw three sitting at Target the other day. And that less than a week after seeing one at Wal-Mart. I'm thinking price-drops aren't too far off in the future.

don't be silly

They will at least wait for the second generation of software, and for it to have launched worldwide.

Possible Bundles including games/accessories soon, but nothing else in the way of price drops for at least a year.

They lose a few hundred dollars on every PS3 sold. Sony is probably pushing for a pricier model, if anything.

Bionic Monkey

LewieP wrote:

Bionic Monkey wrote:

What's funny is I just saw three sitting at Target the other day. And that less than a week after seeing one at Wal-Mart. I'm thinking price-drops aren't too far off in the future.

don't be silly

They will at least wait for the second generation of software, and for it to have launched worldwide.

Possible Bundles including games/accessories soon, but nothing else in the way of price drops for at least a year.

You're assuming it sells respectably, which from all indications, it isn't. If sales don't pick up, they're gonna have to do something to spur purchases.

Zombiemambo

We (Gamestop) are getting about one PS3 return a week. People play it, don't like it and come back two, three days later to get their money back.

crash5s

Dark Moon wrote:

So are PS3s still selling out everywhere else? I have a friend who works at a local Futureshop, and apparently they got over 40 last shipment and still haven't sold out (almost a week ago). Even though it's a sub 1-million person city, it seems strange that they would last that long with all the crazy stories of PS3 campouts still circulating around the internet.

No they aren't selling out as a whole, but in some areas they are. People don't want the console and with no killer app, and exclusives going multiplatform like crazy (and I'm sure that trend will continue) there is no reason at all to buy one right nwo.

For the PS3 to sell well it's going to have to get under 500 bucks (making it an impulse buy for many), or land some killer 100% exclusive title that's out on the market.

When I eat at the mall for lunch I check EB and best buy often to goof off. They always have PS3's and they aren't selling. Everything else is.

AbsoluteZero

Damn I would have expected some crazy prices near to Christmas.

Any graphs for Wii?

Steel Angel

AbsoluteZero wrote:

Damn I would have expected some crazy prices near to Christmas.

Any graphs for Wii?

Would an editted picture of Nintendo execs all wearing moneyhats suffice? The fact that my now elderly stepfather and his family knew about the system speaks volumes, though I don't think the percentage of people getting Wiis for eBay was as high due to perceptions of Nintendo vs. Sony prelaunch.