- The PS5 remained sold out over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, as the Sony console is one of the most coveted products of the holiday season.
- Scalpers are making a killing at reselling the new consoles for premium prices, with one person having pocketed $40,000 in a week from selling PS5 units.
- A different report explains the relatively simple process of boosting your game to ensure that you can score at least one PS5 unit for a regular price once more stock becomes available.
- The only way to get a PS5 on Cyber Monday might be getting one for twice the retail price from a reseller.
Despite the ongoing health crisis that impacted everything about daily life, Sony and Microsoft launched earlier this month the next-gen consoles that gamers were waiting for. After a year of cat-and-mouse marketing games between the two companies, they each announced pricing and release dates for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles a few months ago. The new console systems went on preorder a few days apart, and all models were quickly sold out. But it’s the PlayStation 5 that continues to be the winner of this war, with most people talking about Sony’s next-gen console more than they do about the Series X or S.
The PS5 remained sold out since the messy preorder, but several retailers sold additional stock on various occasions. PS5 stock was briefly available in the days leading to Black Friday, and even on Black Friday, with Best Buy, Walmart, and GameStop all taking orders a few days ago. Stock will continue to arrive in the coming days and weeks as Sony struggles to meet demand. In all this excitement, there is a category of buyers that consistently outperforms regular gamers and parents looking to score a PS5 in time for Christmas. That’s scalpers, who are raking in thousands in profits from reselling the consoles at a much higher price.
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A few days ago, a report explained how resellers get organized in groups and how they use bots to have their orders filled in much quicker than unsuspecting buyers who rely on refreshing and clicking through a website as fast as possible in the hopes of getting the console. One of those groups scored around 3,500 PS5 units since preorders opened. Resellers sell the $499 PS5 at around $1,100, while the $399 PS5 Digital Edition can go for as much as $900.
A new story in GiveMeSport says that a reseller claims to have made $40,000 in less than a week selling PS5 consoles at a premium price tag.
A man known as Mark F was able to purchase 221 PS5 consoles for an estimated $99,500. He used a combination of online purchases and bots to get them. A regular buyer would only be able to purchase a single console at once from a retailer. He’s now making a profit of around $500 from each PS5 unit.
A similar story hails from Britain where a Birmingham-based PS5 buyer named Jack told Pocket-Lint that he scored 12 PS5 units so far this year. Jack also explained the process he used to purchase the consoles.
Jack got the first four consoles via pre-orders, through manual means. He then prepared for launch-day stock by purchasing bots and proxies from Discord to automate the purchase process and get an edge over the competition.
The simplest way to get in after finding the right Discord community is to pay a reseller to run a bot for you, which can cost around £50 ($67). The members of these communities will apparently always help newbies get used to the new tools so that they don’t leave empty-handed and badmouth the process online.
Jack then used Revolut and Monzo’s services to generate virtual cards and combined those with friends’ addresses to get his orders in. Again, the limit per customer (and credit card) is one console per store. That’s how he scored 12 additional consoles after targeting a PS5 retailer that did not employ any defense against bots purchases. He ultimately canceled four of those orders, ending up with a total of 12 PS5 units. The going rate for the PS5 is £800 ($1,068) to £850 ($1,135) in Britain if you can find a reseller.
As for Cyber Monday PS5 stock? You can always try your luck online with local stores. But if there’s any stock available, then resellers like Mark F and Jack might beat you to it.
