Suppliers in Japan offered us PSP units to ship this past Saturday. Since we have sizable deposits in their respective accounts for the launch, they would be able to ship approximately 500-1500 units to us immediately depending on how many we needed. That was the good news.
We balked when the price was started at the yen equivalent of US$491.59 per PSP Value Pack without any games. We inquired about the price for the PSP regular pack and were met with a price of US$426.90. These were to be our per unit costs before shipping charges. If we were willing to pay their quoted prices for up to 1500 units, they would be able to supply them. Needless to say, we asked them to hold off on shipping anything until we could consult with customers to determine who was willing to be gouged.
This week's situation:
If you are willing to pay US$491.59 per PSP Value Pack + our actual import shipping cost per unit is, we will import it for you and have it ready to ship on WEDNESDAY. Guaranteed. There is apparently lots of supply available... at that price. No shortage... at that price. Import costs would be approximately US$21.30 per unit for a total price of US$512.89 per PSP Value Pack. Games will also be priced higher at US$58 for the five titles that were released this weekend: Armored Core: Final Front, Lumines (still $49), Mahjong Fight Club, Minna no Golf, Ridge Racer, and Vampire Saviour. There is no shortage of any of the games and they will all be readily available on Wednesday.
As we have mentioned many times before, our advice would be to wait a week or two. If suppliers are unable to make a quick killing on high priced stock over the next few days, panic will eventually set in and prices will be dumped. It only takes one member of the fragile cartel to break rank before all of the prices start tumbling. Sony will also ship more supplies of the PSP to market in the coming weeks and speculators will not be able to absorb all of that supply to keep any artificially inflated pricing stable.
Since we are asking customers to wait, we will keep everyone updated on the pricing situation and still process preorders in the order that they were received. We doubt that many customers would be willing to pay such a premium to have the PSP this week but if you are, please contact us with your full name and preorder number and we will ship your order this Wednesday. Please note however that we will not accept any PSP cancellations once you confirm at the higher price and your credit card will be charged today. We will also not accept any returns of the PSP because of dead-pixel problems. Yes, there are numerous reports of units with dead-pixel problems in the market. None of our suppliers or Sony themselves, apparently, will accept dead-pixel PSPs for return and you must agree to accept this condition.
