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Scalpers returning PS3s to stores

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speculawyer said:
I just got back from Toys R Us in Redwood City, California. The had a sign out saying that they were sold out of: Wii, DS, PSP, xbox 360 premium, and PS2. When I got up to the register, I asked if I could get a PS3 as a joke . . . he said "Yeah, sure . . . which model?"

WTF? Sold out of everything except the PS3! Ouch. (Well, at least Sony sold some PS2s & PSPs.) Yeah, yeah, just anectdotal . . . . . but. . . .

Anyway, if you want a PS3 and you are in Northern California, you get get one there.

Wow, interesting. I can't wait for December NPD. I'm hoping for a blowout month!
 
LJ11 said:
So why didn't you buy it at launch?

I went looking for a PS3 in NYC yesterday/today, because of this post. All sold out. I wish I lived in N.California right now.

Edit: I'll bet a two week ban that Sony cuts the price by $100 (on both versions) before June. Whose willing to take the other side of this bet?

How could they cut the price two months after they launch in the EU? (Actually, did the Xbox do that?)
 

LJ11

Member
BenjaminBirdie said:
How could they cut the price two months after they launch in the EU? (Actually, did the Xbox do that?)

I should have specified a U.S. price cut. The Xbox did in fact have a quick price cut in the EU after it released.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
How could they cut the price two months after they launch in the EU? (Actually, did the Xbox do that?)

I could actually see this happening, assuming PS3 sales slow to a crawl after Christmas. A $500/$600 price point is a very significant amount of money and I am very skeptical that PS3 will sell in large quantities after Christmas, but we'll see....
 

LJ11

Member
nextgeneration said:
I could actually see this happening, assuming PS3 sales slow to a crawl after Christmas. A $500/$600 price point is a very significant amount of money and I am very skeptical that PS3 will sell in large quantities after Christmas, but we'll see....

Don't forget Sony is also selling the PS3 (20gb) for around 430 dollars in Japan. Their movie business had an excellent year, as did their CE division led by Bravia and SXRD lines. The battery and camera recalls hurt, but they are one time losses that can be carried forward and used as tax shields. Sony IMO is in a better position to offer a cut than they were in the past. And we all know MS is going to drop the price on 360 some time in late winter or early spring.
 
LJ11 said:
And we all know MS is going to drop the price on 360 some time in late winter or early spring.

Yup, Microsoft most definitely will drop the price and when that happens, if 360 sales were to significantly outpace PS3, all the more likelihood that it will force Sony's hand. I'm very curious to see how this plays out next year.
 
I love the way everyone in the world finds stacks and stacks of PS3's that no one wants, yet I haven't seen a single one in my area. Everywhere I go to a store, I hear the same story. As soon as they come in, they sell out almost instantaneously. Maybe they are in more demand in certain states than others?
 

jetjevons

Bish loves my games!
DreamMachine said:
for the people that want a ps3 just look on eBay, there close to retail prices there.

Actually there are a lot of PS3s going for UNDER retail if you include tax and shipping.
 

boutrosinit

Street Fighter IV World Champion
bengraven said:
Wow, so soon? I remember scalpers owning people on eBay over 360s up until early 2006. I'm not trolling here, I'm being really serious. Christmas was hell for some people trying to get one last year. I wonder how widespread this is.

seriously, the xbot in me is doing a Grinch grin right now


Dude. I ****ing *love* your avatar. Where be it from?
 

Drek

Member
Been working at Gamestop this holiday season (in Illinois). We've had about four or five returned, but they're still selling at a good clip when we have them for sale, sold 3 yesterday before 1PM. I'd say the availability is more a credit to Sony restocking well, not returned units.
 

Bad_Boy

time to take my meds
Just came back from Target, EBgames, Circuit City and Best Buy for some last minute xmas-eve shopping. In all those stores I only spotted 1 60gig available.
 

jko

Junior Member

Kusagari

Member
Bad_Boy said:
Just came back from Target, EBgames, Circuit City and Best Buy for some last minute xmas-eve shopping. In all those stores I only spotted 1 60gig available.

I think the fact that there was ANY PS3 left on christmas eve says something.
 

Dahbomb

Member

Slurpy

*drowns in jizz*
mashoutposse said:
Want to talk about a scalper getting owned? Look at the auctions on this guy's feedback page:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...iid=230069009016&ssPageName=VIP:feedback:2:us

He bought several systems at $800-1000 expecting a Chirstmas bump and got ****ed. Here's how much one of them sold for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEDW:IT&viewitem=&item=230069009016&rd=1&rd=1

Now that's some funny shit.

Wow, what a ****ing moron. You have to be a special breed to LOSE major cash with a PS3- and this guy wins. Serves him right. Who the **** buys several $800-$1000 PS3s and expects to make profit? This guy.
 

rs7k

Member
LOL @ people thinking the PS3 will fail because they saw it in a store. Maybe all the Sony fanboys left GAF :lol :lol
 

AniHawk

Member
We had someone return a PS3 to the store yesterday. Probably a scalper. Made the guy right behind him very happy though (he genuinely wanted the system). A 60 GB too.

As of yesterday, we were out of:

Wii
DS (they sent us Animal Crossing Blue DS Fat bundles that sold for $150 WTF)
DS Lite (we had at least 30 last week)
PS3
GBA SP (any version, including the FFT Advance bundles that sold for $90 and have been around since 2004 [we had about 20])

All that was left at the end of the night was a shitton of 360 systems, a shitton of PSPs, one PS2, and one Gamecube.
 

gbovo

Member
AniHawk said:
We had someone return a PS3 to the store yesterday. Probably a scalper. Made the guy right behind him very happy though (he genuinely wanted the system). A 60 GB too.

As of yesterday, we were out of:

Wii
DS (they sent us Animal Crossing Blue DS Fat bundles that sold for $150 WTF)
DS Lite (we had at least 30 last week)
PS3
GBA SP (any version, including the FFT Advance bundles that sold for $90 and have been around since 2004 [we had about 20])

All that was left at the end of the night was a shitton of 360 systems, a shitton of PSPs, one PS2, and one Gamecube.
Ani, where do you work at?
 

Norse

Member
AniHawk said:
We had someone return a PS3 to the store yesterday. Probably a scalper. Made the guy right behind him very happy though (he genuinely wanted the system). A 60 GB too.

As of yesterday, we were out of:

Wii
DS (they sent us Animal Crossing Blue DS Fat bundles that sold for $150 WTF)
DS Lite (we had at least 30 last week)
PS3
GBA SP (any version, including the FFT Advance bundles that sold for $90 and have been around since 2004 [we had about 20])

All that was left at the end of the night was a shitton of 360 systems, a shitton of PSPs, one PS2, and one Gamecube.


and when you opened that day you had:

Wii = 0
DS= 12
DS=0 (we had at least 30 last week)
PS3=3 tops
GBA SP=0
2 shittons of 360(must be best buy pyramids)
1 shitton of PSPs
20 PS2
and one Gamecube.

The trick to finding a ps3 is to hit the store within the first hour of opening. But most often they only will have a few. But it seems they get a few in 2 times per week or so right now.
 

Norse

Member
rs7k said:
LOL @ people thinking the PS3 will fail because they saw it in a store. Maybe all the Sony fanboys left GAF :lol :lol


I must have missed that.....who is saying it will fail because they saw 1 in the store?
 
I have yet to see these PS3's myself. So far only my father, mom, and sister have seen one, and it was standing behind a guy in Best Buy who had the last one a few weeks ago.

But just recently my friend saw two of these mythical PS3's a few days ago just sitting there at Circuit City, which nearby parents were contemplating on buying them while standing there just looking at them.

They eventually bought them.

Blows me away how parents can just plunk it down like that on the spot.
 

AniHawk

Member
HomerSimpson-Man said:
I have yet to see these PS3's myself. So far only my father, mom, and sister have seen one, and it was standing behind a guy in Best Buy who had the last one a few weeks ago.

But just recently my friend saw two of these mythical PS3's a few days ago just sitting there at Circuit City, which nearby parents were contemplating on buying them while standing there just looking at them.

They eventually bought them.

Blows me away how parents can just plunk it down like that on the spot.

I walked into a Gamestop one day and saw nine Wiis just sitting there. I guess no one wants them.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Norse said:
I must have missed that.....who is saying it will fail because they saw 1 in the store?

Who cares about the irrelevant scalpers? They are just the canary in the coal mine.

This is a story about Sony . . . and it is a very very scary story for them!

I'm kinda bummed . . . I was hoping for a neck & neck race between all three consoles. I wanted something close to a 33%, 33%, and 33% split for this generation.

Time to short SNE?


BTW, Imagine the poor people who paid $3000 for a PS3 if it goes the way of the Dreamcast. Ah f*#k 'em . . . anyone that can pay $3000 for a PS3 is NOT 'poor'.

Uh huh.
 

Sean*O

Member
Someone asked the obvious questions of "Why" would Sony want demand to outstrip supply... How about because they shipped with dramatically lower numbers than they had originally intended (which they thought would fly off the shelves) yet there is still enough to meet demand even with the lower shipped number. There is no logical reason that they would be thrilled with this.
 

Drek

Member
Sean*O said:
Someone asked the obvious questions of "Why" would Sony want demand to outstrip supply... How about because they shipped with dramatically lower numbers than they had originally intended (which they thought would fly off the shelves) yet there is still enough to meet demand even with the lower shipped number. There is no logical reason that they would be thrilled with this.
Except pretty much all the units you're seeing in stores now are restocked systems from Sony.

Sony screwed the pooch on launch shipments, but they've done a great job consistently getting units to stores each week to make up for it. Thats more than I can say for Nintendo, at my store we get maybe half the amount of Wiis in a week compared to PS3s.
 

Safe Bet

Banned
bobbyconover said:
I'm guessing most of the people returning their PS3s now aren't the ones who waited in line at launch, but people who bought PS3s more recently in hopes of doing a quick flip. I know a couple of guys who've bought PS3s within the last couple of weeks simply because they happened to be in stores when they had them in stock, not realizing the scalping craze had already died down quite a bit.

Those of us who waited in line sold off that shit on day one, and made a mint. :)
This is truth...

The only scalpers I have seen recently are people that bought them after launch.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
I saw this happening today at Fry's. I went in to get Superman II on BRD and some other stuff and they were TURNING AWAY PS3 returns. Apparently so many scalpers were trying to return systems that more were coming back today than they sold on day 1 of launch. So many came back today (the day after Christmas) as unwanted "gifts" that the store simply couldn't take that many systems back in as the store would have a massive negative for sales and the manager was telling the scalper thugs to come back another day.
 

neojubei

Will drop pants for Sony.
Kusagari said:
I think the fact that there was ANY PS3 left on christmas eve says something.


says what? I've seen a good number of xbox 360s on the store floor on the 24th. Thatmust say something too.


ManaByte said:
I saw this happening today at Fry's. I went in to get Superman II on BRD and some other stuff and they were TURNING AWAY PS3 returns. Apparently so many scalpers were trying to return systems that more were coming back today than they sold on day 1 of launch. So many came back today (the day after Christmas) as unwanted "gifts" that the store simply couldn't take that many systems back in as the store would have a massive negative for sales and the manager was telling the scalper thugs to come back another day.


Norse said:
I must have missed that.....who is saying it will fail because they saw 1 in the store?


that must have been an awful lot of scalpers returning their system. Let me guess, 20? 50? 100 people returning the PS3. And why would a store turn away an (am assuming unopened) ps3 when they can sell it to the next guy?
 

Krowley

Member
neojubei said:
says what? I've seen a good number of xbox 360s on the store floor on the 24th. Thatmust say something too.

360 isn't in short supply and it's been out for a while now.

If sony has suddenly started shipping massive numbers, then that's a different story... if they are still shipping paltry numbers but they aren't selling very fast, that's pretty bad.

stressboy said:
OMG Nintendo is SCREWED!

:lol anihawk works at EB/gamestop.

or you probably knew that.. maybe you were joking too.

sarcasm is a difficult mistress.
 

neojubei

Will drop pants for Sony.
Krowley said:
360 isn't in short supply.

If sony has suddenly started shipping massive numbers, then that's a different story... if they are still shipping paltry numbers but they aren't selling very fast, that's pretty bad.

How is that BAD!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh crap here comes GAF logic. No ps3 on shelves, sony isnt shipping enough, sony is DOOM!!!!

Oh noes, there are a few PS3s on shelves for people to buy, sony is shipping a good amount each week. Sony is DOOM!!!!!

In the end, sony is doom, am i right?
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
neojubei said:
that must have been an awful lot of scalpers returning their system. Let me guess, 20? 50? 100 people returning the PS3. And why would a store turn away an (am assuming unopened) ps3 when they can sell it to the next guy?

Well there were about 10 or so while I was there. I asked the manager about it (as he was pissed off at scalpers at the Wii launch) and he explained to me that they have had about 20 or so people by noon coming back and he recognized most of them from launch. He said he was turning them away and telling them to come back over the next few days. They could easily resell them (Fry's = Forever Returning Your Stuff), but with all of the post-Christmas returns it was too much for today.
 

zou

Member
My friend says there hasn't been any PS3 since launch. In fact, they never received a single unit.

Guess
Europe
is doomed
 

Krowley

Member
neojubei said:
How is that BAD!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh crap here comes GAF logic. No ps3 on shelves, sony isnt shipping enough, sony is DOOM!!!!

Oh noes, there are a few PS3s on shelves for people to buy, sony is shipping a good amount each week. Sony is DOOM!!!!!

In the end, sony is doom, am i right?


No... you are thinking it simple terms or you're missing my point.

Is sony actually shipping more? or are people just hesitant to buy a ps3? It could be either one.

If they are meeting demand without increasing shipments... that's pretty bad. It means that even during christmas it is easy to keep up with ps3 demand in it's first few months. From what we know, shipments so far have been very small.


If sony has actualy increased shipping in a big way then that's not something to worry about. If they've put out close to a million ps3's in NA, that could explain everything, but if it's still only a few 100k... There is no way to spin that.
 
ManaByte said:
Well there were about 10 or so while I was there. I asked the manager about it (as he was pissed off at scalpers at the Wii launch) and he explained to me that they have had about 20 or so people by noon coming back and he recognized most of them from launch. He said he was turning them away and telling them to come back over the next few days. They could easily resell them (Fry's = Forever Returning Your Stuff), but with all of the post-Christmas returns it was too much for today.

Given that at Fry's you have to have a receipt and give them your Driver's license, how many PS3's did your Fry's get?

20 people returning PS3's in one day, from launch day no less vs how many bought one? Maybe 25? (assuming they got more than absolutely every store I've been to except the district's largest Best Buy).

Sorry, but from where I'm standing you're story is likely full of exaggerated BS. I could be wrong and I don't mean to disparage, but those numbers are ludicrous.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
sonycowboy said:
Given that at Fry's you have to have a receipt and give them your Driver's license, how many PS3's did your Fry's get?

20 people returning PS3's in one day, from launch day no less vs how many bought one? Maybe 25? (assuming they got more than absolutely every store I've been to except the district's largest Best Buy).

Sorry, but from where I'm standing you're story is likely full of exaggerated BS. I could be wrong and I don't mean to disparage, but those numbers are ludicrous.

This one had something over 20 at launch.

I also heard BB had a similar issue.

I think it's just Scalpers trying to use the 26th as "hey I got this for Christmas and don't want it" excuse to quickly offload their system.
 

neojubei

Will drop pants for Sony.
Krowley said:
No... you are thinking it simple terms or you're missing my point.

Is sony actually shipping more? or are people just hesitant to buy a ps3? It could be either one.

If they are meeting demand without increasing shipments... that's pretty bad. It means that even during christmas it is easy to keep up with ps3 demand in it's first few months. From what we know, shipments so far have been very small.


If sony has actually increased shipping in a big way then that's not something to worry about. If they've put out close to a million ps3's in NA, that could explain everything, but if it's still only a few 100k... There is no way to spin that.


so if a store gets 10-15 ps3s and about 9-10 are sold in one day but the rest took maybe a week to sell, is that a bad thing? I doubt Ps3 are on the shelf for a few weeks, that too much for a leap even for GAF. My friend has been looking for a ps3 and i have been helping him and i couldn't find one.
 
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