Possibly the most feel-good story of the year, it seems that the dirty ingrates who wanted to buy up PlayStation 3s simply to resell them at higher prices are getting the shaft. Oh God, do I wish I could be there in person to soak in their beautiful misery. Read it and laugh:
... a last-minute surge in supply to electronics retailers has left many holding a PS3 with nowhere to unload them. Dozens of people are trying to sell PS3 systems through classified ads for $800 to $2,000. Most are listed for around $1,000 and accept best offers.
Trevor, who didn't want his last name used, lined up for 18 hours to pick up PS3 the day it was released, and has been hanging onto the system since Nov. 17. The 23-year-old was waiting to sell it in the hope of making some extra cash. "I figured, hold it to Christmas and everyone will be rushing to get one for their kids." He's selling a 60GB system with one game and an extra controller for $1,540 or best offer. Although he's had a couple of responses to his ad, no deals have resulted.
Dwayne Paul, 27, also hoped to make some extra money during the holidays by unloading a PS3. He's asking $2,000 or best offer for a 60GB system. So far, there have been no takers. "It's easy to get now," he said. "It's not a hot commodity."
Both said they plan to return the systems to the store.
Good. I hope their dreams are forever ruined.
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Contest:
9:03 PM on 12.26.2006
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i expect there to be a rediculous amount of returns in the next month
I guess karma hasn't come back to me yet (though apparently I didn't do anything wrong, if nobody else would have bought them for themselves)
"$1200" he replied.
I smiled, wished him luck and drove away. I think it's great that all these assholes are finally getting theirs.
The first half of 07 is going to be a telling time for Sony and the PS3. This generation appears to be far from the walkover people predicted based on their blind faith in Sony (tut tut fanboys).
No, you didn't.
See, these brainiacs don't even understand the concept of net profit.
They buy a PS3 for $600, plus the 20 hours they spent sitting on a sidewalk in the rain, plus the many hours they spend posting an eBay auction (plus the cut that eBay and PayPal take), following it, answering email correspodence, and then driving 100 miles (at $3/gallon in their shitty 12 MPG minivan) or shipping to make the exchange and then sell it for $700.
Then the genius says: "I just MADE $700!"
No.
You just made about $15.
Subtract the overhead from the gross profit and you just worked in sub-zero temperatures without sleep for about 8 pennies an hour.
Tool.
Even a falkin' 12 year-old peasant girl in Shanghai makes more than that.
That's why these imbeciles are forced to scalp PS3s in the first place. Because if they had a lick of business acumen, they'd know that they are better off collecting aluminum cans in a shopping cart.
This is the same class of people who sell "ultra-rare" beanie babies at a 500% mark-up to sixth graders. It's pathetic.
Sorry man, but when you make those assumptions you have no idea who you are talking to. Don't think of me as some kid that begged for money from his parents and camped outside to get one. I know how this stuff works, and I know what my time is worth.
$8000 of profit.
Seriously, i seem to always underestimate how stupid some poeple can be. If those morons would just wait a few months they could not only get the console for it's actual pirce, but there might also be a few games out that are actually worth buying... Really, anyone who shelled out more than $600 for their PS3 is a god damn moron... (or fithy stickin rich -.-)
Good to see atleast some of the resellers are recieving some payback from their greed... It's because of both them and the moronic desperate buyers that made the lauch day so damn choatic... (the buyers already got their payback when they bought the cosule for more then what it's worth, when it had no good games out yet)
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that your $8,000 pure profit tale is pure horseshit.
Whatever man. I made it into the local paper since I hired 12 high school kids to wait in various lines.
It's not really THAT implausible to make $8000 profit. I know for a fact that I'm not the only one.
It's just someone trying to capitalize on a seasonal event. Demand wasn't nearly up to snuff, clearly, and a lot of people got burned. This is about it. Do you need to mock these people endlessly over it? No. Were they stupid to not watch the market trends and know to bail out early and fast? Yes. Does being on the losing end of a hot commodity gone cold deserve scorn for losing money? Geez, no. I'm not saying to go up and hug some dude in line at Best Buy.
But damn guys, if you had $1000 you knew you could pretty reliably turn into $2000, wouldn't you consider doing the same? If not, then how do you plan on retiring when you're 65, because your grandmother's savings account she setup for you when you were 4 isn't going to cover it. And I'm speaking in the hypothetical here. (I realize very few people, including myself, did not use their PS3 profits for retirement, but it's the overall thought)
...then the systems locking up (on purpose)...
...then the mishap with the blu-ray and ALL the rest of the hardware...
...now this.
Like I said.
Horseshit.
And your telling me you hired 12 high school kids makes your $8,000 profit tale LESS believable, not more.
>> I know for a fact that I'm not the only one.
No, you don't.
You THINK you know because your wannabe pimp buddies told even greater tales of gray market derring-do, but in the end it's just a bunch of fellas sitting around the cracker barrel swapping fish stories.
High school kids are strapped for cash, and they don't mind sitting outside a store for 24 hours for 100 bucks.
Are you bitter, or something?
You obviously want to tell us the tale of your coup.
So, don't keep us waiting.
How many kids did you hire?
How much?
How many PS3s?
Come on.
Once we start picking through the details, your $8,000 "profit" is going to shrink to about $75 and a 2-for-1 coupon at Quizno's.
Like I said, I hired 12 high school kids for $100 each. 2 of them are good friends of mine so I trusted them to handle two different "teams", one at circuit city and one at wal-mart. All 12 of them managed to get ps3s.
Me and 2 of my older friends drove to this shithole town near mine, and got away with sitting in line for only 8 hours or so.
15 PS3s total. The two team leaders collected all of them and dropped them back off at my place. It was all pulled off perfectly with no hitches, which was very lucky.
I sold the ps3s right away for an average of $1450.
Then we're talking $50 for shipping, $30 for ebay and paypal fees, $100 for paying the kids.
You think that all these "little details" are going to somehow eat up $850 per system? Look at the specifics, and you'll see that the ebay, paypal, and shipping costs are minuscule compared to the amount of money we're dealing with.
By the way, I should clarify that I'm talking on a per-ps3 basis.
That's an average of $1,370 per PS3. That would fall within your $1,450 average.
I doubt you counted the fuel you used to travel and check on the "teams." At $3/gallon, that adds up. Did you buy pizza or coffee and doughnuts for these kids? Anything like that? That counts in your overhead as well. Finally, how many hours did you spend answering emails, checking on auctions, answering queries from buyers, driving to mail items?
When all is said and done, I suspect $8,000 is your high estimate. Sort of how gamblers conveniently forget their losses and salesmen always forget the many hours, days, and weeks they starved before they landed that Big Sale.
I mean if you made say $4,000 and that's in addition to your regular job and you managed to have it take up a minimum of time then congratulations to you. That's a nice profit on your part. However, if all you've had going for the past couple of months is a minimum wage job and a "big" PS3 score then your time is better spent cracking a book so you can make that $4,000 (or $8,000) every month, not once every console launch cycle (every five years).
But if your tale is accurate, then kudos to you. I don't begrudge you your profit. I don't have any problem at all with reselling PS3s or hiring those kids (tell me they were over 16 though).
Mostly though, it was a really fun experience. I don't know if you went to any launches, but it's really interesting to meet the people and be in that situation.
The worst part was dropping those 15 huge boxes off at the post office.
I would buy some furniture or cabinets,,,