ManaByte
Gold Member
Scalpers will just register accounts and have their bots buy all stock. That's what's going on now.
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There was a Gamestop batch of PS5 and Series X and guess what? -- Sold out within in 2 to 15 minutes. Stores need to come up with ways to fix this!!
- Thread starter Derktron
- Start date
Scalpers will just register accounts and have their bots buy all stock. That's what's going on now.
Hawking Radiation
Member
FixedYou had a Series S.
bender
What time is it?
Why? My free jokes! You bastard!
Humdinger
Member
Is there a simple way (besides signing up for twitter and following the companies; I hate twitter) to get notified when supplies drop? I figure if the supplies are lasting a couple minutes, that would be enough to snag one, assuming you were there at the opening bell. But I'm not sure how to get notified of supply drops. Is there some kind of central clearinghouse for this information?
ClanOfNone
Member
lmao, I've probably been online for a dozen or so stock drops since launch, various retailers, and struck out every single time.
That StockX price keeps dropping though, one it dips below six hundos I'm probably gonna pull the trigger.
That StockX price keeps dropping though, one it dips below six hundos I'm probably gonna pull the trigger.
Hawking Radiation
Member
I swear It's like they're waiting for Covid to fuck off tomorrow. This is a new normal for everyone and retail stores should adapt to the changing environment.
Setup an account verified pre-order walk-in system with 1 unit per customer limit and let that be the end of it. It's really that fucking simple. Covid's not going anywhere anytime soon so retail chains need to change how they operate. It's far too easy to jippo the system via online purchases with the help of bots.
Component supply constraints is making the wait even harder for some for a next gen console. There's another reason to curb scalpers.
Hawking Radiation
Member
Call up your local electronics store. Whisper sweet nothings in to the ears of the employees and hope for the best. Seriously, i'm not kidding. This is what I'm doing now so that I can secure a PS5. I'm calling every week so they know me by name. I've got cash handy as a bribe to sweet the deal on securing a PS5.
I'm doing whatever it takes short of whoring myself out to a pick me up gangbang for a fiver.
Zeroing
Banned
Wait they do that here in Portugal! They don’t do it in other countries?
ClanOfNone
Member
It would be great customer service to offer one to current Live/psn subscribers, and I'm kinda surprised nobody has tried that yet.
"Hey guys, new console coming out soon, wanna preorder one directly from us and skip the retail fracas?" Cut out the middle man altogether.
"Hey guys, new console coming out soon, wanna preorder one directly from us and skip the retail fracas?" Cut out the middle man altogether.
DiegoAndrad
Member
The only way to fix it, is to raise the price
Codes 208
Member
The reason why you barely see them in-store compared to online is due to the absolute crazy demand. Whenever my store would get a batch in, and I mean about 3-5 systems, we would have dozens (if not around 100) people waiting outside just before we opened. To which we would tell people we only had a handful but of course This leads to fights (there was four total at my store since launch). And as an associate I would get harassed daily “oh you’re just hiding them in the back!” “You guys are assholes and have ruined our Christmas” “I don’t believe you, I want to speak to your manager”
it was fucking hell before it switched to online only.
it was fucking hell before it switched to online only.
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ThatOneGrunt
Member
I would love to get a 3070. How hard is it to just put a captcha on the on these sites?
I was going to say the same thing. The MSRP should have been much higher out of the gate. Instead of being $400 and $500, the price should have been something like $600 and $800.
Even better, the MSRP should have been $700 and $900. I'm sure that would have discouraged most people from buying the system with the intention of reselling it. Less resellers = console much easier to obtain.
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Punished Miku
Gold Member
I feel pretty fortunate after this thread. Found one on black Friday while getting groceries ...
Astral Dog
Member
I don't see a reason to get a PS5 right now i can wait a year or two, crazy demand.
Funny thing is, that because of huge demand and strange allocation of PS5's, our country gets just a few PS5 consoles per month. So, our retailers actually started to sell consoles with higher price then is MSRP. And they are raking huge margins because of that (same for GPU's).
People are really desperate for these machines and are willing to pay premium for them. Strangest thing is, that our country is Playstation dominant, but Xbox with higher monthly supply then PS5 is still having huge issues with availability and for majority of time you can't find Series X and there are only few Series S here or there...
People are really desperate for these machines and are willing to pay premium for them. Strangest thing is, that our country is Playstation dominant, but Xbox with higher monthly supply then PS5 is still having huge issues with availability and for majority of time you can't find Series X and there are only few Series S here or there...
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Here is a radical idea. How about stores let people slap down a deposit and then put those people into a queue. Once it's your turn, you get 24 hours to purchase the console in full, or you get your disposit back.
Just a random idea, but at this point anything is better than the current system. I'd even take to stores opening gladiator arenas and letting people fight to first blood for a console.
Just a random idea, but at this point anything is better than the current system. I'd even take to stores opening gladiator arenas and letting people fight to first blood for a console.
ZywyPL
Banned
The reality is, if Sony and MS really wanted to stop scalping from happening, they would sell the consoles only directly from their own stores, with mandatory PSN/XBL profiles that are at least one year old, so that way the consoles would go only to the hands of real gamers. But it is what it is, they don't have the warehouse capacity nor logistic to supply the whole world only by themselves. As with any generation, you either pre-order the consoles before they launch or you'll have a ton of patience until you can just walk into the store and buy a console just like that.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
There's not really much point in expecting retailers to set up a system for preorders or accounts or anything else. For them, they get stock they sell it. Anything more cuts into their bottom line.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Retailers would be annoyed, business relationships would be damaged, etc. Systems are already sold through manufacturer websites, if it didn't matter, they'd sell all of them through those websites and would be better off - they wouldn't have to sell the systems below RRP to give retailers a profit margin. That's why even though there's not enough to meet demand, they still bother to distribute them to lots of individual companies and their stores.
supernova8
Banned
Same here in Japan the only time I saw PS5 available was on launch day for about 20 seconds before what I assume is a bot picked me to the fucking post. Literally all the electronics retailers' websites went down (Bic Camera, Yodobashi, Yamada Denki etc, etc,).
Since then the only thing you see is people listing them for outrageous prices on Amazon or Mercari (Japanese equivalent of eBay).
I'm sure if I learned how to do the bot stuff or follow one of those livestreams where they have bots scanning 24/7, I could probably get one but it's just annoying we're even at this point.
Fix what? People wanting to buy the products they sell?
supernova8
Banned
Not really sure it's just that. Scalping is way more prevalent than it used to be because it's sort of become commoditized. You no longer need to physically go around buying up consoles (and thus running the risk of getting turned away). You can run the bot programs, set up a load of accounts with prepaid credit cards etc etc and get around most of the usual barriers to bulk buying.
At this point it looks like the only way to get a console at retail price is to use the same bots they're using or just wait until people (who are enabling scalpers) stop buying them at stupid prices.
One thing that could help (although it may be not be legal) is to institute a no returns policy unless the device is actually broken
It looks like you can usually return products within 30 days or so and get your money back if the product is unopened. Maybe retailers (and online retailers) need to have the ability (with oversight from some retail regulatory body to designate certain products as at-risk from scalping and therefore stop people from returning them within a certain period. Giving scalpers a 30 day return window means there's literally zero risk to scalping, if they don't sell their loot at their desired price within that time they can just return it and get their money back. If there's no downside for them, why would they stop doing it?
supernova8
Banned
Yep this is true. No incentive for them to spend their own money to fix a problem that doesn't affect them (and isn't caused by them).
Only way to improve the situation would be for Sony themselves to come up with some sort of solution and provide it to retailers free of charge (and also make it simple to implement).
I remember back when I used to work in online retail, we had our own original (limited edition) products that would get swarmed by scalpers but we solved it by taking in a set number of orders (we would never disclose how many units we had available, we would just have a button saying "place a tentative order"), and then we would spend a couple of days going through the orders (first with automated tools to pick up clear scalping fucks and then manually going over the rest to spot any weird accounts (such as overly generic names or clearly made up addresses). We also made it so they were technically "made to order" and that meant we could set them as "no returns" which also deterred scalpers.
There were still some scalpers but very, very few compared to other products that I've seen scalped into oblivion.
I guess the point is that they were our own products so our reputation was on the line. We wouldn't have done it for another company's product that we simply stocked.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
I just hope it doesnt swing crazily the other way if lockdowns ease and people can go back some form of normality. It would suck.
nightmare-slain
Member
i doubt they care. they probably don't give a shit who buys them.
all they know and care about is that they are getting stock in and that shit is gone real fast. ka-ching
all they know and care about is that they are getting stock in and that shit is gone real fast. ka-ching
ZywyPL
Banned
I'd say it's the same, people seem to forget that PS4 was impossible to get for first half a year, unless from auctions for 700-800$.
RoboFu
One of the green rats
Those lasted about a min as well.
Derktron
Banned
I said 2 minutes because at the time I tested something out with the Xbox Series X bundle and to my surprise, it was still available even I wanted it but then I decided that is not what I want. I want a PS5, not Series X. I already have the Series S.
Derktron
Banned
Who the fuck is stupid to even buy from StockX lol I'm assuming your one of those sneaker heads lol - I would rather buy from eBay which is more trusted with scams than StockX. At least it's easier to deal with on eBay if you have Paypal connected to your account but StockX. Hell to the no. I would not trust them at ALL! Not even with my shoes.
Derktron
Banned
Yeah, it's crazy getting both consoles, and fuck even the Switch is hard to get. Gaming is alive and well.
RoboFu
One of the green rats
supernova8
Banned
I remember getting a PS4 around launch without having to preorder it, from a retail store.
Honestly I think the bot-enabled scalping scene has just grown so much more since then, or rather the scalpers that have been around for stuff like concert tickets finally realised the benefit of scalping tech items.
ClanOfNone
Member
I haven't used StockX for any purchases, but I know several people that have and they didn't have any issues. I believe you pay them, they hold the money in escrow until they receive the product from the seller. They verify said product and ship it to you and they pay the seller. Plus the way they do aggregated pricing means I'll be able to get one cheaper than they typically go for on other resellers. I'll research it a bit more before I buy, but I think it's a legit service.
Ebay on the other hand, I have used before and it was kind of a hassle that I'd rather avoid going through again.
sloppyjoe_gamer
Gold Member
Few months back i used StockX to get a 3D Pulse headset and had no issues at all. Got my product within 4 days too. Paid $129 instead of $99, but honestly i didn't think was that big of a deal to get what i needed hassle free.
Derktron
Banned
It's still worse lol
some have reported it being fake, especially with shoes.
KungFucius
King Snowflake
They can't fix this. PS5 sold 7.8 million through March. At best that is only ~ 1.3 million per month new units. Demand is clearly still higher than that but Sony can't increase the supply by much if any because components are hard to procure and you really want to target the steady state number of units produced because manufacturing capacity is expensive.
For the sake of argument lets assume 500k go to the US per month and that each large retailer has 5 drops per month. Each drop would then be 100k units divided by the number of big retailers. Amazon, GameStop, BB, Walmart, Target, Others( costco, BJs, Antonline, ..) So that gives each group about 15k per drop. The ones that do local only split those out amongst 100s of shops so have at most 30 per site if they only have 100 stores, 8 or so if they are Best Buy and have 400 + stores. 15k nationally is nothing. 8 locally is also nothing. These quantities will vanish in seconds because more than 15k people want PS5s and are hammering the site. You can't fix that unless you build a costly reservation system that gives 0 benefit to the retailers or Sony.
They also cannot hoard PS5s until there are enough to sell so that they stay in stock for more than seconds because it costs money to hold inventory.
7.8 million is only about 6-7% of the PS4 install base. There is a lot of upgrade demand still coming from PS4 owners.
For the sake of argument lets assume 500k go to the US per month and that each large retailer has 5 drops per month. Each drop would then be 100k units divided by the number of big retailers. Amazon, GameStop, BB, Walmart, Target, Others( costco, BJs, Antonline, ..) So that gives each group about 15k per drop. The ones that do local only split those out amongst 100s of shops so have at most 30 per site if they only have 100 stores, 8 or so if they are Best Buy and have 400 + stores. 15k nationally is nothing. 8 locally is also nothing. These quantities will vanish in seconds because more than 15k people want PS5s and are hammering the site. You can't fix that unless you build a costly reservation system that gives 0 benefit to the retailers or Sony.
They also cannot hoard PS5s until there are enough to sell so that they stay in stock for more than seconds because it costs money to hold inventory.
7.8 million is only about 6-7% of the PS4 install base. There is a lot of upgrade demand still coming from PS4 owners.
