Youtube of EB employees pre-booking pre-orders

[Powderkeg]

Your whole scenario Powderkeg depends on your pre-order being fulfilled. There's no guarantee that's going to happen either, which is why I didn't bother hunting around for a place taking pre-orders as I think a large number of people are going to be in a big surprise anyway.

Sony was very careful to tell game stores precisely how many systems they will receive. That's why there was a maximum of 15 units per store with most getting half that.

And I'm #2 on the list. I'll get it just like I got my 360 from a GS preorder on launch night. (Same store)

I question why anyone who orders just one PS3 and who is not a teenager or someone with low income, would bother trying to "profit" from a single PS3 sale. The margin is at max, $1400, and probably less. Yet, there's the pre-order, the pickup, auctioning it, packaging and mailing it, seems like a trivial amount of profit. I'd just keep the system.

Are you serious?

OK setting up the auction will take all of about 10 minutes. Picking it up will take at most 15 minutes more. (That's how long it took me to get my 360) Packaging and shipping it I can do while I am at work. It's just a matter of dropping it in a box with some shipping peanuts, taping it close, print out a shipping label, and wait for the UPS guy to come in to pick it up.

Grand total will be less than an hour invested, and enough gas to drive 3 miles round trip.

When was the last time you made $1400 in under an hour? And how much do you normally earn to think $1400 in 1 hour isn't worth the effort?

The only way I could justify a sale after going through the effort to get one is if I had gotten 2 of them, and was using 1 to cover the cost of another.

That's you, not me. But as you said I could get $1400 in profit, which would be plenty to pay for a second system with enough left over to buy 10 games, and enough food and drinks to last for a week. But I guess that still wouldn't be worth the effort, right?


Or are you just throwing this straw-man arguement at me because I am assured to get a PS3, and it bothers you to know that it's Ebay bound?

 

[DeathKnight]

Or are you just throwing this straw-man arguement at me because I am assured to get a PS3, and it bothers you to know that it's Ebay bound?

I think you've got it there. He's irked that people are buying PS3's to profit off of them through eBay instead of buying them to play them.

 

[PARANOiA]

I think you've got it there. He's irked that people are buying PS3's to profit off of them through eBay instead of buying them to play them.

As a gamer I hardly blame him.

 

[DemoCoder]

No, it doesn't bother me one bit what people do with their PS3s. I could give a rats ass what other people do with their machines. It's not like if you decided to keep it, it would increase the supply for others,or that if you decided not to buy it, it would make a damn bit of difference. There are way more scalpers than units.

I posted on B3D well over 1 year ago that if I was able to preorder a bunch of PS3s, I'd do it and sell them. In fact, I even proposed the idea of hiring a whole bunch of cheap labor to go out and stand in line, and scale the operation up to hundreds, maybe thousands, of PS3 units.

Any time supply is scarce, you're going to have speculators, period. Funny how I get bashed for being a libertarian capitalist in other forums. I don't have a problem with what purchasers are doing, (hell, they can sledgehammer them if they want) although on the X-Box 360 launch, I had a problem with store bundling policy.

I just think the hassle to get one unit and sell it is a waste of my time from a investment perspective. The system is more valuable to me personally to use it than to sell it. I can understand people for whom $1400 is alot of money going through the trouble. I guess because Powderkeg is an anti-Sony, it don't matter to him because he doesn't want a PS3 anyway. I thought $1400 was not that much money for Powderkeg, such that it would override the utility of owning the unit itself.

For me personally? The time spent would not be worth it.. Spending the same amount of time on ETRADE, I made $10k profit on NVDA in a few minutes, and I never had to leave my chair. I would not have, for example, bought a XB360 at launch and sold it, unless I could have scaled it up to say a dozen or more. I bought a quad-core Mac Pro recently purely from $80k in profit I made from ORCL sales.


I still think alot of people are going to be disappointed on launch day, not just because I think Sony will not meet their launch numbers, that some store employees will cheat and lie, but also that I think many units may end up defective as well. That's why I am warning people not to get their hopes up.

p.s. if I was to be irked or irritated at any entity, it would be Sony for such mismanagement of their launch, just like I blamed Microsoft for the paultry "worldwide" launch shennanigans.

 

[nintenho]

I don't think they would be pissed off enough to make a video if they intended to sell them. And obviously there is no way they could have taken pre-orders by phone if this is supposed to be a simultaneous thing because these guys would have gotten there probably a half hour early and either saw somebody put the sign up before the store opened or they saw the sign already there before they were supposed to open.

No way that they were not cheating the customers.

 

[Powderkeg]

I just think the hassle to get one unit and sell it is a waste of my time from a investment perspective. The system is more valuable to me personally to use it than to sell it. I can understand people for whom $1400 is alot of money going through the trouble. I guess because Powderkeg is an anti-Sony, it don't matter to him because he doesn't want a PS3 anyway. I thought $1400 was not that much money for Powderkeg, such that it would override the utility of owning the unit itself.

What utility? It's a game console, and that's all I would use it for. I've already got a PC and 360 to game on, and frankly that gives me more games than I've got time to play already.

But if you think the system is worth all of that I'll be happy to sell it to you.............. for $2000.


BTW, you never did say how much money you make to think that $1400 profit for 1 hours worth of work isn't worth it. Must be well over $2,912,000 pear year.

 

[SugarCoat]

These are the same idiots who then turn around and sell them on ebay for $2000, even some trying to sell the preorders for $1300. The jokes on them however as ebay is cancelling all PS3 listings.

this isnt true. as long as you actually have the product to sell Ebay wont be doing anything to the auctions, meaning when the PS3 launches, you will see them listed and sold. They only cancel ghost auctions where the seller isnt actually selling the product but a voucher.

 

[Powderkeg]

this isnt true. as long as you actually have the product to sell Ebay wont be doing anything to the auctions, meaning when the PS3 launches, you will see them listed and sold. They only cancel ghost auctions where the seller isnt actually selling the product but a voucher.

That's not even entirely correct.

Ebay has a rule with every auction on their site. The item must ship within 30 days of the end of the auction.

Also, the auction price cannot start above MSRP.

Those people who started auctions on the day that PS3 preorders started violated that first rule. Many violated the second as well.

Now, Ebay is enforcing an indentification program with the PS3 now, where you have to provide them with all sorts of personal info to start an auction to sell a PS3, but there are no restrictions as to when you can start, provided you don't violate the above rules.

 

[SugarCoat]

thats not going to stop the rampant pricing. Start it at 599 and its going to bloat to alot more simply by the idiots willing to pay out their butts for a hunk of black plastic that goes "whiiizzzzz". People think the Xbox360 was bad, i remember the PS2 having the same problem its going to have this year (for some reason i remember it being worse then the Xbox360), and those things went for way wayyyy above their premium too. Should be in for some very interesting numbers.




meanwhile millions are starving. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[ANova]

People think the Xbox360 was bad, i remember the PS2 having the same problem its going to have this year (for some reason i remember it being worse then the Xbox360), and those things went for way wayyyy above their premium too. Should be in for some very interesting numbers.

I don't remember it being that bad. I bought a PS2 a month or two after release at best buy for MSRP.

meanwhile millions are starving. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Indeed.

 

[DemoCoder]

What utility? It's a game console, and that's all I would use it for.

There's your utility. Unless you're claiming the PS3 has no utility as a game console at all. Maybe it has none *for you personally*. I'm not surprised, you've been a consistent anti-Sony zealot on the forums.

But if you think the system is worth all of that I'll be happy to sell it to you.............. for $2000.

Keep dreaming. If I had a single system, I probably wouldn't go through the trouble of selling it. On the other hand, I'm not going to go out of my way to obtain a system. I own many things which I could profit by if I sold them, but whose readiness-to-hand when I desire them is more valuable.

Even depreciating items present this dilemma. Why do I bother to own DVDs? It's not like I rewatch all of them regularly. Since rental is cheaper, what's the point? Well, in rare cases, I do like to pop in an old DVD and watch them, and the hassle of going to Netflix or Blockbuster to get them is too high cost vs "impulse" to watch. It's likely 15 minutes to obtain from the video store and I'll lose interest.

My PC had lots of old game titles still installed. I hardly ever play them. Why not just delete them and recover the harddrive space. Then, if I ever wanted to play BattleField 2, America's Army, Max Payne, or UT, I'd just have to reinstall them from optical disk. Except that, the impulse to fire up say, BF2 on a whim or urge is outweighed by a 10 minute install.

So for me, a PS3 is valuable to have, and I wouldn't sell it because I'd rather have it around even if I don't use it constantly, but I'm not going to go out of my way to obtain it.

BTW, you never did say how much money you make to think that $1400 profit for 1 hours worth of work isn't worth it. Must be well over $2,912,000 pear year.

There are an large number of tasks I can do with similar gains, does that I mean I try to go out and do all of them? The opportunity cost of wasting those hours on PS3 "investment" to sell, interferes with the gain of utility from enjoying the unit whenever I want as well as the gain of profit from more scalable ventures. As I said, I made $10,000 in an even shorter time in ETRADE investments.

Should I go out and find every scalper opportunity which exceeds my hourly wages? Why don't you go scalp Barbara Streisand concert tickets then on eBay. Hell, you should be able to make an entire career out of buying scarce items and reselling them on eBay. PS3s, Tickle Me Elmo TMX, concert tickets, beanie babies, special edition coins.

Get to it.

 

[JeffK]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cgsFyJ2FZMM

No idea which sub-forum to post this. They put up a sign saying you can't make pre-orders there so that they can keep them all to themselves. Hope they get fired because the person who took the video says which EB it is.

Yonge and Highway 7, thats in Markham, ON, very close to ATI HQ.

 

[Powderkeg]

There's your utility. Unless you're claiming the PS3 has no utility as a game console at all. Maybe it has none *for you personally*. I'm not surprised, you've been a consistent anti-Sony zealot on the forums.

Yep, I knew it. You're just pissed because I'm getting one at launch and you won't, and I don't want the system.



Keep on whining. It makes you look oh-so mature.

 

[Powderkeg]

thats not going to stop the rampant pricing. Start it at 599 and its going to bloat to alot more simply by the idiots willing to pay out their butts for a hunk of black plastic that goes "whiiizzzzz". People think the Xbox360 was bad, i remember the PS2 having the same problem its going to have this year (for some reason i remember it being worse then the Xbox360), and those things went for way wayyyy above their premium too. Should be in for some very interesting numbers.

That's what I am counting on. I plan on starting the auction for my preorder 8 days before I pick it up. Starting bid will be $599. I expect to get at least $2000 for it, and maybe much more with guaranteed overnight shipping sent the day the system launches, and reciept included.

Some lucky Sony fan is going to buy my daughter some really nice Christmas presents.

 

[DemoCoder]

Yep, I knew it. You're just pissed because I'm getting one at launch and you won't, and I don't want the system.

No Powderkeg, if I was all that Gung Ho about getting one at launch, I would have put out more effort, like standing in line very early. I had long ago resolved not to get one at launch based on Sony's manufacturing difficulties and my own experience with shoddy XBOX360s from early production runs. You should know from my history of criticizing Microsoft's launch, that I am not someone who will lift a finger of extra effort to secure a launch system. (Nor did I criticize anyone who bought XBOX360s and sold them or sledgehammered them) Frankly, if I can't walk into a store and get one without standing in line for more than a few minutes, I'll wait, and I won't spend any effort constantly checking stores for when their next shipments come in either, or searching for the best place to wait in line early. I also won't pay a markup to get such systems, which is why I did not buy those $1000+ XBOX360 bundles when they were available.

Scalpers are perfectly predictable consequence of insufficient launch quantities. If there's anything to "whine" about, it's about Sony's poor execution. Which I will probably be doing in the coming months.

There is a difference between "whining" and being surprised that someone presumably married with kids and better things to do is acting like a low income teenager desparate for cash. If it was purely about profit, I'd question why you're not a full time scalper and eBay trader. Ticket Me Elmo TMX had even higher ROI than PS3, some of them selling for up to 10x their MRSP. $30 Furbies were selling over $150 on eBay at one point.

I think in your case it's more than just the money, but some kind of bizarre idea that you are going to troll and rile people who like Sony, like the people who sledgehammered XBOX360 units in front of people standing in line all night. In reality, it's you who will look immature.

Unlike you, I am not a party to the immature console wars. I will own all systems, I always do, it is never an either-or for me. Just like I own both a Mac Pro and a PC.

 

[DemoCoder]

i remember the PS2 having the same problem its going to have this year (for some reason i remember it being worse then the Xbox360), and those things went for way wayyyy above their premium too. Should be in for some very interesting numbers.

Well, PS2 launch supplies were far worse than XB360. 500k at launch (chopped down from Sony's promise of 1 million units) plus a promise of 100k units per week. Europe's launch was criminal: only 200k units. Now we have 400k units for US, who knows if they'll make their promised figures, and who knows how many will be defective.

PS2's were selling on eBay for up to $1500 back then (not corrected for 2006 inflated dollars).

The market price will boil down to how much people are willing to pay and how many people will be scalping. XBOX360's initially spiked, but quickly settled down to about $600-800 for a premium. If a huge fraction of systems are scalped and go for upwards of $1500, then all of the whiners about PS3's pricing don't really have a leg to stand on since apparently, huge numbers of people regard the system so well that they're willing to pay a premium for it, despite potential for defects and lack of launch titles.

 

[StefanS]

Off-topic+bickering=lock