The pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 (PS5), the highly anticipated console from Sony have been a bit of a mess which has crafty scalpers from around the world already starting to take advantage.
The next-gen system which has November 12th as the release date in US saw Walmart’s fresh batch of consoles which opened for pre order gone in about a minute.
Enterprising scalpers were ready to capitalize on the situation by selling the console on auction sites in lightning speed. Ebay was flooded with excessively high priced PS5’s worldwide with scalpers ready to cash in.
Gamers in UK and Singapore who might be looking to secure the new PlayStation before its launch on November 19th (a week later after the US release) were in disappointment with GAME UK and Amazon having almost instantly sold out of PS5 hours after going live.
Listings on eBay UK were priced between £1,000 ($1290) to £1,599 ($2070) following the pre-order rush.
While Singaporean classifieds platform Carousell has scalpers listing the PS5 ranging from S$699 ($514) for the digital version, to S$1,499 ($1100) for the PS5 with the disc drive, which includes the upcoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales game.
Over on eBay AU, the situation is much the same with one scalper offering a Buy It Now price of AU$3000 ($2190).
Most of the prices on offer has veered towards the absurd with mark ups reaching more than four times the retail price.
The new PS5 has two editions, the PS5 Digital Edition, and the PS5 with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive, with a recommended retail price of $399 and $499 respectively.
The consoles look almost identical with the only key difference between the two consoles is the lack of the disc drive in the Digital Edition.