UK PS3 profits for nobodys.

[iloveannie]

Three blokes at work have pre-orders for PS3s although they don't play games. Their reason? To sell them straight away through eBay. Do you think it will work? Wish I'd never shown them how much profit some people make

[MattyD]

Judging by the shockingly low prices they're going for on this very forum - where you'd think the demand would be higher than with the general public - I'd say they're in for a surprise. One or two have even been sold at a loss in the last week or so.

[VR46]

Can't see them making much money tbh, more hassle than it's worth imo, we'll soon find out in couple of months, all down to how much demand there is for them. USA/JPN ones are not that much above RRP on ebay at the moment.

EDIT: too slow

[Crisp_Rapper]

considering woolworths and a few other places are offering 'no deposit' pre orders i'd say they'll be lucky to make any decent sort of return on them.

[Daragon]

I think they'll do quite well to be honest - your average chav will probably snap them up in their droves, regardless of cost.

Whether they'll have the "soccer moms" and other irresponsible parents buying them for their 3 year olds I don't know, but the demand will be there certainly.

[cutmymilk]

I agree. You can say about JAP/US machines all you want but the general public wouldn't even know it's out yet as they will wait until it is in our shops.

Shortages will be reported and sold out signs everywhere. Ebay will be mental.

Just like the Wii/ 360 launces.

[neoboy259]

The wii and 360 launches took place just before the stupid season (xmas) and demand went spastic. I reckon UK PS3s will make a very small profit on ebay for a month max.

[NekoFever]

The eBay market for PS3s in the US died off very quickly, and certainly didn't make the ludicrous profits for people that were predicted. In fact there are a lot of stories about how places with no quibble return policies are getting them back from people who only wanted it to make a quick buck and realised that they couldn't.

I just can't see the UK one being any different. If anything it'll be worse for people out to make money since there's no Christmas to give the massive impetus to get one ASAP.

[Concept]

This.^

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I'm starting to think this too, might cancel the pre-order I've got. Probably better off buying one a couple of months before xmas and then selling it on ebay once the stores inevitably sell out a couple of weeks before xmas hits.

[MikeRox]

you say that assuming that come christmas it'll be completely sold out in shops, with 3 different systems to chose from, personally I can't see that happening unless demand really is incredibly purely for the Sony console.

[lostn]

If you're going to scalp on it, I wouldn't wait till christmas. Just make a no deposit preorder, and get a refund if it doesn't sell. The PS3 might be dead by christmas seriously. I want it to succeed, but Sony just isn't doing a good job convincing the world that it's worth the price tag. Not to mention it was very stupid of them removing the lower cost model. The lower cost model is better value than the premium, and does everything the premium can do except wi-fi.

But everyone seems to have the perception that the $600 unit is the only unit to consider (the oft-cited quote "[Game X] is nice, but is it a $600 game?" or "I hope MGS4 gets ported to 360 so I can save $600 and not have to buy a PS3").

The $500 PS3 is no 360 Core unit. It has every feature you can expect the Premium 360 to have, and a HD movie addon for $100 extra instead of $200. The minimum cost you can buy a 360 Core for is $40 on top of the price tag if you want to be able to save your games. For an extra $60 you get a 20GB HDD, making the Core unit not a practical option for anyone with half a brain. Not so the PS3. There was really no need for the $600 SKU to begin with. All it did was give people the wrong perception that the console is $100 more than it needed to be. $100 more than a 360 is not an unreasonable asking price. $200 more is. And that perception that the PS3 is a $600-only console would have been avoided if they hadn't bothered with this wi-fi unit in the first place. It's because the higher priced $400 360 was the only real option to choose, and people assume the same will be true about the PS3. Sony themselves promote this perception by saying that everyone who wants one will want to buy the premium version anyway, so we'll cancel the lower priced version. I'll bet sooner than you think, the 20GB version will be out. Maybe before June.

If Sony should have cancelled one SKU of the PS3, it should have been the higher priced premium version. There is no need for a 60GB HDD if 360 users have gotten by with 20GB, and you can easily buy your own HDD and plug it in for cheaper than the price differential between two models.

For this error in judgment (out of many), they will pay the price and come 3rd place. Blu Ray will not be enough to save it. Not enough people have HDTVs yet for it to matter. Sony's dominance in home console entertainment will be irrevocably lost, and big name exclusives like MGS4, DMC4, FF13 will get ported to 360. You heard it here first. Their best hope is not the release of better games, but cost cutting, and hence price cutting.

(P.S. This comes from someone who is pro-Sony. The PS3 is the one I wanted to come first place, but it almost certainly won't happen.)

This was probably the wrong place for that tangent but yeah... back to the point. The potential for scalping has been reduced considerably already. I don't like scalpers, but I doubt you're going to make the kind of money the enterprising americans did.

[Kubrick]

Well, the last console to be launched in the UK during March was a huge flop and had to be discounted heavily after only a couple of months....

[Salsa Party Animal]

Might be worth keeping an eye on it just in case you can buy a PS3 for less than 300 quids (For example) on ebay due to too many PS3 on sale.

[toythatkills]

After eBay/Paypal fees and postage etc, you're going to have to sell the unit for something like £500 (inc. P+P) to even begin making a profit.

In March, when people are skint after Xmas, and have no incentive to buy one (like a pre-Xmas launch would have had). And there may not even be shortages in stores because of this.

If people make owt, it won't be nearly as much as they expect.