One of the most limited items in the whole world right now is the PlayStation 5. Sony’s next-gen console is in incredibly high-demand but due to limited supply, they’re selling out instantly. While one last restock before the holidays is coming tomorrow, it’ll likely continue to be difficult.
While there’s a number of reasons why the PlayStation 5 is so limited, the biggest reason is scalpers. A number of people have been snatching up all the available stock and reselling it on platforms. Turns out, this has been incredibly profitable for these people. According to data engineer Michael Driscoll, this is a market that has brought in tens of millions of dollars since last month. It’s worth noting that all this money didn’t go to one person. This is across multiple different scalpers.
Driscoll broke down the numbers on the eBay scalping market from new graphics cards to consoles, finding insane results. Scalpers brought in $7,215,539 on PS5 Digital editions and a mind-boggling $27,537,790 on PS5 Disc versions. The total combined profit comes out to about $19 million, after you account for fees, cost of the console, and so on. The PlayStation 5 consoles have had their prices drastically inflated, especially the digital version. Given the more limited nature of the digital PS5, they seem to be valued more. The disc-less PlayStation 5 was valued at 255% over MSRP ($399.99) by scalpers at launch and is now at 350% above its MSRP.
The $499.99 disc version of the PlayStation 5 was valued at 140% above MSRP at launch. It is now sitting at 200% above MSRP.
The Xbox Series X and S also brought in a healthy chunk of change. The console brought in about $10 million in profit for scalpers. The Xbox Series S brought in about $3,533,691 total while the Xbox Series X brought in $20,052,783. Both Series X ($499) and S ($299) started out at 150% above MSRP and now sit at 170% above MSRP.
I highly recommend checking out Driscoll’s full report for a greater insight on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox but also the new graphics cards.
