Resellers on eBay are already listing PlayStation Portals for absurd amounts of money, with one scalper trying to get rid of theirs for $440. Even the listings that are more reasonable than this still have price tags in the $300 to $400 region, a huge increase from the original $199.99 retail price.

This is just another example of scalpers using a console release to try and make a few bucks at everyone else's expense, and unfortunately, it already looks like there's some interest in buying from these resellers. Some are shamelessly selling dozens at a time, clearly having picked up as many as they could for the purposes of reselling to those who actually want to use one.

Given the well-documented struggle that many stores had with PS5 scalpers, it's disappointing to see that little has changed here. The official PlayStation store has already run out of stock, so right now, anyone wanting to avoid these outrageous prices will have to wait and see when more units are ready to be shipped.

Checking out the other retailers local to me in Ireland, there's nowhere to buy one new here either. Fans are reporting the same elsewhere, as it seems that the Portal is more popular than Sony can keep up with.

As per the PlayStation Store, Sony at least tried to counter scalpers. It has limited Portal sales to just one per customer, although other retailers don't appear to carry this warning, and may have sold multiple units to the same customer. In any case, it's not clear when these stores, or the PlayStation store itself for that matter, will get Portals back in stock. GameStop had a restock just in time for launch day, presumably after much of its stock already went out for pre-orders, but according to the website, it doesn't have any more left.

Amazingly, this isn't the most ridiculous case of scalping this year. As we reported back in August, Baldur's Gate 3's Collector's Edition was being resold for up to $2,000, up from its original $269. In some instances, people were reselling individual items in the Collector's Edition, such as the digital dice skins for $200. Then, there was that whole drama with the Pikachu Van Gogh promo card, which had to be removed from the Van Gogh Museum after far too many fans turned up to get one - with many reappearing on eBay shortly afterwards.



Posted: Nov 23, 2023 11:16 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/playstation-portal-stock-reseller-scalper-ebay-price/