A Business Insider report has revealed that resale bots snagged thousands of PlayStation 5 consoles at launch in Europe, much to the ire of genuine buyers who were locked out of a sale.
The PS5 is in severe shortage worldwide, and those who haven’t been able to grab a console are infuriated by thousands of listings on sites like eBay and Facebook, where the console is being sold for over twice its MSRP. We reported last week that in the United States alone, bids for the PS5 on eBay are going up to $5,000.
Speaking to Business Insider, resale group CrepChiefNotify admitted that its members picked up nearly 3,500 consoles. “We knew where to go before they announced it,” revealed a CrepChiefNotify manager when asked how the group purchased so many consoles. One such group’s manager told the website that he was “watching all the sites for when they drop stock” and “running bots for members to almost 100 percent guarantee at least one PS5.”
Add individual scalpers to this equation, and you have a hot mess.
UK reality television star, James Taylor (Made in Chelsea), recently came under fire after he revealed on Instagram that he received a PS5 as a gift from Sony, which he sold for £1,200 profit simply because he didn’t like it and wanted to stick with his PS4. His Instagram story was posted on ResetEra and while we can’t verify whether Taylor actually made that profit or not, he did indeed have a PS5 in his possession and we’ve witnessed a significant number of individuals selling the console for similar ridiculous margins.
Here’s hoping Sony finds a way to rectify this.
[Source: Business Insider (thanks for the tip, Andy), ResetEra]
