Game Consoles Still in Short Supply Amid High EBay Prices, Steep Demand

The latest Microsoft and Sony game consoles, in short supply and steep demand since their Q4 launches, were still commanding selling prices Friday on eBay that were multiples of list, we found. The Blu-ray version of the PlayStation 5 ($499) was bringing in high-three and low four-figure “buy it now” prices a month after Christmas. Seller salesquota posted a “buy it now” price of $1,399 for a "brand new" console disc version, or $59 over 24 months with PayPal Credit. The listing was viewed 346 times in an hour. Salesquota sold more than 60 of the PS5 disc consoles since mid-December for as high as $1,749 four days before Christmas. Price range for the past week was $1,399-$1,499. Seller papastreasure had a buy it now price of $999 for the console disc version, also brand new. In the Microsoft camp, the $499 Xbox Series X was shown as out of stock Friday at Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Walmart. On eBay, the scaled-down Xbox Series S, $299 without a Blu-ray player, had a buy it now price of $559 from eBay seller poofyo101jumpmansneakers, with 409 viewings per hour; the high-end X Series box was shown as $1,099. The seller had more than 10 of the game systems available and had sold 52, most for $599 and $1,099, according to the seller’s history. On Walmart’s Twitter feed, meanwhile, several customers looked past an ad for Samsung’s Galaxy S21 smartphone, due to ship in a week, using the comment section to lobby for both of the game consoles instead, with a bias toward Sony: “1 word PS5,” tweeted @TheRandome0_0, and “How bout you make the ps5 easier to get,” said @urfkngey. In response to a disheartened consumer, PlayStation tweeted Wednesday: "I understand how frustrated you must be.I can assure you we're working hard to meet the high demand for a PS5. We're grateful for our fans and are working hard to bring players the next generation of PlayStation. We recommend you keep checking with local retailers for availability." A chat rep at the Microsoft e-commerce store told us Friday on Xbox Series X availability: "I'm afraid we don't have units in stock at this moment, we're not expecting to have more stock till around Mar-Apr 2021."