I'm thinking about waiting in line early to buy 2 PS3's so I can flip one on eBay and make some money. I know with the 360's, some went as high as $10k+. I was looking at ebay today and I saw that people that pre-ordered them are only getting about $1500 out of them right now. Is that how it was with the 360 (since they don't physically have the system on hand)? Or is the PS3 just not going to sell for that much? If the 360's went for around $10k for the first few that were on eBay, I would expect the PS3's to go for a lot more.

Someone help me out on understanding this because I don't want to wait that long if I'm only going to make a few hundred...?

Forget 10K, there's no chance you are going to make that...

However, if you somehow get 2, I think 1K profit is very likely. Nothing to sneeze at.

There's a lot of stuff that sells on ebay for seemingly ridiculous profit. However, keep in mind that for "hot" items, there are a lot of people who just play with the auctions and don't end up actually paying. Do a search for completed laptop auctions with prices over $10,000 and you'll see what I mean. I haven't tried really hard to get any PS3s. I'd bet that you would possibly double your investment, but I can't see making much more than that. Just my 2 cents, if you have the time to expend waiting in line, etc. it may be worthwhile.

Yah I wasn't thinking I'd make $10K...

I'm just surprised the pre-orders are going for only ~$1500...

Is it a better idea to wait to list until around Christmas? Or will there be too many in circulation by then?

If you have been running WalletScan, than the issue of PS3 and Wii was covered in a thread a few days ago. Ebay received bad PR over the Xbox360 and it seems things have changed.

Listing Policy Clarifications: PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii Pre-Sales



Thanks to HomeSlice.

First off...The pre-sales are highly regulated on ebay for PS3. Second...some compainies do not promise a system with the presell. If they do not have their expected numbers at launch, they will cancel some of the orders. Third...you may get a nonpaying bidder. I wouldn't expect too much of a profit since the system is $600+ for the loaded version. $1,500 to $2,000 would probably be what the first ones listed will go for, but most people won't be dishing out that much for the PS3 since it will be readily available by Christmas.

Good points. If I can a few K out of it I'll do it, I was just expecting a lil more... So that means scratch that idea of waiting till around christmas to sell.

Thanks for the help guys

I seriously doubt that it will be readily available by Christmas. Demand will FAR outstrip supply this season, just as it did last year for the 360.

SONY follows the same marketing plan with every Playstation release. There will be plenty available, they are just building demand. Right about now they will release a the silver redesign of the slim line system. After christmas PS2s will price drop to 99.99 (I think the drop in is March). There will be nearly half of the planned PS3 production at launch and the rest b4 Christmas. Plus this is the most expensive console ever realeased...so the demand is not quite as high. I do not own any x-box or a 360 (SONY for life baby!), but even I will wait until after the launch to buy a ps3 without the mark up on ebay.

Sweet! I think that's when I'll finally buy a PS2.

the new slim silver one looks funky, but yeah 'll wait till i get out of college to buy this next-gen baby

They've already announced that they will not meet planned production targets by the end of the year. That means shortage, ok? Anyone that thinks they're just going to walk into any store and buy a PS3 at retail before Christmas is nuts.

If you're lucky and catch one off the truck, yes. Readily available, no.

Here are the numbers as of today for the release: 400,000 north america, 100,000 Japan, 0 Europe (Europe delayed until 3/07 to dedicate production to North American systems)...20% of the units will be the 'low end' model at launch.

PS3s to be in even shorter supply