Luckily I dumped my PS3 pre-order quickly and turned a tidy profit.
But from yesterday's Kotaku: The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market, Excerpt: The rise and fall of the PlayStation 3 on eBay is one of the most talked about gaming stories of the year. In order to paint a broader picture, I've tracked pricing trends from preorders to Christmas Eve and surveyed retailers to determine just how hard the PS3 grey market has crashed.
That excellent survey shows the drop in PS3 prices but does not discuss the why. The why? The Wii. If you play Wii sports such as baseball or bowling on a 50 to 100 inch screen you will quickly see why the Wii killed the ability of the PS3 to sustain its pre-release hype.
Wii is awesome! And I'm a guy whose first computer game didn't even have graphics (Adventure Games such as Zork 1979 ).
Related:
Planck's Constant - Long Wait for PS3s already started, Excerpt: Here's the scene outside a Best Buy in SOHO, lower Manhattan early this afternoon. There are 29 squatters already hunkering down for the long wait for PS3s which won't be available for another 36 hours.
Planck's Constant - Ebay's fault that Paypal is bombed, Excerpt: First eBay cancelled all the PS3 auctions because of fears that fraudsters would be selling pre-orders and be unable to actually deliver the item within their 30 day rule. Then they relented and allowed the auction provided the seller had at least 50 sales, a rating of at least 98%, could deliver within 30 days of end of auction and used Paypal as the payment method.
Planck's Constant - Sony Playstation 3 US Launch Day - Over $3,000 on Ebay, Excerpt: Last night I waited in line in the soaking rain with about 800 other hopefuls in Union Square at Circuit City Store 3679 in New York City for one chance to win a Playstation 3 out of 100 up for grabs. The first 100 in line were guaranteed to receive a voucher to buy the unit at midnight for $600, the other 800 in line, including me, filled out forms to possibly win a PS3. There would be 100 winners including a couple (a young man and woman) behind me where miraculously both won!
Aplia Econ - PlayStation 3 and Arbitrage, Excerpt: Two weeks ago, thousands stood in line to be among the first to get their hands on the PlayStation 3. Surprisingly, many of these people who waited through the cold, rain, and snow did not actually want to keep the PS3. They wanted to buy it for $600 and sell it on eBay for twice the price--a profit-seeking behavior known as arbitrage.
gizmodo - PS3 Grey Marketwatch: Ebay Bubble Shows Prices up to $99,999,999, Excerpt: The auction for $99,999,999 was taken down. I think that on top of the violence, we'll see lots of mail fraud, but also, I think people are starting to see how ridiculous it is to pay this much for a console.
WII (AKA Revolution) - Red Steel - video powered by Metacafe
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