The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S pre-orders have come and gone and, in their wake, scalping has once again emerged. Scalpers on eBay are selling pre-order confirmations, not anything actually tangible, for more than double the retail price of $499. In some cases, bids go for much higher, closing in around $2,000. Scalping is never pretty, but the disastrous rollout of pre-orders, especially in the case of the PS5, makes the unsavory situation even worse. The end result is a bunch of angry gamers, and they're making their fury known.
When the PS5 pre-orders launched on September 17th, it was an unmitigated disaster. Xbox promised not to make Sony's mistakes and while they did do a better job of prepping gamers, and the time pre-orders went on sale was made known in advance, they still ran into numerous problems with multiple sites crashing from the high demand. In both cases, excitement turned to despair as hopeful fans had their purchases blocked by confusing and, at times, sloppy organization. Scalpers took advantage of the chaos, and now fans must wrestle with the prospect of paying hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more to get their preferred console this holiday season.
Similar to the console pre-order fiasco, NVIDIA had pre-orders for their newest graphics card, the RTX 3080, bought by hundreds of scalpers. According to PC Gamer, gamers retaliated and used various methods to undermine the scalpers. Negative reviews and fake listings, such as graphics cards made from paper, drew attention to the scalping problem as indignant gamers pleaded with consumers not to buy the overpriced cards. Some gamers on Reddit and other forums claim they have made bots to create exorbitantly high fake bids, thereby preventing users from buying the cards. While not proven, the existence of these bidding bots seem probable, given that some bids are as high as $80,000. This type of retaliation is not limited to the NVIDIA cards, either, as current listings for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S show a similar trend: gamers are fighting back.
Console Gamers Are Trolling eBay Scalpers
The Xbox Series X/S only just went up for pre-order recently and so the retaliation is not too visible yet, but gamers are clearly deploying the tactics of their brethren to take down PS5 preorder scalpers. Numerous fake listings exist, with some going for a very meta approach. The strangest listing so far is a screenshot of a digital picture of a drawing of a PS5. Review bombing is also present, though not as prevalent as with the RTX 3080. One pre-order listing has a 1.6 rating, with 22 5 star ratings and 128 1 star ratings (the five stars claim people have the right to buy and sell as they see fit, a reasonable, though frustrating, point). As far as fake bids go, like the RTX 3080, they are not confirmed but seem probable. One bid is as high as $50,000, and the likelihood that anyone would pay that seems ludicrous given that most buy it now options hover around $1,000-$1,4000.
Adding to the complexity of the situation is the fact that the entire scenario seems in conflict with eBay policy. According to eBay, “Presale listings must guarantee that the item will be posted within 20 days of purchase.” This is impossible given that consoles don't launch until November. Plus, Sony recently stated that some PS5 consoles may be delayed until December, making the situation even messier. Also, unlike the moral indignation present in many of the RTX's fake listings, the PS5 fake listings have not made any claim to be against scalping, they're just there to troll, or, possibly, dupe people. People are rightfully angry over scalping, but those who are so excited to get a console that they're willing to overpay do not deserve to be tricked into spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on trash.
The chaos did not end with the pre-orders and will undoubtedly continue well after the release of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5. At this point, whether players believe scalpers are scum or are people taking advantage of a fair, but annoying, right, it doesn't matter. The most important thing for players, and everyone else, to remember is to be kind and not try to take advantage of fellow gamers.