posted on October 31, 2000 09:24:39 AM
Its pretty interesting to look at the ebay results for selling playstation 2 system units.
Frenzied bidding before the Oct. 26th release, much of it apparently bogus - check out how many of the high bidders are NARU on the $1000+ auctions.
Then you start seeing sellers, emboldened by the (apparently phony) megabids, listing their units with a STARTING bid of $1000...and getting no legitimate responses.
Now the typical selling price is around $550 (not including extras like games, etc). Many are still going unsold with a "reserve not met" at this level, or higher. I wonder how many of those sellers will be disappointed when they have to relist and end up with even less. Or maybe they are using the reserve feature for fee avoidance?
In any case, there aren't many of these easy-to-watch situations that occur, its fun standing on the sidelines and seeing what transpires...
PS - and reading some of the advertising hyperbole is kind of funny..."prices can only go up!"..."No more units until after christmas"...etc.
[ edited by captainkirk on Oct 31, 2000 09:29 AM ]
There seems to be some drawbacks with this system and it may be a good idea to wait a while before committing to one - maybe that's what the buyers are doing?
posted on October 31, 2000 09:44:17 AM
Somehow I have managed to escape the brew-ha-ha about this new Playstation Release & have only become aware from information here & a "current events" homework assignment for my son....I have laid down the law on purchasing yet another system, for which we must purchase new games & accessories (unless, of course, said game would clean my house & cook dinner ).....
But IMO, based on the merchandise "storages" that I have witnessed (some all to closedly! - eg. Ninja Turles, Power Rangers, Furbies etc.) in the past, I believe that it is too early in the holiday season for the prices to be hitting their highs....Assuming that the Christmas/Hanukah/Quanza holiday will be the major "get your PS2" event, buyers are still hopeful that they will get lucky and actually find one at/near retail cost....As we get closer to the holiday deadline, and there are fewer units to be found, prices will rise....
posted on October 31, 2000 09:58:01 AM
By Christmas, there will be just over 1,000,000 PSX2s available in the US. I wonder just how many households absolutely had to have one of these?
According to reports, Sony is losing money on the system unit itself, knowing they make a ton of money on the games and peripherals.
Competition includes Dreamcast (at only $150 which includes a game?), N64 and PSX1 @ $100, and the future releases by microsoft and nintendo.
I wonder how much investment the average family has in their game machine? The initial price is low, but the per-game price is high.
posted on October 31, 2000 11:03:25 AM
I did buy one and I am re-selling it. Up right now just to test waters.
What I recently found out and did not know beforehand is that this system also plays DVD movies, your CD's and will run all of the old Playstation I games.
That has always been the headache for us. My son had Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sony Playstation I and now received Sega Dreamcast for his b-day. I have not had to purchase any of these but I am the one having to re-buy all the new games as none of the old ones work on the new system.
So I guess that is a plus to this system. I guess if you have DVD movies (which I understand are relatively inexpensive)then you could use this game to play those.
Who knows - we'll see what happens. Lots of negative bidders though - kinda scary!!
posted on October 31, 2000 11:17:17 AM
I thought I heard it all until my husband told me a co-worker of his got one of those systems and took 3 days off work to "break it in".
Like that song by Smashmouth says "..with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an "L" across her forehead.." am doing that about this guy. Loser!
Good luck to those selling. I am SURE you will encounter some deadbeats!
posted on October 31, 2000 11:43:35 AM
I looked about a week ago and saw several auctions starting at $100 for INFORMATION on how to buy one when they're released. At least one of them sold, too.
Funny how Sony is suddenly having production problems just before Christmas. They've been selling them in Japan for a year, haven't they? Same thing happened to the Nintendo-64 a few years ago.
posted on October 31, 2000 11:49:35 AM
Actually, the shortages are probably real. Besides the fact that sony (unlike others in the market) aren't known for creating phony shortages, there are real shortages all thoughout the electronics industry.
I suspect Sony would prefer to have more to ship right now, to lock people into their platform during the crucial xmas selling season. Every game console not sold probably translates into a family who drifts off to sega, nintendo, or microsoft (in the future). Since the after-market profits are so high (games, etc), unless someone knows that sony really jacked up the wholesale price a lot in an artificial manner, the evidence is against market manipulation in this matter.
posted on October 31, 2000 01:16:52 PM
Sony cut back their U.S unit release by half, due to a component shortage and there will now be only 500,000 units reaching the states in the short term. As a result, demand will be greater than supply and the cost of these units will skyrocket until Christmas, after which more units will be delivered into the States and the price will come back to realistic levels.
I've seen the above situation before, when the Furby toy was introduced two years ago. I purchased 60 units from a toy distributor in California when I heard that the shortage was going to take place. Sure enough, the Furby market went crazy and the little creatures went for about $100.00 apiece. It was a nice Christmas for us and we were able to supply many holiday shoppers who were unable to find the toy in the stores.
We've picked up a few on the Playstation 2 units and will be auctioning them just before Christmas, when the demand will be the greatest. They should sell well.
Kind of reminds you of the commodity market, doesn't it?
).....