Why do you empower scalpers on your site? PS5 sales are a prime example.

[ivanshiprime]

PS5 presales were gone within 10 minutes, bot in Australia and other countries. And ebay empowers them by allowing the sale of pre-ordered consoles at inflated prices. It's unethical, greedy and ridiculous.

All it would take to disuade this behaviour is for ebay to impliment a period of such listings not being permitted. Instead, what you get is greedy scalping charlatans rorting a system that you've set in place and allowed to be abused. It's shameful.

[sandypebbles]

How do you work out people here (who are other buyers and sellers like YOU) are empowering scalpers?

Nobody here is responsible for how eBay works or what they allow any more than YOU, yourself are.

Yet you are accusing and blaming us

THAT is shameful 

Tell it to eBay, who do not read here

[davewil1964]

Why do you need to pre-order?

Why do you need to pre-order at inflated prices?

If you need to pre-order there are B&M businesses with websites that you could order from at standard prices.

[joz15au]

The B&M stores have sold out -all available were sold by pre-order within 10 minutes of release. Many of these pre-orders when available were bought up by the persons that the OP refers to at the RRP and they are now selling them on eBay (and probably elsewhere) at greatly inflated prices. People will buy because they can't get one otherwise. It will be probably 3 months into next year before they become available in stores again, so my son tells me.

[davewil1964]

So the solution is to wait until they are available. If everybody did that, the price wouldn't be inflated through the roof.

[joz15au]

Or get in early and pre-order with a B & M store (if you are lucky enough to get there within the 10 mins before they sold out). I agree it is somewhat unscrupulous though. If people hadn't been grabbing the pre-orders with the intention of selling at inflated prices there would have been a lot more to go around to the people that actually wanted them for themselves. Very disappointing for the kids who were promised one for Christmas as I dare say a lot of parents wouldn't have been aware that they would be likely to go off like that.

[gutterpunkz05]

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@ivanshiprime wrote:

PS5 presales were gone within 10 minutes, bot in Australia and other countries. And ebay empowers them by allowing the sale of pre-ordered consoles at inflated prices. It's unethical, greedy and ridiculous.

All it would take to disuade this behaviour is for ebay to impliment a period of such listings not being permitted. Instead, what you get is greedy scalping charlatans rorting a system that you've set in place and allowed to be abused. It's shameful.

---

You honestly believe that anyone  able to by these items in bulk, is restricted to off loading them on ebay.  Get real, there are countless ways to off load them at inflated prices, both on and off line.

Maybe you should be venting your anger at the original distributors for allowing sales of bulk quantities,  then you can track down all the IT/Gaming geek forums for spreading pre-sale info, bots etc.  Have fun.

[springyzone]

I hear what you are saying, but the trouble may be that to do this, ebay would have to keep tabs on every high wish list item and the pre sale dates around the world. From what I have read, pre sale orders are allowed on ebay, maybe the only way ebay could implement it is to ban all pre sales-of anything.

If some private sellers though are doing this, I think they could be playing with fire to some extent. I had a quick look at some ads and these people are basically selling something that they don't yet have. I saw quite a few of them writing that they would be receiving it from amazon or wherever on such and such a date. What if they don't? What if there is a hold up of any description and pick up or delivery is delayed?

They will be in a world of trouble then because they have estimated delivery dates on ebay that they have to keep to. If they don't, then buyers can open claims for item not received. The sellers in that case would not get their ebay fees back. And most likely, negative feedback.

I'm with you in agreeing that some of these sellers are probably on the greedy side, they put in pre orders not because they want the things but in order to sell at inflated prices. I don't know that that is ebay's fault though. Maybe we should blame the distribution centres that take the pre orders. Maybe everyone should only be allowed one.

But you talk of scalping. There are some sellers here on ebay who are right now listing, for example, kmart products. They don't mention in their ad that they are kmart products, but they are. They are registered minecraft clothing items. Kmart price $16, price on ebay $34.95 or even dearer. In the past, some sellers sold kmart furniture items, similar mark up. It's perfectly legal to sell things at inflated prices and in fact I have seen auctions that start at a reasonable price but are inflated well above what is sensible at auction and that is down to buyers going overboard. (think ikea baskets, for example, that go for $19 each, being sold second hand for well over that). Is it illegal? No.

Some of the responsibility should have to come down to buyers too. From what I can see in my brief look at the ps5 ads, most of the sellers are upfront they haven't got their hands on the item yet and presumably fans would know the exact RRP, they don't have to bid now. The things will probably be superceded anyway within a year or so.

[joz15au]

@springyzone
You've made some good points Springy. I think the main problem here is that the initial pre-orders sold out within the hour of release and buyers can now only wait till next year, or buy at the inflated prices, whereas the other items you give as examples are still widely available so if people want to make the effort to go to the B & M shops they can still get them or similar at the regular price. The PS4 has been around since 2013 so the PS5 will probably only be superceded sooner if it's found to have issues.

[springyzone]

Some of the minecraft stuff is not to be had on kmart either, not in stores or online, which also makes me wonder if some sellers snapped up multiples. Mind you, I know that is only a small item, not in the league of ps5.

I guess what it comes down to is buyers only need to pay inflated prices if they are desperate for the ps5 for a Christmas present. If they can wait till next year, they will probably become relatively easy to get hold of within a few months. Patience is a virtue.