Comments on: If PS3 Broke Records in UK Why is it so Cheap on UK eBay?

By: Michi

Michi — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:40:55 +0000

I don't follow. The prices listed on ebay are far below retail. And it's not one or two auctions. We're talking tons of auctions below retail price. And by sellers with huge postive ratings. I don't think fear of fraud is driving these prices down.

By: D.Vader

D.Vader — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:16:58 +0000

Well I would assume the european peoples learned the lessons from the American launch. Why would you risk getting a box or a picture when you can wait for the next shipment of units to a store where the price doesn’t go up?

By: Michi Knows - Update: Europe PS3 Sales Down 80%, eBay Prices Makes Sense

Michi Knows - Update: Europe PS3 Sales Down 80%, eBay Prices Makes Sense — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:05:35 +0000

[...] I wondered a few days ago about why the UK eBay prices for the PS3 were ridiculously low; I speculated that demand wasn’t nearly as high as the media was reporting. My conclusion was based on the eBay prices in Asia and America in the weeks following their respective launches (+100% markups), and then noticing the huge margin deflation often UK eBay prices (+20% markups). It seem reality has caught up to Europe’s PS3 market. Sales dropped over 80% this week. That has to be some kind of record. [...]

By: Gigio

Gigio — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:24:09 +0000

I wonder what the return policy is (if any) in England. In America, it seems like a constitutional right to be able to return an item after we purchased it – but this is not the case abroad. I know for sure that in Italy you CANNOT return an item after purchase. There may be some exceptions for warranty, or maybe some specific item/store – but generally, once you buy it, it’s yours.

By: Michi

Michi — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:45:52 +0000

Still… Somebody please explain the “Buy It Now” prices being below retail!

By: William Ryall

William Ryall — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:17:47 +0000

Interesting to see how the UK launch went.

All I can say is that it’s been a massive flop in Australia despite what any sales figures tell you.

I work in a video store and we had literally no pre-orders for the PS3 (that’s not true, between fifteen stores we had one pre-order of the PS3. But that was from a staff member and the minimum order whole-sale is three units.

Since the launch, we have rented one PS3 game. Compare that to the xbox360 launch (we rented 5 games the first week) or the Wii launch (we couldn’t even get Zelda or red steel in for two months, yet we still hired 10+ titles a week).

Nobody wants blu-ray on a console simply because they know it’s going to suck and suck badly. Just like the DVD players on PS2’s and xbox’s were such a huge disappointment (you can’t even unlock them to play multi region DVDs without modding them, yet you can buy a $15 DVD player and do this easily).