Hey y’all,
I have two bundles pre-ordered from Amazon (mainly to avoid sales tax). I hope to sell at least one at nice markup.
I have never scalped anything before. I do not even have an eBay/PayPal account. I have also heard way too many stories about their buyer friendly policies, and how they put all the burden of proof on the seller during disputes. Don’t wanna deal with some scumbag buyer claiming I sent him a box of phone books, or returning an empty box after claiming the “item did not work as described”. Even if I get a final judgement in my favor, that’s a whole lot of hassle and stress that takes away all the joy of making a quick buck.
Hence, I intend to stick to Craigslist and deal with all cash buyers only. I will meet them at a busy Starbucks, or some such place to avoid being robbed etc. One issue with cash is counterfeit. I could buy a currency pen to remedy that. Another possibility is to meet at a bank during business hours, and deposit the cash right there into my checking account and only then hand over the PS4 to the buyer.
Just to play the devil’s advocate, here are the risk factors.
- PS4, unlike PS3, is not based on some alien-tech cell processor. BluRay is also a mature technology now. When PS3 was release Sony had huge manufacturing yield issues. Jack Tretton himself is famously quoted to bet $1200 that you can’t find a PS3 on store shelves. PS4 is different. It is based on x86 architecture, mostly off-the-shelf parts, and BluRay is a very mature technology now. The Hynix factory fire notwithstanding, production yields are said to be very good this time around.
- Sony is also claiming to be holding back stock to make sure there is a continuous stream of units on B&M store shelves. This means that the late-to-the-party buyer is likely to hear “We are sorry, we are out of stock right now, but receive new shipments weekly, would you like to place a pre-order?” as opposed to “We are sorry, we are out of stock, it’s anybody’s guess when we’ll get resupplied”. This alone could make a huge difference as whether this customer deciders to shell out the extra $$$ to make some scalper happy.
- Amount of pre-orders are unprecedented this time around. Some might say this augurs well for us scalpers. But this could also mean that opportunities to scalp are severely limited this time around. For one, it could very well be that majority of the pre-orderers are scalpers themselves. Also, the hard-core enthusiasts, who are most likely to shell out the extra $$$ to buy the latest product from us scalpers, have had plenty of time (months, actually) to pre-order a system with a single click of a mouse.
People might say there still no risk. You can always return it to the store. This may be true for those who pre-ordered from Walmart or GameStop. But with Amazon we need to pay return shipping. And BestBuy has a restocking fee. So it is not entirely risk-free. You may end up losing some if you can’t scalp at cost at least.
All these make it imperative that we be able to judge the potential demand during the week leading up to Nov 15. It is far better to cancel the extra pre-order if it looks like that scalping will be difficult.
Any thoughts/suggestions?
Edit: formatting.
would you preorder and pick up a shitload of consoles and then be a major douchebag and return them?
