I wouldn’t have made it without the 9 euro ticket
It’s done! A brand new PlayStation 5 is waiting at my house for some serious gaming. It’s been hard enough to get to for a long time. But it worked – without a 9-euro ticket it wouldn’t have happened.
A hunt by Felix Graves
Chip crisis, lack of supplies, delivery and production stops – manufacturers and retailers are not finding it easy to supply us customers with goods at the moment. Not only Tesla, VW or Ikea know the problem. Sony has almost become a symbol with its PlayStation 5 – hardly any other device is like that hard to get to like the next-gen console from Japan.
I only have my PlayStation 5 thanks to the 9 euro ticket
I made it anyway. It wasn’t difficult at all, I just had to be patient until the right offer there was: 599 euros for the Disc Edition, including Horizon: Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7. Our colleague Peter Hryciuk, who always has a special eye for bargains of all kinds, drew my attention to the offer. The bundle was only available locally at MediaMarkt Oldenburg on the occasion of the reopening on July 28th.
The problem: I don’t live in Oldenburg, so what to do? Get on the regional train, the 9-euro ticket for July has already been paid for and off for it. Away: No problem at all. Although the cheap ticket for 9 euros a month is so popular that many trains are completely overcrowded – there is still plenty of space shortly after 5 a.m. in the morning. After all, I want to arrive in time for the opening. The train is as good as empty and punctual like Swiss clockwork – that’s how I praise Deutsche Bahn.
When you arrive in Oldenburg, you have to walk a long way: it’s a good 5 km from the train station to MediaMarkt. That’s no problem either, the 9-euro ticket would have included a bus, but why not stretch your legs. Cheers to Google Maps, which will quickly get you there even if you don’t know your way around.
Kickoff! But the race to the PlayStation 5 is cancelled
At 8.36 am I’m ready in front of MediaMarkt, things start at 9 am. There were only 5 other customers before me, all for the same reason: to snag a PS5. Behind me, the line is getting longer, the excitement is building. I found out from other people waiting: The day before, Club members from MediaMarkt were able to get their hands on it. Supposedly it said: sold out after 1.5 hours, 100 PS5 are said to have gone over the counter in 90 minutes.
Everywhere in the queue anxious hope that you have taken precautions not to have bought all the copies the day before. Also online, for example at MyDealz, you can read that the club members have properly gotten their hands on it. If only I hadn’t missed my order date directly with Sony just a week earlier. Then I wouldn’t have to worry now.
Now that I was able to get my hands on a PlayStation 5, this is the next step:
Rush at MediaMarkt? Finally we customers can get started!
Meanwhile, the MediaMarkt employees are already in the mood to celebrate, preparing for the day of the opening: we hear the applause several times outside, and inside everyone gets in the mood. But they don’t want to keep us waiting until the very end: the doors open at 8:58 a.m.
And then…
…everything is relaxed. None of the customers present sprint, as one almost expected, just like on Black Friday. Determined but relaxed, we make our way to the pile of PlayStation consoles. If you look at what’s going on with the latest PS5 drops on various online stores – constant refreshing of the websites, customers clicking buy like crazy to somehow get by vs. the army of scalper bots – it could have been much worse.
I’m among the top 10 to take home a PlayStation that day. The mood at the checkout is relaxed. Among those who can secure a PS5, there is a consensus: they shout “Have fun!” to each other on the way out and in the parking lot. It was a long way to get here, which we walked together, even though we don’t know each other.
My conclusion: If you are tired of waiting, keep an eye on local offers in your area. And if it should be a little further, think of the 9 euro ticket: It’s still valid for the whole of August – after that we’ll see how it goes on. By the way: on the way back it looked completely different on the train, 9-euro ticket and vacation make themselves felt. If you want to do it like me, get ready for a busy day, but it’s definitely worth it.
