Scalpers find their bad image unfair
No time right now?
Resellers have pushed the prices of the Playstation 5 up enormously. The scalpers responsible for this still consider their negative image to be unfair.
The high demand and, at the same time, low stocks have made the Playstation 5 or the high-end graphics cards from Nvidia a lucrative destination for organized resellers. With gamers who are interested in hardware that is not cheap anyway, the so-called scalpers did not make themselves particularly popular. One of them has now complained to Forbes about how bad the public’s perception of him and other scalpers is.
“There seems to be a lot of bad press going on about this incredibly valuable industry, and I don’t feel it’s warranted. All we do is act as a middleman for limited quantity items ”, quoted Forbes the scalper, who runs a group that helps others for a fee to get hold of popular products such as the Playstation 5 and then to resell them for a surcharge. He is said to have resold 25 Sony consoles for a profit of 150 British pounds each.
Compared to Forbes, the scalper also compares itself with the British supermarket chain Tesco. Finally, the milk is sold for twice the purchase price. “Nobody seems to ever complain to the extent that they are currently complaining to us,” complains the scalper, who says he has already received death threats.
Other scalpers also feel they have been treated unfairly
The operators of another scalper group had already complained in November 2020 about how negatively their pursuit of profit was being perceived. In a statement published on Facebook, the scalpers stated: “Due to the pandemic, many people in our community were sent on short-time work, made redundant or disadvantaged in some other way. These people managed to pay their bills, put food on the table and give their children Christmas presents. It may be unfortunate that one kid won’t wake up with a PS5 this Christmas, but another kid may wake up with nothing. “
However, this information cannot be checked. The group, which also demands money for membership, says it has sold around 3,500 PS5 consoles at a profit. In order to recruit new members, the group apparently even switched Facebook ads. One of those advertisements stated that members could get “risk free” £ 100 for every Playstation 5 sold.
Also interesting: Playstation 5: Sony hardly sells games – because scalpers hoard the consoles
