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Sony Playstation 2 for Over $1k [Updated -- $5K]
The Alpha noted this, but several others have told us as well that ebay is hosting auctions for several playstation 2's... some of which have broken a grand. Nice little profit margin there ;) Conspiracy theorists propose that many folks (Jon Doe, Retailers, or Sony!) are raking in huge profits on the things. Hope the system is worth it. [Updated 27 Oct. 2:15 GMT by timothy:]
the3dmaniac writes: "I was just looking at the auctions for PS 2 systems at ebay and found this very disturbing sight. The craze has gone overboard, time to make some cash while it is still hot." Whoah -- check that price. Errr, so this would be the "premium" gasoline, sir?
Some poor shmuck better enjoy their 2 weeks of coolness..
this one sold for $14,999.00.
more proof that all the wrong people have money to waste.
Emotion Engine issues? Developers slow to code for it? I think not. I think this 'shortage' is a calculated move of Sony's part to cause a frenzy. We've seen it before: Furbys, Cabbage Path Dolls, etc.
:-)
Believe me, Sony knows what they're doing, and they're loving every minute of this. I'll bet you there's a warehouse full of PS2s sitting somewhere in Japan, waiting to trickle into the US market from now until Christmas.
Happy shopping!
So, this absolutely has to be wrong, but, well, um.... they're going to have to pay hefty eBay fees anyway!
PS2 for $15k??I'm really confused about this one...
It used to be that a consoles success was gauged by its first day sales...
Then by how many people were mugged for their new consoles on the way home on the first day of sales...
Now the mark of a consoles success is relative to its grey import value on Ebay?
Truly the internet has brought about a paradigm shift in console gaming....
grab your ankles bitch
"these ps2s are being sold at many times their
retail price! Somebody, possibly the person
selling them, must be making a profit!"
K.
-
-- Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
OK when I got my first system (Atari 2600), I never would have guessed that one day we'd have console scalpers, now that's progress.
Still I guess ebay beats fist fights at zellars for cabage patch dolls.
-Peace
Dave
Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
According to radio news, this morning, Sony is limiting it to 500K, with another 1.4M to be shipped prior to Christmas. Has more to do with parts supplies than cunning. Sony is taking a loss right now, due to costs and limited shipping prior to the holiday glomfest. You know they would want more on store shelves than this.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What we see here at work is the basic economic law of supply and demand. When there's a limited number of PS2s on the market (I believe 500k units in the initial shipment), and demand for about ten times that amount, retailers and individuals looking for profit will cash in on that demand. If you want a PS2, my advice is to wait until around March or April of next year, and buy one then. The prices should have come down to more reasonable levels, there will be a larger selection of games available (plus the fact that a few of your favorite titles and series are likely to be in development for future release), and you won't have to fight any crowds at the store.
I've heard a person in my German class today say that she was very close to attacking another person with a PS2, and walking off with his PS2 and taking it to the checkout line. If we have this kind of behavior and attitude by consumers at this time of year, imagine how bad it will be when you have everyone and his/her mother doing the same thing, not only for the PS2, but for every other "hot item" on everyone's Christmas wishlist.
Here's an idea: why not offer several up, then wait for them to come on the mainstream market... it always takes ages for auction purchases to go through anyway, and you can just ship when the main shipments arrive. Or, following the conspiracy theorist's ideas, patent the concept and then sell it back to Sony for £10m or so...
I just don't understand how demand for these things can be that big!
Seriously, are there really people that think the game quality is going to be instantly better just because you can push a few more pixels. I just (and I mean just a couple of weeks ago) bought a N64 and will probably now consider buying the old Playstation (as the price will surely drop like a rock now). The older games are far more plentiful and there are a few that are even enjoyable to play. I find that in the first year or two of a new system there are very few games that are actually fun to play.
Most of the games I see now are completely ridiculous when it comes to game-play. Sure, I suppose the system is great if you are really into all that "I have the latest available toy" sort of thing, but I think if you waited you would save yourself a bundle and get more enjoyable games to boot.
Now I'm off to play the Bard's Tale II on my old trusty Apple IIgs (it's still more enjoyable than about 90% of the games I've seen in the past few years).
Bite my yammer.
We would all be lined up right now trying to get one.
Never underestimate someones desires because they are not inline with yours. And don't tell them to get computers , eventually they would get curios about the online world and you would only be adding to AOL's stock and sucking away precious bandwidth.
Papa Legba come and open the gate
Check it out, every high bid has been made by the same person who has zero feedback. Wonder what Ebay's policy is on this.
--
I was able to get mine from the local virgin megastore. They pre-sold them as late as yesterday. For 100$ down yesterday i was able to get one today. They were selling it as a package only..it consisted of 1 core unit, 2 games, 1 dvd movie, 1 extra controller, 1 8mb mem card, and 1 dvd remote control..not a bad deal at 499$. Havent played it yet, but i saw madden and it looked INSANE!
***There is no point in asking, you'll get no reply***
So I'd expect Sega or Bleem or someone would be happy to drop 15 grand to pre-preview a Playstation 2 and not think twice about it. Reverse Engineering efforts or Competitive Analyses are probably already underway.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I mean if you're really going to karma whore, you can't just stop at saying, "Product X should be open source." Granted, you get some credit for suggesting "hackers" would make such a platform great (of 1337, if you prefer), but in the modern jaded era of Slashdot Moderation, you have to go all out and use both barrels.
Try it like this:
====
The question I have, as I heard about plans for future expansions, is has anyone ever considered devloping an "open source" gaming platform? A system whose schematics and such are open for everyone and under which both commercial developers and hobbyists have the same capabilities. It might be interesting to see something like this. Think of all the peripherals you can think of, and think of hackers making some of them.
Such a system could easily be made using a lightweight Linux kernal with optimized graphics code -- perhaps even capable of supporting OpenGL and/or DirectX. This would allow developers to jump-start their development with open standards.
Also, while DVD and PS2 support is nice, USB and Firewire would be far superior standards for expansion.
Such a system would offer tremendous advantages over Microsoft's still-vapor "X-Box". The openness of the platform would undoubtedly encourage development from third-party vendors and might even bring back the long-lost days of the small independent gaming software company. Certainly, with internet connectivity, the need to rely on under-the-table retail shelf-placement deals goes away.
And, if all that wasn't enough, can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things?
====
There. Plenty of "+1 Interesting/Insightful" fodder. Take it from an old pro, you'll get yourself up to the 50 cap in no time at all. Hope this helps.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
Exactly, considering that they stand to gain a lot more by selling these at $300-$350 a pop than by waiting around for some other console to be a price competitor. Especially given the warning signs in the US economy regarding sales, consumer debt, and the general health of major retailers, this is not a good time to have potential buyers having to wait-- they might decide they can't afford it.
I do not have a signature
IIRC eBay policy and various state laws give sellers rights to pursue bidders. It's a dangerous proposition to bid $250,000 on something you never intend to buy, particularly if the seller is so inclined to collect. A bid, according to the fine print, is a contract. Consider where this goes with the passage of law to for electronic signatures, should they apply in present or future.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
BTW, many of the PS2 autions of $500+ are being bid by the same person... "cillbosby". Just food for the conspiracy theorists.
--I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else's fault.
This a cut&paste of a post I made on the Shugashack when Sony announced day 1 supply would be cut from 1 to 1/2 million:
;)
As anyone who's taken any intro to economics class (much less an econ major like myself) could tell you, there's something wrong with this picture. On the very first DAY of PS2 availability, we see there's at least 1,000,000 people willing to pay whatever Sony's charging to get one (let's call it $250, cuz I don't know the real figure). Yet, Sony only has 500,000 of the things to sell at that price. Now from the consumer's standpoint (particularly for the ppl who won't get one), the ideal situation would be to just make more of the damned things, and I think that's what Sony would be doing if they could, so let's assume they can't. You're Sony, you've got this HUUUUUUUUGE demand for your product, and can barely meet half of it. What do you do? You raise the price! If Sony jacks the PS2's price up to $350, will a lot of ppl not buy it, at least not on preorder? Of course, that's the Law of Demand at work. The practical question in this particular situation is, will enough people choose to do without so that any of those 500,000 units don't get sold? If not, then do it!
If I was a Sony shareholder, I'd be pissed too, cuz these guys are too stupid to raise the price on the goddamn thing! If the price was increased $100, and every unit still sold, that'd be $50,000,000 (yes, FIFTY MILLION) more in revenue!!!
On the other hand, it sure is nice for consumers that Sony's never thought to hire an economist...
...
These people who are now reselling PS2 units for like $1000, I applaud most heartily. Even though they ripped off my idea (hehe), they're moving goods from lower valued uses to higher valued uses, which is what capitalism is all about
MoNsTeR
The Space Store
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I just don't understand how demand for these things can be that big!
.... you can play DVD's on it!"
;)
I've read many articles about the PS2 in the last year. The one that stuck out the most in my mind was the one that said that the PS2 was selling well in Japan because it not only could play old PS games, but because it was a DVD player too.
This is Sony's main selling point, and it's working like a charm. "Who cares if the system costs a hundred or two extra
Also, if you play the PS as much as my friends do, your PS has probably seen better days. The PS2 is an excellent way to replace the old system.
rLowe
PS> I swear I don't work for Sony.
----- rL
Its about 8 or 9 years old, running a overclocked 8086 chip with not one, but two 5.25 inch disk drives! It has a 300 baud modem and I'll toss in the 12 inch monocrome monitor for free! Come on people, you'll kick yourselves later.
Now I'll just wait for the 15 grand.
The PlayStation, like most consoles, is a loss leader. Sony isn't making a lot of money selling them, in fact, it's highly likely that they are losing a small amount in the US. In Britain, the PS2 will cost about $100 more, but then the market's smaller, and a lot of additional costs are higher.
However, Sony has a monopoly on selling licenses for the PS[2]. If you want to code for it, first you need to fork over a lot of cash for a development kit (ie. tens and tens of thousands of dollars), which in effect is little more than a Linux box with funky things thrown in.
Then, you need to give Sony lots more cash. In fact, they make money with every game sold, because they do per-copy licensing. So, for doing *absolutely nothing*, Sony gets money from the publishers of PS2 games. Sorry, correction: For allowing them to develop for PS2. In return for allowing them to develop for PS2, Sony gives developers binding contracts which often ban them from developing for other competing systems. Ever wonder why Electronic Arts games don't get published on the Dreamcast? EA didn't want to piss off their moneycow, PS and now PS2.
MS may be portrayed as the evil empire, but they have nothing on Sony or Nintendo. Hell, you should have seen the lawsuits flying when software makers dared to try to publish games for Nintendo/Sony without getting licenses...
Imagine that: Microsoft suing you as a coder because you wrote a game for Windows - without giving them money. Most of Sony's profits in the last few years or so were from PS-related licensing. They didn't make any money from the hardware.. but raked it in when it comes to software.
Reality check, guys.
Alex T-B
St Andrews
i'm suddenly having flashbacks to bard's tale i and the 4 groups of 30 something-or-others that lived in some tower/casle thingy. I remember when my monk started hitting more than twice, and when your ac got so low it used some two letter abreviation instead. But i can't seem to remember any of this exactly. Argh. I hope you apreciate the fact that the rest of my day which would have been productive will now be spent trying to remember the answers to these and other questions.
And in bards tale 1 you could summon a stone monster/god/thingy to join your party by hitting "z". and that's the only useful thing i remember....
--BlueLines "The cost of living hasn't affected it's popularity." -anonymous
This/a& gt; is not actually a Playstation 2. Heh heh, someone's going to feel very dumb for paying $300+ for a PS1.
Now, that is not to say that there was not a shortage at launch, but that 1.3 million number is not that far from the 1.5 million they had originally forecast. So much for all those auctions on eBay that stated no more units till next March. I guess some are paying a premium for scouts obtaining systems.
From a gamer enthusiast standpoint, it makes me sick to see the launch go this way. Again, thousands of teenagers and young adults, indirectly thanks to eBay, are scalping their systems for a huge margin. Most likely not needed if that many systems are coming out each week from now till X-Mas. In fact, I do part time work at a local Best Buy, and at least four of the employees were scalping their systems they had purchased at that store over eBay. That only angers me, as I was sadly screwed out of a system for myself by someone wanting to make a quick buck. To see a gaming machine purchased for such a reason makes a hobbyist like myself rather upset. I will now likely wait and purchase a system when Metal Gear Solid 2 comes out, as this has left a bad taste in my mouth.
Bryan R.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
Whatever happened to the other important metric?
Number of Soccer Moms who decked, bit, strangled or rammed others in the parking lot?
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Other parts of the system are in demand and in short supply. I've been calling around looking for the new Monster PS2 S-Video cable with no success (all the Best Buys sold out this morning).
The other missing part is memory cards, which might be in even shorter supply than the consoles - at least I know that there were a number of people in stores I was at earlier today who had a PS2, but no memory card!! Talk about annoying.
As for me - I preordered one for me, and one for a friend. One from EB, and one from Gamestop. Despite getting e-mail from each saying I'd have the system on launch day, I have only the memory card and extra controller EB was good enough to send, and the copy of SSX that gamestop sent a week or so ago. Maddening! (if only I'd bought the game that would've made a great pun)
So, I have nothing, and no way to tell what's going on - at least Gamestop sent me mail saying they sent the console out today, but EBworld has shut off the phone systems, shut down the online order tracking, and is trying to say "Go away, I can't take the load".
Moral of the story - always pre-order at your local game shop! Even though I preordered eight months ago, there are people that preordered only a few months ago or just were patient enough to stand in line this morning that have one right now.
Plus, it might not even cost you more - at Gamestop they charge tax for every order, and had seperate shipping charges for every PS2 game!
Oh well, at least I got a lot of work done around the house.
As for if it is worth it - I've tried a few systems set up in stores and it seems worth it to me. I wouldn't pay the current e-bay price for one, but $300 is pretty reasonable - also, once I get the PS2 (and Mosnter cables) I can give my mom my current DVD player.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Anyway, he started his eBay auctions last week, made sure they ended this morning, and sold one for $1000 and one for $1600. He was getting email like crazy and made phone contact with the final buyers before he ended the auction... one guy is FedExing the check and the other guy is paypal'n the payment through.
All in all it's a sweet deal and he would have been an idiot not to do it... $2k profit for 1 nights work... and the work was sitting around outside for a few hours.
You sort of feel bad that there is less to go around for the local kids, but on the other hand, he was able to make $$ off of Sony's hype. Why not?
The shades don't mean new bidded/seller, they simply mean new name. IOW, you could have a feedback rating of 1000, but as soon as you changed your name/handle/ID, you would get the shades. It is possible to see the history of a user's ID now, if they change names mid-stream.
New bidders/sellers get the shades because they are, in effect, a new name. After awhile (30 days?), the shades go away - even if they never bid on anything (though they would have to bid at least once for others to see the shades, or absence thereof)...
If you want to truely know how well a bidder/seller is doing, look at the feedback, as well as the feedback comments. Don't trust somebody simply if he has 300 feedback - for all you know, he had 400 six months ago, and received 100 negative feedbacks since then! Similarly, don't knock someone who has low positive feedback without checking the comments - he may only have 20 feedback, but maybe all were positives, spanning a three month period or something - pretty reliable individual, if you ask me...
Only if you see someone with zero feedback and shades, should you consider the person an unknown. This doesn't mean they are bad, just keep your wits about you...
I support the EFF - do you?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Simply put: Why put off a sale you can make today? Any consumer oriented company that acts like this tends to go bankrupt(auctions/speculations are a different case). That would be like thinking Pizza Hut can sell more pizzas if they make people wait for an hour after a customer comes in looking for food.
What happens, and this happens all of the time too, is that Sony must approach multiple companies and make orders *months* in advance. Sometimes they underestimate. More often what happens is that no manufacturer can fill the order in the quanties and price they wanted. It happens. So they make as many as they can and continue to order more parts.
Also, even if there were Japanese PS2 sitting in some warehouse somewhere you just can't load them up and drive down to Software Etc./Babbages.
we've had one in our office for a few months now (the japanese one, easily bought on canal st. in NYC) and frankly it's not that special. Evolutionary, not revolutionary. Of course, I just played some racing game (grand turisimo?) that had terrible control and street fighter 3 which was laughably easy.
The PS2 has FSAA capability, and it doesn't cause too much of a performance hit relatively speaking (Some funky hardware thing...), but Sony didn't make it sufficiently clear in their documentation, about how exactly you implement it, so a lot of early games had a lot of jaggies.
There's quite enough talk about the supposed worthlessness of the system, terrible quality of the launch games, conspiracy by Sony etc. That's boring. How bout my "getting the PS2" story, and some actual reviews instead ;-)
;-) The graphics engine rendered a huge landscape that stretched off in the distance with no draw-in and a tiny bit of LODing on the objects; Overall it looked very nice, and the physics engine made for some great dune-buggy-style driving.
---
The story:
I live and work in Dallas TX (I'm a game developer with Ensemble Studios.) For a few weeks now, a couple of us around the office have been setting up plans to get the PS2 the day it came out. Our plan as of yesterday was to camp a Best Buy, which was supposedly getting the largest shipment of units (~150.) We decided that 4am was a good time to show up (6 hours in advance of opening.) Yesterday, however, at about 4:20, I started thinking that perhaps there were some 24 hour places that might put the system on sale at midnight, so I called around.
4:30, and the first 24 hour Walmart I call tells me, "We've got 18 systems in, and we're putting em on sale tonight at 12:01. There's already 5 people in line." 5 minutes later, and my pal Rob and I were already in the car speeding through traffic to get there (We figured that a 7 hour wait in the evening was better than a 6 hour wait at 4 in the morning.)
We arrive at approximately 4:55. As we're pulling up to the store, we watch a group of 4 kids literally bolt across the parking lot and run into the store. I know what they're here for. I tell Rob to park and I jump out of the car and enter the store, heading for the electronics section. As I walk up, I see a number of people looking around for a place to line up. I search for the nearest clerk and ask him where the line for the Playstation 2 is, he looks confused and intimidated and tells me to wait there. Not content with that answer, I track down another clerk - this one points me to the layaway section in the back of the store. As I round the corner into the layaway halway, I finally see the line. It looks like at least 30 people to me. CRAP. Quick tally. Wait - 15 people! Woo! Rob comes rushing in 30 seconds later. We've got spots 16 and 17. Five minutes later and the line is full.
The next 7 hours were filled with mixed games of Magic, talking about game design ideas, Gameboy playing, attempts by various people to sneak their way into the line, and a few muted threats that the cops were going to come to quiet things down if people didn't behave or parents didn't show up to accompany the minors. All in all, Walmart was very cool about the whole thing, and although they admitted to not at all expecting what happened, they handled it gracefully and even held an impromptu raffle for some 20$ gift certificates towards the purchase of the PS2 for those of us standing in line.
Finally at 11:55, as everyone was standing and a very noticeable excitement and tension was in the air, we heard a page over the intercom for "Assistance in the front." and 3 minutes later, a shopping cart filled to the brim with bright blue boxes was escorted by no less than 2 walmart managers and a couple of large stocking guys right by the line and into the back room behind the counter. The 18 were then cordoned off from the 20 or so "spectators" and parents (as well as my girlfriend Jade, who is the coolest chick in the world; she likes games and actually spent the evening playing Magic with us geeks and hanging out), and we purchased our systems one by one. I walked out of the store at about 12:20am, playstation2 in hand. =)
On the way to Rob's house after the purchase, we drove by the Best Buy we were going to camp at, just to check it out. At 12:30am, there were 36 people we counted lined up outside - 9 and 1/2 hours before the store opened.
---
The System:
After all that, we certainly had to get home right away to plug'er in. The system itself is very stylish and sleek looking. My personal preference (as well as Rob's) is that a game machine look more "fun" than the PS2 looks, but if you're preference is the cool factor, this is definitely the coolest looking console to date. The manufacturing quality appears to be as high or higher than that of the PSX. The black plastic of the case is embossed with the PS2 logo on top, and it has some very nice little touches like a rotatable PS logo on the drivebay, and a very slick blue LED power indicator. Some negatives there are a really wacked power cycling scheme that involves a seperate master switch on the back (intended to be left on always), and then a "reset" button on the front that actually activates the system, and which you have to hold down for a few seconds to power the system off. Also, there seems to be a pretty significant cooling fan in the back of the system that emits a rather loud, compared to other consoles, (though not really unpleasant) whirring noise.
Included with the system is one controller, AV cables, instruction manual and a power cable. No demo disc, and no memory card (and apparently, the (un)availability of these cards is 1 for every 5 systems sold right now!) I was suprised by the lack of demo disc - that seems to be a no-brainer marketting oportunity to me, and I was disapointed that the system came with absolutely no included software save for the firmware.
Turning on the system for the first time presents you with a slightly different opening than the Japanese PS2 systems, with a display of the PS2 line-drawing-style logo, and then a list of languages and time zones to select from. Interesting to note is that the system was aware of the date/time out of the box - it was preset at the factory. The system configuration and memory browser menus are very slick, sporting background dolby surround sounds of ocean surf, and images of blue crystal icons and cool depth-of-field effects.
The overall sound quality of the system when hooked up via the included optical jack, and set to Dolby AC3 is phenomenal - way beyond that of the other consoles I have hooked up to my system. The music in games like Madden and SSX sounds really good, and the sound effects are crystal clear and sport very smooth and loud bass. Overall I'd have to say that the game audio is movie-quality and really impressed me. The video quality (for in-game videos, such as the Armored Core intro, or the Madden Intro) is also far ahead of what other console's have to offer and was the first thing that really impressed me when we booted the games.
---
The Games:
I wasn't expecting the games themselves to be very good actually; In the past, console launches have tended to have only one (maybe two) strong games, and a bunch of shlock to fill out the launch. Rob and I had between us: Fantavision, Madden 2001, Smugglers Run, Armored Core, Midnight Club Racing, and SSX.
Overall, I was suprised and quite pleased with the quality of the games. Almost all of the titles we tried, with the exception of Midnight Club Racing, were very strong A-quality titles.
- Out of those titles, SSX and Madden are clearly the best games for the system at this time. SSX is a VERY nice looking (very fast too - 60fps) snowboarding game that is a mix between Tony Hawk (skateboarding game) and 1080 (snowboarding game.) It's all about frantic downhill action and crazy stunts, the gameplay was right on and the production quality was very high. Madden is the best looking title available on the PS2 and the production quality of that game was also remarkably high. Neither of these games had the usual rushed-out-the-door quality I would normally expect with a launch title, and none of the games had the pre-first-generation feel that I'm used to in the games that are available when a system first comes out - they were all very polished.
- Smuggler's Run was probably my second favorite game, right behind SSX, because of it's split-screen multiplayer. The CTF style capture-the-loot game is really fun, and makes me think of the PC game Tribes, except with cars
- Fantavision was a unique and fast-paced puzzle type game, that didn't appeal to me as much as a tetris clone, simply because it was lacking a bit in depth of strategy. Armored Core was a great looking FPS mech game that was fun to play and had a nice shallow learning curve - the only downside was lack of analog stick support. Midnight Club Racing seemed the weakest of the bunch to me, simply because it seemed tedious, and the graphics were not at all up to par with the rest of the group.
I can't wait to see what second generation games look like. The games I listed above leave out some very notable titles that were also available at launch such as Tekken Tag Tournament, Dead or Alive 2, and Ridge Racer V.
---
As Rob pointed out to me, your average gamer has no idea that many development houses are having lots of difficulty wrapping their brains around the PS2, those things might get some coverage in the hardcore-gamer news channels. All your average gamer knows is what he thinks is fun, and what his friends and magazines tell him is fun. I would have to say that the amount of hype and momentum to purchase the system I experienced yesterday, coupled with at least half a dozen very strong launch titles, suggests to me that sony still has great potential to lead this next generation console market. The XBox and Gamecube also have undeniably promising potential that is going to make for a very interesting playing field this coming year. =)
On my way home from Rob's, Jade and I drove by Best Buy again, and there was a line that stretched from the door, all the way around to about halfway down the side of the building. At least 60 people there at 3am. The parking lot looked as full as it does during normal hours. This Best Buy is merely one of probably half a dozen in the DFW metroplex - according to the other two guys here who actually got a system this morning (woohoo! 4 for 4!) every store they went to had a similar phenomenon.
paulb
p.s. I'm sure that some people consider the rush to get a new console the day it comes out to be pretty pointless. We all have our priorities I guess, and for me, Fun is pretty high up there on the list. The fun and excitement of this experience was way worth the 9 or so hours it took, so please don't bother to flame me for it. =)
Paul Bettner
Game Developer et al
Sure, call me cynical, but I really don't see why people are so obsessed over a gaming console. For some reason, they seem to have forgotten that any PC purchased within the last, say, 3 months, probably out-powers the PSX2 in both processor speed and video power. And, if you want to play PSX/PSX2 games, there is always bleem!
Note, I'm not trying to troll here, I am simply expressing an opinion. I never really understood the alure of a gaming console.. does anybody have any comments?
------------
CitizenC
Well, that's not quite right. You CAN enter into contracts, but they're voidable.
In some states (most states, even) this means you can as much as buy a car, drive it for a year (as long as you're still 18), return it and get back the full amount you paid. For that matter, under the right circumstances you can void a contract you made as a minor shortly after turning 18.
Doesn't work everywhere, and if you take someone for too much of a ride you may have some liability under quasicontract law.
But IANAL and this isn't legal advice.
There is a greater demand than supply. Not everyone who wants one will get one. In these circumstances, as long as there are free traders, the price will rise to a level where demand is reduced to the same level as supply.
Are you seriously saying that you prefer rationing to free market economics? What makes the person willing to place an 8-month preorder more deserving than the person willing to pay 3 times the sticker price?
The only thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth is that this is way of thinking is so common. Scalpers serve a useful economic function: helping to reduce all prices to purely monetary ones.
--------
It'll be interesting to see what they have to say about it, as this person admits to being a Toys R Us employee.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
should there be limits?
No, instead of realeasing 500,000 units to stores, Sony should have had a huge dutch auction on eBay with 250,000 units. It would have placed the value of the system at the exact point where supply and demand meet, and would have likely made Sony a lot of money.
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I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Forward that info to their corp headquarters, CC: Sony. That should have some impact. Sony is already acting to discourage gouging.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Almost a hoax for sure, but guess it shows how crazy things are in general.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Fair enough--if you get pinging, you need a higher
octane gas (or a tuneup). But, for almost every
properly tuned car out there, regular 87 octane gas
is perfectly acceptable, and anything higher than
that is _less_ efficient in their car. Probably more
than 90% of the litres of premium gas are wasted
money.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
RE: Without Ford making cars, who would buy car tires?
Consumers. Usually repeatedly, after the Firestones that came with the car shred to pieces.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix